Via’s Tennis Photos Gallery: Beijing 2006
already in the gallery:
ancic, lopez, srichaphan, schuettler, gregorc, wang
chadvetadze, vesnina, bartoli, medina-garrigues
there should be a few more players to come but not that many…
ljubicic, baghdatis (lots of these two, by A.Cheung)
li na, jankovic, dulko
– enjoy (and don’t forget to vote!!!)
yup they are the mystery tennis players in my photos below 
and HOW do i know? well, not because anyone has been alerted me after reading my blog *shrug*
it’s an amazing coincidence really but believe me… i ran into them today at the local shopping centre, of all places, of all people… they were shopping for souvenirs and stuff, among locals and tourists. i saw elena first with her coach(?) and wondered what’s the best way to ask her for her name :p in the end i did the regular thing and asked for an autograph. problem was, i couldn’t figure out what she wrote down 
half an hour later i saw anna and her mum(?) trying on some earrings at another store. i did the same with her, she was very nice and could speak better english… she spotted elena’s previous autograph and went ‘that’s elena! we’re playing doubles. we’re in the semi-finals YAY…’ so i knew i got the mystery solved right away, as soon as i went home to check the doubles draw HEHEHEHEHEE
i asked the sales people to give them a good discount because she’s a famous tennis player ;p
next time if i come to beijing again at tennis time, i’d better go autograph hunting at shopping centres, it’s a LOT easier than catching the players at practice courts, and they are more relaxed doing shopping anyway. when i left the place an hour later, the two girls and their companions were still there, still checking out the jewellery
ps. for more photos of these popular girls, see:
vtp photo gallery: anna chakvetadze | elena vesnina
gisela dulko and marion bartoli, beijing 2006 09 20
and now, can i have some help please? i don’t know these players from practice
who’s this (1) ?
and this (2) ?got myself a ground pass (10 yuan, less than $2 australian or u.s.) which would have allowed me to watch 1 single and 2 doubles matches on court 1 today… very cheap but not that one could say very good value.
in the end i saw the first singles between anabel medina-g and marion bartoli, and then after suitable rest – bartoli again partnering gisela dulko, against jankovic and li na. that suitable rest lasted something like an hour and a half, and the 2nd match went like 6-0, 0-6 and into the 3rd… :O so i missed the last match featuring the no.1 chinese female doubles partnership.
i have to admit that i know very little of women’s tennis (!) and wouldn’t know most of the names that i’m writing about, without use of a match schedule :p
… at Via’s Tennis Photos my regular tennis photo gallery ;p
hope you have enjoyed the pics that i’ve posted so far!
sorry folks but i haven’t had a chance to return to the tournament the rest of the week.
mario ancic and marcos baghdatis are in the men’s final tonight… deserving finalists if only for their enthusiasm and motivation in playing this tournament! good luck and let’s hope for a thriller
meanwhile, the women’s tournament is starting, and ticket prices are reverting to a more sensible range early in the week ;p
feliciano lopez, beijing 2006 09 12
feli playing against mario, first round
ivan ljubicic, beijing 2006 09 12
ljubicic giving away signed tennis balls after winning first round match
marcos baghdatis, beijing 2006 09 12
marcos thanking heaven and/or his lucky star after winning his first round match
again these are original (but cropped photos like mario’s one previously so please observe my copyright.
i’m still pretty high today… last night having cheered baggy (baghdatis to victory, though it’s hard to say if he deserved it, as he was so obviously outplayed and outfoxed by the lowly ranked german for much of the match.
but marcos did show flashes of brilliance in baseline rallies, was hilariously comical when he was down, and too lovable not to be encouraged ;p
in the end he won by a whisker, taking the first match point in a tightly contested 3rd set tie-break, then celebrated like he just won the title lol
i did not go back today, it’s too tiring having spent both day and evening there yesterday… i might not have run more than baggy but i had to climb like 5 storeys to get to the spectator stands at centre court, and it’s not funny doing it a few times
*************
arrived at about 3 in the afternoon and saw the same old faces practising… srichaphan, hrbaty etc. a ground pass here is certainly not equivalent to one in sydney, let alone melbourne.
saw the last few games of nathan healey’s match on court 1. the guy’s a clown, no? too bad he lost the 2nd set in a tie break.
pretty much decided by then that my best bet was to stick with the upcoming ancic v lopez centre court match. (i wasn’t much good chasing after players within the 10 seconds window of opportunity, when they left the practice courts.) after landing myself on the 5th floor… nooo i mean the front-most row of the centre court stand, having been denied access to the corporate boxes lol i found a nice quiet corner. when one’s that high up, it doesn’t make much difference whether one’s sitting behind players chairs. but getting some shade was nice.
wang yu v luka gregorc (who? who?) were still playing then. i took a few pics for practice
the sun was quite low when mario and feli came out to play. there was a cheer group (very funny) in uniform and holding up mascots (read olympic fever) to cheer on feli, but i didn’t see any equivalent for mario (???) maybe the croatian language was too hard to learn. feli didn’t seem to have any problem with his shoes, i was starting to doubt that story about him losing his size 47s on the *official* website. i promptly took a few pics of them both, mostly warming up, while there’s still good light.
the match was good, it went three sets so fans couldn’t complain to me mario was more solid in his play, though the legs did seem to feel a bit in the 3rd. his backhands were nice. feli tried net rushing a few times but it just wasn’t threatening enough. in the end the better player won… but hey, not before the evening ticket holders came pouring into the stands, while mario was serving for the match. feli and mario were pretty accomodating people considering the disturbance caused lol
when i left the stand, with my bird eye view (i’m just not going to stop whinging about this!) i saw marcos hitting at one of the practice courts. off i went! no photos here, but the only major thing i’d learnt was that his coach… while having a cute face… was really short. ahhh frenchmen marcos was nervous i think, he left the grounds after he’d finished, in a serious face, flanked by security and not signing one single autograph. i could understand, it was like only an hour or so before his first match, but … oh well.
china open 2006 men’s order of play (seems to be the same pdf file, updated every day)
