Australian Open, day 1
"he's so sweet..."
this feels so long ago, i must be writing my memoirs here...
to give some idea how easy i was taking it this year... at 2pm this day, i was still queuing for my tennis tickets outside federation square, in the centre of the city. i arrived from sydney only an hour before. at least that was planned and not because i overslept like i did two years ago.
i knew the daily schedule and i knew what i was in for, being that late... some outside matches from perhaps the third ones onwards. maybe some practice action but melbourne was never great for that. due to my fragile physical condition this year :( i had no intention of surveying the entire site every hour. i decided to stick to the outside courts on the rod laver arena side (as versus the vodafone arena side) courts 6 to 15.
after wandering for about half an hour to get myself re-acquainted with melbourne park, i was rewarded with a view of rafa nadal on a court hitting with juan martin del potro, the even younger upcoming argentine. there were like three rows of seats on both long sides of the court and needless to say they were packed with onlookers, mostly standing on them to get a better view. this was an immediate test for my fragile state but i took up the challenge and started climbing around those wobbly seats anyway lol. my camera was snapping non-stop like everyone else's. it was a lot of fun and i was really happy to see
rafa; he was becoming a favourite since last year (i am always kinda late catching on) and besides, somehow for me he's very easy to run into!
when it looked like rafa and juan martin were finishing off, people started to jog for autograph positions... again this was a mighty challenge for me. luckily for all of us, rafa stayed behind to sign practically for each and every one on courtside; he certainly was not afraid of hard work. i handed over an album with my 8"x10" photos, having pulled out a bit of one of his photos for him to sign, while dangerously perched on top of a chair three rows above him. however seeing him signing on the transparent album sleeve, i lost my head and yelled NOOOOO not there, on the paper RAFAAA!!! somehow my outburst made sense to him, so he showed me a teethy grin and obligingly signed on the photo instead - in the end i got 1 1/2 autographs. i did say gracias a few times, the language trick always works for me :)
i was a little starstruck for a few seconds... mumbling to myself i thought but actually aloud, "he's so sweet!"... then i realised i had the chance to take more pics while he's still signing for others. the end result was a bunch more of close-up photos (see the first five) which i like very much.
i can say now that was my highlight of the day lol and worth my $29 ground pass alone, but there's actually more... some real tennis matches though not particularly exciting for me.
these included elena vesnina (my beijing girl) v anabel medina garrigues (another one i saw in bj), radek stepanek v michael llodra (really i've seen enough of mika in sydney but hey i just had to turn up for his match... but i didn't stay on for his entire thrashing. i heard later that he had a fever.), ivo karlovic v jurgen melzer (just to snap some pics), nicolas mahut v juan monaco (saw mostly the end), and finally florent serra v nicolas devilder, hoping to have something to report for my friend and their loyal fan, who was not in australia...
luckily nicolas did not recognise me, or he must think that i had been following him around lately, and that's the truth in a way lol. their match started very late, almost 7pm i think (not knowing what would happen the following day i thought that was late!) i left after a few games (or was it the first set?) after snapping as many pics as i could in the fading dusk. quite a small crowd, mostly night ticket holders i guess, started gathering around that match, although no one had any idea who they were. ("so which one is french?" "both." "BOTH????") melbournians do love their sports.
i left in a happy satisfied mood, and happy that i would see my favourite and his mate (arnaud and sebastien) play their first rounds the next day... ahh not knowing the future was great.
vtp photo gallery: australian open 2007
this feels so long ago, i must be writing my memoirs here...
to give some idea how easy i was taking it this year... at 2pm this day, i was still queuing for my tennis tickets outside federation square, in the centre of the city. i arrived from sydney only an hour before. at least that was planned and not because i overslept like i did two years ago.
i knew the daily schedule and i knew what i was in for, being that late... some outside matches from perhaps the third ones onwards. maybe some practice action but melbourne was never great for that. due to my fragile physical condition this year :( i had no intention of surveying the entire site every hour. i decided to stick to the outside courts on the rod laver arena side (as versus the vodafone arena side) courts 6 to 15.
after wandering for about half an hour to get myself re-acquainted with melbourne park, i was rewarded with a view of rafa nadal on a court hitting with juan martin del potro, the even younger upcoming argentine. there were like three rows of seats on both long sides of the court and needless to say they were packed with onlookers, mostly standing on them to get a better view. this was an immediate test for my fragile state but i took up the challenge and started climbing around those wobbly seats anyway lol. my camera was snapping non-stop like everyone else's. it was a lot of fun and i was really happy to see
rafa; he was becoming a favourite since last year (i am always kinda late catching on) and besides, somehow for me he's very easy to run into!when it looked like rafa and juan martin were finishing off, people started to jog for autograph positions... again this was a mighty challenge for me. luckily for all of us, rafa stayed behind to sign practically for each and every one on courtside; he certainly was not afraid of hard work. i handed over an album with my 8"x10" photos, having pulled out a bit of one of his photos for him to sign, while dangerously perched on top of a chair three rows above him. however seeing him signing on the transparent album sleeve, i lost my head and yelled NOOOOO not there, on the paper RAFAAA!!! somehow my outburst made sense to him, so he showed me a teethy grin and obligingly signed on the photo instead - in the end i got 1 1/2 autographs. i did say gracias a few times, the language trick always works for me :)
i was a little starstruck for a few seconds... mumbling to myself i thought but actually aloud, "he's so sweet!"... then i realised i had the chance to take more pics while he's still signing for others. the end result was a bunch more of close-up photos (see the first five) which i like very much.
i can say now that was my highlight of the day lol and worth my $29 ground pass alone, but there's actually more... some real tennis matches though not particularly exciting for me.
these included elena vesnina (my beijing girl) v anabel medina garrigues (another one i saw in bj), radek stepanek v michael llodra (really i've seen enough of mika in sydney but hey i just had to turn up for his match... but i didn't stay on for his entire thrashing. i heard later that he had a fever.), ivo karlovic v jurgen melzer (just to snap some pics), nicolas mahut v juan monaco (saw mostly the end), and finally florent serra v nicolas devilder, hoping to have something to report for my friend and their loyal fan, who was not in australia...
luckily nicolas did not recognise me, or he must think that i had been following him around lately, and that's the truth in a way lol. their match started very late, almost 7pm i think (not knowing what would happen the following day i thought that was late!) i left after a few games (or was it the first set?) after snapping as many pics as i could in the fading dusk. quite a small crowd, mostly night ticket holders i guess, started gathering around that match, although no one had any idea who they were. ("so which one is french?" "both." "BOTH????") melbournians do love their sports.
i left in a happy satisfied mood, and happy that i would see my favourite and his mate (arnaud and sebastien) play their first rounds the next day... ahh not knowing the future was great.
vtp photo gallery: australian open 2007
posted by Via at
12:40 PM
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