French Open 2000
by Mel
Sunday, May 28
I took the train in the morning and arrived at the RG stadium at 10:30am : My ! that was good to be there again ... I had a look at the schedule of the exhibition matches of the day (9 games): SL: 2. Hewitt v. Rafter :-)))) [Unfortunately, Lleyton would play G. Gaudio instead of Patrick. I learnt that later : I don't know what happened] Center Court: 2. Philippoussis v. Bjorkman; 3. Agassi v. Clement; 4. Pioline v. Moya
I rushed to the practice courts where I met with mip & Stephanie ( I met other nice people during the day). I saw Pioline & DiP; and asked a nice man to show me the practice courts schedule he had in his hands : Pat would be here at 2pm *grin*
I bought my tickets for the Masters Series of Paris : I'll be front row on thursday :-) On my way to Center Court, I saw on the score boards : SL- Hewitt v. Gaudio NOOOO!!!! But Pat could play later, we never know. Then I went to see Mark and Jonas play. The Center Court was crowded. They had a big success when they arrived. I noticed Mark had cut his hair [very short!! hope he'll never do that again ;-)]. I was quite far, but took some pics with my new camera [& lens 300mm :-) ]. Mark led early in the match but hit some easy shots in the net (he'll have to play better today). The public was in a good mood, very noisy : they were boooing Mark sometimes (but with a smile) and then they were enthousiast when his shots passed the net. Very funny ! There was a wave too, and Jonas participated :-) Gavin and Mark's dad were there.
I left before the end ( I heard later that Mark won 9-4), 'cause I had to go to the SL court to see Lleyton playing against Gaudio. He looked a little tense, and irritated sometimes, but played well. There were some beautiful drop shots from both players. Lleyton tried the shot from the back once , without success, and smiled of it(perhaps the only smile of the match). His parents & Daren were in the crowd. At 7-8 Gaudio on serve, he hit a good backhand and shouted "Ouais!" : he spoke French for a second *lol*. He broke & won 9-7. While leaving, he signed a lot of autographs.
Then I went to the practice area. I stayed for a moment then decided to go to Center Court where Andre was playing. But I found Patrick, Tony and Mark W. on my way. About-turn. They went to court 20. Pat had a black pull-over on; he looked in great shape [this comment isn't objective at all ;-) I was so happy to see him again ...]. The previous players were still training, so while he was talking to Tony or Mark, Pat took his time to prepare himself : pull-over off, ponytail done, white cap on & zinc cream. They were all relaxed & smiling. Then Pat said , with his gentle voice, to the people asking for autographs : "I'll do that later". And he started practicing with Wayne Arthurs. I took a lot of pics [I will scan them next weekend for you]. Peter arrived a few minutes later. When they changed sides, the people standing there moved too : strange ! lol! Pat was wearing dark blue shorts with two beige stripes and a blue shirt. He hit some good shots while Wayne was at the net. They were serving when it started raining heavily. Pat signed a few autographs though. They practiced for about 20 min in all, and Pat never touched his shoulder or seemed to pay attention to it :-)
I also went to see Moya-Pioline, Knowles-Kulti and Mansour Bahrami v. Dupuis. Mansour (a former pro player) is very entertaining, and yesterday he played with the public all along the match :-) We all had a lot of fun. You should see him play one day: he is a true clown !
Then I saw the Woodies practicing with the Bryan on court 21 at ~6pm (Muddy was there again). I passed Stefan Edberg :-)) and went to see Alberto Berasategui play on SL. Pat never played his exhibition match :-(
I was back home at midnight, very tired (poor legs...). I had a wonderful day, and will go back there on thursday & friday. I'll have my pics in two days: they should be beautiful...
Thursday, June 1st
I woke up at 6 (ouch!) with a big smile on my face, I don't know why *grin*. Looong positive vibes session for Pat in the train, thought about ways to enter Center Court with my ground passes ... never mind : nobody will stop me !! I arrived at Roland before they opened the gates: and I noticed they were still very well organized with the queues *lol* I rushed to the practice area. Quick look. And I bothered a nice journalist with the schedule of today [I tell you getting information here in Roland is almost impossible!]: Pat on court 18 at 11:30am. I found Pernilla, St¨¦phanie, Petra and Emma a few minutes alter. They told me some of them had attended the Pat-Pozzi match the day before. I wish I had been there : Patrick on a small court ... They were sitting not far from the Rafter clan, and they were all eating Smarties ;-) We stayed a while around the practice courts. I saw Marat train a bit and passed Pioline [C¨¦dric, NO! Today, you can't win : that's IM-PO-SSIBLE !!]
Pat, Tony and Muddy arrived [Peter was late, as usual ;-)]. Filip Dewulf was on the same court, already hitting the ball, so Patrick hid behind the wire nettings : thanks Pat, that will be easy for the pics ... Then Tommy Haas arrived and they began to practice together. There was no sun at all :-( It had to change in the afternoon for the match. As I was very busy chatting, I can't remember all the details (sorry). I couldn't even tell you what Pat was wearing [what a bad reporter I am ! ;-)], perhaps the same outfit as the sunday before (all in blue), but without cap nor zinc of course. While I was on the other side to take pics (Pat never stopped changing sides that day, I'm sure he did it on purpose...), Steph heard him say that the clay was heavy : Damn ! He noticed it, we were lost ! lol! At the end, Tommy and Pat, alone on the court, played a few points and hit some good shots, which was very impressive from where I was. Pat seemed to be in good shape. While leaving, he signed lots and lots of autographs, and St¨¦phanie managed to pass on a message to him [not without trouble ;-)] and apparently he was very pleased with the news => beautiful smiles in the lens. The practice session last 30 min and there was a very positive atmosphere.
Then, it was 01:30pm and I had to enter Center Court without tickets. After a few attempts, and thanks to a nice guard (and a little lie), I finally succeded :-)))))) I arrived right on time, before Patrick's match ! I WAS THERE ! I would be able to encourage my little Patrick, surrounded by thousands of crazy french tennis fans. I was confident : he had to win today, after all those months without great victories. Anyway, they had a big success when they entered the court and the match started. That was a beautiful match between 2 serve&volley players. Pat was brillant on some points, we glimpsed the double US Open champion. I mean, he was not far from his best and he could create a surprise at Wimbledon. But what a shame he didn't save one more set point in the first set ! He was so close. To me, he wasn't concentrated enough, or too nervous. He had a different attitude on the court : he usually (when he wins matches I mean) controls himself, his feelings better. That's just my opinion. In any case, he seemed to have fun. There was a great atmosphere out there : the crowd was enthousiast and we waved twice in the last set. I love that ! At the end of a point, C¨¦dric hit the ball with his head [and Pat wanted to answer with his feet, but a ball-boy was on his way :-( ], someone shouted "ZIZOU!" (our french hero of the World Cup '98) and everybody laughed :-) Oh, and once, Pat stopped his serve and didn't say anything, and a guy behind me said "sorry mate" ...hehe. Who doesn't know this habit of Pat ? I wonder ... So, Patrick lost :-((((( and I left the court, depressed.
I then went to court 2 where Lleyton was already playing against Markus Hantschk. That was a very intense and close match, and Lleyton was uncontrollable !!! I had never seen him in such a state ! He never stopped shouting "come on!", raising his fist ...etc. A festival !! I love him :-)He even shouted "this is a joke!" once, after hitting a ball in the net. I had a lot of fun trying to take pics of his reactions. His mum, dad, and Darren were there of course, Tony too, and even Newk stopped by. In the 5th set, Markus called the doctor for cramps; and the 2nd time, Lleyton must have had enough time to concentrate back, 'cause he broke just after, and won on his serve. YES !!!
To finish the day, I attended the Woodies' match on the SL court. Even if I couldn't see the ball well ('cause I had the sun in the eyes), I noticed they were still very talented ;-) I wanted to stay 'till the end, so I left RG very late ... and I missed my last train : GREAT ! I panicked for a few minutes, then I saw there was a train (at midnight!) that passed near my town, so I took a taxi to finish. To cap it all, I fell asleep in the train : pfff ... stupid me ! I could have woken up in Germany !
Friday, June 2nd
I had trouble waking up that morning, but suddenly I heard on my french radio that there would be a 8th season of the X-files [totally not Pat related, I know ...] Aaaaahh... Great news :-)) I jumped on my feet, and arrived 3 hours later at the practice courts of RG. I found the girls immediatly and they told me Pat and Lleyton would be there at 1pm :-)) Some of the girls went to watch Alex on court 1. And I was on my way to court 10 where Guy Forget was playin' doubles [I like him much, don't kill me for that guys, please ;-) ], but I passed Jonas Bjorkman. So I got back to the practice courts. I wouldn't attend many matches today, I felt it ... I stayed there half-an-hour with St¨¦phanie, one eye on Jonas/Byron, and the other one on Ferrero who was on the next court. It was very hot under the sun, and I had black pants on : Good idea, Mel! I attended the last minutes of Dip's practice : he was posing for pics with kids, he had made them jump on the court. Very nice guy :-) Then I sat on a bench in the shade (the others were at Mark's match), waiting for Pat and Lleyton.
Lleyton and Daren arrived early on court 20. While waiting for the others, they were throwing a ball at each other from the baseline. And then Daren decided to resurface the court, himself. He used the net, and swept the lines : this is perfect Daren ;-) Patrick, Mark, Tony and Peter arrived, at last (on time in fact). The whole gang chatted a bit, then Pat and Lleyton started training. And a crowd of people began to arrive too ...While they were serving, Newk passed by with his little moustache ;-) Everybody was there, and my poor camera worked hard ! Then Lleyton took a pose, and Daren played with Pat : that was the first time I saw him with a racket :-) He nearly killed Patrick with a strong backhand on the man. Phew !! everybody laughed ... At the end, they played doubles for a few points : Pat/Peter (in action, yeah!) v. Lleyt/Daren :-)) I could have spent hours watching them !! Pat signed autographs (Lleyton had already gone I think) He had trouble going out of the court, there were too many people before the door. He finally left with bodyguards 5 min later.
OK, now I had to attend the first match of my day ! I choose a doubles match : Jonas/Byron v. Oncins/Orsanic on court 6. I stayed 'till the end of the first set that Jonas and Byron won in the Tie-Break :-) I didn't do many things in the afternoon : I was just looking for shade ... I watched the Kafel-Grosjean match on the big screen of Center Court, and the score board of court 2 at the same time (Federer-Kratochvil was way too long!)
At 06:00pm, I went to Court 2, found a seat on the 3rd row and I saw Dragomir v. Maleeva, my first women's match in Roland this year ... Happily, Dragomir won in 2 sets. They finally announced that the doubles with Navratilova had been moved to court 1 [yeah, yeah, nobody cares, we know that for a long time], and that Hewitt/Rafter v. Cl¨¦ment/Grosjean would start at 07:30 =) The court was crowded when they arrived. Of course Pat & Lleyton choose the other bench (not the one just in front of me) thanks guys ;-( Lleyt had his usual outfit on (black shorts and white shirt); Pat was wearing white shorts [quite long unfortunately ;-) ] with 2 blue stripes, and the white shirt with the blue stripe and buds all along [during the match, he changed for another one with a blue collar]. Seb looked really tired . Poor boy, he had just lost to Kafelnikov in singles. The 4 players had long hair : strange ;-) That was a fantastic match !! And the players seemed to have a lot of fun. And Lleyton was soooo calm compared with Pat : I didn't recognize him ! Pat was very demonstrative. They talked to each other between the points (if not joking), and encouraged each other with some little "Come on, let's go". More details ? Ok, LOL! There were several Aussie flags in the crowd, and Pat was very encouraged. I saw Lara, Tony and Muddy, the others were there too I suppose. Pat/Lleyt rapidly led 3-0 in the first set, then broke again 3 games later. They won it 6-1. The 2nd set was a lot more close, there were several breaks, and at 6-5, Seb/Arnaud broke again. On one point, everyone thought the French had already won it with Seb' passing-shot. But Pat suddenly ran to the baseline, and hit a forehand, his back to the net. Hop! right in the middle, in the French's feet ! WOW!!!! Nobody could believe their eyes, even Pat :-) We were all laughing of surprise !! Great moment. Great Pat ! In the third set, Lleyton fell. poor boy, he was covered with clay ... and Pat found that funny ;-) The highlight of the match was in the last games : there was a fantastic long point full of beautiful volleys, lobs, and smashes. Woooohooo! Standing ovation !! :-)) At a doubles match, it's so rare... And above all, Pat and Lleyton won !!! 6-1 5-7 6-2. What a great team they are !
I left the RG stadium after the match, a little sad. It was 21:30. Long but beautiful day. I even saw Lleyton and his family in the green official car of RG leaving too :-)
In less than 3 weeks : Wimbledon ...
