A day in the life of....... a Wimbledon scorer

IF YOU'VE been watching the tennis at Wimbledon, have you wondered how all those statistics flash up so quickly on your TV screen? Well, it's all down to Luke Rustad, 23, and his fellow data inputters who record every serve, winning and losing shot made and every point scored from the seven show courts at the championships.

Sandwiched between two commentary boxes, and perched high above No 1 Court, Luke explains that these statistics reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each player.

"There's a high level of interest in stats, and more and more people are logging onto the internet to study them," says Rustad.

The stats are fed via a central database to a number of services, including BBC TV graphics, the Wimbledon intranet and the official Wimbledon website.

For the past seven years, including stints during the summer breaks while still in the sixth form, Rustad has been a member of the IBM data entry team.

IBM is the official supplier of information technology and consultancy to the All England Tennis Club.

His working day begins at 10.30am when he meets with other members of his team to receive his daily rota. After a briefing by the events director, they are divided into two groups, the TV court team, for which Rustad usually works, and the outside team.

By 11.30, with the fans beginning to take their seats, he has collected his laptop, special separate keypad and two-way radio and is making his way up to his vantage point. The team work in pairs. One member acts as the inputter, the other as the "tennis expert".

Once the game begins at 12 noon, the expert will provide a blow- by-blow commentary, calling out such action as "serve to forehand", "foot fault", "ace" and other technical terms. Listening intently, the inputter taps in the data, pressing keys that say "smash", "end of rally", "exit match" and "lob".

Rustad says: "You need good communication skills and the ability to work well in a pair. And it's important to have a high level of trust between you and your partner.

"You try not to get involved in the atmosphere. If Henman is playing Sampras, for example, you can't be thinking you want Henman to win.

"I've seen the championships for seven years, so this helps me keep my distance. You have to watch the match from the stats point of view, not from the tennis point of view.

"Once you have entered the right stats and you've checked that they and the score are correct, you get in a more relaxed mood."

Concentration is the hardest part of the job, Rustad admits. "We only work for two hours at a time so that we can keep our concentration up. We switch shifts when the players change ends. During the game, you don't talk about anything but tennis. You're aware that the match is going out to millions around the world. You sometimes get people looking at you as they walk past.

But they don't interrupt because they can see you're busy."

Rustad works two hours on, 40 minutes off, throughout the day. If the weather is good, play might go on until 9.30pm; if it rains or the light is poor, it might finish at 6.30pm.

"You need to know the routes and shortcuts when you move between courts. I particularly enjoy working on Centre Court and No 1 Court because they usually have the best tennis. But it's also the most pressurised."

Problems, of course, do crop up, he concedes. "The hardest part is staying calm and focused when there is a problem. But if you hit the wrong key, it doesn't matter so long as you correct it immediately.

"One year, Martina Navratilova was in the commentary box next door. She questioned us over a break point statistic and told us we were wrong. I told her we weren't wrong. A few minutes later she sent a runner to apologise and say that we were right, after all."

He insists he is no statistic anorak, but adds that stats can provide valuable insights into the style and form of a player.

"Pete Sampras hits a lot of aces and unreturned serves. This is how he wins a lot of his service points. He uses serve and volley tactics. Aggasi, on the other hand, would rarely serve and volley."

At the end of each game the players have a detailed match report delivered to their dressing room.

Like all the stats team, Rustad has had two days of intensive training before the tournament. "We practise by watching videos of previous games.

When I started, I realised I was getting paid to watch great tennis rather than paying to watch great tennis."

A graduate in sports management, he spent the past year and a half in Australia where he worked at the Sydney Olympics, training and supervising the tennis stats team, and also at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

He's a tennis fan and plays for a local club in Chiswick, where he lives.

"You don't meet the players as such, but you see them around. But you often find yourself chatting to the commentators, some of whom are ex-players."

PRos & cons

PROS

Get to watch world class tennis

* Become an expert on tennis rules

* You are part of one of the world's top sports events

CONS

Give up evenings

* Long days

* No time for chit-chat while working

Copyright 2001
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.