another player special... the arnaud antics @ aus open tennis

let me check the towel ... hmm

i can show you a thing or two, ballkid

closeup 1

am i smelly?....

closeup 2

umpire, are you sure??

sydney tennis 2009, part I

this was monday, 12 jan 2009....

mr 'balcony guy' richard gasquet, seen here with his coach (?) at a men's singles match.







it wasn't the hottest day yet, but spectators were already taking shade and rest outside the centre court.


these motor carts (how else to call them?) seen in european tournaments last year, have made their way to australia. yay.


has mario ancic turned into a mean muscle machine, after taking time off tennis? we are definitely seeing results



i mistook djokovic as jurgen melzer from a distance away from his practice court. really time to check my glasses. at least the camera managed to 'see' him with david nalbandian here, taking a bit of rest and doing a bit of discussion.


another fan had mistaken this guy for fernando verdasco. at least *i* wouldn't make the same mistake. he's dark but he's no spaniard ;)






this guy coaches a few chinese female players. i have a feeling he's french (????) but i call him andrew denton anyway. denton is an aussie tv personality :)

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/about/about_andrew.htm

sydney tennis 2009, part II

(yup part II... last things first!)

tuesday was a more interesting day than monday, since this year the men's draw is cut back to a field of 28, so there are fewer first round matches. i don't know if that helps with attracting top players (with byes on offer), as i think those who play will play anyway, and those (rafa?) who won't come, won't come anyway.

miss long legs stretching out in a 'quiet spot', after a centre court loss to agnieszka radwanska


jeremy chardy also stretched, before playing his first round match later in the afternoon








one of men's fashion icons ... janko tipsarevic with his colourful sunglasses, and tattoos in japanese(?)


sydney launches more 'fan-friendly' features. lots of creatures hopping and swirling around the grounds this year...


and this ... in coordination with the atp's new space theme perhaps?


while i was away in brisbane, alize cornet has somehow become a new fashion icon herself. not that we could see anything irregular this day at a tight outside match...



agnieszka radwanska and maria kirilenko in a doubles match


fabrice active around the grounds, although not having signed up for competition







leaving the best till last, right? another sweaty shirtless frenchman ...


joyous in serving ...


... and enjoying another light moment

frenchies special, sydney 2009

jeremy chardy at qualies... another puffing frenchman! lol




unfortunately this was how arnaud clement played... arriving a split second after the ball went in (and out of reach). his big serving opponent was... ahem, peter luczak. granted, peter was better than many other aussies on the day, so this had to be a 'tough draw'.


to be fair, this was how it looked when arnaud got to the ball




spectators for arnaud clement. bruno and an unnamed companion (dark hair guy with glasses).






nicolas devilder also lost in first round qualification




gilles simon, meanwhile, enjoyed a main draw entry, and a cosy centre-court environment, training with local lleyton hewitt.



camille pin lost in a second round qualie

brisbane tennis 2009, part II

a view from brisbane's south bank 'beach' - the two player hotels are in the background. i don't know much about the history, but to me the it's a very pleasant precinct, new, clean, upmarket, quiet, but close to city centre, and served by public transport. (hmm should check out some properties in the area... )

'mr berdych, believe me when i tell you i have the greatest admiration for you...'
'hmmm'

feeling kinda blue, without my regular partner arno......



frenchies in serious discussion, whether marcos would lose this match, or lose his hair first.





a familiar sight at the brisbane tennis... novak on the run while signing autographs (or posing for pics) and being chased by fans

sunset at the tennis centre. hang on, do we know that guy sitting there?








this doesn't happen often in a tournament - a player waiting court side for an earlier match to end. not surprisingly, the other match was veeery long.... for marion bartoli

a bird eye's view... cameras are placed on rooftop to capture the action inside centre court. another creative service brought to you from brisbane.



that's it folks for the blog! more pics (serious action stuff) will be uploaded to the regular vtp galleries...... coming soon :)

brisbane tennis 2009, part I

i'm back from this brand new tournament and tennis centre in australia... with blisters on my feet. i'm not a public transport type, and it's altogether too much walking for me (especially with the shoes that i'd got :()

but as you can see, there's plenty of shade around the grounds. the centre court and courts 1 and 2 have roofs on them, although they don't give shade to the seats on 1 and 2.

or should i say, seats on 3 and 4? somehow the architects had forgotten to design spaces in between courts so that seats could be placed... so the spectator stands on courts 1 and 2 are actually standing on courts 3 and 4. the other outside courts are all fenced in, and spectators (including the players' coaches and cheer squads) had to watch outside the door/fence, using whatever seating they could find. (or simply, stand)

it's now time i should give you some photos of players, or you'll be all gone in a sec...

who is this cool lady player? here at the tennis centre, there's a handy shaded area where you can watch players come and go (to courts).

the guy in sunnies is juan carlos ferrero, ready for a picnic in the sun... not. he appeared pleased with a gift from a devoted fan :)

officials pinning the new atp logo onto the net - another new invention this year

richard gasquet spotted at a balcony overlooking court 1, where benneteau and ginepri were battling it out. richard was busy with a few things...

... like hand-signalling to someone at a distance (while eating his lunch, and using his phone).

this is marcos baghdatis. appearing courtesy of a tournament wild card, marcos was given the superstar treatment by his many fans. lucky they caught him early, as marcos didn't get to stay on for long...

this is one of the official paper cut-out... djokovic in the 'atp logo' pose.

another people-watching interlude and i caught camille pin, one of VTP's favs... why are all frenchies always on the phone?

camille pin in practice. is this the first time i show you a practice court? see the shadow of the fence in the foreground, and you understand why.

more later...

four days of australian open tennis

i now have 4 days worth of photos from last week. it will be quite some time before i finish uploading and filing the good ones, so i'll just quickly put a few up here in this blog to whet your appetite ;)

... and you think sebastien can't be funny! here he is, having a serious discussion with the umpire at a doubles match.

arnaud wiping sweat

fans asking for autographs from clement/llodra (photo courtesy: alfred sin)

crazy hair murray playing a game of tennis soccer

adding more photos to sydney 2008 gallery

yes you can find more photos and more players from the sydney tournament at my sydney 2008 gallery. i'm still adding, haven't got to the rest of tuesday yet, which was my last day.

i'm doing only one or two for each player at this time... but if a player gets more hits or higher rating, then (as i always have done) i will add a few more of his/her pics. you are always the boss ;)

sydney tennis 2008, day 3 tuesday

i was more into catching people than watching matches today!

enjoying a hit ... seb grosjean

so many girls asking for a picture ... dmitry tursunov

looking pretty in sydney ... ana ivanovic

the blind team? lol ... fernando verdasco and gilles simon

retiring ... paul-henri mathieu

i also got autographs from carlos moya while he's waiting for a practice court, he's shy as usual... and catching verdasco again when i was leaving... fernando was signing sponsor's balls in a tent right next to the exit! like, say goodbye to a star before you go! (one of the many new inventions at this tournament this year) it's kind of funny, people queuing up for their ball before they left, most of whom did not know who he was. but fernando looked very cool about it and was particular sweet with kids with other demands :)

sydney tennis 2008, day 2 monday

another quickie ;)

sebastien grosjean... hard fought match on centre court against 'aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi', but as one aussie lady yelled out, 'sebastien we love you too!'

nicolas devilder... lost final qualie match to alberto martin

feliciano lopez... disappointment in first round to fernando verdasco

daniela hantuchova... long long match with dinara safina

tatiana golovin... too strong for tzipora obziler

james blake... tamed by fabrice santoro

sydney tennis 2008, qualifying saturday

i'm still so tired and soaked in rain and sweat that i really don't want to write much, apart from posting a few photos and captions in a timely manner and hope they are enough to please some of you!

nicolas devilder... a lucky winner playing a no-name substitute!

camille pin... at practice

fabrice ... still having fun

richard gasquet ... training with fabrice

john isner ... yes i do mean to show him diagonally

arnaud ... bad match-up with isner?

sebastien grosjean and bruno ... spectators who didn't really want to know (LOL)

this has to be ... mathieu montcourt!









more photos coming soon. check out the usual photo galleries as well.

congrats new wimbledon champions!

view photo gallery of the doubles victory of Clément-LLodra at this french federation of tennis web page

(btw, congrats to roger and venus too ;)

new addition 20 aug 07:

thanks to higherlaw at MTF, and youTube poster nette1001... here's a video clip of that entertaining post-match celebration by clement/llodra, which involved llodra taking a shirt from clement's brother bruno :)

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:

1. feliciano lopez v novak djokovic
2. nadia petrova v gisela dulko
3. anne kremer v serena williams
4. marat safin v dudi sela

ok marat would have been a strong interest, but knowing that i had to leave before 6pm to catch the coach to the airport and thus say goodbye to melbourne for another year, i knew there wasn't much of marat left. besides on court 21 4th up there's going to be arnaud/mika v kubot/marach, so it's a no-brainer which match i would try to catch, if possible.

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

sydney 2007, day 2

well... it's really really hard to write about a day long after things have cooled off, but i will do some.

i went with an uncle to the tournament this day... happy to share my tickets with someone who has been kind to me lately, but it was a little weird cos our tennis watching interests and experience were very different LOL. he's happily entrenched in his centre court seat most of the day, and why not, the schedule was such that the not-so-interesting first rounds were being played and the only bigger names were concentrated in centre court. players like berdych, hingis, baghdatis... people he had heard of and had watched on tv. he did ventured out to watch a bit of patty schnyder for a while, and wondered why she's still playing at her age? hmm...

whereas i would rather pick out the grosjean v verdasco match on court 2 as my feature match of the day, as i was wearing my french supporter hat, and spent rest of my time around practice courts. there were other interests on the players' balcony at court 2 too, as seen in this picture... guess they were not verdasco's supporters!

but it turned out that fernando did not need extra support as he was in hot form and sebastien looked so slow playing him :( the score was 6-4 6-4 to fernando, and sebastien was trailing most of the time.

meanwhile hingis was losing to jelena jankovic on centre court, kicking off the soon-to-become exodus of big names from the tournament in early rounds... but i saw the last bit of that match and in the swiss miss's case, it wasn't for lack of trying.

i stayed on centre court for a little longer to see marcos baghdatis... again... after beijing not that long ago, so i have to admit that i was not that keen, but good to see him, always so amusing and fun to watch on court. and he must be the only player that sold tickets in the 'international section', as advertised by the tournament (did they actually ever sell those tickets? i have no idea) i never saw him again this week; he must like practising early in the mornings... ??

then the rest of the day... not that much left, we arrived after noon... i went off and caught some shirtless frenchmen (yes paulo you were right) hitting on practice courts. won't post those photos now, but if you're interested, watch out for them in the photo gallery ;)

for now, i'll just post this pic that i have promised to someone :)

thanks for reading, signing off.........

sydney 2007, qualifying saturday

"so you like the frenchmen?" - paulo

hey, tennis is back here at home! i decided to spend just a short morning at the tennis today to avoid the heat. a little star-gazing and practice with the camera and conditions, would be good enough for me...

so i saw a bit of my old favourite (whom the camera loves), feli lopez, losing to kevin kim in the first round of qualies, and behaving rather badly too at times.

more happily, i saw a few of the french gang supporting their countrymen, nicolas devilder and olivier patience, who played their matches on adjacent courts. first there was paulo (mathieu) and his coach(?), then sebastien grosjean, then emilie loit (i think?) came to join the party. surely they couldn't be practising all day, and good team spirit was essential! good to see seb back in sydney. i don't remember having met paulo before here though.

sadly both devilder and patience lost their matches. time for the guys to get back indoors to wait for the main draw...

many other lesser known guys battled on in the heat, but it's time for me to call it a day as well.

as usual, more pics will be available in a new gallery at vtp some time later... ;)

EXTRA: here's a pic of nicolas devilder, especially for you-know-who-you-are ;)