australian open 2008 gallery is up!

there are now more photos and many more players from the australian open at my australian open 2008 gallery. and they're not just french! apart from ana, there are many other top female players, players who played french players (lol), some doubles players, a few pics of rafa and marcos as usual, and even practice pics of roger and lleyton. (luckily, to satisfy viewer demand).

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

new year plans

it's that time of the year again for aussie tennis fans...

like last year, i'm heading to the sydney tournament, and then for a few days to melbourne for the australian open.

the players i'll be seeing are probably the same old same old... but this year no more rebound ace, instead there will be a new bluey surface called plexicushion (heaven help me that i've got this right lol) so at least the pics will look slightly different.

stay tuned..... :)

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

australian open, day 2

i was warned. it would be a 39° day today, but somehow i was not deterred... it had not been that hot all summer in sydney, and somehow my memory did not extend any further back than the current summer... so in a positive state of mind i boarded the tram to melbourne park. after all, i only needed to sit there and watch those guys sweat. at 11am, i think it was already in the mid 30s and quite hot already getting there.

10 minutes on court side at the match between sebastien grosjean and christophe rochus, and i knew it was impossible to stay on. i was choking on the heat and started to feel faint. i could not function any more just sitting there, i had to get in the shade fast. problem was, i wasn't that fit this year, to start with. i didn't expect it to be that bad, but it was.

funnily though there weren't that many people competing for seats in the shady open area behind court 3. most spectators were still soldiering on at that time, and most matches were still playing. i gobbled down all the water i was carrying and felt a little bit better. but when i returned to seb's court soon after, the match was already finished. later on i found that poor christophe had had enough, i don't know the exact circumstance. at that point the match to follow was postponed as the heat policy took effect, and matches elsewhere were continuing until they would finish (or more likely one of the players gave up).

with this intolerable heat going up and up, there wasn't much else to do. i returned to the shady area to find juan carlos ferrero and guillermo garcia-lopez hitting on the practice court nearby. i got under a small tree and took a few pics - that became the only productive moment i was going to have that day. the two sleeveless spaniards didn't seem to feel it as much as the rest of us did. grrrr.

i did run into the world number 1 defending champion (roger) while i was dragging my feet around the courts a while later. he was coming out for a hit in the midday sun. now how could some guys be so damn fit, and confident, i had absolutely no clue. this particular guy was too fast for my camera anyway, and i did not have any intention of following him, not even if someone would pay a million for my photos :(

my tiring feet got me as far as the garden court where there was a giant screen showing one of the very few matches still playing - maria sharapova v camille pin. to my comfort (psychologically speaking) i saw maria struggling badly playing in the heat, so even some top players were not invincible after all. i guess the way camille played, it wasn't so exhausting for her. i hid under the smallest tree/shade that was left, and devoted my attention to that match. i went in my head, "camille just put that ball in play and you'll win" and she did try her best doing just that. i felt my feet burning in the sun but cheering for camille made things a bit easier.

in the end maria managed to cross the finishing line by a whisker, 9-7 i think in the 3rd. poor camille came so close. and poor me, by that time i was completely wilted and couldn't wait to get back to the hotel and its air-con. i don't know if that's the way it was in previous years, but somehow the tournament was very unhelpful at informing spectators about when play would resume. i guess they knew by experience (and by up-to-date weather forecast, one would think) that it wasn't likely to be anytime before early evening, but they just wasn't going to say it, and made people wait. meanwhile, i don't know, there must be quite a few people needing treatment from that heat.

for me, i waited in my hotel room with the tv on. that wasn't helpful either. true, matches continued in the two 'indoors' arenas so they didn't have to tell us, but one would think as a courtesy to ground pass holders, perhaps they could make an announcement about when the outside matches would finally resume. not that it would have made much difference to me, as i was so exhausted and close to suffering from a heat stroke that i was still tired hours later, and by the time the matches did start, which was after 8 i later heard, i was getting ready to call it a day and go to bed. it turned out to be a very expensive ticket indeed, for what i got/didn't get.

the match that i really had wanted to see that day, the one between arnaud clement and xavier malisse, started at 11.30pm, so i've heard later. by that time, i can imagine, it must have been an eerily empty court 3, left with perhaps the most devoted handful of spectators, staying on till 4 sets later...

vtp photo gallery: australian open 2007

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