A NO. 1 FAN.(Brief Article)

One afternoon last week, on Court 8 at the National Tennis Center, in Flushing Meadows, two young players named Bob Bryan, from California, and Tuomas Ketola, from Finland, met in a first-round qualifying match for the U.S. Open. Among those gathered to watch was Lou Noritz, a retired Manhattan postal worker who has spent the past eight years following the professional tennis tour around the world, and who is widely acknowledged to be its most dedicated groupie. Noritz, a compact man with a salt-and-pepper beard and a megaphonic voice, customarily wears a jockstrap around his neck (signifying his support of athletics) and a laminated badge identifying him as the "A.T.P. Psychologist" (players call him Dr. Lou). His shirt pocket held a black Magic Marker that he uses to sign autographs. "I'm a celebrity here," he said, with a slight note of resignation. Some time later, a tennis fan from Australia approached. "Are you Lou? Could I get a picture with you?"

Noritz, who is fifty-seven, tends to be an exuberantly partisan spectator. Having decided in advance to back Bryan, he switched sides every time Bryan did. Whenever Bryan stroked a winner, Noritz hollered, "Big shot!" ("I never say, 'Good shot.' 'Good' is so trite; it has no impact on a player's mind. There is a science to this.") Whenever Bryan won a game, Noritz jumped to his feet, held aloft a large American flag--he is keen on patriotic appeals and carries several dozen national flags to tournaments--and shouted, "U.S.A.!" At critical junctures, he urged Bryan on with a solemn pledge: "End it, I'll wave it."

Noritz's goals are straightforward. "I want to affect matches and befriend the players," he said. "I will confess that I also have an ego and want to be recognized." He believes that his support can spell the difference between victory and defeat: "I estimate that I'm good for five points a set. I'm a factor." Occasionally, that awareness leads him astray. At a tournament in Newport last month, he ran onto the court to celebrate a protege's triumph, and tackled him in the process; this earned Noritz a one-day banishment.

Noritz, who shares an apartment in Brighton Beach with three chinchillas, four hamsters, seven guinea pigs, fifteen birds, two iguanas, a pair of rabbits, a turtle, a terrier, and a tankful of tropical fish, is a man happily governed by his obsessions, most of which involve athletics. He worked the graveyard shift at the General Post Office, in order to leave his afternoons and evenings free for sports. For many years, he was a standout pitcher in several Brooklyn softball leagues; by his own tally, he amassed a record of ...