Colonial Classic 2001
- Melbourne -
By Robyn Lakeman
Day 1
Luckily Pat is on first at 11am on Thursday. Today he came on at about 12.30 and had trouble serving because of the sun in his eyes. He tried wearing sunglasses to cut down the glare but at the beginning of the second set threw them away in disgust. His serve was off, volleys were off, he was continually passed at the net. Kafelnikov played out of his tree. Pat was continually frustrated and down on himself and looked very dejected, shaking his head, talking to himself. Kerrin and Peta said he looked to me for inspiration at various points in the match but I was off with the fairies and didn't notice, darn!! And then halfway during the second set I had to dash off to the diabetes specialist at the hospital. At least I saw most of Pat's match.
During his post match interview he said he was going to ask Paul McNamee if he could play at a different time of the day at the Australian Open when the sun wouldn't affect him so badly - this was said in jest. It was too bloody hot to watch any other matches much but I took pics of Marat and Escude when they played each other and about 60 pics of Pat, including lots with his sunnies on.กก
Day 2
Pat spoke again about retiring after his win against Sampras today. I have believed for the last year that he would retire this year so it was no surprise to me. It seems to me though that he is saying that he is looking at retirement of course because as it is getting to that stage in his life so he is just warning the Australian public that this COULD be his last year on the tour BUT it's not definite yet. January is the Aussie tennis season and if Pat did retire at the end of the year it means he wouldn't play in front of his homecrowd next January so this could be the last time they see him. Pat is notorious for coming back in January without a lot of motivation and who knows, if he won a grand slam this year he could change his mind. Remember last year around Indian Wells time when he talked about flogging a dead horse and how he was looking at retirement then. I wanted to actually write word for word what Pat said in this interview but I haven't the time. He is not formerly calling it quits as he said he may change his mind. He said his brother and family are shocked by his decision as he hadn't told them but now they know thanks to the media. Maybe Peta can add more to this.
Pat still didn't look that happy today although he played a lot better than yesterday. At one point when he went to serve he looked up at the sun and Pete jokingly said something along the lines of moving the sun before he served *lol*Pat is last up tomorrow against Nicolas Lapentti. I just noticed they have an exhbition match between Todd Martin and Sergi Breugera on second, that should be good.
Peta and I were interviewed by the Herald Sun today and had tons of pics taken. We are dreading what the pics will look like and were told they will be in the paper tomorrow! The photographer set us up with the GO WARRIOR PAT banner and had us yelling GO and pumping our fists.กก
Day 3
Well Pat seemed a lot happier today and there were some funny moments on court with Nicolas Lapentti. At one stage a ball from Lapentti hit Pat in the face and then another time it just missed the crown jewels by the narrowest of margins and Pat was laughing and mucking around. See some of the new pics I have put up. Speaking of, I have taken another couple of rolls today but also took along my digital camera. Peta and I took turns with it and I have put some of these pics up from today. When I get time I will scan more off the non digital camera. When the exhibition match between Martin and Breugera was on Pat came to watch in the coporate boxes for a while. Also Jocelyn, Louise and Lara were present today. Spoke to them and they wanted to thank everyone so much that contributed to Cherish the Children. Jocelyn said when she gets back she will start issuing the receipts and thank you letters. So a HUGE thank you to everyone that contributed so generously.
Oh, I nearly forgot, after three days of us sitting behind the baseline, finally Peta got hit with a ball (can't remember if it was Pat's or Lapentti's ball) in the chest and at the time she wasn't expecting it *lol*. After that she paid attention and managed to catch a flying ball in mid air and yelled out "got it!!!". Way to go Peta.
It was wonderful to see Pat play three matches in a very small venue and it was lovely to see him so much happier today. Now on to the Aussie Open. Oh and BTW Jocelyn told me today that Pat has NEVER beaten Scotty Draper, I didn't realise that!
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