W. Tennis partners are 'Gold' together

Elana Gold and Julia Feldman have the chemistry that makes a doubles team work. It's gotten to be a funny situation for sophomore Elana Gold, and one that her doubles partner Julia Feldman is all too aware of. It's not one that she's tried to create or continue -- if anything she's tried to stop it. It seems whenever the San Diego, Calif., native Gold makes bold pronouncements of victory -- and by her own admission she makes a lot of them -- there always seems to be a member of the opposing doubles team within earshot of her declaration. "I'll always laugh when she does it," said Los Angeles native Feldman, chuckling. "But it always seems to work out that way." Feldman should know how many times it has occurred, because for every time that Gold has played the direct and boastful Oscar Madison before a match, Feldman has walked over to the competition and said in a distinct Felix Unger way, "She didn't mean it. She's just a little excited about the match." It works the other way, as well, as the two are quick to point out. For some reason or another, Feldman, Gold says with a laugh, has come to hate people who chew their gum with their mouth open. Gold should know because for every time someone shows a stick of Wrigley after the wrapper's been off for a while she finds herself telling people to, "Close your mouth and chew quietly." The more tacit and reserved Feldman just smiles in appreciation of her friend's directness. That's the way it goes for the Odd Couple of the Penn women's tennis team. They're always complimenting each other on and off the court. "It's great," Gold said. "we're always picking up for the other one and making sure things go alright." Penn coach Michael Dowd can appreciate what it means for Gold to have Feldman there keeping the opposing team from getting too angry before a match and what it means for Feldman not to have to watch people chew gum with their mouths open, but for his money, most of the important complimenting is done on the court. It is there that since their first match at the beginning of last year's spring season, the pair has developed into the California Express, or one of the most powerful doubles teams in the East. "They have a chance to be one of the best in this area," Dowd said. "They both have very powerful games and it works well to make them tough to beat." The duo has certainly gotten off to a good start in making headway toward Dowd's prediction for them. The only thing that has proven more authoritative than the 5-1 record they have compiled this year, is the strength of the serve and groundstrokes they used to attain it. But the conductors of the California Express didn't make their first stop at Penn. The two had known each other through the intensely competitive California junior tennis circuit. "We had played before back home," Feldman said with a reminiscing smile. "We were always in the same tournaments together and even played each other twice." Gold interjected with the results of the two matches, as the modest Feldman skipped to the next subject. "She beat me twice and was better than me back then. She was someone I looked up to." The two had no plans to go to the same college, but Gold found her old rival at a party she was taken to during a recruiting visit to Penn. "I was so surprised to see her there," Gold said. "I had to check myself to see where I was." Gold eventually found her place that night as she did during the following season when she was put at No. 1 doubles with Feldman after Dowd decided that a shake-up was in order. The disorientation from that earlier night, however, arose again for Gold when she found out who she would be playing with. "I was very nervous playing with someone I used to look up to," said Gold, in part explaining the 3-4 record the two amassed last year. "But we got better in a hurry and came together." What came together was the chemistry that works so well for them off the court and is so important to a doubles team on the court. "It's an age-old question why the two best players in the world playing together wouldn't beat the world's best doubles team," Dowd said. "It's matter of chemistry." That chemistry is so evident now when Gold and Feldman play one thinks their combination was brewed somewhere in a laboratory. "I know that some shots are going to be made by Julia and she's just going to get to them," Gold said. "We're like one single person working out there." Feldman agreed, saying, "The more and more we play with each other, the better feel we have for each other's game. I know where she's going to be and she knows where I'm going to be." The two certainly know where each other are most of the time. Gold finds that when she comes to practice she looks for Feldman without even thinking, almost as if her tennis experience has become tied to her partner through their shared time on the court. "It's a nice feeling to come to practice and look and see, oh there's my doubles partner," Gold said. Dowd wants to be sure he knows where his doubles teams will be when the deciding games of a dual meet are played, and he feels pretty good about Feldman and Gold. "They've been there before," he said, referring to their stunning win against Yale in the final game of the final meet of last year's spring season. "Every other match had finished and both teams were cheering for them but they came through." Victory that day meant sole possession of third place in the Ivies and a shot at the NCAAs, but that triumph is ancient history for the Odd Couple of the Penn women's tennis team. Yesterday was team photo day for Penn. As the players were slowly making their way to a photogenic spot on the Lott Courts, Feldman and Gold were characteristically walking together, but they soon had to separate to different sides of the team -- after all Gold is a few inches taller than Feldman and the photo has to be even. But before they did, they gave each other a high-five -- no special reason for it they said later -- just joking around. But somehow, to the casual observer, that high five had the look of something more to it, almost as if they were laughing that the only thing that can break them up, the only thing that could stop them, was a photographer who wanted his photo to come out a little more even.