Page 136 of Carrie Soto Is Back

I breathe in deeply. Here we go.

The second my feet hit the court, the crowd cheers. They cheer so loudly I can barely hear myself think.

I know what the sportscasters are saying. They are telling all the people at home that I’ve just lost Dad, that I am out here playing my first match without him.

I expect the roar to die down, but it doesn’t. The crowd keeps cheering as I set up my things. It is almost eerie—the way their voices ring through the air, the way the howl of it echoes throughout the arena. Their sound is a deep rumble, shaking the net.

I look up all around me—thousands of people stomping andcalling. I wave in a wide circle through each section, and I watch as people in the crowd start standing up.

Bowe and Gwen are in the players’ box. Gwen is clapping. Bowe catches my eye, and we look at each other as each section stands, rising like a tide.

They are clapping for my father. For this one moment of time, it feels as if everyone in the arena misses Javier Soto as much as I do.

A tear leaves my eye. I wipe it away.

Poor Dvoráková. She stands no chance. It’s over in fifty-one minutes.

Transcript

SportsRadio Nationwith Grant Trumbull

Grant Trumbull:We are here with the editor ofSportsSunday,Jimmy Wallace, to talk about what’s going on at the US Open. Jimmy, give us the lay of the land here. Start with the men’s game.

Jimmy Wallace:Well, there’s no story coming out of men’s tennis quite like that of Bowe Huntley.

Trumbull:He’s soaring.

Wallace:There was nobody—and I meannobody—favoring Bowe Huntley as we came into this tournament.

Trumbull:This is his last, is it not?

Wallace:All of us were saying, “The guy’s retiring, he’s the oldest one on the court, his salad days are long behind him.”

Trumbull:And he had to pull out of Wimbledon with an injury.

Wallace:He tore the cartilage in his ribs back in May at the French. This was not a player anyone was betting on.

Trumbull:And yet.

Wallace:[laughs] And yet! Huntley comes out onto the court in the first round and just pummels Franco Gustavo. Takes him in straight sets. Still, we’re all thinking, “Okay, but it won’t happen again.”

Trumbull:And we were wrong.

Wallace:Dead wrong. He takes Ortega in the second round, again in straight sets. Then Bracher. Then Mailer.

Trumbull:And now he’s in the quarterfinals.

Wallace:He’s in the quarterfinals. At the age of forty! And let me tell you, the crowd is with him in these matches. I haven’t seen a crowd this energized in years. You know I’m a skeptic, Grant.

Trumbull:[laughs] You’re a believe-it-when-you-see-it kind of guy.

Wallace:But Huntley’s got me on the edge of my seat. He’s got me rooting for him. I don’t know how this ends, but I’ll tell you it’s a hell of a show.

Transcript

SportsHour USA

The Mark Hadley Show

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