SATURDAY, 3/11
Flew into the Palm Springs airport this afternoon and was greeted by the pleasant sight of Moya and Lapentti at baggage claim. :) While Lapentti looked much better in regular clothes than his tennis clothes, Moya seemed to be having some fashion issues (though believe me, he was looking absolutely fine in regular clothes later in the week). The rest of the day I hung out with a friend who lives in Palm Springs so that was the extent of my tennis related activities for Saturday.
SUNDAY, 3/12
Went to the Hyatt (which was also the players hotel) to pick up my room key Sunday a.m. and was overwhelmed by players everywhere, a pleasant sight I have to say I enjoyed getting used to. :) As we learned over the next few days, most of the players (except Flip) were at the Hyatt. Went to the tennis next and hopped around a few of the mens qualifying matches. Saw the last few games of Gambill v the leftie Bryan twin. Gambill won in I think it was a second set tiebreak. Then saw some of B. Black v Arthurs, which Black won. Wayne was serving amazingly well but was having trouble hitting anything else (groundy or volley) into the court which was a bummer to watch. Later in the day, I also watched a great doubles qualifying match between Lapentti/Tramacchi v Grant/Keil. The court was totally small and the spectators were basically standing right behind the baseline, behind a low fence, so you could hear everything the players were saying to each other. G&K were absolutely hilarious, though I cant really remember anything specific they said now. At one point, Keil and one of the Jensen brothers who was playing in a different qualifying doubles match the next court over were yelling at each other to fire up, which was really funny as well. Also chatted with JM Gambills manager while watching this match who randomly gave me a bunch of JM stuff and tried to get me to join his fan club when I acknowledged knowing who he was. *lol* For any JM fans, she told me that he had not defended his title in Scottsdale b/c he was not given a wild card and would have had to go through qualifying b/c of his rank. Seemed stupid to me that the tourney didnt give the defending champion a wild card but anyway. She also mentioned that some sort of big media thing involving JM was coming out in the next month but she didnt disclose any more than that to me. :) I was dieing in the heinous heat so left when it was 1 set all so have no idea who won this match. Watched a bit of a shirtless Moya practice and then became mesmorized by the Haas/Sampras practice. There was a gigantic crowd around the court and much to my amusement, everyone kept trying to figure out who Haas was. :) I met up with Kelsey and Shannon a bit later who are totally entertaining as you can imagine from their posts and watched some more practices. Actually, after seeing them, for some reason, I only seem to remember watching a certain Swede practicing. :) I also saw my Nice Davis Cup buddies Sheena and Susan later in the day and have no idea if we saw any other matches. The five of us met for drinks at the Esmeralda hotel later that night and then Shannon, Kelsey and I went to a yummy Italian restaurant for dinner and then I think must have hit the Hyatt bar since that seemed to happen every night. *lol*
MONDAY, 3/13
Got up early for breakfast despite being exhausted this morning and got to see Pat stroll into the hotel restaurant, which made me a happy camper. :) He was looking good but that beard has just got to go!!! I think he went and sat with some French players but all of these breakfasts seem to kind of mesh together and since Im definitely not a morning person, I really have no idea what was going on in the mornings. :) Anyway, onto the tennis. I think this was the morning of the infamous cute little Tommy Haas shirtless practice where he was sporting a Pat-like ponytail and was wearing some very nice red shorts. I think Tommy needs to have a fashion chat with Pat. :) I absolutely love Tommys backhand, almost as much as I like Marks backhand. :) I sat there with my camera snapping away until Shannon and Kelsey finally dragged me away. I think we saw a few games of Pioline v Escude next. All I remember about this match was that some French sounding woman kept screaming Cedric, causing me to have some scary Nice DC flashbacks. *lol* Even though Escude won, Cedric stuck around Palm Springs the rest of the week and I dont think did anything else except wander around the hotel 24/7 since I saw him and his mop of bed hair any time I was at the hotel. *lol* I think this was also the day I bravely snapped some pictures of Rios practicing for Kati Sue and surprisingly he didnt attack me and try to knock the camera out of my hand. :) I also took some pictures of Guga practicing for Michi. Guga must have been out there practicing for at least 2 hours in the heinous heat, doing his distinctive grunt sound. That guy always seems to have a smile on his face and just looks so happy and sweet! Even sitting by himself at breakfast he seemed all happy and smiley. Also, for Gail and any other Malisse fans, I think it was today that someone from RB mentioned witnessing one of the hot gossip items of the tourney: Malisse and Capriati were seen holding hands and kissing as they walked off a practice court together. :) Anyway, next I saw Goldstein v Ivanisevic, which was an interesting match that Goran won. Goran seemed to be playing a lot better at IW then he has in awhile so hopefully he is beginning to turn around the slump he has been in recently. Goldy I saw multiple times earlier this month at the Sybase and I think this boy seems to be one of Americas best up and coming young players. After this match, saw a short Flip practice before his match later that night, which made me happy. :) He was hitting with Gavin and his shots were looking great. Next up was Mark v Woodruff in the night match. We ended up getting to move pretty close for this one which was kind of surprising since it was a night match and a bunch of Woodruffs family/friends (including Gullickson, some USTA people and Scott Humphries) sat up to our right, though I had no problem cheering for Mark. :) I think Newk was there watching with Gavin and Nick P (or maybe Im getting that confused with Marks match the next night) which was nice to see. I was happy because Mark seemed to be playing better in this match then hed played all week at the Sybase. He was no longer overhitting his groundies and going for too much. His serving and net play were strong as well. From the way he was playing, it looked like he was definitely capable of defending his title here. Mark was wearing white shorts and a shirt with a vertical light/royal blue stripe and a vertical white stripe in this match and in all his other matches that I saw. After the match, we got some food at the Hyatt bar since everything else was closed and had another entertaining night there. :) I cant really remember who was at the Hyatt bar each night but some of the players I remember seeing during the week were Courier, Spadea, our neighbor James Blake (excuse me, is he 21? *lol*) Goldstein, OBrien, Grant, Woodruff, Dent, Ivanisevic and entourage, Safin, Koubek, Di Pasquale (sorry fs, no Chippendales dances on the couch this time *lol*), Arazi, El Aynaoui, Zabaleta, Lapentti, Moya, Ferrero and a pack of other unidentified Spanish players, Guga, Mary Pierce, some Swedes (Norman, Enqvist, Johansson), and some other French (Santoro, Grossjean, Escude, Pioline).
TUESDAY, 3/14
After another exciting breakfast, went to the tennis and saw the first set of cute little Tommy playing French qualifier and Hyatt breakfast regular Saulnier. The score of the first set was something like 6-2 and Tommy seemed to be on his way to winning this one easily but then Saulnier came back and pushed it to three sets. Of course, I missed those last 2 sets though because Sheena spied Lleyton and then Pat practicing on the court next door so we hightailed it down to the practice court to watch a nice little Pat and Lleyton practice. :) Im sure you guys have already heard lots about this from Sheena, Susan and Lynn (who was great to meet as well). All I can really add is that it was pleasant watching Pat practice but unfortunately, he was not playing, and especially not serving, too well. He and Lleyton played a practice set and I think Pat served about five faults in a row. Have to admit I was pretty concerned about his match that afternoon but was thankful that at least he would be playing a qualifier. He seemed in good spirits though and it was totally evident that he and Lleyton are buddies. He had a band aid on Dirk (or was it Larry? *lol*) which I felt obligated to zoom in on with my scary zoom camera lens to check out, but fortunately it didnt seem like too serious of an injury. :) Next saw Guga v Gimelstob, which Im so glad Guga won since he is a sweetie and Im definitely not the biggest Justin fan. I am happy to report though that Justin was no longer sporting the black socks look, though unfortunately several other players seemed to have picked up the slack and were sporting the black sock look for Justin. Yikes! *lol* I left this match after I think it was 1 set all because Pat was up on Stadium 1 against Ondruska. It must have been way over 100 degrees at this point and hardly anyone was sitting at the stadium court, so Sheena, Susan and I moved into the front row to watch Pat. Peter, Lara, Newk and Rochey were down to our left. Pat was wearing a white hat, some navy shorts and a white shirt with some random thin blue stripes (thankfully, this was definitely not the scary button up the front white shirt). Pat struggled through this match but did show flashes of the pre-shoulder problem Pat. It was kind of an ugly win by Pat and a stressful match for us, but a win is a win and the important thing for Pat at this point is to get some wins under his belt to gain some confidence. :) Next S, S and I moved to the shady side of the stadium and watched Hewitt v Moya, which was a great match that Leyton won. I was a bit torn on this one since I like both these guys but ended up cheering for Moya since the poor guy has been out pretty much since the US Open with a back injury and I figure he needed the win a bit more than Lleyton. When I got back to the hotel, I met up with Jennifer who is indeed Trouble, as Id been told. *lol* Later that night, Kelsey, Shannon, Jennifer, Susan, Sheena and I went back to the yummy Italian restaurant for dinner. Afterwards, S, K, J and I went to the hotel bar again and experienced the first night of the Jim Courier campfire sing along. :) Jim brought his guitar into the bar and lots of people were singing along while he played which was quite entertaining to watch, believe me. Knowing Susan was a Courier fan, we gave Susan a call and she came over to experience the joy of hot Jimbolaya with us. *lol*
WEDNESDAY 3/15
S, K and J and I watched part of Johansson v Enqvist this morning, which was a bit of a dull match that Enqvist won. Ive got to add that whatever Enqvist did to his hair looks great though. :) After this, we were walking by the practice courts and I spied a shirtless Pat practicing. :) Before long, a huge crowd had gathered but since we had gotten there early on, we had some styling seats in the first row of the bleachers around the court so hopefully I got some good pictures here. I thought Pat was hitting the ball distinctly better than he had been during the earlier practice Id seen and the match against Ondruska on Tuesday. At the end of this practice, Pat threw one of the balls hed been hitting towards us, and lucky Jennifer caught it. :) I think this had to have been the hottest day of the week, so I was in and out of the next few matches I saw in a desperate search for shade and water. Watched some of Lleyton v B. Black which Black won. Im not sure what was up with Lleytonconcentration today and he did lots of yelling etc. throughout the match. At one point Shannon and I were sitting in the shade for a break pretty far from where he was playing and could clearly hear his yells from there. *lol* Felt pretty bad for him when he blew a 5-0 lead in the second set tiebreak to lose the match, especially b/c he wouldve met Pete in the next round which I wouldve enjoyed watching. But for some reason though I suspect Lleyton will bounce back. :) Also saw some of Goran v Costa which Costa won. In this match, I got to see the only code violation I saw of the tournament when Goran threw his racket in the direction of a line judge that he wasnt too fond of. *lol* Next up were Guga and cute little Tommy on Stadium 1, which Tommy won. Again, I was torn on this one but went for cute little Tommy for really no good reason. :) Sheena, Susan and I ended up sitting behind Tommys coaches for this match. BTW, for any Tommy fans, Red is no longer his coach. Now he has a dark haired coach who I thought looked maybe Italian-anyone know who he is? Did see Bollettieri as well at one of Tommys practices though so I guess he is still involved w/ Tommy. I remember fs mentioning that at Memphis, Tommy had looked at his coach after just about every point and that his coach yelled enocuragement at him all the time. At IW, we saw that this was indeed true. :) I wouldnt exactly describe it as coaching from the sidelines but it certainly is quite different than any coach/player interaction during a match that Ive seen before. Tommy seemed to have a couple of lapses in concentration during this match, as he unfortunately seems prone to, so having his coaches there trying to get him refocused is probably a good call. I think this was the match were Guga called out the trainer on several different occasions so hopefully everything is alright with him. Next,I watched a few games of Bjorkman/Black v Ferriera/Kafelnikov while I waited for Pats match to start. Surprisingly, this really was not too exciting of a match unfortunately. In the games I saw, the points lasted about two seconds because Jonas and Byron couldnt seem to hit a ball in the court. Jonas especially was just not playing well at all and was getting really frustrated with himself, which was unfortunate to see. Next up was Pat v Corretja which Alex won. Alexs coach went and sat right in front of us for this match, though of course that didnt stop us cheering for Pat. *lol* I thought Pat was playing worlds better in this match than he had been against Ondruska but he did make a couple of bad shot choices in the first set tiebreak and on some other big points throughout the match, which is to be expected after not playing for so long. In the third set, he looked pretty sluggish though, but I think his stamina and fitness will return as he gets more matches under his belt and as the shoulder strengthens. Even though Pat lost this one, I felt pretty hopeful about his comeback. BTW, the Pat fashion update: he was wearing navy shorts with a royal blue colored shirt that has lots of white around the collar and I think a thin navy stripe on both sides. Okay, I know the way I described that makes it sound really scary, but it looked alright and worlds better than that ugly button up the front shirt! After Pats match, Sheena and I ran over to catch the last few games of Marks match against Clavet. Mark won this one and was playing well, though he seemed to have a few more concentration lapses in this one then I noticed in his match against Woodruff the night before where his play had seemed pretty flawless to me. Have to say I was pretty bitter at the tourney officials though for scheduling several good matches at the same time in the evening so that I ended up missing some of Marks match. Who is stupid enough to schedule both Pat and Mark at the same time??? Anyway, later that night, the Jim Courier sing along continued in the Hyatt bar and the whole night became even more surreal then the one before and I guess I should just leave it at that. :)
THURSDAY, 3/16
Saw Pat at breakfast again this morning. He was sitting by himself but he did have an interesting chat about Davis Cup with Chris Woodruff, who was sitting at the next table. I think Susan and Sheena posted about how someone on their shuttle to the tennis this morning gave them 3 luxury suite tickets for today and they were kind enough to give me the third ticket. So I spent most of the day sitting in the luxury suite on the main stadium court with them enjoying the shade, air conditioning and yummy complimentary food. Can I just say thanks again guys? :) I saw the end of Escude losing to Lapentti. Looked like both of these guys were trying to give this match away. Then Byron and Sampras were up. Byron won the first set but unfortunately ended up losing to Pete in the third. Next up were Zabaleta v Enqvist which I remember nothing about except that Enqvist won. Then Mark and Tommy were up. Sheena and I moved down to one of the first few rows to watch this one. Again, I like both these guys but am a huge Mark fan so cheered for him in this one. It was a great match- both guys were playing quite well but Mark was able to pull this one off. :) That night, I hung out with my friend who lives in Palm Springs so I pretty much missed out on the exciting hotel bar scene but I still had lots o fun. :)
FRIDAY, 3/17
On the way to the tennis this morning, saw Pat getting out of the elevator on our floor at the hotel and he said hi girls to us, which made my day since I admit to being a dork who is still in the gushing Pat fan stage. :) Then S, K J and I headed over to the tennis and saw Marks match against Schalken. Saw Rochey and Jelena Dokic watching the beginning of Marks match, which I thought was nice. :) I was a bit concerned because Mark called the trainer out during the pre match warm up, but it seemed like everything was alright and that he just needed to have the tape around his knee loosened. He did call the trainer out again later in the match to do something to both of his feet (blisters maybe?) but he seemed okay. I think he was playing quite well again today but have to confess that I was delirious from the heat so cant quite remember much more than that about this match. Susan somehow managed to get three more luxury suite tickets again for today so after Marks match, I went up and joined Susan and Sheena in the luxury box and enjoyed the shade and air conditioning of the suite again. :) Alex and Norman were next up. What I remember most about this match is how hot it was outside. Alex was playing well and Norman got pretty visibly frustrated, which surprised me because I had thought he was kind of a mellow guy. Next up, was Pete v Enqvist. Pete had lost the first set in his last two matches and still had won them, so even when Enqvist won the first set, I was pretty sure Pete would come back and win the next two sets, which really says something about how much respect I have for Petes game. But Enqvist got a break in the third set and won this one, much to I think most of the crowds surprise. Later that night, the hotel bar again was hopping, as it was Friday night and St Patricks Day as well, though I dont think most of the players were that into the St Pattys Day festivities since it is pretty much an American holiday. The highlight of the night was a nice little chat with Moya, who I have to say is very cool. :)
SATUDAY, 3/18
Started off the morning by missing my 7am flight. *lol* Im not really quite sure why I thoguht I could sleep for an hour and then wake up for the plane but anyway. I REALLY wanted to stay to watch Marks match against Enqvist today, but couldnt because I had to fly back east to see some friends and family and I had already pushed the trip back a day when Susan got the luxury suite tickets for Friday. When I heard Mark lost, I felt even worse for missing it because he has won every match that I have seen him play in person (which is now somewhere around 12 matches) and because it looks like it was an exciting match. But I did see many great matches at the tourney and had a blast so that was some consolation.
Alrighty, if anyone is still awake and reading this, that was my week at Indian Wells. :)
Catherine
