USopen 2001
by Kristen
- Part 1-
Hi girls!!! For those of you who like my long drawn-out reports, read on............
When I first planned my trip for NYC I never expected to make it to the Open, I figured I'd be watching Pat win every match on his way to the Hamlet title then I'd catch my flight home, so to step foot on the grounds was very exciting!!! And I will admit to everyone now that I can honestly say that I did not see ANY New York landmarks....not one. Unless you count my immense disappoint when I caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty from my plane and realized how tiny she was. I thought she was the size of the Empire State Building.....mind you I also thought Manhattan was a suburb. And why couldn't I find a cabbie to drive me around Harlem for a little sightseeing??? *lol* Though my absolute favourite New York City memory has got to be cReepy driving Karen, me and Laura to Laura's apartment for the first time. Picture Laura with her Brooklyn accent, cReepy driving like a mad woman and little Texan Karen and Canadian Kirsten cowering in the back seat. Just as Laura says This is Brooklyn, cReepy cuts some guy off who gives us a wonderful finger gesture known worldwide. Laura promptly rolls down her window, gives him the same hello and yells "@#$@ You #$%hole!!", calmly rolls her window back up, turns to Karen and I and says WELCOME TO NEW YORK GIRLS!!!! *lol* How's that for an initiation??? (Miss you Laura and cReepy!!!)Anyway.......Flushing Meadows is gorgeous and I was looking forward to just wandering around because Peter had already told us that they wouldn't be there today (Thursday). So the first match we catch is Vince Spadea vs. some very rude man from Israel named Noam Behr (sp). Vinnie was well...Vinnie and Noam kept getting upset with the "conditions" he had to play in. Yes, the group of kids from the tennis camp were loud, but you're not Sampras therefore you're stuck on Court 1001 during the Qualifying. Deal with it. So while cReepy and Laura talked about poor little Vinnie some man who was cheering for Behr sat down in front of us and started behaving like a jackass. And cReepy, being, well....cReepy just didn't back down. I was expecting World War III to begin. Welcome to the US Open........After the match we headed back to the players entrance and practise courts which is where we seemed to spend most of our time. So much in fact that we made friends with the hilarious volunteer who handled the entrance to the practise courts. cReepy lovingly nicknamed him Eddie Murphy (real name Tony) and every morning he was greeted by a loud boisterous "EDDIE!!!!!!" yelled from across the grounds. We even got our pic taken with him!!! So while we're checking out the courts, Laura realizes that Goran is done and heading off. Now because it's only qualifying and they don't expect the stalkers until next week, there are no barricades up at all. So Laura and I attack Goran and each got a pic of us with him. It happened so fast that when it was over we started laughing since cReepy described us as "shivering in his arms". Man is he tall - I hope more than the top of my hair and his chest make it into the picture!!! What made it even funnier was that he obviously is enjoying his fame from winning Wimbledon because he must have stood at the Players Entrance begging for autographs for 10 minutes.....The person who surprisingly gets attacked is Michael Chang!!!! We watched Sampras walk in alone without anyone batting an eyelash but Chang was mobbed!!! And another player that no one was interested in caught me off guard too....I was standing there withering at the thought of Goran's arm being around my waist (I thought of you Cationa!!!)when someone who looked very familiar walked by without fanfare. Having adopted the Brooklyn attitude I said "Who the hell is that???!!" just as he looked up and glared at me!!! It was Kafelnikov!!!! And I don't think Y2K was too impressed with my comment!!*lol* Oops!!!
At this point, Laura came with me to watch a Canadian entry named Frederic Niemeyer play Todd Woodbridge. They're both adorable! I was surprised at how powerful the Canuck's serve was.....almost as surprised as he was when I started cheering for him!!! *lol* He probably thought I was on the wrong court. You know how it is here in Canada......tennis is practically below bocce ball as a popular sport unfortunately. Having never seen half a Woody play live before, I was impressed at his intensity. Until he yelled at the poor volunteer. Being on the outer courts, the stands are steel and VERY loud, and the poor kid of no more than 15 was bringing more ice for the cooler. Todd actually stopped in the middle of the point and bellowed "Do you work here?? If so, may I suggest you learn some tennis etiquette. You don't walk in during play, especially in the middle of a point. THANK YOU." Laura and I almost burst out lauging but then figured we'd be in trouble next. The kid didn't come back. Todd won and afterwards we caught him going into the players entrance and cReepy asked him for a group photo. It somehow was said that we were Babblers and guess what Todd said to that........"Oh no....." Now what do you think he meant by that girls???? *lol* I also got my pic with Niemeyer and when asked by a little boy who it was I said "He's Canadian" and the kid says "So nobody....." *lol* What's with that EH?????? You all have to understand that Canadians don't consider it a sport unless there's physical contact. I'm sure if you were able to throw a few head-butts in there between volleys, its popularity would grow by leaps and bounds!!!! Oh well.....so looking like it's about to rain, we head over to Armstrong to watch Lleyton and Chang practise. I pity poor Chang's father who is nothing more than a slow, old ball boy during rallies. I fully expected a shot to bounce off his head at one point. So it starts to slightly rain as Tommy Haas comes out to practise alone, and I decide that my love for Tommy does not equal the pressure on my poor bladder, so Karen and I head out, leaving cReepy and Laura basically alone with him (I think he was a little scared!!) Figures that he strips down to his shorts to play in the rain, his rippled chest glistening with rain drops, which cReepy so honourably caught with her 3000x zoom lens. Joking and laughing, he goofs around with abandon, even nailing Laura in the leg with a ball (which he wouldn't even autograph afterwards!!!) Why oh why did I have to pee??????!!!!!!!!! The injustice of it all!!!!! I won't bore you all with the escapades from later on that evening after tennis since I've babbled looooooooooong enough.....check back later for the next day......if you're still awake from reading this one, that is.
- Part 2 -
Okay, I have absolutely no idea what day I'm writing about.....but it doesn't matter.....wait I think it's Friday. Anyway, after defrosting myself from another chilly night on Laura's bedroom floor (my lips were too frozen to ask for a third blanket), Karen, Laura and I met up with cReepy in front of the Players Entrance as usual. They were starting to put the barricades up so that they could herd the sheep of autograph seekers into them, but our friend "Eddie" let us hang out in the Forbidden Zone a while longer than the rest.
Joyce and Pat seemed to materialize at the same time (hmmmmmm........what a coincidence Joyce - were you serenading him personally??*lol*) cReepy saw him first and recognized his bowed legs a mile away. He smiled and waved to us and then went to sign in and get his credentials. He was wearing all white and looked spectacular of course. He seemed to always have to get things out of his gym bag and he was kind enough to always point his beautiful bottom in our direction when bending over to reach for things (where's my zoom lens when I need it?? We were only a few feet away but you can never get too close now can you???) We were surprised that Peter wasn't with him today, though my theory was that Pat had broken another one of his fingers and he was sitting in the emergency room somewhere all alone. When he came out Karen yelled out asking where he was practising and Pat just said something like "oh, somewhere in the back I suppose." As we waited, we met up with Ula and Jesse, who are both sweethearts. They both just walked right up to us as if we had "Babbler" tattooed on our foreheads. Then I realized that Laura, cReepy and I had on our Cystic Fibrosis "I Want a Tatt Like Pat" shirts from Miami and more than a few people were staring at us. We looked like those husband and wife duos who wear matching outfits. But worse. I know for those of you who were there I'm probably mixing up the events, but at this point we hooked up with poor sweet Noor who had to lug her bags with her the entire day because the Baggage Check booth wasn't opening until Monday. It was SO nice to see our sweetie Noor again!!!
Olga found us again (she always seemed to have her Babbler radar going!*lol*)and we went to watch Pat practise on one of the smaller courts. Sure enough, there are about 5 practise courts in a row, but you can only see from in front of #1 and he was on 3, so everyone headed up to the top of the stands on a side court to watch him. Me being the sneaky chick that I am, I found the gap in the mesh that happened to be right behind their court and planted myself there. Mind you by the end of his practise I was quite dizzy. It's hard to focus on Pat's amazing form with one eye through a peephole. Some annoying photographer from the Post kept asking me if he could take some pictures through my newfound treasure - lucky for him that he was cute otherwise I wouldn't have let him!!! During one part Pat practically gave me a coronary when he wiped out on the court and landed on his back in front of the net. I'm not sure how serious it looked from the stands where the rest of the Babblers were, but it was quite terrible from my point of view. I'm surprised he didn't twist an ankle or something and he lay there for a while probably scalding his back on the sun-baked ground. I know that my loud gasp scared the crap out of everyone huddled behind me trying to see around my head. The other girls finally came down to my hole in the fence and cReepy got out her super spy-worthy 3000000000x zoom lens that seemed to extend about a foot through the hole onto the courts. You couldn't help but notice it and I could hear Rochey snickering and Pat looked over and just shook his head and laughed. I'm sure he was thinking "cReepy's found me again....." Laura and I were trying to keep our area "Babblers Only" because everyone wanted to see who we were checking out. I think for my next tourney I'm going to bring a chain with a sign that says that. Imagine that - a Babblers Only picture area.*lol* All of a sudden, someone yelled something to Pat, he walked over, picked up all of his stuff and walked towards the exit. Keep in mind, that's on the other side, so our little convoy of Babblers high-tailed it over to see where he was going. He was shirtless and dripping of sweat and oh my.....where was I?? and somehow I managed to meet him at the exit and all of the kids were hounding him and he was sweet enough to say "Not right now, OK? I've got one more hit" then he went into the bowels of Arthur Ashe and our little posse of girls ran our butts off to meet him on the other side to see where he went. You have to picture what we all looked like - a bunch of crazy women, some with matching shirts on, running wild across the grounds. *LOL* At first we were afraid he'd finish his practise on Arthur Ashe and we wouldn't be able to see him, but lo and behold he strode out the other side and continued into Armstrong. The other Babblers were keeping their distance, trying not to look too obvious. But there are Laura and I- basically tripping on his heels. At one point he walked up one stairwell and then turned back around and came back down so quickly that Laura couldn't get out of the way in time. He banged right into her!!*lol* He mumbled a "sorry mate" or something and Laura was practically frozen with awe to the floor. But then we were off chasing him again and cReepy and Joyce went to one side of Armstrong and the rest of us got front row close to the entrance on the other side. I kept laughing at all of these "security guards" that escort the players. Have you noticed how small most of them are??? Or the court monitor guys who wander around during the practice??? Being a big strapping girl (must be all of that Canadian bacon!) I KNOW I could take these guys on!!! My game plan was that I would take on the guards while the rest of the girls carried Pat into cReepy's waiting Jeep, which would be our getaway car, and we would whisk him away to an unknown location. He would love us so much that he wouldn't WANT to come back to Flushing Meadows!!*lol* Okay, that's enough white wine for tonight, Kirsten...........
Needless to say, we watched Pat practise for another hour and a half and it was heaven. We all hoped it would never end. He was shirtless, with a white hat and warpaint, and his white shorts were getting more and more see-through by the second. Joyce and cReepy were sitting right behind his chair and Joyce swears he was wearing Jockeys (what happened to the Calvins??) I brought out the banner and we cheered him through his spirited practise. He AND his backhand were getting better and happier as the time went by. At one point he did an amazing shot and some guy near us yelled out "How'd you do that?" and he just shrugged his shoulders and started laughing. Oh Pat, how we'll miss you and your humour so.......*sniff* Goran was waiting beside us for Pat to finish practising, though I'm not sure which Goran was with us that day. The day before had been Happy Goran but he looked a little bit like 911 Goran right then. Scary........ So Pat's practise finishes, and he immediately goes over to cReepy and Joyce (who BTW are getting crushed to death by little boys) and he says "Knew you'd be here" to cReepy. After signing over there, he made his way to our side where some reporters got to him. He was very happy to see the first newsteam because they were from Australia Sports (I think)and he had a big grin and handshake waiting for the man interviewing him. Someone else had a few questions, then he came right over to Laura and I with our matching shirts and banner thrown over my shoulder, which made both of us melt with joy. He signed more things for us and then Laura became his personal PR lady because he grabbed her pen and only signed things she handed to him. So naturally EVERYONE in the vicinity was trying to get to Laura!!! All the while cRazy cReepy is yelling "I love you Mr. Rafter!!!" across the court and making all of us laugh!! He had to keep pausing to wring out his shorts since a puddle was forming beneath his feet and then something quite strange happened. Some woman was trying to interview him and she spoke much too softly and all of the kids (and Babblers) were trying to get his attention and it just got wild, so Pat put his beautiful long finger to his lips and quietly said "Shhhhhhhh...." and I swear I have never seen a crowd shut up so quickly in my life!!! It was like the pope had spoken!!! It was amazing!!! He just grinned and kept signing whatever Laura was giving him and answered this woman's questions. Laura was getting quite busy at her "new job" so I was trying to help her juggle all of the pictures and programs so I took one out of Pat's hands for him and somehow (and I SWEAR I did not do this on purpose!!!) my fingers literally slid down his forearm from his elbow to his wrist (he was SO sweaty!!!) to get the program because he moved the other way. He actually glanced up at me and I know I had a rather dumbfounded look on my face. I felt like I had violated him in some way!!! Then the interview was over and I was left standing there looking at my two glistening, dripping fingers in awe and Laura yelling "YOU TOUCHED HIM!!!" And all I could think of was: Catriona is going to be SOOOOOO jealous that I touched his forearm!!!!! *lol* Then Laura and I helped the poor children we had trampled on up from the floor and I wondered what to do with my fingers - Bottle his sweat and sell it like they did with Elvis'??? Or send it to a scientist who could duplicate his DNA so that every Babbler could have his or her very own Pat?????
Anyway, Friday was a busy day for us, so I'll have to put the rest of it in my next report, because I'm afraid my butt is permanently stuck to this chair!!! Until next time........