The Millenium Halle Experience
...My day in Halle, June 14 ...
By joes
After a three hour's drive I found the Gerry Weber stadium, in the middle of green pastures, very idyllic. Andrea had already bought us tickets so we could sit together, we met at the entrance and chatted about how we would enjoy the day, and ..who walks past us? Pat! All I could do was stumble: "Well, that was Pat. wasn't it?" Off he went to the (forbidden for civilians-grrrr!) practice courts, white shirt, beige shorts, hair in ponytail, freshly shaven. Quite a difference from beardy Pat in Dusseldorf! Andrea then gave me the grand tour through the stadium, showed me where to sit with views at the players' hotel, and then we positioned ourselves at the same spot as where we had seen Pat arrive before, and yes!!! There he was again, a girl jumped in front of him to make a picture, he reluctantly did so, while saying to his companions "Keep moving, keep moving!" so we didn't put our stuff to sign in front of him, he clearly wanted to get on. BTW, one of his companions turned out to be Jonas ..and I never saw him! (Sorry, Peggy!) Andrea explained she was like that, her first day in Halle, so I guess it was a "first-day-at-the-tennis syndrome".
(What I forgot to tell you about Dusseldorf, Pat was asked to pose for a picture with a girl there, the first time he said: "No, not now." So later on she tried again, and again he said: "No, not now." and walked on, but then stopped, turned around, said: "Hey, you were asking before, weren't you? Oh, okay then". And he posed and she had her picture! So even when he doesn't want to, he somehow remembers who asks him for things and then obliges later on.)
Then it was time for Pat's match against Krajicek. Both served extremely well throughout the first set, love game after love game, Pat had some chances at 0-30 on Krajicek's serve but couldn't take them, so they got to a tiebreak in the first set, that Pat won after Krajicek double faulted. Somewhere in that tiebreak Pat slipped and fell, stayed down, then tried to get up, fell down again, so we had stopped breathing for a while, hands over mouths in agony, then it became clear he was making a little show of his fall, he crawled on all fours and then got up smiling. Phew! As a courtesy to the crowd, will players NEVER do that again! I have some pics of him where his shirt is green at the shoulder after that fall. What I do NOT have pics of, is the shirt change. I missed it completely! Pat had on his dark blue shorts and a white shirt with blue vertical stripe, buttons all the way down in the first set, but later on that shirt was lying on the floor and he had on another white shirt, but with only three buttons. Shame on me for missing that!
The second set was a bit like the first, good serves, (one Pat serve was registered as 191 km/h, so I would say that's pretty convincing for the shoulder) and Pat's returns a bit iffy. Krajicek won that tiebreak, I think also by a Pat double fault, so it was very very even, one set all. Krajicek slammed the net with his racket once, because there were net calls when no net was touched, and then two different persons went to work to put the Cyclope right again, he apparently had hit that as well. Ooops! While they were busy, Krajicek made this throw away gesture with his left hand as if saying: "Forget about that silly thing there, it doesn't work properly!" In the third set Krajicek had found an answer to Pat's serves, and kept on serving well. Pat still coudn't return his opponents serve, so that was it, he was broken twice. Duh! Ah, well, no shame in losing to a well serving Krajicek I guess. And remember, last year he was beaten in Halle in the second round by another Dutchie, Siemerink, in the third set tiebreak 19-17, then he won the doubles there with Jonas, won Rosmalen and got to the Wimbledon semifinals.
Pat did have fun on court there, in the first two matches he was smiling after some dropshot-volley-lob games, with good gets on both sides. Not so much fun in the third, he swirled his racket once, in the air, giggled sarcastically after some long or wide returns, all in all, was not happy then. I sat next to a lady who asked me who I favored of the two, she wanted Pat to win too. I then explained why I was so busy with my telephone after every six or eight games, she was impressed, and then asked if I, as a fan, knew Pat's shoe size. Help! No idea! Anyone? She also had missed the shirt change, btw, and regretted it as much as I did.
So, we swallowed, we were sad, waited a bit for Pat to come out from the building after the press conference, saw Peter, but no Pat. Had some lunch, and then went to the court where the doubles should take place shortly, Court 1, but they had changed it to Court 2. Which is a bit smaller, and the benches are further away from the court, pity . Pat and Jonas won the first set easily, 6-2. Again, lots of fun, giggling, smiling, but also a lot of missed returns by Pat. And he vented his frustration after those, once he said something like "Dag it" or "Bag it" , any explanations from native English speakers? The second set got to a tiebreak and the opponents won it. Pat in particular was not too pleased about that, I must confess my egoistic self was happy with a third set, but as Andrea pointed out, it was Pat's sixth of the day. Once Pat was hit by a tennisball the same way Nick Philipoussis was hit by a Paul Kilderry tennisball in Zurich, remember? Pat's reaction was very loud and very indignant! He was bending forward, his back to the opponents But I don't think any lasting damage was done, maybe tennisplayers should add some protection for their private parts to their equipment! Anyway, Pat and Jonas won it 6-3 so they're still in.
After the first set I called PJfan to give her the scores and she then told me Pat's mother had rung Robyn to find out the scores, and that Robyn could give her "our" results! Now Peter and Paul Kilderry (and a third man I didn't know) were sitting in the crowd, some five or six chairs to my left, and two rows higher. So I wrote a note to Peter, telling him the story how his mom got the results, added: "Don't you guys think of your mother???" :-) He and Paul read it and smiled.
Peter and Paul had with them an American football, I guess that's what it was, a ball with two pointed edges? After the match was over they threw it at Pat from where they sat, and Pat played with it with some ball boys, they had such fun! Threw it with their hands or kicked it with their feet, they had a good time. Then when Pat wanted to get back, he was surrounded by heaps of kids who all wanted an autograph, so patiently he did that, but in the end he needed a rescue from four or five security men, or else they wouldn't have let him go. Of course, I had just run out of film when Pat undid the elastic from his hair . When we walked back I spotted Peter next to me so I asked why they never called their mom after a match, especially because the Halle site doesn't give scores till after the matches. He then explained they didn't do that anymore, actually hadn't done so for years now. But he HAD called her, must have been after Jocelyn had called Robyn then. He too thought it was a good story, I said "See you in Rosmalen!" and off he went.
Both Andrea and I noticed Pat wasn't too thrilled about being photographed, he pulled faces, put his racket in front of it . But there was a whole tennis court between us! We had excellent view, right opposite the players benches during the doubles match, so I think I have some nice ones of the "dream team"!
After we said goodbye to Peter, we sat ourselves where we had been before, Andrea and Ingrid went off to a toilet, I took everyting out of my bag to put some order in it and there was Pat coming out of the building! Quickly I threw everything back in my bag, first things first! There was a fence between Pat and the fans, he had all the time in the world, signed one autograph after another, one of the girls asked him to sign her arm, but we all know, Pat doesn't DO bodypaint! She insisted, and I think he just put a dot or something on her arm, couldn't see it, but there was some laughter. So that was the fourth time I saw Pat from close by, more of him that one day than I ever saw in the week I spent in Dusseldorf! His hair was out (remember, I had run out of film-grrrr!) he had on a hat, olive green Tshirt, the rest I couldn't see. He is soooo friendly! Maybe it was just my luck I couldn't take any more pictures, for now I had the luxury of enjoying the moment without fumbling with camera's and earning Pat's frown .:-)
Yes, there were other tennis players too. When we arrived we saw Lapentti practicing with Sjeng Schalken, later on Kafelnikov and Medvedev ( we quickly went some place else then! Although I like Medvedev, he has a lovely sense of humour.) We also saw another doubles match, Haarhuis/Stolle against Kiefer/Goellner. But as for Pat sightings, this was it, and I drove the long way home smiling all the way .. See you next week, Pat!
joes
