Russian Tennis Royalty Holds Court

On the outskirts of London Sunday, some 13,800 spectators watched the world’s top ranked male tennis player, Roger Federer, defeat world #2 Rafael Nadal to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.

Three thousand miles away at Harvard’s Bright Hockey Center, approximately 300 people watched a digital lobster celebrate Anna Kournikova’s errant baseline shot.

It may not have the gravitas of the Wimbledon name, but World TeamTennis and its Boston-based franchise, the Lobsters, who opened their summer season July 6 at Bright, are still charming enough to draw an audience.

The core of the Lobsters, like the rest of the WTT teams, is a group of mid-level pros not yet ready to take on the Federer’s and Nadal’s of the world. But each team also “features” top-level stars that compete with the team on a part-time basis.

The Lobsters, for example, feature tennis great Martina Navratilova and former U.S. Open finalist Todd Martin, though neither took the court on Sunday. Kournikova was in town as a featured player for the Sacramento Capitals.

Former Harvard tennis team captain Thomas J. Blake ’98 is also a member of the Lobsters.

World TeamTennis is a unique and upbeat brand of the game. Absent at Sunday’s match was the stodgy linesman shushing the audience between volleys, replaced instead by loudspeakers blaring Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” Larry the Lobster, the Boston mascot, clapped his hands at every break point, and the audience, much of it under 14 years old, would respond in kind.

Think Roger Clemens with the Lexington Legends or José Canseco with the San Diego Surf Dawgs—the match was a minor league baseball game, only a different sport.

And that’s just the way Lobsters General Manager Peter Mandeau likes it.

The former nine-year assistant Harvard tennis coach said he enjoys working with the team because it captures the allure of professional tennis without all the ceremony.

“It really is a family event, and it’s got a little something for everybody, with music, world-class tennis, great food, halftime shows,” he said. “We’re just trying to make it a fun event for everybody.”

The Lobsters won the match 24-18, bringing their record to 1-1. Since Sunday’s victory, they have gone on to lose their next two matches, bringing their record to 1-3 and earning them a spot in the basement of the league’s Eastern Conference.

While the Lobsters and the Capitals both fielded teams of almost half a dozen players each, most of the audience seemed especially interested in only one athlete—a 25-year old Russian member of the Capitals known as much for her beauty as her backhand.

“Anna Kournikova is the hottest tennis player I’ve ever seen,” said Julian A. Quintanilla, a Harvard Summer School student.

Zach M. Warner, another Summer School student, echoed that sentiment.

“I’ll see Anna Kournikova by any means necessary,” said Warner, before taking outing a camera with a telephoto lens to capture his heroine’s movements. “If it means I have to go see three shitty tennis matches beforehand, whatever,” he added.

But for all the ogling, Kournikova lost both of the matches she competed in—Boston won both the mixed doubles and the women’s doubles events by a score of five points to four. While Kournikova did display some of the quality that let her rise to the number one women’s doubles ranking, it was not enough to spare the Capitals from the Lobsters’ claws.

All the gawking did serve a charitable purpose—a portion of the proceeds from every Lobsters match goes to Tenacity, a tennis and academic enrichment program for urban children.

While the match did not exhibit the sport at its highest levels, Michael M. Libert ’09—a current member of the Harvard tennis team—said there were still plenty of reasons to attend.

“It’s pretty cheap, free if you know people,” he said. “And what else is there to do on a weekday night?”

—Staff writer Nicholas K. Tabor can be reached at ntabor@fas.harvard.edu.