Roland Garros 2001
- Paris, France -
by Mel
Sunday, May 27th -
Benny Berthet day
I had to wake up at 3am, and drive 25km half asleep to catch the first train.
This only because it may be Pat's last Roland, and I didn't want to miss any
minute of it. The wait in the "Gare de l'Est" of Paris was a very
instructive social study... then I could join my friends at the Hotel at 8am.
A little group of tennis addicts, whose common point is Alex
Corretja: somehow I collude with the enemy I know, but this is very good for
my personal "forgive Alex" therapy program *lol*. And we were off to
the
Roland Garros stadium.
No Pat nor Lleyton exhibition match today, well it's better this way I guess,
resting after
Dusseldorf sounds a good idea. I managed to get the practice schedule of the
day: Lleyton at 1:30pm on court 12, but no Pat. Great start. Was he even here
in Paris? Who knew...
We spent all day trying to catch 'our' players at practice, pacing back and
forth across the stadium numerous times to check every courts: particularly
exhausting under the hot sun, and dangerous 'cause of this compact (and quite
aggressive..) crowd in the lanes... Anyway, we saw amongst others Norman,
Chang, Henman, Bjorky, Corretja (with Fat Bastard, whom I felt like hitting
each time he passed
before me...), Arazi, Capriati, Hingis, Guga (big success), and Moya.
I had found Marie-Thé around midday, it was great seing her again and meeting
her sister too.
We attended Lleyt's practice with Scott Draper, where I also met with Sokun,
another wonderful Lleytonlander (does the word exist, Astrid?). Half an hour
under the eye of Darren and parents. Courageous kids called LLeyt for
autographs at the end, with no luck at all, while he was chatting,
innocently... hehe.
Later, some of my friends went to the animation area where Gambill, Marat and
others hit the ball with kids. I saw a bit of Killer's exhibition match
against Eagle (he was having a lot of fun apparently), and glimpsed Wayne at
practice.
Play in the stadium would end soon, and still no news about Pat. So, went back
to Paul's match that he lost 6-9. Asked him about Pat: no practice here or
earlier, elbow still sore, but will
play...that, you already know. Thanked him, and wished him luck for the
doubles. A real doll ;-)
Found back everyone in the practrice area, except Marie-Thé and sister who
had already left. Said goodbye to Sokun, left a message here on RB, and joined
the others at Norman's practice session
(again, yes) around 6pm. One hour later we were still there wondering if he
would ever get out of this court. He did though, but went to another one with
a new sparing partner: nobody can stop him anymore!
We left the stadium there, and headed to the "Champs Elysées" for
diner. Quick look at two of the official players hotels, out of curiosity. We
discovered the rooms cost 2000FF per night (!!): no need to worry, players are
well lodged ;-)
Monday, May 28th - Day 1
Lleyton first on SL court today (wonder whether I'll ever get tickets for the
right court...),
Andrew 4th on court 2.
We went directly to the practice area to get the schedule: thAt is called
organisation ;-)
Pat would practice here today, good news. (Btw, Steph told me she had seen Pat
on TV signing
autographs in the stadium lanes, so was here yesterday in fact, and we missed
him).
MT, her sister and I tried to enter SL court with court 1 tickets (don't think
it's the best way to do it *lol*). No luck: 3 'intruders' for the first match
are not welcome. So we parted; my old trick
worked again, and I got in... I'm the best!
Arrived in the middle of the first set, Lleyton
was lead 1-4 but came back and won it in the tie-break. Positive attitude
regarding the line calls, all to my surprise ;-) Paul-Henri Mathieu had the
crowd behind him, and broke in the first game of 2nd set. At 4-5 Lleyton had
occasions on Mathieu's serve, but finally conceded the set despite Darren's
constant encouragements (all ending with "mate"...). He was broken
again in the beginning of the 3rd, got irritated. Ended up saying 'beautiful'
things to the juge and linesman in the next games. Warning. Saved a couple of
more break points though. 1-2.
He seemed badly set to win that match (too many unforced errors and bad mood),
but I had to leave because of Pat's practice session at 1:30pm.
Court 13. Steph and Marie had kept a 'peace of' fence for me, too
nice:). Camera out, here we go...
It was so good to see him again in the sun of RG! Scott Draper was his sparing
partner for half an hour only as he was playing later. Then Tony took the
relay. Yellow-grey colours today, for a change... Peter and Andreas were there
as well, funny how Pat is always very well surrounded compared to other
players. I was listening to the judge of SL court at the same time: Lleyton
had won 3rd set, yes!
After almost an hour of practice, Pat still looked fine. Nothing to point out.
While signing
autographs (even on balls that he gave around), he chatted a long time with
persons he apparently knew very well, seating on a fridge-box, super relaxed
and all smile.
Tony kindly signed my banner, and I managed to gave pictures to Pat just
before he disappeared under SL court. Found MT back, she was there all along
too, although I didn't see her, and got his autograph, the first one:).
Tickets exchange so that the girls could see Juan-Carlos on court 1, Kim's
match was already
over. Lleyton won too 76(2) 46 63 62, too bad I couldn't see this. Later,
while passing before, I had a look at the restaurant under CC, and glimpsed
Pat & Co, nothing very original ;-) Sorry don't
know what they were eating, I'm not that curious! After a jump at the
computers, I walked all afternoon (wasn't enough tired *lol*) in the lanes,
enjoying the RG atmosphere, looking for my friends, and waiting for the last
matches of the day to start.
Three interesting matches at the same time unfortunatley (Ilie/Enqvist,
Draper/Roddick, DiP/Novak), had to make a choice.
Went to court 2 first for Andrew's match, MT was somewhere in the stands as
well. At the end of first set that Andrew lost 4-6, I left for court 7 and Di
Pasquale's match, for me alone:). He was well set for a quick win, but Novak
started to play better, and then it turned into a nightmare for DiP: sore
back, irritation, cramps...etc. And there was this guy next to me saying he
only appreciates French wins that turn into a 5th set...tsss. If ever there
was one, DiP would lost, I knew it.
I was taken outside at 8:30pm 0-3 in the 4th by my friends who were on a
mission that couldn't wait. In a way, it's better I didn't see the end.
Tomorrow's schedule: Alex (I know you don't care...) and Pat on court 3, Marat
on SL.
Just one last thing... Alain told me Lleyton and Kim were seating right behind
him at Scott's match today (why the hell wasn't I with him at this moment?).
Tuesday, May 29th
- Day 2
tHE big day.... with Pat in action!
We started the day with Alex's match on court 3, after having checked the
practice schedule first, of course! That was a good occasion to pinpoint the
place. Wasn't even happy to see him struggling, trying to win even one game
against Zabaleta: see, my therapy is working! After a set, some of us went to
watch Marat play on SL court, everybody’s got their priorities ;-) Haven’t
seen much, but Marat was in great shape, which was comforting given his last
months’ results.
Arrived early for Pat’s practice, scheduled for 1:30pm, same court as
yesterday… still no Marie-Thé and she doesn‘t know, it’s a real pity
she doesn’t have any cell phone. Same team as yesterday, it was Tony who hit
the ball with Pat. R.A.S. (french meaning nothing special to say)
White/grey outfit: good for the pictures! Tried some artistic ones btw, and
was quite proud of me ;-) He signed autographs (God, this is monotonous,
isn’t it? poor Pat!) just before me, and I’m so dumb that I couldn’t
even come out with something to tell him, too absorbed in taking portraits:
regrets, regret... Anyway, the gang left after their half an hour on court,
and I was free again from my Pat ‘duties’, so time consuming… and I dear
to complain!!
Attended the end of Alex’s match, and he took so long to win this one (about
4hours) that I started to fear Pat’s one could be moved to another court
after all. But my friends were relieved, until now all their fav were in round
two. Lucky guys!
Found MT and her sister in the shade of SL court, hmmm…. great idea! I
couldn’t stand the sun anymore. We stayed there a bit sharing our little
stories. They had watched the Boutter/Costa match: one Spanish out, yes!
(Oops. bad reflexes coming back..hehe). We headed to court 3 when we saw the
ladies match before Pat/Wayne had started, it was time to reserve our seats
there. Wasn’t a fascinating match at all, and this young Meghann Shaughnessy
is a bit too arrogant to my liking: was constantly questioning the line calls
despite her easy lead. Real bad example of sportsmanship. Happily, I was busy
exchanging SMSs (on silence mode of course) with Steph and Marie who were
watching Balcells-Kiefer. Shaughnessy defeated Pisnik in 80 minutes, not too
long. Now bring us little Pat and Wayne on that bloody court!
One of the ‘blue guy’ said to someone there wouldn’t be anymore match
here... hmmmm... What do we do? Still no official announcement, so we waited a
long moment. A guy right behind me was inflating a kangaroo (see media pic),
so asked him where he got this one. We talked and talked, and he and his wife
told me they had logded young Pat a long time ago when playing at a small
tourney in France (remember practice yesterday, that was ‘em). Aren’t we
living in a small world? That was funny... and I learnt cute things about 16yo
Pat ;-) Lovely people.
Still nothing, they were playing with our nerves! When they finally announced
the match would be played on court 1, the crowd’s reaction was violent: a
good hundred empty bottles landed on the court in a few minutes. Well
deserved! We needed 20 min more to get out, besides not knowing who they would
let in. A real mess. Had a ticket for the right court in fact (some kind of a
miracle here), but was worried about MT.
Well, they finally let everyone enter after a few changes. The guys were
already in the middle of first set. Wonderful! Ok, this year I will write to
the FFT telling ‘em my deep thoughts about their shitty organisation, and
there’s a lot to say, trust me!
Anyway, we found seats front row, umpire side, and tried to get in the match
despite high irritation. 4-3 for Pat, on serve, he had a break in his
pocket:). Grey shorts, white (then yellow) shirt for those interested.
It was already 6:30pm, a quick match would be great. It all went off without a
hitch for Pat ‘till the end of the second: 6-4 6-2. Seemed even too easy…
Felt bad for Wayne who couldn’t do anything. It was no use! Wayne broke, and
lead 3-0 in the 3rd. Now breaking him back was getting impossible, he was
serving too well, specially on break points. Very annoying. But it was a
beautiful match between two talented serve and volley players: a festival of
original angles! Points too short sometimes though ;-) All this in a friendly
atmosphere: they were consulting each other for litigious line calls, umpire
could go to sleep *lol*. Wayne won third set 6-3.
Fourth set could have been the last one: little Warrior had a couple of match
points at 4-5 on Wayne’s serve, but converted none. @*$#@£. And Wayne
won the tie-break 7-5. Here we go again (both agreed to finish the match
despite fading light). Pat had lost his rythme on serve for a while, but now
it was fatal… 5-0: incredible returns from Wayno. Meanwhile Pat had won a
warning for racket abuse. There was quite a fight for the sixth game, Pat
managed to save a few match points there, and finally won it, to the delight
of us all. But there was nothing to do on Wane’s serve. Too strong tonight.
4-6 2-6 6-3 7-6(5) 6-1. 3 hours of game. Hat off to you, Wayne.
Disillusion was big, specially with all these missed opportunities, and it was
tough to accept we wouldn’t see him play here anymore, I always thought he
would win the whole thing one day. I believe this is one of these ‘out of
time - out of space’ moments many of us experience this year, that was my
first one. This tourney that I love so much has lost one of its lights,
definitely.
We left with my friends who had joined us during the match to support us,
euhhh… Pat ;) Nifty had come to us at the end to meet the ladies with the
banner (it’s true he doesn’t bite RBs *lol*). After a quick diner near the
hotel, I took the train for Reims at midnight, and I can tell you I must have
looked like a true zombie that night. And I was supposed to spend 8 non-stop
beautiful days in Paris... oh well, that was already nice short holidays.:)
My next flying returns to Paris would be limited to Lleyton’s matches, on
friday, then tomorrow...
GO LLEYTON!!!!
Mel
