"0-for-2"

I follow tennis even less than I follow women's basketball (which in my eyes, for anyone who reads this blog, means the sport might as well fade into "bolivian," to paraphrase Mike Tyson). However, I'm covering the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament this week, and I must admit it was pretty cool covering last night's women's semifinal match between Caroline Wozniacki and Flavia Pennetta.

The match was moved to Yale's indoor courts, and the press got to sit on a bench, about 10 feet off to the side of the court. So it was pretty cool to see that level of tennis (the two are ranked No. 8 and 9 in the world, respectively) that close up. (I'll end the suspense: Wozniacki won, 6-4, 6-1).

*** In a UConn hoops-related note, former Huskies walk-on John Lindner is manning the concessions stands once again at the Pilot Pen. John, a Cheshire resident, graduated from UConn in May and is hoping to find a sports-related job: maybe at ESPN, maybe in the NBA (not as a player, obviously).

He also gave me a good little side story. In UConn's blowout NCAA tourney win over Tennessee-Chattanooga last March, Lindner and the other walk-ons got a couple of minutes of run late in the game. He was fouled and got a chance to take a pair of free throws and forever be able to tell people he scored in an NCAA tournament game.

But Lindner missed them both. And when the team filed into the locker room afterwards, someone had written "0-for-2" on the whiteboard to greet Lindner as he walked in.