I went to see the Bangalore Open the other day. It was my first time watching a tennis match live, and it was pretty exciting at first. Then, I (predictably) started getting bored. I mean, how much can you watch 2 people hitting the same ball over and over and over again?

Anyway, as I was sitting in the stadium, I began to notice some other things. The 4000-capacity stadium at Bangalore’s KSLTA was nearly full. It seems bored software engineers will pay good money for any kind of entertainment. Lots of people had approached the match like a movie – They were ready with their popcorns and little kids that couldn’t stop crying.

This scene you’ll see a lot in Bangalore – Young softies wanting to impress their parents (and parents-in-laws) with their newly earned wealth, taking them to watch “high-presteige” events like the Bangalore Open Tennis Semi-finals matches. Except, the parents have no idea what this sophisticated sport is all about, they just came here because their children wanted to bring them, and are now bored out of their skulls, looking here and there to see what they are expected to be doing.

But the crowd was largely well behaved. They made the “Oooohhhhh”s and the “Aaaaahhhhhh”s noises right when they were expected to. But it was obvious that for several people in the crowd, it was their first time watching a tennis match. This one uncle sitting in front of us got confused with who he was supporting in the middle of the game. The Williams sisters were playing each other, and this uncle forgot which one is which. He’d cheer for one of them, then boo the same one right the next point, and then go back to cheering the other one for a while and then switch again. After some time, he got thoroughly confused, and asked his wife which one he was rooting for.

It seems other people in the crowd also had the same problem. At one point, a group of college kids was yelling “Come on Williams!” after every point, ostensibly to get the cameraman’s attention. This got annoying after a while, and to make things worse, this kid from the group got up, and screamed again at the top of his lungs

“COME ON WILLIAMS!!!”

Someone from the opposite side of the stadium shouted back:

“WHICH ONE???”

The audience roared with laughter, but this kid was quick witted, for he yelled back

“THE ONE WITH THE BLUE SKIRT!”"

The match was interesting at first, with the Williams sisters fighting for each point. But what struck me most was, man, can that Serena Williams scream. The whole stadium reverberated with her spectacular display of high-pitched vocal skills. The only thing more powerful were her shots. I mean what does she eat?

But as the match dragged on, it got really tiring to see the sisters fight for every single point. Every single game was going into a deuce and then 2-3 advantages before the game was won. I mean, these sisters have been playing for so long, you’d expect them to have some kind of understanding on how to share the prize money and let one win, but Noooooooooo, they kept fighting for every single point. The final set even went into tie breaker, at which point the whole crowd started cheering whoever was leading, just so that the match would get over soon.

In the end, Serena Williams did beat her sister, and the whole crowd was like “phew… thank god THAT got over”, for it was 11:00 PM when the match finally got over. Just before she left, Serena smashed an autographed tennis ball into the crowd, which unfortunately fell just a few feet short of me and some 8-year old kid grabbed it. That stupid kid will now keep the ball in his room, locked forever, instead of selling it on e-bay like I would have done and making some quick money!

When will the kids learn the real value of things?

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