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So you thought you know all about women’s tennis? Let’s start with a quick quiz. Who’s got the fastest serve in the women’s game? And the best forehand, backhand and return? |
If your answer is Williams sisters to all of these, you are almost there. Yes, Venus holds the all-time fastest serve record of 129-mph (207.6-kmph), recorded at the 2007 US Open. Serena almost broke her older sister’s mark when she hit a 128.6-mph (207-kmph) serve at last year’s Australian Open.
Both sisters have a strong backhand, a lethal forehand and a solid return, though there are others—like Victoria Azarenka and Li Na from the current generation, and Chris Evert, Monica Seles, Justine Henin and Steffi Graf from the past to name a few—who are and were equally good with their all-round game.
Now, the tricky one: who’s got the fastest hands, and the most nimble fingers?
Stumped? You are not the only one; even most players would not be able to answer this, barring, perhaps, those who have been the beneficiaries of her behind-the-scenes ‘largesse’.
Meet Linda Christensen—the tennis tours’ official stenographer and chronicler of players’ interviews for close to a decade.
Linda can type between 225-250 words per minute—her best, she says, has been clocked at 265 wpm—and has been a regular at the ATP and WTA events in Doha since 2011.
For sports scribes, who often have to rush against tight deadlines, she’s nothing less than a saviour. The speed and agility of her 47-year-old hands can be gauged by the fact that transcripts of a player’s post-match press conference reach your e-mail’s inbox in minutes, sometimes even before the player’s exit from the interview room!
So, how does she do it? “That’s my trade secret, I won’t tell you,” she jokes, before explaining, “We type in phonetic combinations.
“It’s kind of shorthand. Our keyboard is different, different from the ones on laptops or desktops. Here each key corresponds to a sound. So, phonetically we make words, phrases, or even whole sentences with just a single stroke.”
Linda’s expertise is not limited to tennis alone; she also ‘covers’ NFL, baseball and golf. And she has different sets of sounds for all these sports.
“For example, take the word ‘much’. If I have to type ‘much’, it could be just the initial ‘m’, or the ‘uh’, or the ‘ch’ sound, all with one stroke of the keyboard. I have shorthand for all the sports terms that are used often.
“Like in tennis, words like ‘serve’, ‘return’, ‘backhand’, ‘rhythm’, ‘crosscourt’ and ‘atmosphere’ are used often. I just need one stroke of the key to type them,” she elaborates, pointing to her machine whose 23 condensed keys can cover the entire gamut of English language.
Starting her career as a court reporter in 1984, Linda made the transition to the world of sports transcribing in 2007, and has been enjoying every bit of it since. “I was always a sports enthusiast, so when this opportunity came up, I didn’t even think twice. I could live my dream, and also see the world,” says the Phoenix-based Linda, who works with ASAP Sports, a firm that specialises in sports transcription.
Though she loves all sports, tennis remains her favourite.
“In which other sport can you find so many lovely and colourful characters?” Linda asks. “And yet, they are all so different from each other.”
Who are her favourites? “There are so many… (Roger) Federer, (Rafael) Nadal, (Andy) Roddick, (Ana) Ivanovic… Federer and Rafa are always gracious, they will never forget to acknowledge and exchange pleasantries; Ivanovic is a sweet darling and talks really fast; Roddick was such a great character.”
Linda also shared a great camaraderie with the now-retired Marat Safin. “Marat was volatile only on court, off it he was fun. He was a little difficult to understand because of his accent, but he could make you laugh and laugh.
"I covered some of his interviews just before his retirement and they were so hilarious. He would let flow the choicest of words and expletives, and then would lean over and warn, ‘Don’t type that.’”
