A Saturday at the US Open

Even though Nadal was able to take care of Istomin in 3 sets, it was still about 1am when I finally got back to my hotel. I knew Saturday was going to be a very long day of tennis viewing so I decided to head to bed…oh wiat, that’s what I should’ve done. What I actually did was take my netbook down to the ultramodern, very dark hotel lobby to use the free wifi so I could post some new material to the blog. See, I love you guys more than sleep. Plus, I’d already written everything out long hand so I just had to type it all up. Finally I was all done and went back to room and passed out on the very comfy bed.

I planned to get an early start on Saturday, but I realized that I could sacrifice an hour of tennis for an hour of sleep considering I’d be there all day. I arrived on site around noon and took another walk around. They charge you $4 for a schedule of play, so I wrote it all down before hand and brought it with me. This way, I wouldn’t miss any of the action on the outer courts. The grounds are quite spread out so there could be great matches happening without your knowledge.

While on my way around the grounds, I happened upon Feliciano Lopez and Gilles Simon in the middle of practicing on an outer court, not the fenced off practice courts. This meant it had bleachers and the fence was only about 3 feet tall, providing an unobstructed view. I’ve seen them both before, but it’s always a treat, so I stuck around to watch. Eventually Michael Llodra showed up with his practice partner and the four of them shared the court. These three are all great to watch, so I decided actual match play could wait. I had a real front row seat as I was standing at the gate. The gate was open and at some point a ball rolled right to my feet. It came right to me, so I’m pretty sure that means I get to keep it right? It may have been a grey area, but I discreetly bent down and pocketed the ball. Later, Llodra wiffed a ball over the short fence and a man tossed it back for him. Mikey responded with a heavily accented, “Thank you BRO.” Yes, Michael Llodra said bro. It made my day. At some point, Simon’s coach stopped to close the gate I was standing at, explaining that he hoped the wind would die down. I’m not sure how that’s an explanation for closing the gate or why he felt the need to explain anything to me, but he was very nice. Maybe he’s starting to recognize me or he was confused by the fact that I spent an hour standing at the side of the court, playing with my blackberry (I was a little twitter happy this weekend.) FYI, I really don’t try to follow any specific players, I just happen to see some players way more often than others.

Anyway, Llodra finished up practicing first and walked off court completely unbothered by any of the fans. I can’t stress enough that you should be watching this guy. He’s incredibly entertaining and has a great old school serve and volley game. Plus, he’s an absolute sweetheart with fans. Gilles and Feli finished up a little bit later and I got Feli to sign my stolen ball. Thierry Tulasne, Gilles’ coach, passed out all of the practice balls to kids watching from the opposite side of the court. I love when players/coaches think to do something like that. It means absolutely nothing to the player, but is a nice treat for the fans.

Next up, I stopped in to check out the real practice courts. There’s only one side that has a fence you can see through, which means that anytime there’s someone remotely famous practicing, it’s impossible to see. It turns out the large crowd had gathered to watch Rafa/Fernando practice on the nearest court. I took a couple photos when I got reasonably close, but I’m not a big enough Rafa fan to brave that mess for very long. Vera Zvonareva and coach Sergey Demekhine were also out practicing, as was David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro. Bethanie Mattek Sands had taken up the court vacated by Gilles and Feli. I had no interest in that so I decided to grab some lunch before the match I was waiting for: Robredo/Granollers vs. Reynolds/Ram.

I had a quick lunch and headed over to Court 4. The match hadn’t started yet, so I hang around to watch a little Sam Querrey practice on the court next door. He was practicing with a kid, possibly someone from the junior circuit. I arrived just as things were wrapping up. Sam walked off court and a kid asked him for his hat, which Sam happily handed over and signed. Sam hung around for a good 10 or 15 minutes extra signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. He didn’t act like he was in a rush and he’s super polite. I took a picture for some siblings and was rewarded with one of my own. I’m 5’7” and was wearing 3” or 4” heels. Sam is still about a head taller. The guy is a giant. Anyway, now I’ve seen Sam practice twice and I have to say I love the way he interacts with fans. It’s a real shame he’s out after a heartbreaking five setter with Stanislas Wawrinka. I wish him all the best. Also, Sam, if you ever happen to read this, and you are looking for a new intern, I am available. I am looking for a job and believe I would be quite capable. No joke.

So back to Court 4 for Tommy. It’s a small outer court and most people aren’t very interested in doubles so there was plenty of space. Reynolds/Ram are both American so there were probably more people watching than had Tommy and Marcel been playing some other team. So remember when I said that I don’t specifically follow anyone, I guess this was a small deviation from that. I’m a big fan of Tommy Robredo. He’s my favorite of all the Spanish players, including Rafa. It’s definitely a non-majority opinion, but I just find something really adorable about him. So, I embedded myself deep in the Spanish camp, right behind Tommy’s coach, Milene Rigue, and next to Marcos Rollan. Marcos appears to be the stats guy. He spent the whole match pouring over a draw sheet and listening to his radio, filling in all the scores, etc. He also seemed to be keeping track of how many players each country had remaining and a few other odds and ends. I can neither confirm nor deny whether Milene is Tommy’s girlfriend. Her badge said Player Guest: Tommy Robredo. I’ve since done some digging in an effort to bring you guys the most accurate information I can. It appears Milene is a Brazilian model. I couldn’t find anything to connect her to Tommy. I’ve given you the name, so you guys can do the extra stalking if you wish.

Anyway, it was a good idea for me to chill out with the Spaniards because I was definitely the only other person in the stands cheering for Tommy and Marcel. It was a very pro-American crowd. However, Robredo/Granollers won comfortably in two. A lot of people were confused, forgetting that the doubles is best of three with the super breaker instead of best of five.

So I had successfully cheered Tommy to the win and walked off towards the Grandstand in hopes of getting a seat before Melzer/Ferrero. I walked past Melanie Oudin practicing for her mixed doubles match. I took a few photos so I had some, but then kept going.

So, while I was in my happy Tommy bubble, Mardy Fish was battling it out on Louis Armstrong with Arnaud Clement, in what would be a five set match. Armstrong was actually full to capacity and they stopped letting people in so the Grandstand was extra busy. I waited in line for about 20 minutes and was hoping for a good seat. I couldn’t find anything in the first couple of rows, so I decided to be a little crafty. For those of you who don’t know, the Grandstand and Louis Armstrong Stadium are connected. Just walk around the left side of the Grandstand and you’re in Armstrong. The very bottom section of Armstrong is reserved for ticket holders, but the rest is first come first serve for grounds pass admission. I got extremely lucky and found a single seat in the front row of the non-reserved section for the fifth set of Fish/Clement. Fifth sets are always exciting and an American in a fifth set always provides some great crowd involvement. Fish finally put it away. In his on court interview, Mary Jo asked him about that night’s match between Djokovic and Blake. Fish responded that while Novak was a “friend,” James was a “best friend” and he would be cheering a little harder for James to win, providing us with a sickeningly sweet ending to the match. Unfortunately, Nole would go on to decimate poor James and proceed to take out Fish in the 4^th round. I took over 300 photos this weekend and have no idea how I ended up with so many pics of Mardy Fish. If you check out photobucket, I look like a total stalker, but have no explanation. I think I was just so excited to score such a good seat.

By the time Armstrong was emptying out, it was already about 6:15pm and the Grandstand was pretty much full. I decided to take some more shopping time to see if I couldn’t reach the $150 mark before the night session started. I honestly believe half of the reason I was drawn to tennis was the adorable outfits, so I headed over to the Nike store and bought myself one of Masha’s practice skirts. I would’ve splurged on a dress, but I would look absolutely ridiculous playing tennis as poorly as I do in Masha’s purple night outfit. As not to completely monopolize your time, I am going to split this up and post my night time experience separately.

Overall, a very positive experience on Saturday of Labor Day weekend. The site was busy, but not unbearable. I got to see a lot of tennis and some practices up close and personal which is pretty much what I love about smaller tournaments, so getting to do it at the US Open was even better. For anyone considering a trip to the USO next year, I would recommend attending during the first week and buying grounds passes. They don’t kick you out at 6pm so you can continue to watch any of the matches that are running late on the outer courts and if you want you can watch the Ashe matches on the big screen. The grounds passes are cheaper and a much better value than any of the seats in Ashe. However, if you’ve never gone to a night session, I would suggest doing it once just for the atmosphere. If you can, splurge a little and get a reasonably good seat. Sitting in the rafters just isn’t worth it unless you get them for free, or $25 like I did.

Finally, if you'd like to see all 300 of my pictures from this weekend, they are available at http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae146/lubinskya/US%20Open%202010/

A Weekend of Tweets

I know a lot of people still don't like to use twitter. I was very reluctant to join, but it's become an excellent source of information about tennis players. I've got some followers now, but not nearly as many as read A Change of Ends. I think some of my observations from this weekend are amusing, so the following post is simply an exact recap of what I posted on twitter this weekend, so please don't pay attention to some of the misspellings, etc. Twitter isn't exactly conducive to proper grammar.

Is anyone watching Rafa do the draw? He is so fidgety! 5:27 PM Aug 6th via web
Very limited internet. Here are some fun facts from today. 6:50 PM Aug 7th via web

Rafa and Nole did practice together this morning. It was a mob scene. Sadly, I deided to stay away from the madness. 6:50 PM Aug 7th via web

Fed practiced on a court that is very difficult for spectators to see. It was still mobbed. He snuck out the back entrance at the end. 1,281,217,899,000.00 via web

FYI, Federer practiced with Robin Soderling. 1,281,217,916,000.00 via web

Spent a full hour watching sam Querrey practiced. He seems like a really nice guy. Fun fact: he hit the gym this morning with his trainer at around 10:30. 1,281,217,981,000.00 via web

I'm in love with Tommy Robredo. He's adorable. 1,281,217,997,000.00 via web

Just saw Gulbis and Davydenko chatting in the lobby before going their separate ways. 1,281,218,027,000.00 via web

I consistently end up in the evelator alone with Julien Benneteau and never actually say anything to him. I wonder if he'll start to notice. 1,281,218,067,000.00 via web

just saw Stan and Peter Lundgren jovially walking through the lobby. Those guys look happy! 1,281,219,141,000.00 via web

Stan and I are now work out buddies. He just doesn't know it. Looks like he and Peter are getting along great. Lots of laughing. 1,281,228,582,000.00 via web

Michael Llodra cleans up nice. Just saw him on his way to dinner. 1,281,228,598,000.00 via web

Feliciano Lopez is here, just saw him checking into the hotel. Had an urge to follow the bellhop up to his room, but resisted. 1,281,228,647,000.00 via web

Monfils is out with his crew. Looks like he could take some fashion advice from Llodra. 1,281,229,201,000.00 via web

Tomorrow's Legg Mason final will feature Baghdatis and Nalbandian. My money's on Nalbanian. He's been on fire this week. 1,281,229,399,000.00 via web

Robin Soderling just looked at me funny. Weird, cause I wasn't even staring at him or anything. 1,281,229,785,000.00 via web

Soderling is in the lobby with finace, Jenni, and Robert Lindstedt, the Swedish doubles player. 1,281,229,837,000.00 via web

Victor Hanescu looks kind of surly, but quite tall in person. 1,281,230,343,000.00 via web

Davydenko just walked by with a woman I assume is his wife. She was wearing a very sparkly shirt with Bugs Bunny on it. 1,281,230,503,000.00 via web

Richard Gasquet and coach just came back. I shared an elevator with them earlier today. 1,281,230,604,000.00 via web

Alright, I've got to go get some dinner myself, but I'll try get some juicy updates later. 1,281,230,745,000.00 via web

@MTFadout I'll do my best to find Ernie tomrorow. So far, I've only seen him off site, I'll try to hit up a practice tomorrow. 1,281,239,321,000.00 via web in reply to MTFadout

some incredibly androdgenous tennis player i don't recognize with the skinniest gf i've ever seen just walked in. No idea who it could be. 1,281,240,749,000.00 via web

Breakfast time in toronto! 1,281,278,047,000.00 via web

Saw Ernie sitting alone in the lobby waiting for transport. Didn't stop to bother him though.. It looked like he had a rough night. 1,281,278,082,000.00 via web

Mr androgenous was at breakfast this morning with twiggy, but I still have no idea who he is. 1,281,278,114,000.00 via web

Almost didn't notice Gilles. He seems to be breakfasting with mom and dad. How cute! Coach and son are also here. Man, that kid is lucky! 1,281,278,157,000.00 via web

Gael and Gilles had a nice catch up when they saw each other. 1,281,278,185,000.00 via web

Feli was eating alone for a while, but was eventually joined by some guy. Where was Ferenando? I thought they were inseperable. 1,281,278,244,000.00 via web

Fun Fact: Feli wears a Yankee's baseball cap with his initials embroidered in the side. 1,281,278,291,000.00 via web

Mrs Davydenko was wearing the same flashy Bugs Bunny shirt to breakfast, but no sighting of hubby. 1,281,278,355,000.00 via web

I think I used to underestimate the attractiveness of Gilles Simon. He is adorable. I love that he's here with his parents. 1,281,278,405,000.00 via web

Almost forgot, saw Robin Soderling in the gym this morning cycling. 1,281,278,477,000.00 via web

I think something about me creeps Sod out. I was just walking by the door and all of the sudden he turned around and looked at me. 1,281,278,526,000.00 via web

It's a little rainy today, so hopefully we can get in some tennis. I've got to check out fo the hotel at 12 and my flight's not til 9. 1,281,278,570,000.00 via web

Also, it is Mr. Federer's 29th birthday. So birthday wishes for Roger this morning. 1,281,279,016,000.00 via web

just got a photo with Gilles, taken by the lovely gf of Julien Benneteau. 1,281,281,713,000.00 via web

someone's coach just said hello to me in French. I wonder who it is. 1,281,281,852,000.00 via web

Mystery solved. It was one of Monfils' team. 1,281,282,264,000.00 via web

still trying to figure out who mr. androgenous is. 1,281,282,280,000.00 via web

Also, Julien Benneteau's gf was sitting next to me waiting for her car and he is super pretty. 1,281,282,384,000.00 via web

You know you go to too many of these things when you start to recognize the coaches. 1,281,282,474,000.00 via web

Unfortunately the rain cut my day at the tennis short, as in I didn't see any before I had to leave the site. Oh well, sitting in the lobby. 1,281,299,748,000.00 via web

Nikolay is right in front of me with his ipad about 24 hours ago via web

what's up with WAGS and Bugs Bunny? Andrey Golubev's gf was only wearing a Bugs Bunny t-shirt, allbeit less flashy. about 24 hours ago via web

*** This should have read "Andrey Golubev's gf was ALSO wearing a Bugs Bunny t-shirt." Let me be clear, she was also wearing pants.

@RagingBitch You solved my mystery. It was indeed Dolgopolov. about 24 hours ago via web in reply to RagingBitch

Querrey's coach is all over the place. Looks like he's on his way to the gym. about 23 hours ago via web

hoping for some fun sightings before I have to leave for the airport. about 23 hours ago via web

Forgot to mention earlier. A player was actually squeegeeing his own court. Just as it was looking pretty good, it rained again. about 23 hours ago via web

If they let me watch up close, I would've helped squeegee. about 23 hours ago via web

Gonzo is in the house. Very blue tape of his calf. about 23 hours ago via web

now it's super sunny. I hate you toronto. Why couldn't you have been sunny this morning? about 23 hours ago via web

the WAGS are almost as easy to spot as the players. They're all tall, thin, and gorgeous. Well, not all, but most. about 23 hours ago via web

The lobby in the hotel is very dark. It both hurts my eyes and makes me feel creepier than usual. about 23 hours ago via web

A Spectator's Dream

Like I mentioned in my introductory post, I'm living in London for the next several months. The invention of low cost airlines and the almost ridiculous security check I had to endure before starting my job afforded me the opportunity to visit the ABN AMRO ATP 500 event in Rotterdam a couple of weeks ago. I've been very busy for the last few weeks and haven't had much time to write about my experience there. Since it's already been so long, I'm sure you could all look up the fact that Robin Soderling won the tournament and any other relevant details that interest you. However, I would still like to share some of my observations.

First of all, I've never been to one of the small ATP tournaments and I could not have been more excited. I traveled to Rotterdam on my own after visiting a friend in Amsterdam for a day or two and checked into my hotel. The players all stay at the Manhattan Hotel in Rotterdam, the only 5 star hotel in the city. If you want the full experience, it would probably be great fun to stay there, but by the time I booked, it was already full and I'm fairly certain it was out of my price range anyway. I stayed at the Golden Tulip Inn, which was absolutely fantastic and more reasonably priced. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting this tournament as it is a very convenient commute to the venue.

When I arrived, I decided to settle in and get the layout of the city instead of going to the day session on Wednesday. Instead, I decided to try out the Wednesday night session and the Thursday day session. I could not find very good tickets online and decided to try my luck at the box office. I highly recommend this strategy. The tickets online never seem to be as good as the tickets you get the day before the event at the box office. The best available tickets for the night session were not very good (because I arrived approximately two hours before the matches started), but I got one of the best seats in the house (excluding VIPs) for the day session.

If you ever plan on going to a smaller tournament, be sure to check the schedule of play. For instance, there are only two matches in the night session at Rotterdam. This means that your seat assignment for main court is very important. However, during the day session, there are usually matches going on on Centre Court and Court 1, sometimes even Court 2. There is no assigned seating on Court 1 and I found that almost no one bothered to watch the matches on that court. This meant that I consistently got to sit in the front row directly behind the players. At this point, it barely mattered to me who was playing, I was getting to see incredible tennis from less than 10 feet away. I even decided to forgo my awesome Centre Court seat for the Monfils match to watch Benneteau/Berrer match on Court 1. I even noticed Florian Mayer sitting in the stands and taking in the match on his off day. I felt bad squandering such a great seat, so I did head over to Centre Court to watch the Youzhny/Ilhan match, some of the Djokovic/Chiudinelli match, and the Robredo/Lopez vs Nestor/Zimonjic doubles match.

All the matches were great to watch, but by far the best part of this tournament was the opportunity for interacting with the players. You may not be as excited about meeting the players as I am, but I had a fantastic time wandering around seeing who I would run into. Immediately upon entering the tennis facility on Wednesday night, I decided to explore a little. I eventually happened upon Court 2, which happens to be the practice court that most of the players use. As I walked right up to the edge of the court, probably only 5 feet from the player, I realized that I was one of maybe 6 people watching Tommy Robredo prepare for his match. It was truly incredible how few people bothered to come watch the players practice. I honestly preferred it to match play because I was able to get so close to the action and I got to see a lot more of the players' personalities because they were much less serious than they would have been during an actual match.

Note to potential attendees: Take a look at the draw before the tournament and look at pictures of players. I'm familiar with most of the players in the top 100, but many of the players look different in person. Since you can't identify who might be famous based on the amount of people crowding around them, it might be a good idea to take a look at some of the players' photos if you want to be able to recognize them. Unlike at major tournaments, most of the players are not surrounded by large groups of fans and they generally don't ask security to escort them anywhere. The only exceptions to the large crowd rule that I found in Rotterdam were Djokovic and Davydenko and even then, a 'large crowd' meant about 20 people. I'm not very pushy and didn't want to intrude on any of the players' practice time, so if I can get autographs, anyone can. If you want pictures with the players, you may have to be a little more forward and you're definitely going to need a friend who's prepared to take them.

Now that I've rattled through all of my tips, I'd just like to share some of my favorite parts of my visit.

• Watching Michael Llodra/Andy Ram practice for their doubles match - I've never been a huge fan of Michael Llodra before and I barely knew who Andy Ram was (I had to look up who Llodra's partner was for the doubles to figure out who I was watching), but I had a surprisingly good time watching this particular practice. Of all the players I watched, Llodra and Ram definitely had the most personality and I was getting a bit of a private show since I was actually the only person watching. They joked around a lot and Llodra even broke out into song a couple of times. At the end of the practice, they walked off the court to about where I was standing and it was super easy to walk up and say hello, and get an autograph. They weren't in a hurry and seemed happy to stop for a second.
• Robin Soderling eventually went on to win the tournament, but I stopped by one of his mid-week practices just as it was ending and managed to get an autograph. After reading all of the tennis gossip, I expected Soderling to be a little surly and unsocial, but he was perfectly happy to stop and take pictures with fans. He was a bit quiet, but didn't seem at all unfriendly.
• Apparently Monfils prefers to play soccer as a warm-up to actually playing tennis. He spent at least 50% of his practice time playing soccer with 3 members of his entourage. He's another fun player to watch and fairly interactive with the crowd. At some point he went behind the netting on the outside of the court, picked up a ball and hit it right at me. I think there may have been some laughing when I couldn't catch it and let it roll away. I'd like to assume he was trying to give me a souvenir, not hit me in the face. However he would not sign any autographs or take any pictures after practice and asked security to escort him back to the players' area. I think this might have been due to the timing of his match though, so I won't count him out as unfriendly yet.
• Tommy Robredo somehow seemed to be everywhere, and his practice with doubles partner Feliciano Lopez was particularly nice to watch. They're both good singles players and they had a fun routine. Robredo would intensely run around the court, stretch out, and hit with his coach, while Lopez spent at least 10 or 15 minutes sitting on the sidelines on his mobile. Robredo managed to hit all of the balls outside of the practice court and most of them landed right in front of my feet. I picked them up and brought them back over to hand to his coach on the sideline, but he came over to the net to collect them and say thank you.
• I would also like to mention that there are about 20 rows of VIP seats surrounding Centre Court, most of which are empty. I would particularly like to find out what I would have to do to get one of these seats. They also come with access to the VIP areas of the grounds, which compromise about half of the complex.
• As a final observation, I would just like to mention the odd displays. There were big chickens playing tennis and all kinds of apparel shops (but oddly no real tournament merchandise) as well as tennis fashion shows. All this made sense, or at least had to do with tennis. However, there were also booths for airlines, jewelry, furniture, handbags, and meat. Yes, a meat stand. Not like a concession, just a stand that sold meat you could cook at home.

I hope you all take away something interesting. I know it's a long post, but I just wanted to share some of my favorite moments and observations. While most of you probably won't visit the ABN AMRO Tournament, there are plenty of ATP 250, 500, and 1000 level tournaments around the world which all offer a much more intimate experience than a Grand Slam. Hopefully I'll be visiting several more during my stay here.

**If you're interested in seeing more photos, follow this link...

http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae146/lubinskya/