Cup serves stars, wine, goat cheese

Daniel Miller
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There is a reason the Mercedes-Benz Cup is not the Daewoo
Cup.

For the past week the über-German luxury carmaker sponsored
a spectacle of incredible food and beautiful people at UCLA’s
Los Angeles Tennis Center. Oh, they played some tennis too.

The world of professional tennis is one of luxury, prima donnas
and groupies. The men who played at UCLA this week did nothing to
dispel that approximation.

One would think that guys like Andy Roddick and Jan-Michael
Gambill were rock stars, with their adoring female fans that queued
up outside the locker room all week just to catch a fleeting
glimpse of the stars, hoping to snag an autograph or a marriage
proposal.

It is quite fitting that the Benz Cup is not a
hot-dog-and-peanuts event.

Well-heeled spectators, who spent up to $60 a day to watch
tennis, sat down to $28 dinners and brunches at a makeshift outdoor
restaurant set up next to Pauley Pavilion. Replete with impeccable
white tablecloths and linen napkins, the wealthy dined on
three-course meals.

On Thursday, diners started their meal with seasonal berries and
sliced cheeses. Of the several salads on the menu, the concoction
of arugula with fresh figs and grilled chevre in an apricot
vinaigrette sounded most appealing. However, I’m always wary
of eating things that I have never heard of ““ like chevre
““ although I am pretty sure it’s cheese.

Thursday’s most delectable main course option was citrus
and coriander encrusted tuna over a seaweed salad and tangerine oil
with an array of baby vegetables, a potato and onion torta. Mind
you, I ““ like most student spectators ““ am in no
financial position to sample things encrusted in coriander or the
mysterious chevre. Luckily for me, a small snack hut served more
plebeian items like nachos.

I bet tournament finalist Gambill eats a lot of chevre. The
aspiring actor had a Sean Penn-esque wack attack in the press room
on July 27 when he called Los Angeles Times columnist Diane Pucin a
“witch.” The 25-year-old Gambill was unhappy about a
column Pucin wrote that included her opinion of Gambill’s
tennis abilities.

Sipping on some Perrier while watching Gambill’s July 26
quarterfinal victory over Nicolas Kiefer, I wondered whether the
posh world of tennis exists because the prima donna players demand
it.

In the post-match press conference, a reporter asked Gambill if
he agreed with a sentiment that John McEnroe voices in his
autobiography “You Cannot Be Serious” that tennis
players must be selfish to be successful.

Gambill seemed a bit perplexed. Confused, he said if McEnroe
meant not giving to charities, then he didn’t agree with the
tennis legend.

No, the players do not demand the luxury; the chevre makes them
the way they are.

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