RG 2003

[Ilhame]

This year I went to RG for the first time and here's my adventure

Yesterday I went to RG for the Benny Berthet Day . It’s a day for charity were you have access to all courts and get to see everyone practice or play short matches. On several courts there were some matches scheduled (whoever wins 9 games wins the match).
I arrived at the stadium at 10.15 a.m. It was the first time I went to RG so I was a bit amazed by how big it all was:red:. I didn’t have to stand in line at all, which was nice. I went to Centre Court first where I sat down for a few seconds in a box with a good view. Kim Clijsters was practising with Jennifer Capriati. They have such a beautiful suntan! I’m jealous. They played a few points and I saw some of Kim’s sliding. She really is very athletic. Jennifer’s father was there with them on the court and so was Kim’s coach. I didn’t stay around for too long cause there was still a lot to see;). When I walked out of the stadium, I saw Lleyton’s mother and coach sitting there in the stands too.
On other practice courts I saw Andre Agassi practising with his coach and on the court next court Michael Chang was training, but I don’t remember who he was with.
I continued to see what the place looks like and I bumped into Richard Gasquet . He’s really cute for a sixteen year old! I asked him to take a picture with me. I gave my camera to his coach and stood next to him. His coach first held the camera the other way around and almost took a picture of himself instead of of Richard and me . His coach told him that he could get closer to me and that’s when he put his arm around my waist! I wanted to stay nice and don’t get all over him, but when he put his arm around my waist I put my arm around his !
I went further till the Suzanne Lenglen Court and that’s were I saw Martin Verkerk and Raemon Sluiter who were just going out to practice together. I said “Hi” to them in Dutch and asked them for a picture. Raemon’s coach took a picture of the three of us.
I then met up with some girls (fellow Marat fans) and we went off to Court 10 to see Dinara practice. She was there with her mother and was hitting with Lina Krasnoroutskaya. Her coach was there too and there were two other Russian girls also practising on the same court. They all had a good session, but I saw Dinara grabbing her right arm several times. First I saw her looking at her wrist a few times, but afterwards also the elbow. I hope she was just a bit stiff or something and that it wasn’t really serious. I didn’t stay till the end of this practice session cause I heard Younes and Hicham were on other courts. By the time I left Court 10 Daja Bedanova came to practice. I kept seeing her all the time yesterday. She had at least two practice sessions and she played an exhibition match.
I went off to see Younes and Hicham, but Hicham was already gone. Younes was there with Ferreira. I saw a Moroccan tv crew next to me and they showed me the list of all the practice sessions. I was looking for JC’s practice session, but it wasn’t on there . I went with them for a second to see Younes and I took a picture with him too:). I didn’t even notice Lindsay Davenport was on the court next to him. I just saw her walking by and being followed by tons of people. When I walked further I also saw Lleyton just walking off with all his guards around him. He was being followed by a lot of kids. Then I saw Anastasia Myskina with her coach. I asked him to take a picture of us. She looks really nice and shy.
While I was checking all these courts, on centre court Amélie Mauresmo played a match against Déchy, Andre Agassi played Sargsian (I think) and Michael Chang played Alex Kim (I think that was his name). I didn’t find these matches interesting enough. I also missed Monica on Suzanne Langlen, but I saw her practising later on.
Yevgeny practised with Olivier Rochus. He didn’t look entirely happy with his game, he also missed a couple of dropshots. They got a good session though and I saw some nice rallies. I heard Olivier asking Yevgeny if he had any news on Marat, but he didn’t. Olivier practised with Christophe later that day.
Other players I saw practising were: the Argentineans (together), Santoro with Björkman (if I remember correctly), Federer with Heuberger (if I remember correctly), Costa and Corretja (on courts next to each other), Dementieva, Hantuchova, Ancic, Schalken (at night), Dropshot Dragon (he was with Costa during his second practice), Moya and Blake (together), Paradorn, Tim, Todd, Babsi and Suarez (they were really enjoying it, they had a good laugh), Escudé, Grosjean, Mary Pierce, Chanda Rubin. I don’t remember the other players at the moment cause I’ve seen so many and this was pretty much all before lunch!
I went to see a few points of Younes’ match against a Spaniard (my memory really sucks) and I saw Jarkko against Ljubicic. Jarkko won 9-4, but I came in just in the end. I then saw a few games of Kratochvil-Lappenti. Rosset played against Benneteau, Voltchkov played against Volandri, Arazi played against Savolt. A match I didn’t go see was Rusedksi-Spadea, which Rusedski lost by the way .
I’ve also seen some players walking by, like Hrbaty, Lipanek, Kucera (who really didn’t get any attention) and I think I saw Cañas (who was there even though he’s injured).
I watched Gasquet-Behrend. Richard lost, but the boy can play! He can serve up to 200km/h and has good groundstrokes. After his match he signed my Tie-Break Magazine .
I saw a couple of points of Guga’s exhibition match and I’ve seen him practice a bit, but there were too many people.
Todd Martin played a match against Sa.
The last match on centre court was the best match and a good end to a great day. Leconte and Nastase played a “legends doubles” against Vilas and Chesnokov. I had a good laugh and saw a great show. It’s the usual stuff they do on those kind of matches, but it’s always entertaining. Nastase had 2 matchpoints, but didn’t convert them and eventually he and Leconte lost in a super tie-break. At 7.45 p.m my day at RG came to an end. Before leaving I took a last quick walk through the park and I saw Ferreira was still practising and so was Andy Roddick. I think Andy only practised that one time.
I didn’t get to see Justine, who had a session at 9 a.m. and I don’t think she practised after that session. I didn’t see the Williams sisters either. I don’t know when and if they had a practice scheduled yesterday. The man I missed the most was JC. I really wanted to see him, but I guess he didn’t practice yesterday. I’m going back next Sunday to watch some doubles matches and the juniors and I assume these players will all still be there and that I get to see them then.
I can’t scan my photos before I go back to Holland in three weeks so you have to be patient to see what I look like and who all the players are that were on the pics.

[Ilhame]

Day two for me, day 7 of the tourney

Yesterday I went to RG again. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so I was happy. I arrived at the stadium around 10 a.m. and there were already lots of people. Luckily I only had to queue for around ten minutes.
The first thing I did when I was there was scooping the practice courts. Yevgeny was practising with Paul Haarhuis cause they were playing the 2nd match on court 2. When I continued to see the other courts it was just the juniors who were out there. Stupid me of course doesn’t know any juniors :red:.
Court 2 was the court with the best matches yesterday. I couldn’t go to the bigger courts (centre, S. Lenglen and court 1 cause they were already sold out ), so I had a ground pass. I went there early to get a good seat cause the first match was Younes El Aynaoui with Tom Vanhoudt against Arthurs and Hanley. When I got there I just saw the end of the practice session of Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra. Llodra is actually really cute!
I watched the first set of Younes’ match which was nice. I’ve seen those monster serves of Arthurs, but despite that he and Hanley lost the first set. There were some Aussies watching so you heard a cheer once and a while. Most people were cheering for Younes though. I’ve actually never watched much doubles, but it’s exciting to watch. There were some nice rallies and some beautiful shots.
After that first set I went to check the practice courts again. This time I saw Carlos practising with his coach and someone else. It was 30°C and Carlos didn’t even take his shirt off during practice . Bad boy! ;D I wanted to see those muscles! On another court I saw Capriati practising with her father and this girl (an African-American who was also with her last week), I guess it’s her steady practice partner. I watched for a few seconds and went back to see Carlos a bit. Agassi was also practising at that time. He was hitting with Darren Cahill.
When Agassi finished his session he was escorted by 4 or 5 bodyguards and didn’t even sign one autograph . Carlos also went out quickly! He took another exit (by the restaurant instead of the players tunnel under S. Langlen). I asked some security guy the hours of practice and I saw Coria would practice at 1 p.m. I decided to wait for that, but at 1.30 p.m. he still wasn’t there so I moved on. While waiting for him I did see Saretta of whom I forgot to take a picture and I actually got an autograph from Jennifer Capriati. I took a pic of Maleeva (I think)) and another one with Richard Gasquet. He was there with his father just to watch the matches. He also signed my order of play.
I then went back to court 2 cause Haarhuis-Kafelnikov v Llodra-Santoro had already started. It was a nice match with some nice rallies. One of the funnier things in doubles matches is that they keep yelling at each other to see whose going to play the shot. All you hear is ”you!”, “you!” Kafelnikov is motivated this year. He was in a good mood on court and played some superb shots. Sometimes he was also a bit mad at himself, but that’s Yevgeny. There were some Russians sitting behind me and they translated some of the swearing Yev did on court. That was some foul language!
After winning the first set in a tie-break they managed to break Santoro in the 2nd. Paul then got broken while serving for the match and eventually they lost the 2nd set. Paul and Yev saved many set points in the tie-break (they really hung in there), but it wasn’t enough.
I left court for a while to go to an autograph session of Jarkko Nieminen. I was just too late, but caught him on the stairs on his way out. I asked for an autograph and a pic with him. He was nice and agreed. I wished him luck for his next match and then he moved along.
After a quick lunch I went back to see Paul and Yev. I was the only one by the way who was cheering for Paul. Every time he played a good shot I was like “kom op Paul”, “goed gedaan Paul”. The people around me gave me some strange looks since I was cheering against their compatriots. The French aren’t the only ones who can be patriotic . Yev and Paul won the 3rd set and Yev gave me an autograph afterwards and so did Llodra.
I went back to scoop the practice courts and saw Coria practising with Costa. Babsi was also practising, but I don’t know who the girls are that were with her.
Other people I saw were: Wilander, McEnroe, Cash and Forget. They all started practising after 5 or 6 p.m., Suarez, Ruano Pascual, Schiavone, Callens. I took some pics of them. While scooping the practice courts I saw Jarkko again. He was just hanging around with some guy and hardly anyone noticed him. You might think he’ll be known by now, but obviously not.
BTW (Hackie) he wore a blue short/pants (came till the knee, actually right under it) a red shirt and slippers. He has a Nokia 8850 (IMO still one of the coolest phones ever).
There was one person I still wanted to see and that was Navratilova. She was scheduled to play the last match on court 2, but that match was moved to centre. I was pissed, but then I found out I could get in there too since a lot of people already left the stadium. I watched a couple of games and moved on. I went to see a friend.
I had another great day and it was a dream come true. Hopefully I can go back there next year.
There is one thing I still wonder and that is WHEN, IF and WHERE JC practises cause he wasn’t there AGAIN. That’s something for next year then .
Again I can’t scan my pics before I get back to Holland in two weeks time.

[Ilhame]

I scanned some of my pics and they can be found here:
groups.yahoo.com/group/rg2003pics/

[RogiFan]

Ilhame, your report may be half a year late, but still appreciated!! Thanks!!

[Ilhame]

Have you never read it when I posted it on the forum and on wtaw in May

[RogiFan]

Ilhame said:

Have you never read it when I posted it on the forum and on wtaw in May

No Ilhame, I don't usually look at wtaw.

[Ilhame]

I posted it on the chat thread here too