Hi everyone,
before I start on my little story about the tournament in Madrid, I should give you a little insider about my relation to the one or other player on tour. Otherwise you might wonder why my tennis-story didn't end on friday morning, when Daniel and Nenad unfortunately lost in a close match tiebreak against Marius Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski. I've been visiting the tennis event in Hamburg since 1989, a long time actually, but things became different in 1995 and that is where our story starts.
It was in may 1995 when I first saw Mark Knowles play in one of the qualifying singles rounds in hamburg, not knowing who he was or that he was a great doubles player allready at this time. We got into a talk after the match, posed for a photo and that was it, until one year later - same time, same place - we recognized each other and said "hello". And so - a few days later - he finally intoduced us to his doubles partner at this time: Daniel Nestor. From that year on, we saw each other regulary every year in may, got to know each other a little better and even started to give the guys some visits at the one or other event, until last year things changed a little and new partner for Daniel and Mark came along.
But even though Daniel and Mark ended their partnership, for me nothing has really changed since than except the fact, that my former partner-website became Daniels official home and that it seems that we found another friend in Nenad, who was introduced to us last november. But in my heart I have always had two teams from this point on, so keeping that in mind you might understand why this one week in Madrid was nevertheless a great one for me...
tuesday
everybody's talking about it... I've seen it!
I had arrived the night before, taking an adventures flight out of hamburg via Lyon (where I changed flights in not more than 10 minutes) to Madrid and finally arrived in my hostel on the 4th floor of a central building, where I was greeted by an older gentlemen who didn't speak anything but spanish. Lucky for me that I had had some spanish lessons in school - years back - and were therefore able to follow his explanations about the hostels key-system. So with at least some hours of sleep I got up this morning and - still fascinated about my spanish vocabulary - ordered my first breakfast in spanish around the next block.
Then I finally took the metro down to the courts, aware of the fact that neither Daniel nor Mark would play today due to their bye in the first round. But I wanted to get an first impression of the tennis sight where I would hopefully spent my next days. So I got myself in (this time in english, so I would be sure I got what I ordered) and entered the hall with the practise courts just as Daniel and Nenad came round for a practise session. So I settled down at the court, when five minutes later Mahesh Bhupathi and shortly after Mark arrived at the scene. It couldn't get any better for me, because now I had them all at once on one court and it seemed that everyone was happy to see me, waving and giving me big smiles.:)
Anyhow, it was great to see the guys on one court together again, joking around (a highlight was definatly Daniels imitation of a Bhupathi-serve) a little before starting a serious warm up followed by a short match. Everyone has been talking about this "showdown between Knowles and Nestor" during the last month and here I was seeing it live, even though it wasn't that "serious match" everyone was waiting for. Even though I had seen Daniel and Mark playing together for ages it wasn't funny to watch at all. It just looked normal to see them playing on opposite sides of the net now. So I enjoyed the little match, said "hi" to everyone and this was were the next days story started, since Daniel offered to organize a ticket for me for his next days match.
Since the tickets for the next day were allready sold out, this was my guarantee to some great tennis action, so I walked on to watch some more doubles action of one of the side courts before finally returning home and getting some extra sleep before the next day.
wednesday
"I guess I'm going to kill someone..."
"...and that one is definatly spanish!" - The Order of Play looked great for today. First Mark was to play against Nadal and Moya and later on, after Lopez had finished his singles match, Daniel and Nenad were supposed to play against Lopez and Verdasco. I had allready feared that both matches might get scheduled around the same time but I was lucky and so I went off to the courts in a great mood. And it stayed great, until shortly before Marks double started we got informed that Nadal pulled out of the doubles competition due to some kind of injury, so he could have another day of rest before his singles match the next day. Which meant, that we had a classical walk over and no tennis action from Mark for today. I still think it is interesting that singles players often pull out of a doubles competition due to an injury but are able to compete in a tought singles match one day later. It's not that I want to say I don't think they're hurt, but it always makes me feel like these guys aren't taking the doubles seriously. So Nadal was close this day to beeing the first one I got mad at this afternoon and there was nothing left for me than keep waiting for Lopez to finally finish his singles match and get Daniel on the court.
While heading to Marks match down to the other court, I had left Daniel and Nenad to their practise which they had been starting about half an hour before. So now I returned to have a look at their last services before they were also off from the courts. But before Daniel could leave, I asked him to come over behind the security banches they put up everywere, so I could have at least a short chat getting some fan-photos signed and exchanging some news. But as we talked for about five minutes, no one had guessed that it would take us another few hours before Daniel and Nenad finally entered the court.
Fernando Lopez had to play his match not before 4 p.m. on Ceter Court, while his (and Daniels) double was set to be the 4th one on Pista Cibeles after a suitable rest of course. But since the other singles matches on Center Court took their time, it happened that even at 5 p.m. the singles match hadn't started yet. So the doubles were getting behind in schedule which was ok for me since my day-session ticket - which I got from Daniel - was valid for the whole day on Pista Cibeles, while Center Court and Pista Alcala were switchimg to night-session around 8.00 p.m.. But luck wasn't with me this day. When finally around 9.00 p.m. and a whole lot of waiting later, the doubles was set to be played, the organization had decided to move the match to the bigger Court Alcala. Great idea! 'cause despite all my explanations the security wasn't willing to let me in now with my day-session ticket. So what do you do in such a situation? Buy a night-session ticket? Not possible, 'cause the tournament was sold out. Just go home and forget about it? I hadn't waited for hours just to accept that all of a sudden I shouldn't see the match. And anyhow: I was invited!
So I walked over to the ticket counter were I got my ticket this morning and tried to explain the situation. But all response I got was that they said they weren't able to help me. And at this point I had enough! I was really about to kill someone...anyone... So I intended once again, that they call the responsible in the head office and explain my situation. And believe it or not, all they said was that he will tell me the same. So I made a scene until they called him (and believe me I normally prefer to discuss things with people in a calm way, so I was a little bit surprised about myself afterwards). I actually couldn't believe it when a few minutes later I was asked to wait for another few minutes because the responsible guys from the ticketcounter were thinking about a solution. "Hey", I thought, "We could have had that earlier...". It seems that it sometimes really pays off to be a little stubborn. Another 10 minutes later the head of the ticket department stood in front of me, appologized for not taking problems like mine in consideration while giving out the tickets this morning and all of a sudden I was guided - without a valid ticket - personally through a lot of VIP entrances and exits to the court where the match was just about to start. What an evening...
In the end Daniel and Nenad "killed" the spaniards for me, winning their match 7:6 6:4. So I was looking forward to some more tennis action this week.
thursday
taking a day off
For thursday neither Daniel nor Mark were set to play, so I ddecided to take my day off from tennis as well and have a look on the beautiful sights of Madrid. I had been to the city before and fairly knew my way around, but it's always great again to have a look at all the fountains, parks and famous buildings. Especially if the sky is clear blue and the temperatures are much higher than back in germany where the fall had allready set in and the temperature is dropping from day to day.
So I walked from my little hostel down the Gran Via to the famous Fuente de la Cibeles (see picture) and further down the Paseo del Prado to Atocha Station, where you can find a botanic garden inside the halls. From there I went on by metro to the Plaza de Torros, where the bullfighting arena is located (even though I don't see the point in killing bulls for entertainment), on to the university district with the teletower (which was closed due to rennovation) and back to the city center were the palace and various famous squares are situated.
So at the end of the day I had about 250 pictures taken and was ready to concentrate on the little yellow balls again...
friday
one OUT one IN
The friday didn't start too well. This time, there wasn't a ticket problem after all. First because Daniel and Nenad were to play the first match on Center Court and there was therefore no additional waiting required and second because my scene two days before had set the ladys in alert and as I entered the lobby and was spotted, my ticket envelope was allready put aside on an extra pile. So as I had provided the three ladys with some sweets as an excuse for my behaviour on that wednesday, I walked straight to Center Court to find my seat and prepare myself for the upcoming tennis action.
The match was an up and down of emotions. Daniel and Nenad weren't really playing bad against the duo of Marius Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, but I've seen especially Nenad serve better and the guys seemed to have serious problems to handle Matkowskis serve while returning. So it was hard seeing them loose the first set 6:3, but my mood got much better when in the second set, the two were able to break Marius Fyrstenbergs serve to get into a lead and finally equal the score again by winning the second set 6:3 themselves. So the match went into a match-tiebreak and there it got close again, going back and force again between the teams. Daniel and Nenad were now on fire especially when they got a matchball at the score of 9-8, which they unfortunatly weren't able to use. And than it happend: All of a sudden Fyrstenberg and Matkowski were in a 10-9 lead on their own serve facing matchpoint themselve and... winning it. So the first team was out. I would have loved to see Daniel and Nenad advance at least to the semis, especially since the Bryans lost their match that evening as well against Bjoerkman and Ullyet, but things couldn't be changed and so I moved on to Pista Alcala to watch the second doubles quaterfinal where the spanish qualifiers Andújar and Granollers were to face Coetzee and Moodie, before I finally got to see my second doubles team of Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi play against Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle.
The spanish qualifier team played quiet well and even though they finally lost 7:6 6:3, the match was interesting to watch. At least for me who preferred a doubles match to the singles match Murray vs. Monfils which was played at this time on Center Court. There was at least a little crowd on the court but as the second quaterfinal had ended and Roger Federer was supposed to play next on Center Court, the hall became quiet empty. At the time where Mark and Mahesh entered the scene, there were not more than 10 specators in the hall who were giving their applause to the players nevertheless. Mark made a point by thanking everyone for their warm welcome not without a big smile on his face. So even though this seemed to become a kind of private tennis show, he seemed to be in a great mood today. His smile actually lighted up my bad mood from the morning and so I was looking forward to the following minutes, just hoping that this wouldn't be my last day on the tennis courts in Madrid.
But my fears were without reason. Mark and Mahesh played like out of their minds. Mahesh was playing beautiful angles and Mark was an absolut solid number on the net as well. It was actually a highlight to watch the two guys and as the match went on I lost any kind of doubt that the two would move on to the semis. And so they did with a 6:3 7:5, which I hadn't been expected like this. And so as the day concluded I had one team still IN but one team unfortunately OUT...
As I allready mentioned before, I also stayed for the last doubles quaterfinal that day featuring Bob and Mike Bryan vs. Jonas Bjoerkman and Kevin Ullyett. I had expected a close match between the two top teams, but to my surprise were the Bryan twins playing nothing more than average tennis while their opponents were at the top of the game. No close number at all and so Bjoerkman and Ullyett finally won 6:4 6:4, while I got once in a while distracted by a scene across the court, where Wesley Moodie and Simon Aspelin had settled down to watch the match but didn't remain undiscovered and had to pose for several photo shootings with ballkids, security and fans.
The next days program by the way gave out the Bryan twins as the winners. It actually seemed to me that they did some kind of guessing game while printing it, because one day before they allready chose Arnold/Nalbandian as winners over Aspelin/Knowle which appaently turned out to be wrong... But since this was doubles, probably no one besides me registered it...;)
saturday
Tennis and Art
So due to the happenings yesterday, Mark had from now on my full attention. But since the first semifinal match wasn't set before 3 p.m., I decided to visit one of Madrids several art museums this morning. I've seen the two most famous art museums in Madrid the years before, so I decided this time against the famous Prado and the "Reina Sofia" - the museum of modern art - and had a look at the collection of the Thyssen Foundation. The luck wasn't somehow with me this year regarding my museum-plans. After one of my favored museums was closed due to reconstruction works, the Thyssen collection had borought half of the interesting artworks to other collections so that I was left with some photographs from what I had been supposed to see here. The nearly whole collection of van Gogh was missing, which was o.k. since my absolutly favorite epoch is the cubism. But as I had to find out even one of two famous drawings from my favorite artist Wassily Kandinsky was distributed to another exhibition and also the famous blue horses of Franz Marc were missing.:(
Anyhow, I nevertheless got to see some great artwork before getting myself some lunch and heading down to the courts for the first doubles semifinal. So were I initially had to see Daniel and Nenad, I was now watching the polish duo again, this time playing Coetzee and Moodie who had won against the spanish qualifiers yesterday. Due to Nadal playing on Center Court the Pista Alcala was once again almost empty, except for a few kids which were nevertheless reason enough for some trouble with Marcin Matkowski. The match was tought and Marcin had smashed an overhead right into the net, which caused the kids to applause loudly much to Marcins dislike as you could imagine. Being not too happy about the close match and some decisions before, he couldn't help it but walked up to the kid and screamed at him to shut up. I could truly understand him since it was obvious that these guys weren't really interested in the match but thought it would be fun to cheer loudly for whoever in an nearly empty hall. Nevertheless, the empire had reason enough to give a warning and so the atmosphere got kind of heated up. At the end the polish duo made it once again, winning this time 7:5 7:6. So now I had to wait for Nadal and Simon to end their semifinal match on Center Court in order to settle myself for the second doubles semis.
When I had my first look on the screen, Nadal had won the first set and was struggeling in the second. The match was actually going back and force with thousands of deuces in between and after watching the screen for a while I finally decided to have another look around. So I spent about half an hour having a look at the sponsorstalls, before returning to the screen for an update. They were still in the second set, the score was still going back and force... Simon had set-point, Nadal had match-point, Simon had set-point again. Nadal made a break and looked like finally winning, Simon made the rebreak, breaking Nadal thereafter. It was weird and I got hungry, but didn't want to grab something to eat since I feared that just in that moment Nadal would maybe win and my match was called. But after what seemed to be an eternity, Simon finally won the second set which left me the option to have some dinner before my doubles match started.
I grabbed myself a chicken dish with some vegetables and rice and placed myself on a table in the nearly empty sponsor-hall in front of a huge screen which showed the action on Center Court. The battle between the guys was still going back and force. And as I was eating, I came to realize that this would be going to be a long night. While I was finishing my whole dish of chicken and rice, the guys on Center hadn't finished more than one game! I was actually blaming myself at this point for not bringing my Sudokus along... But nevertheless I did what I had to do. Watching the screen, going to the bathroom a couple of times in between and wait, wait, wait. Until finally... Simon somehow managed to win that one. The fair spanish crowd gave a big applause and finally I was able to place myself on the designated seat on my ticket.
It was nearly 9 p.m. by now, as Mark Knowles, Mahesh Bhupathi, Jonas Bjoerkman and Kevin Ullyett finally were introduced and entered the Center Court. I was briefly greeted by Marks team, who decided to finally seat themselves on the other half of the court after Mahesh had requested them to do so and so I finally enjoyed a nice evening match in which Mark and Mahesh showed the same great skills as the day before. I was sure that in this condition, my team would win the title. But first they had to eliminate the no. 5 seeds and Wimbledon RunnerUp, which they did with an amazing 6:2 6:4. So now I had to see them for a third time in just a couple of days. Marius Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, the polish duo which had allready taken out the first of my two teams. But this time I was sure, that I would get my revenge...
sunday
a polish nightmare
...and I was proofed wrong. When I returned to the courts on sunday, everything had changed. But before I headed for the last time down to the courts I took the metro over to "El Rastro" a famous market which takes place every sunday and where I found some souvenirs for me to take home. Unfortunately this would be my last day in the spanish capital and so I tried to enjoy a last glimpse of spanish street life.
Around 12:30 it was time to leave for the final. When I arrived around 12:45, the gates weren't even open yet. I was kind of surprised since I'm used to at least 1 hour time to get the crowd in on the courts. That was when the guy next to me started a conversation and figured out soon that my spanish was not really fluent, not to say nearly not excisting.;) To my surprise he asked if I'd talk german and so we got into a little chat about the upcoming matches. But finally back in the entrance hall I had to change to english again and while picking up the ticket, the ladys which I got into some trouble on wednesday (you probably remember...) were coming over to say goodbye and to wish me a pleasant trip back home. So maybe the sweets had convinced them...;)
So I set back on the same chair I had allready occupied the night before, looking forward to the upcoming final when all of a sudden a guy from the box beside me adressed me in english and asked wether the doubles final would be a best of three or a best of five match. So I explained to him that they would be playing best of three, but that a deciding set would be substituted by a match tiebreak counted to ten, which got the poor guy a little bit confused. He was apparently not watching doubles too often.:)
The match didn't start too well. Mark and Mahesh had a slow start and there didn't seem to be too much of the power left which I'd seen the days before. Mahesh was hardly holding serve and it was only a matter of time before he got the first break from the polish duo. In the end the guys had lost the the first set 6:4 and I started to realize that this tournamet could turn out to be a total polish nightmare after all.
But you should never give up hope, easier said than done... Especially when your team is loosing serve again right at the beginning of the second set. So I could do nothing but watch as Mark and Mahesh lost also the second 6:2 and therefore the match.
Anyhow, it was a great tournament and when Marius Fyrstenberg started his apprentiance speech to everyones surprise in spanish even the runner ups seemed to have fun, figuring together with Marcin Matkowski what strange things his partner might be saying at this moment.:) The crowd seemed to like his words and after the trophys were finally presented, press pictures were taken and the players left the court, I started my way out as well, having a final look at Madrids little sculpture park and finally finishing my day and my whole week in Spain with another walk through Madrids nightlife, having a last "pequeno Cafe Latte" at my favorite coffee bar around the corner before I was going to catch my early flight tomorrow, which would bring me savely back home to hamburg.
P.S.: This was actually the last year in which the Madrid tournament was played at this side and at this time of year. For 2009 the tournament took over the hamburg event in may, which I had been to for 20 years in a row now. It actually hurt me when I walked down to the courts in Madrid for the first time and there was this huge poster hanging with the slogan "Only the best survive - 2009 everything changes"! Hamburg was a great tournament and nobody knows how it will be when next year it is banned as a claycourt tournament to july were everybody is playing hardcourt allready. Madrid was nice and I felt appreciated, but guys... you could have abandoned that one!
To my two teams I would like to say "Thanks again for everything!" You were sweet as usual. :)
So see you soon
Yours Betty
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