Indianapolis 2001
Aug/21/2001
by ErinMN
The (tail end of) Cincy and Indy report by Erin.
Drove back from Indy last night and didn't get home until 2 am, and had to work today (vaguely) so forgive my disjointedness! Sorry we weren't able to get you more reports as it was happening, but there were no internet facilities to be found.
I got to Cincy for Friday, arriving to the hotel at 3 am on Thursday, but Chris, Kam, and TM didn't seem too distressed to let me in. Friday was wicked hot for the Rusedski match, so Pat didn't practice a ton. Haven't been able to read that far into the board, so hopefully Joanie and/or Kathy got reports here. I was taping part of his practice and he was in a really good and goofy mood. Since he was signing lots of stuff, I pulled out one of those free fanning-thingys I got at DC in Floripa and when he was signing it I told him it was from Brazil. He looked up to see if he knew who I was and gave me one of those sly smiles. Too cute. So I felt like it started on a happy note.
Y'all know about that match with Rusedski, it was a killer. One entertaining thing was two women sitting behind Pat and bothering him all the time (no, not us lol) and so when he was done he gave them a sweaty shoe and they squealed to high heaven. All this for a shoe. Kam got a beauty picture of them clasping it lovingly.Chris and I stuck around for Lleyton's match against Ljubicic and ended up right behind Darren Cahill (the stadium was empty as the guga-y2k match was also going on and he sat right in front of us). A few of the other Aussies joined Darren (Florent et al) and it was cute how Lleyton would look to them for encouragement after every point on our end, and Darren would always give him a "go big fella" or "good one mate" to buck him up. Lleyton was in a mood most foul (what else is new?) and at one point disagreed with a overruled lines call and charged up to the chair umpire with a hysterical "nonononononononononomatematemateMATE!!!" that Chris and I have been mimicing nonstop. Oh PS, Lleyton wears black undies with his white shorts. Hey, fashion statement ala J-M G's black socks?
Well the next day I ended up with sympathy heat exhaustion for Pat. We'd heard he'd needed IV fluids and had vomited after the Rusedski match. Guess I didn't hydrate as recommended and had to go to first aid when we showed up for practices before the Saturday SF. I was reassuring the others that I would be okay because I'm a "world class puker" (don't ask, really) when Pat's head appeared not two feet from my big mouth, ready to practice. Classy! I had a pulse rate over 125, and pat wasn't even there to justify it. Whatever. Got to meet a very nice Pat fan from Michigan named Cindy, who luckily was a nurse and took care of me when I swooned. I hope she'll post sometime.
I know I'm missing lots of stuff, but it will just have to be appended. It was hard to get too into the Pat-Lleyton match, but it ended okay. Pat did a cute whimper with one missed shot and a big "D'OH!" like homer simpson for another. Liked those.The Brazilian fans were in fine fettle for the final, so we cheered our guts out to make up for it. It was fun to relive the Brazil DC, but I liked the Floripa ending better. Pat just seemed way flat, maybe too many hard hard matches in bad heat. Of course we were in lots of pictures with them, they all liked Pat too. I appreciate how into it they are, but doubt that some of them know the etiquette issues like not cheering faults or during a serve.
Drove to Indy and got situated. I'd taped parts of two practices, so left him alone in Indy. The practice courts aren't as well-suited either for viewing. But it was fun taking in lots of good matches with other players in a small stadium and Michelle had the Very Best tickets to share with us. Thank you again, m'dear. I developed an attitude pretty quickly... We got to eat with the players at the tourney, and that was fun. Hey, some of them could use more table manners--eating with mouths full, etc. Tsk tsk. Michelle reported that Safin put about 3 lbs of food on one monster plate, answering the question of how much you could get to eat if you were a pro athlete. I was with Pat at one lunch before a match when he had pasta, a banana, and a baked potato. A couple of times he had to leave because people broke the rule of no autographs or pictures in the players' dining room and I think he justifiably got tired of it and sat someplace else.
We went to the players' party on Wednesday, which was a lot of fun. Mostly the younger guys (poor me, lol). Team Rafter (sans Pat) was leaving as we arrived at 11 (leftover Barcelona nightclubbing skills). We hung out with the glitterati like Jim Courier, Hicham Arazi, Arnaud DiPasquale, and Sandon Stolle. It was a wickedly good time. A bit of mayhem which included our room getting a call from Arnaud at 4 a.m. capped the evening. I'd thought it was his French best friend who was calling and mentioned Arnaud, so he said, "But this *is* Arnaud." One of those Fellini-esque moments which crop up every now and then in one's life.
Speaking of, El Aynaoui (lord that is hard to spell)'s coach seemed to take a liking to our Chris and after one match told her that she did a great job cheering him on and that if she ever needed tickets or passes or anything to get to the next match, to let him know. Interesting. So the day of Pat's QF against Myrni, we were without Michelle's Amazing Seats and would have to sit with the Regular People, except Chris became the ticket fairy. She didn't even have to talk to the coach, just walk by him and he was already offering us the player's box seats. He and Younes discussed how many tickets they thought we could get and Younes thought it was 4 which was perfect. His coach told us to wait right there and he came back with them. So we cheered on our new buddy Younes El Aynaoui, who seems to be the nicest chap, but he lost to Goran.
Following that match was Pat, so we were all giddy to see from our new player's box status. Of course Team Rafter filed in to the box right in front of ours, which was pleasant but meant we couldn't cheer too lustily. (good word, no?) I had to sit sort of sideways because Peter would have my knee right in his back if I tried to sit properly in those squashed chairs. Lara was right in front of him, playing with a ladybug. Rochey was all curled up in his customary 10 towels and cap. We clapped as sedately and serenely as any other family member and got great pictures. Didn't want to bug Pete for tickets so when he told us he'd see us girls tomorrow, we just agreed, but we knew we'd have to sit with the masses. LOL.
Okay, so I'm on a roll and this will be reaaaalllly long. We'd had a call from Joelle the morning of the semifinal match and she'd asked us to pass along a hi for her. The onerous chore was delegated to TM who did a bang-up job of it after practice. Pat was hustling off and she told him about Joelle from Amsterdam, which stopped him dead in his tracks and he gave her a great smile. Pat asked TM how she was going, and I can only imagine how she was going, lol. Roos came out for the SF match for the first time as we didn't know if Pat would get thru the Safin match and we had more space in our new regular seats. We also had Marce for this match, and I'm sure her Roo was looking to make its first US appearance. TM and Kam got to go down to the court to hang in the American Airlines seats, it was a riot. They bought one chance for the upgrade, and the money goes to a children's hospital. So when the singles match was done, Chris and I switched with them to see the doubles match from that perspective. I was cheering on the lovely South Africans and Chris had some jingoistic need to cheer for Lareau, so we split the support there. But the seats rocked.
I guess I'll not go into the tennis matches so much here as y'all already know that and the others can fill in from this lengthy narrative. That night, after the rains were done pouring down, we ran into Guga who was walking around outside on the cellphone. I mention this for two reasons: I see Guga CONSTANTLY at tournaments, it's a shame my inadvertent Guga-radar (Gugar) is wasted on me who likes him but not like a Brazilian (right Nana?) and also because we got to see him with his hair wet. LOL, it just was lying there in waves, no bouncy curls. Pretty different.
Pat had a very low-key practice on Sunday AM, we didn't even pull out the cameras, etc, just left him alone. I think he appreciated it, and as there were just a few of us there, he bopped a ball to us as they were leaving. But he was anything but low-key for the final. The Brazilians were being a bit bratty and I'm glad he told them off. It seemed to do the trick. We were cheering our guts out and got lots of people to help us--they just needed a Woz (but it took three of us to be one Woz, lol). I taped bits of the match and all the final ceremony with the dogs, etc. It was wildly cute, but Guga looked crushed. One of our new Brazilian buddies did confide to me afterwards that it looked like Pat would have won anyway. We know, but dang, an out and out win would have been fun. As it was, we had an incredible time and it was brilliant to be there to see Pat get a damned cup rather than a plate!He did say that he was first in indy in 93 and wasn't impressed by the city, but now he is and commended them for all the beautification. He also said that if he comes back after The Break, that he'd play the RCA tourney again, which is nice to know. Maybe getting to play with those dogs will lure him back.
I know I'll think of tons of stuff later, but will get the ball rolling with this Monster Report. It was fun beyond description, especially with Kam, TM, Chris, Marce, and Michelle to play with me. Too much fun. Must rest.