australian open, day 3
today was to be my last day in melbourne, and the only day for which i had reserved a ticket, and that was a last-minute grab for a vodafone arena 2nd row covered seat... at a fraction more than the price of a groundie... didn't sound bad at all when booking online in early january.
when i got there, i checked out the seat first, as i had never been inside vodafone arena. i was very pleased. i had a home! however the weather would turn out, i had a comfortable seat to return to, i could leave some stuff behind when i went out, and the ground floor was cool and dry with facilities... would have been great for yesterday, but well... today i felt like a VIP.
the line-up though was ok but not hugely interesting for me:
keeping to my policy of 'half of melbourne park' this year, my 'court coverage' today would remain within the vodafone side of the park. there were like 3 courts and 3 practice courts on this side, so i was taking it really easy. besides, there wouldn't be any heat-induced drama like yesterday's; it was cloudy, cooler, and sometimes it even threatened to rain.
thus my day consisted of moving between vodafone and the outside courts - stayed for a set or so for each match inside the arena, took enough pictures, then out again to monitor activities on practice courts, while occasionally popping inside match courts for a glimpse of the action. hmm. does it sound easy? well, perhaps not. lol.
the wrong nico?
the first guys i saw in practice were tomas berdych and stefan koubek. tomas was cute in person and looked rather relaxed. stefan... well, sorry but i wasn't too interested :p i did see him in sydney, maybe i do have some snaps of him from then.
a little later, camille pin, with her doubles partner i believe, and two other girls came out to practise. camille still had the doubles although having lost in the singles the previous day. i watched her for a short while when she's warming up just outside the court. she's such a pretty little sportswoman, and so focused in what she's doing... i just couldn't help but felt a little heavy in my heart. when she was finished with that and started to walk onto the court, i stopped her to say hello and wished her good luck. she very graciously said thank you. trying to think of more to say, i added "i'm sorry about yesterday, you played really well" and she probably repeated the thank you in her nice, quiet and composed way. i love her so.
at around the same time, the two frenchie nico's (mahut and devilder) were finishing off their practice at a nearby court. i had seen them there a little earlier but as i had already taken quite a few pics of them this year, i got lazy and didn't attempt any more. however... seeing them packing up and now available..., i suddenly couldn't resist the urge to ask for
an autograph. it would be nice to have devilder's since i had seen a lot of him this year ;p so far my frenchie hat only had arnaud's autograph on it, so it's rather precious to spare a space for someone else. but anyway...
"please nico could you sign for me?" i stood outside the court and started waving or winking or whatever that i did to catch attention. well, nico promptly came forth as he was leaving and asked where. problem was, it was the wrong nico!!! lol in my confusion i handed over my hat anyway. meanwhile the original target walked straight past me off the court. luckily he waited for the more confident nico a little further away, so once i was free i turned around and chased, "hey hey you tooooo!" you could tell this other nico was not that comfortable doing this sort of thing, but he obliged anyway. i thanked both of them profusely lol.
C'est quoi cette coupe de cheveux? (- Marine)
after going back to vodafone for a bit of lunch (and some shots of nadia and gisela), i again returned to the outside courts. this time around, i finally got the guy that i had been hoping for. i saw his shoulder tattoo first - now i knew how useful such marks were even for identifying corpses. because otherwise it wouldn't have been easy - arnaud clement, and his brother bruno as well, had shaved their heads... *shock* *disbelief* :(
i settled myself on courtside and took some pics of that strange sight. true, the weather yesterday was incredibly hot, and arnaud must have had a long day waiting for his late night match, but this recourse was a little drastic. i've been informed since that
the brothers like to watch 'prison break' the tv show...
anyway arnaud and mika (sorry, i almost forgot he's there as well) finished off their practice after only about half an hour, as their doubles match would start soon. when arnaud was coming out, i waved to him, pointing to my head, "your HAIR!!" (where is that lovely head of hair that could be gelled up to give you two more inches in height) - i couldn't help myself. "yes, i cut it", was his concise reply, which didn't explain anything at all, true to his normal communication style.
i then had to sit through one set of serena williams back at vodafone, while impatiently waiting for arnaud/mika's doubles match to start. when the time almost came (nice thing that the arena scoreboard showed scores on outside matches) i hurried out to grab the best seat at the assigned court. here in melbourne on a regular outside court, you need to sit a few rows up to have your view clear from the side fence. so although i generally prefer to sit behind the players and umpire, for this match i sat on the opposite side, to be a little higher up. i had the happy company of some people i knew who were also keen about this otherwise unfancied match. unfortunately that did not include the frenchie supporters... bruno arrived the earliest and was initially looking for a seat nearby. perhaps he saw me... anyway he went over to the far left end instead. the others joined him later - yes, those included the previously mentioned nico devilder ;)
when the match started it was obvious again that mika was sluggish, and arnaud was doing what he could to cover for him. mika didn't look as bad as he did a week ago but still, the blind could see he was below par, and so could their austrian/polish opponents, who were these tall blonde blokes who served well. mika didn't seem to return too many balls lol. i wasn't that concentrated on the match progress itself, my mind was wandering, my mouth was chatting, and the camera didn't get much of a workout either. i was also watching my watch to decide when i would be leaving the match and melbourne park for good.
at last, that time came when the frenchies levelled the match 1 set all, after losing the first set. it was a good fightback and at that stage, things still looked positive for them. so it was in good spirits that i got up to leave, said goodbye all round (and telepathed one over to the boys too), and began my journey home.
...i guess i was pretty happy about this melbourne visit in the end, because first of all i did not expect i could go, and when i went i did not expect i could do much either. well i didn't end up doing very much lol, but it was better than i thought. and so in this roundabout way, yes it was cool. not literally of course ;)
ps. clement/llodra lost 6-2 in the 3rd set :(
vtp photo gallery: australian open 2007
when i got there, i checked out the seat first, as i had never been inside vodafone arena. i was very pleased. i had a home! however the weather would turn out, i had a comfortable seat to return to, i could leave some stuff behind when i went out, and the ground floor was cool and dry with facilities... would have been great for yesterday, but well... today i felt like a VIP.
the line-up though was ok but not hugely interesting for me:
- feliciano lopez v novak djokovic
- nadia petrova v gisela dulko
- anne kremer v serena williams
- marat safin v dudi sela
keeping to my policy of 'half of melbourne park' this year, my 'court coverage' today would remain within the vodafone side of the park. there were like 3 courts and 3 practice courts on this side, so i was taking it really easy. besides, there wouldn't be any heat-induced drama like yesterday's; it was cloudy, cooler, and sometimes it even threatened to rain.
thus my day consisted of moving between vodafone and the outside courts - stayed for a set or so for each match inside the arena, took enough pictures, then out again to monitor activities on practice courts, while occasionally popping inside match courts for a glimpse of the action. hmm. does it sound easy? well, perhaps not. lol.
the wrong nico?
the first guys i saw in practice were tomas berdych and stefan koubek. tomas was cute in person and looked rather relaxed. stefan... well, sorry but i wasn't too interested :p i did see him in sydney, maybe i do have some snaps of him from then.
a little later, camille pin, with her doubles partner i believe, and two other girls came out to practise. camille still had the doubles although having lost in the singles the previous day. i watched her for a short while when she's warming up just outside the court. she's such a pretty little sportswoman, and so focused in what she's doing... i just couldn't help but felt a little heavy in my heart. when she was finished with that and started to walk onto the court, i stopped her to say hello and wished her good luck. she very graciously said thank you. trying to think of more to say, i added "i'm sorry about yesterday, you played really well" and she probably repeated the thank you in her nice, quiet and composed way. i love her so.
at around the same time, the two frenchie nico's (mahut and devilder) were finishing off their practice at a nearby court. i had seen them there a little earlier but as i had already taken quite a few pics of them this year, i got lazy and didn't attempt any more. however... seeing them packing up and now available..., i suddenly couldn't resist the urge to ask for
an autograph. it would be nice to have devilder's since i had seen a lot of him this year ;p so far my frenchie hat only had arnaud's autograph on it, so it's rather precious to spare a space for someone else. but anyway..."please nico could you sign for me?" i stood outside the court and started waving or winking or whatever that i did to catch attention. well, nico promptly came forth as he was leaving and asked where. problem was, it was the wrong nico!!! lol in my confusion i handed over my hat anyway. meanwhile the original target walked straight past me off the court. luckily he waited for the more confident nico a little further away, so once i was free i turned around and chased, "hey hey you tooooo!" you could tell this other nico was not that comfortable doing this sort of thing, but he obliged anyway. i thanked both of them profusely lol.
C'est quoi cette coupe de cheveux? (- Marine)
after going back to vodafone for a bit of lunch (and some shots of nadia and gisela), i again returned to the outside courts. this time around, i finally got the guy that i had been hoping for. i saw his shoulder tattoo first - now i knew how useful such marks were even for identifying corpses. because otherwise it wouldn't have been easy - arnaud clement, and his brother bruno as well, had shaved their heads... *shock* *disbelief* :(
i settled myself on courtside and took some pics of that strange sight. true, the weather yesterday was incredibly hot, and arnaud must have had a long day waiting for his late night match, but this recourse was a little drastic. i've been informed since that
the brothers like to watch 'prison break' the tv show...anyway arnaud and mika (sorry, i almost forgot he's there as well) finished off their practice after only about half an hour, as their doubles match would start soon. when arnaud was coming out, i waved to him, pointing to my head, "your HAIR!!" (where is that lovely head of hair that could be gelled up to give you two more inches in height) - i couldn't help myself. "yes, i cut it", was his concise reply, which didn't explain anything at all, true to his normal communication style.
i then had to sit through one set of serena williams back at vodafone, while impatiently waiting for arnaud/mika's doubles match to start. when the time almost came (nice thing that the arena scoreboard showed scores on outside matches) i hurried out to grab the best seat at the assigned court. here in melbourne on a regular outside court, you need to sit a few rows up to have your view clear from the side fence. so although i generally prefer to sit behind the players and umpire, for this match i sat on the opposite side, to be a little higher up. i had the happy company of some people i knew who were also keen about this otherwise unfancied match. unfortunately that did not include the frenchie supporters... bruno arrived the earliest and was initially looking for a seat nearby. perhaps he saw me... anyway he went over to the far left end instead. the others joined him later - yes, those included the previously mentioned nico devilder ;)
when the match started it was obvious again that mika was sluggish, and arnaud was doing what he could to cover for him. mika didn't look as bad as he did a week ago but still, the blind could see he was below par, and so could their austrian/polish opponents, who were these tall blonde blokes who served well. mika didn't seem to return too many balls lol. i wasn't that concentrated on the match progress itself, my mind was wandering, my mouth was chatting, and the camera didn't get much of a workout either. i was also watching my watch to decide when i would be leaving the match and melbourne park for good.
at last, that time came when the frenchies levelled the match 1 set all, after losing the first set. it was a good fightback and at that stage, things still looked positive for them. so it was in good spirits that i got up to leave, said goodbye all round (and telepathed one over to the boys too), and began my journey home.
...i guess i was pretty happy about this melbourne visit in the end, because first of all i did not expect i could go, and when i went i did not expect i could do much either. well i didn't end up doing very much lol, but it was better than i thought. and so in this roundabout way, yes it was cool. not literally of course ;)
ps. clement/llodra lost 6-2 in the 3rd set :(
vtp photo gallery: australian open 2007
Labels: 2007, french tennis players, melbourne
posted by Via at
9:30 PM
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