I arrived in Halle on Sunday morning and met there with Anja and her mother, both Pat's fans. Both arrived a bit earlier than I and they had already a walk around and they explained to me that no one except people with a special pass are allowed to go to the practice courts. There is a security guy in front of the entrance to the practice and they tried already to convince him to let them through, but no chance ! A lot of people were waiting in front of the entrance to the practice courts to see the players at least when they go in or leave this area either to the Hotel which is part of the tennis park or to the locker rooms, players lounge etc. which are part of the center court. So what to do: we did not want to stuck at the entrance all day so we decided to go into the tennis park and to watch some of the quali matches which were on that day. I was not happy at all with the situation there because I thought the only chance for me to see Pat would be during his match and this was supposed to be only on Tuesday. After we spent a while in the tennis park we met a friend (not a Pat fan) who just came from the practice courts entrance and told us that Pat just went in there for practice. Can you imagine how we felt, Pat was there practising so close and we can't get in !!! We found out that all the players practice for 1 hour so there was still enough time to see him, but how to get in there ?? We tried again with the security no chance ! In the meantime Helga and Ina arrived and we told them the story and they were also frustrated about the situation. Then Anja, her mother and I went to explore the area around the practice courts, we followed a small street which ended up at a meadow which we followed and guess where this was, it was the back side of the practice courts and we just had to climb up a small hillock and we had a great view over all the practice courts, some of the courts were direct underneath this small hillock, but the court were Pat were was a bit farer away. Nevertheless we were sooooo happy to see HIM and with my binoculars we could see him very good. He was practising with Michael Chang, Peter was there and Paul Kilderry was practising on the court next to him. Sometimes we had the impression that the players including Pat looked at us, because I m sure it looked very funny the three of us on that hillock with cameras and binoculars watching the practice. Then 1 hour was over and we just decided to go back to the entrance to see Pat there when a security guy came to us and said that we must leave that area and we were not allowed to be there. This was very annoying, everything we tried or did was forbidden due to security reasons. I was thinking of cancelling my hotel room and going back home , but after all I m soo glad that I stayed there .......
We came back to the entrance in time and saw him close and I took a photo. He look cute as ever and still had his beard. He wore a white t-shirt, white hat and blue shorts, and his hair as ponytail. So he went to the Hotel and off he was. Later we met Ingrid, a big Pat fan, with her son Andi and they told us that they saw Pat in the tennis park and Andi got his autograph, so this gave me hope that I may be also lucky enough in the next few days to see him by chance somewhere in the areas where I m allowed to be in and I took the best decision of the day, means to stay on Halle. Later we met a friend who was there all week and had a pass to come in to all for the normal fan forbidden areas, like the practice courts, media center, players lounge, hotel etc. For a reason I will call her just friend in my report.
* Monday, Jun 12
When I arrived Monday morning I met my friend and beside her pass she had a ticket for a very good seat at the CC and she went to see the first match Goellner against Lapentti and offered me her ticket for the Tommy Haas match. While her match was on I went to the entrance of the practice courts and met Ingrid and Andi again who told me that Pat is in there for about 10 or 15 minutes, and from yesterday I knew that it would take about 45 minutes until he would come out. So I had a walk around and came back in time and it took not very long when I saw him: He came from the practice courts on his own (no Peter, no other player no one, just HIM) He wore a shirt without sleeves (muscle shirt ?) and blue shorts, hair as ponytail and what s that ? where is the beard ? - he was clean shaven !! I couldn't believe what I saw ! But it was true, he looks sooo young without the beard. A lot of kids were waiting there and the security tried to keep them away from Pat, but Pat insisted to stop for signing autographs, he even took a photo with a girl who asked for this. He was so friendly and it was wonderful to see him so close and to see/hear him talking with the kids. I took a lot of close up photos which came out very good ! When everyone had his autograph he left surprisingly not to the hotel, he went through the main entrance into the tennis park.
So off he was Ingrid, Andi and I went into the tennis park too and decided to have a drink on the terrace of the hotel, it was unbelievable, but the normal fan was allowed to sit at this place !. Ingrid and Andi have been there on Sunday and told me that a lot of the players go through this place into the Hotel, also Pat did so on Sunday. We had a nice talk and sat there for a while and saw some players come and go, but no Pat. So we decided to leave and guess in who we bumped when we were about to leave the terrace: of course, PAT !! Ingrid and I were completely under shock, we couldn't do or say anything, I think we just stared at him and I fear I did it with open mouth, but we had help: Andi ! Luckily he was not under shock and took the chance to ask Pat if he would pose for a photo with his mum, Pat agreed, but asked which mum because there was no woman around, ust Andi with Pat, the only 2 womens on the terrace where still at the entrance under shock. But we made our way back to the scene and while Ingrid posed with Pat for the photo, I was recovering from the shock and I asked him to sign a photo from Dusseldorf for me, what he did and then I asked him when his match is and he said tomorrow (o.k. I knew that, but I was very happy about the fact that I was able to talk to him at all and I hope he did not find it too stupid). Then I wished him good luck for the match and he said thank you and went into the hotel. Oh, my first (very small) conversation with him, I was on cloud seven ! We sat down again on the terrace and recovered slowly from all the action.
Then I went to see the Tommy Haas match as you know he lost in three sets but I enjoyed the match from the seat in the front row.
After that I phoned Martina and asked her to post the news about the beard, because I knew that a lot of you would be very happy about this.
Later we sat down on a bench group which belonged to a typical German Imbi?Stand means a snack-stall where you can get pommes frites and different kinds of sausages. Since it was close to the main entrance of the Hotel, we noticed that it was a very interesting place to sit and to watch the action around, we saw Karim Alami with his wife and baby, Tommy Haas, Nicolas Kiefer, and then Peter passing by. After a while Peter came back together with Sandon Stolle and David MacPherson and guess what they did: they stopped at the snack-stand and ordered food. I had a photo of Sandon from Nice with me and I went there and asked him to sign it and he posed for a photo with me in front of the snack-stand, nice background *lol* , but it was funny. Then Andi asked Peter if Pat is going to practice again today and he said no and we asked for tomorrow and he told us that he will be practising at 1 pm.
In the eveing I went for dinner with my friend and since she is allowed to watch the practice she offered to attend Pat's practice and to take photos for us. This was so lovely from her and I said that a lot of fans in the world are urgently waiting for pics of the beardless Pat and it would take too long to get my normal pictures by snail mail to Robyn so we found a way to get the photos quicker into the net: Sony had a stand at the tennis where you could hire (free of charge !) a digital camera........
* Tuesday, Jun 13
So the Tuesday started, a very busy day......I was so nervous, Pat s first match and before it, the mission with the practice photos needed to take place. We went to the Sony stand and got the camera, before that we inspected the CC to look out for the best seats we could reach with our tickets, because we assumed that a lot of people would leave the CC after the Kiefer match and especially the people with best seats and VIP lounge access, who sometimes prefer champagne and delicious food to a tennis match......
Pat came in time, a few minutes before 1 pm he entered the practice area and my friend went there too with the digital camera and her normal camera, later she came back and Ingrid and I gave her our cameras and she took a lot of photos with those too. When Pat finished his practice she talked to him and apologized for all this photo action and said that this is because she is the only one of us who has access to go to the practice and Pat said, that's o.k. no problem, that's our Pat.
Then we watched the match, before the match started we watched the rest of the Kiefer match and I cheered for him(I never thought that I would do this once) but I wanted him to be through by 3 pm because I was sure (at this stage) that the ZDF would continue the live broadcast then with Pat s match until 5 pm. Kiefer did what I wanted he finished the match about 3 pm, but I did not expect that the ZDF would show the Prinosil match from earlier that day rather then just to continue with the live coverage, it was unbelievable !! And I learned only on Wednesday from Joes that you had to call the stadium to get the scores. I'm sorry, I could have posted the scores to someones mobile phone by SMS, but I did not know that the scoreboard on the site was not working live and also there was no live coverage by the ZDF.
We enjoyed the match since we were able to get seats in the front row behind Pat's bench and the lounges. After the match I followed Pat s press conference on the big screen outside, unfortunately there was no sound, but it was nice to watch him, he was shirtless just with a towel over his shoulders. The hair was open and he laughed a lot.....later my friend went to the media center and got a written script of the press conference, but it was only a part of it I think, because I saw Pat for about 15 minutes and the script is not that long but he sounded very positive and confident. Joes has a copy of it and I think she was going to try to scan it. If this is not possible either she or I will type the text and post it.
* Wednesday, Jun 14
On the Wednesday Joes came and since we spent almost all day together (except that I was on the toilet when Pat came out of the locker room with open hair after the doubles match *grrrr*) there is nothing for me to add to her wonderful report. But I d like point out that I second her feelings when Pat slipped, fell down and stayed down I was close to a heartattack, Pat please don t do this again ! On top of this he did 2 or 3 somersaults (one was shown on TV). He shirt was green from the grass on various parts, but I was worried when I saw that it was also green at THE shoulder. But when I saw him at the doubles match with Jonas later I knew that everything was o.k.
Now Rosmalen - I m leaving Sunday and I can't wait.
