The Millenium Dusseldorf experience
By Astrid
Sunday, 21 May 2000
This is the beginning of a very rainy week... today's highlight was meeting Tony and making a banner with Joes. But first things first. There's not much to report about tennis: I saw some of Tommy Haas' match against Enqvist but it was interrupted by rain a few times. One of the ballboys struggled to open up an umbrella for Thomas Enqvist, he then succeeded and Thomas went on court WITH the umbrella in his hand... a sign for the umpire... rain break! We endured the humidity and the cold all day just hoping to see our Aussie boys. No sign. And then finally I spotted Tony Roche! He was heading for the practise schedule and when he came back I said hi (he recognised me and Anja who came with me) and we asked about our boys. They were supposed to practise as soon as the rain stopped... Anja showed Tony a pic of us three in Zurich and he said "It was a great night as far as I remember". Hehe... I explained that tomorrow we'd show up in our Fanatics t-shirts and with face paint, he liked the idea... I told him I got some ANZAC cookies for him which I will bring the next day and he smiled at me ? apparently he likes them. To cut a long story short: we've been sitting outside the clubhouse for nothing, they never turned up... Tony came out one more time to check the courts and I followed him (yes, I'm a real groupie, you just can't get rid of me), so we walked back together and he said "bring your cookies tomorrow!". I gave Joes a ride back home to the campsite and we had a drink at the bar. Joes decided to start making a banner (Go Aussies), she had already cut out the letters and had to stitch them on. A lady at the bar asked us whether we knew how to sew with a machine and when Joes nodded she said she'd get her machine... unbelievable! There we were, in the middle of nowhere, at the river Rhine, at a campsite and this lovely lady gave us her machine to sew a banner! That was a nice way to end the day...
Monday, 22 May 2000
All I can say is: I hate Marcelo Rios! Guess who was standing at the gate in the morning long before WTC opened just to be at the practise courts REALLY early and to watch the Aussies practise at the showcourts? US! And guess who was practising on the court that the Aussies had reserved... yep, you're right, it was the little pain in the a** Marcelo Rios. Of course, when they finally arrived, good old Tony Roche said they'd go to another practise court ? FAR AWAY!!! My little camera is not suited for this kind of distances, in fact I was looking through the lenses of the others' cameras to get a closer look at Pat... very frustrating. At least we got to see the matches... we hoped for Pat in the doubles but then the announcer's voice gave us the happy news: Frommy was injured and Pat would play singles in his place (YAY to Pat, sorry for Frommy...). On the other practise court close to us the Spaniards were hitting and when Felix Mantilla left I wished him ? in a very rusty Spanish - good luck for their Davis Cup semifinal against the US and that we'd love to meet them in Barcelona. *grin* We had front row seats on Center Court II and when Lleyton walked on court he made a nodding sign to us and turned around to Tony ? Tony said something and nodded back (must have been something along the line "Fanatics?" ? and Tony answering "Yes, I know"). We had a great view on the Aussie bench and at Lleyton's fast legs. Albert Costa saw enough of them at 4-1 and retired. Lleyton had trouble holding back a huge grin. Then it was Pat playing Felix Mantilla. It was a very bad match ? from Pat's point of view. Looking at Lara fiddling with her hair and trying not to look too bored was more interesting than to see Pat struggling... Sandon and Lleyton made our day by playing a great doubles match, it was so much fun to watch! And I was completely surprised to see Lleyton at the net so often, successfully! He has improved quite a lot! After the match we waited at the player's entrance/exit, I wanted to get rid of my chocolates for Pat and the cookies for Tony and the Zurich pics for Lleyton. After a loooong time waiting Pat showed up and I gathered all my courage and walked next to him (while kicking at least 5 teenage girls out of my way at the same time) and gave him my Belgian chocolates. One kilo. Guess what he said.... "That's the last thing I need". Hooray... This was the first and last time I gave chocolates to Pat, that's for sure!!! Apparently I was not the only one giving him chocolates and he had lots in his hotel room, but I'm not psychic, I can't know that!!! At least Tony was grateful when I gave him the ANZAC cookies and he thanked me the next day again and said they were yummy. Lleyton's parents went to the car park, grinning (that should have warned us) and then Lleyton had the nerve to run around us and jump into a car and off he was... *I'm still fuming* I met Muddy Waters and showed him a pic of Robyn and him from the party in Zurich and told him he looked like Richard Gere on it. I also asked him to sign it but not to write over Richard Gere's face... *grin* He obliged...
Tuesday, 23 May 2000
For sure, Lleyton was allowed to pick the practise court today - no 14, the court far away from the fans... that little (expletives)... grrr... Pat arrived and looked like a real fashion disaster... he kindly took off the checkered pants and showed us his beautiful legs. Boy, he worked hard. Almost 3 hours of practise! Of coure, I watched although I could hardly see anything ... too far away! I asked Joes to have a look through her camera (HUGE lens) and saw that Pat had his bag over his shoulder. I told Joes and we dashed off to meet him on the path. YES! There he was. He signed my Ace magazine (thanks again Jayne!!!), I asked him whether he was feeling better and he replied "yes, much better" (that was a success!) and Joes asked him whether he wasn't tired after such a long practise. Of course he was... We hung around the clubhouse and saw the arrival of Paul Kilderry who we all seem to love... the Killer was here!!! I suddenly caught sight of Muddy Waters who was giving us a sign to come over to court 6, a beautiful practise court. YEAH! There he was again, our Pat. Not only Pat, EVERYONE! Lleyton climbed on the umpire chair greeting Paul with the words "Look the Killer's in town, the clay court specialist". He then stayed on the chair, hiding behind the microphone... grrr... BUT where I was standing with Joes, Lleyton's mum came standing beside us. I turned to her and asked her whether it's ok to give her some pics from the Zurich party for Lleyton coz I obviously wouldn't have ANY chance to give them to him. She agreed, I got my pics and handed them over. She had a look and liked them. She said Lleyton likes to get pictures but was so scared of the fans, he'd get mobbed all the time, and that he resumed to running from them. I guess he still has to learn how to handle us!!! During this practise I talked to her all the time, I hardly had time to look at Pat... that shows what a nice person she is, we had a good conversation. Apparently she and her husband were supposed to stay longer in Rome but they missed tennis and Lleyton, so they came to Dusseldorf. She said that Lleyton is not very keen on sightseeing either. We somehow talked about sportsgear and shorts and she said that Lleyton always wore the Andre Agassi style shorts (long) and I cheekily remarked that Pat shouldn't wear such long shorts, his legs are so beautiful and I'd love to see more of them... I told her that I prefer Pat's legs over Lleyton's... hehe... she took it pretty well. *lol* When the boys left I was trying to get hold of the Killer to sign the pic of me and him from Zurich, he was already far away but I overcame my natural shyness (I can hear you laughing!) and shouted at him "Paul, come back here". He turned around immediately, had a little chat with me and I got my pic signed... After practise we saw showtennis between Lleyton and a member of the German band Atemlos (breathless) against Marat Safin and another member of the band. We were making fun and said if Mark was there and hit a good 200 kmh serve at this boy, he'd REALLY be breathless... *grin* The boys were all having fun and we enjoyed it thoroughly! Even Lleyton was seen laughing out loud... what a miracle!
Wednesday, 24 May 2000
The Aussies were scheduled to practise on the "good" court and no Chileans in sight. Yippie! The boys were practising and we had some words with Paul Kilderry, he just loves to talk to us... he told us that Pat had lots of chocolates in his room and last night they had a few of them in Pat's room. At least they weren't thrown away... After Pat's practise he signed a few things and I put a pic under his nose that Ina took a while ago and he looks fabulous on it, shirtless, you get the picture... Paul commented "that was when you still had a body" and Pat smiled back, took a closer look and said "yeah, that's when I still had a body". It was so funny! We went to Center Court I and prepared for the match against Chile. We hoped for a 3-0 victory, especially after they took away our pleasure of looking at our Aussies practise... Lleyton was off for a good start against Rios and at 5-0 Rios retired... what happened? No-one wants to play against Lleyton... what I didn't like was the crowd booeing (sp?) Rios off the court, that wasn't fair. Afterwards it was Pat against Massú and he had to sweat and fight for victory. Massú was 2 points away from winning the match but Pat turned it around. I'm sure that gave him lots of confidence! Sandon and Lleyton won their doubles match 6-1, 6-0 and we had our 3-0 victory, yay!
Thursday, 25 May 2000
Again we went straight to the practise courts, where were our Aussies? No. 14, far away, not good... we were joking and said it was Lleyton's choice to pick the practise court again, far away from the fans... Pat showed up shortly, touched his shoulder and went off again. He was not to be seen anymore... we were terribly worried! I went to Center Court I to watch the match between Haas and Hrbaty and was the only person clapping for Hrbaty! I almost got killed by my fellow Germans, they were everywhere! Kucera won easily against Schuttler and most of the so-called German fans left before the doubles... hypocrits! The doubles match was important for the victory of the red group, but they apparently didn't realize that. We watched a very interesting and entertaining doubles match and my Slovak boys won. Wow! They'd play the final, for the first time! Well deserved! Afterwards we were allowed to go to Center Court II even without tickets and I got into the seating section, 2nd row, and watched the rest of the doubles Palmer/O'Brien vs. Kulti/Tillstrom. It was the best doubles that I saw all week! It was hugely entertaining and the guys enjoyed playing. That was world class tennis!
Friday, 26 May 2000
Today was the decisive day. Will Australia go into the final? I hoped for it coz I had tickets for the final... Apparently the Aussies had different plans... Lleyton lost to Y2K and he didn't react naturally. No fist, no nothing. Kafelnikov played well but I have my doubts where Lleyton's head was... I'm sure it was in Paris! Frommy tried his best but had no chance against Safin. Russia was in the final... The doubles was lost as well, but somehow Sandon and Pat didn't give their all. Very strange... I met Frommy at the racquet string shop and gave him some chocolates, he was completely surprised and said "for me?", it was hilarious. Before the Aussies left we asked Peter when they were leaving and he said tomorrow morning... Bye-bye Aussies... It was also bye-bye to all the girls, I was the only one left to stay for the final... what a pity...
Saturday, 27 May 2000
Not much to say, "my" Slovak boys won and I was extremely happy. I had a nice older couple sitting next to me, they also hated Kafelnikov's guts and we were having a good time watching him loose... hehe... according to my dictionary in English you also have the word schadenfreude, that was what we were thriving on... During Hrbaty's match a few boys on our right tried to start the Mexican wave and it wouldn't really work. Then Dominik joined them and suddenly the wave went around the stadium. What a lovely guy! After the match he played a ball to the boys, nice gesture!!! The ceremony was very emotional, the Slovak team got a lot of applause, they were extremely proud and had every reason to be!!! I went back to my friends' parents who gave me "asylum" during the World Team Cup, packed my stuff and went home to Brussels before the huge storm. Good decision.
That was my week in Dusseldorf, I thoroughly enjoyed it and guess who'll be there again next year?!?
