Tuesday, August 10, 1999
ATP not all tennis; some parties do happen
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The thing with tennis tournaments, see, is that you can't have one without a party. Or several parties.
Saturday, for example, when tennis fans threw two of the ATP tournament's biggest ...
THE BIG ONE: The Greater Cincinnati Tennis Association always kicks off with its celebrity auction (tennis memorabilia), cocktail party and dinner. Lots of chat, some about tennis, more about, oh, anything.
• Montgomery Inn exec Evan Andrews and wife, Terry, in the buffet line (ham, beef, turkey, cheeses, salads) are still talking about a recent trip to Detroit to see the Three Tenors. Seems Luciano Pavarotti gave Cincinnati hat maestro Gus Miller eight fifth-row seats ($5,000 each) and backstage passes. He took the Andrews and other friends along.
“Incredible,” Andrews said. “Pavarotti sees him and starts yelling Gustavo! Gustavo! It's an incredible relationship, and one I don't quite get. As baffling as the one between my father-in-law (Ribs King Ted Gregory) and Bob Hope.
“But you know what was really neat?” Terry added. “It was their (the tenors) last time together this century and we were there.”
• Then there was Dr. Michael Lawhon, the ATP's house orthopedic surgeon and guest auctioneer, making age jokes about tennis great Fred Stolle, now with ESPN: “I'm asking Fred to help here because we have things antique and collectible and, well, you know Fred.”
• Carl Lindner, after accepting the award as the GCTA Tennis Family of the Year, given for continued support of tennis in general and the ATP in particular. “Edyth, my sons, my grandsons, we're a very lucky family. Or as my son says, "Dad, you're not lucky, you're blessed.'”
• Gayle Guenther, one of the party's coordinators, assuring guests that the beer was cold. The electricity went out sometime that day, thereby killing ceiling fans and the breeze. “But the beer's on ice,” she told a worried guest.
IN TENT TWO: Alums of Ivy League and Seven Sisters schools munched crab legs at their annual party and didn't worry about the power loss.
• “It's better than, was it last year? It rained so hard they put boards across the floor to keep us out of puddles,” said Rick Vogel, an attorney and Yale and Harvard Law grad. “Anything beats that.”
• Another guest, Judge Nick Nadel, looked uncomfortable: “It's my back. I took a motorcycle riding course and it did me in.
“But I graduated,” he beamed. “Problem is I can't ride now.”
Which led him and another guest to an epiphany: Used to be you'd see everybody on Saturday at Kroger's. Now it's at physical therapy.
ON THE WAY IN: On the Heineken terrace, which overlooks several practice courts, the talk was about traffic.
• There was Lane Shaller, a tennis fan visiting from London, asking: “That highway, Interruptus-71 is it? We came 25 miles in I won't say how long because I'm a guest in your country.” (65 minutes, she revealed, after a second Heineken.)
• And her boyfriend, Chris Keltten, with good things to say: “We always visit Wimbledon, of course. This is quite a tad nicer, except Interruptus-71.”
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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