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Post by Kiro on Sept 20, 2004 9:32:36 GMT -5
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 20, 2004 9:39:54 GMT -5
Mm! Andres just gets better and better the more I look at him  Hehe. I wonder what Jarkko was reading... May I use some of your pictures for my site?  |
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Post by Kiro on Sept 20, 2004 9:45:15 GMT -5
Mm! Andres just gets better and better the more I look at him  Hehe. I wonder what Jarkko was reading... May I use some of your pictures for my site? Of course you can, Hackie  I was spotting Jarkko for you, in fact ;D ;D |
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 20, 2004 9:48:41 GMT -5
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Post by Partridge In A Pear Tree on Sept 20, 2004 9:58:03 GMT -5
thanks, Kiro.
Nalby looks like he's shaved his legs ala Baldy. they look too smooth. ;D
great pics.
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Post by Lee on Sept 20, 2004 10:10:40 GMT -5
Great pics Kiro! Thanks!  |
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Post by Ilhame on Sept 20, 2004 11:00:39 GMT -5
Great pics!
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 20, 2004 19:36:35 GMT -5
LOLOL @ Jarkko lying prone to the court. It's even funnier to see a whole picture of it  Once again, fabulous pictures  |
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Post by ILR on Sept 21, 2004 14:40:50 GMT -5
Those pics are amazing Kiro And you got some of Carlos too! |
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Post by Kiro on Sept 22, 2004 8:21:11 GMT -5
REPORTS
Sep. 11th, 2004, Saturday
Day 1I spent the whole night on the train. I arrived in Beijing at 7 o¡¯clock in the morning. I called the Tennis Magazine (China). They asked me to go to their office. I brought my camera with me, what a wisdom choice! After a brief chat and lunch, we went to the stadium together. I can¡¯t wait to run to the courts, I saw players were training. Hmm, I saw Justin Gimelstob, Ivo Heuberger, Kristian Pless. They were at the nearest courts. Some players were training in the other courts too. There are several training courts, and the short paths to the courts are set as members only, only players, coaches and those who work on court (linesmen, ballboys, etc.) can go through these paths. On the right side there are no path. So It¡¯s like the letter ¡°E¡±, if I¡¯m at the right bottom court and want to go to the right middle one just next to it, I have to go left for 3 court lengths and go up for two court widths, and then, go right for 3 court lengths again to arrive. Then I saw two players came out from one of the ¡°inner¡± practice courts. Guess who? Rainer & Jarkko!  I said hello to them, both were very nice! But they were in a hurry, why? I asked Rainer, ¡°when will the draw be made?¡± He said, ¡°Right now!¡± They were going to attend it. I haven¡¯t got a media pass for myself, for it is strictly controlled. I stand outside the player¡¯s hall. The draw ceremony has not started yet. Rainer went out to change a shirt, and signed autograph for me. Then I met one of the editors from the Magazine. He lent me his media pass and I went to the draw ceremony! Several players were there, Rainer, Jarkko, Taylor Dent and a Chinese WC Player Yue Wang. After the seeds were located on the draw sheet., they were asking random people to draw the number from the box. When they¡¯re going to draw Rainer¡¯s opponent, the official asked the players there, if anyone would like to make the draw for Rainer. Taylor Dent stood up. The number he got came out to be Baccanello from AUS, who would be Rainer¡¯s opponent. They continued with the draw, and Rainer said to the official, he would like to make the draw for Dent¡¯s 1st round, too. Rainer drew Hicharm Arazi for Dent. (But later we knew that Arazi withdrew). After the draw was made, I talked a little with Rainer. I had a picture with him, but the girl who was taking pic for us was not good at shooting so the pic was blurred  Then I heard that Ferrero will be here to practice on 4 o¡¯clock. There were a lot of fans waiting for him, some were very crazy. Hmm¡not my style. And I don¡¯t think Juan Carlos would like those girls¡¯ behaviour¡anyway. Then I met Jarkko once again and got his autograph, it¡¯s a beautiful one When Juan Carlos was arriving, those girls were so crazy! The car stopped at the door of the player lounge and Juan Carlos, surrounded by no less than 5 security guys, got in quickly. I¡¯ve printed my cartoons of the players on paper. I asked Andres (one of Ferrero¡¯s coaches), if he could give Juan Carlos my cartoon of him. He looked at it and said, ¡°Perfect, no problem!¡± He went to get the balls for practicing, when he¡¯s on his way back to the lounge, he brought the cartoon with him, letting me know that he was giving it to Juan Carlos Andres told me that they were going to practice on court 5, but later they switched to the center court. I went in to watch them. Juan Carlos and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez were hitting. Some girls came in and screaming ¡°Juan Carlos Te Amo!¡± Hmm¡.:rolleyes: I just took a lot of pics. When Juan Carlos was about to finish, Marat came to the center court. They were greeting each other, Marat sat on the same bench with Juan Carlos, and they had a pleasant chat. Even when Marat stood up and started to hit the ball with his partner, he¡¯s still talking to Juan Carlos. ;D Then Juan Carlos and Andres left the court. Those girls rushed out to follow him. Things got worse at the entrance of the court, those crazy girls managed to rush in and they were around Juan Carlos and pushing him¡it¡¯s dangerous¡The guards helped Juan Carlos out finally.
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Post by Kiro on Sept 22, 2004 8:22:14 GMT -5
Sep. 12th, 2004
Day 2Dindin and I went to the stadium together in the morning. We were standing out the player lounge. Juan Carlos arrived. The guard was much more strictly formed than the day before, Juan Carlos was surrounded by 5 bodyguards wearing black shirts, and they were surrounded by 6 security guys hand in hand, to keep the crazy fans aside. Juan Carlos went to practice. We watched the practice session. When he finished it and came out , There were too many crazy fans again. He went back to the lounge. I met Peter Luczak on the road and said hi to him. He was playing the qualifying rounds, already won one, two to go. I met him last year in Shanghai. This year he will go to Shanghai too. Then I saw Rainer and Jarkko practicing together. This was the first time I was so close to see them playing. I took some pics I saw Carlos Moya and Marat Safin came out together. With many guards and a lot of fans around, of course. I saw they met someone on the road and they all stopped, looks like they were confusing to find the right court to practice. Hmm, I didn¡¯t recognize that the player Carlos and Marat talked to was David Nalbandian untill he passed me by my left side. I¡¯ve got the wrong impression that Nalby could be ¡°BIG¡±, but I¡¯d say he looks relatively ¡°small¡± in real person, especially compared with tall guys like Moya or Safin. Moya and Nalby went to practice together and Marat was with someone else. I left the stadium at noon to meet a friend. When I went back, Juan Carlos and Marat were practicing together. They played some points in the end of practices session, like a TB, and I thought that Juan Carlos won the game, I was not too sure¡I was too busy taking pics, lol. Juan Carlos finished the practice session and left. Later I saw Paradorn Srichaphan and his father go practicing. Dent and Bogomolov. Dominik Hrbaty. Then we saw Mikhail Youzhny coming, with no guards and few ppl know him. We went to say hi, I got his autograph and Dindin had a picture with him. |
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Post by Kiro on Sept 22, 2004 8:23:23 GMT -5
Sep 13th, 2004, Monday
Day 3We went to the stadium at 11 o¡¯clock. We saw Juan Carlos¡¯s coach, but we didn¡¯t see Juan Carlos. It seemed that Juan Carlos practiced a little in the morning and then went back, wasn¡¯t going to practice in the afternoon. We were a little surprised to hear that, but didn¡¯t ask too much about it. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was going to play Jarkko Nieminen on the center court, the first main draw match on center court. Hmm¡whom should I cheer for? Then we saw Nalby, he¡¯s going to practice. Surrounded by 5 guards. I went to him and just gave him the cartoon. The guards tried to stop me but I just gave him the cartoon, I was not trying to stop him. At first Nalby didn¡¯t realize what was on the paper, he¡¯s even taking the pen happened to be in my hand, he must think that I¡¯m just asking for his autograph. I said ¡°no, no, David, this is for you.¡± He then looked at the cartoon and immediately recognized himself, he laughed and showed it to his coach, his coach also laughed. David said ¡°Thank you, thank you!¡± And he was looking around to find who had given him this paper. But I don¡¯t think he found me at that moment because I was pushed aside by the guard.  Anyway, I was happy to see he likes it. We watched David practicing for a while. He was wearing an orange T-shirt, I still think he looks better than the weird on court appearance. I took pictures. We went in the stadium to watch Jarkko and Guillermo for a while. It¡¯s said that Carlos Moya was going to sign autographs for fans at 2 o¡¯clock, so we went out. When we arrived, there were a lot of ppl waiting in the line. The first player to sign autographs was Ivo Heuberger. He signed for all ppl. Moya came at 2:30. He started to sign and fans were excited. But after he just signed about half ppl, the official said ¡°no more¡± and call it to stop. And in the end we didn¡¯t got Moya¡¯s autograph. Carlos himself did¡¯t seem to be happy about it. Fans were upset. Officials said ¡°you can wait for the next player¡±. God, they don¡¯t understand that players are different from one another. We were upset too and left. Next player should be Paradorn Srichaphan, but I was not interested anymore. When we went back, Jarkko already defeated Guillermo. We saw a handsome guy with a bright smile, Tripp Phillips, who¡¯s playing doubles here. Then we saw Rainer practice with Yen-Hsun LU. I met Lu¡¯s mother and we had a brief talk. Then I saw Michael Luevano, the director of Heineken Shanghai Open. I said hello to him an we talked a little. He said he was here to have some meetings with ATP and with some sponsors. We talked about the commitments to Shanghai, Sjeng won¡¯t come. Michael said other top players committed will all come to Shanghai. He said Ferrero is coming. We didn¡¯t ask him about Scud though. :rolleyes: Jarkko practiced a little after his match. And Safin and Moya were playing a practicing match. In the evening, Rainer¡¯s playing Baccanello. Rainer was wearing a black FILA shirt, hmm¡the shirt looks like ¡°transparent¡± when it¡¯s wet, LOL. Watching Rainer play was not too pleasant. Sorry Rainer fans, he¡¯s not playing well. He just couldn¡¯t find the form in which he won so many matches last year. He went a little better in the end of the first set and the beginning of the second. And in the end he needed 7 or 8 match points to win the match¡you know I was concerned when I saw him wasting all those mps. He wasted 5 mps to let Baccanello hold the game to stay in the match. Baccanello called a injury time-out. And then Rainer had mp in his own service game and couldn¡¯t convert again, giving Baccanello break point instead. Thank God in the end Rainer managed to hold and win the match. But I felt sorry for him. No wonder why he has been struggling in early rounds all the year.
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Post by Kiro on Sept 22, 2004 8:24:20 GMT -5
Sep 14th, 2004, Tuesday
Day 4It was cold and windy in the morning. We went to the stadium and saw Davide Sanguinetti, Jakko Nieminen and David Nalbandian practicing. Dent defeated Peter Luczak pretty easily but we didn¡¯t enter the center court to watch the match. Then it began to rain. All the scheduled matches and ceremony were disturbed by the rain. If there was no rain, there supposed to be an opening ceremony in the evening. Some leaders from the government were supposed to attend the ceremony, and their plan included a huge firework celebration too. After the ceremony, there supposed to be the 1st round matches featuring the top seeds, i.e. Ferrero vs Gimelstob and Moya vs Tsonga. Everything was supposed to be huge and big, but it seemed that no one had ever taken the weather into consideration. (We were curious that why they decide to hold the opening ceremony on Tuesday instead of Monday. You know that main draw matches start on Monday. The answer was: it¡¯s for the officials and leaders from the government to appear. They were too busy on Monday. ) So, when it began to rain, everything went into a mess. Nobody knew what to do. The tournament director had to go to the government to make reports and ask for their decision. Spectators were worrying too. Nobody knew anything about the rain policy, if there was one. How to deal with the tickets? No idea. And no news update for any scores or schedules either. My friends on Menstennisforums.com were asking for the score of Youzhny/Heuberger, but even the news center didn¡¯t have their score. In the end, I went to the outside court to find the score. I saw the scoreboard, and ask the guards and TV personnel nearby to confirm the score. The communication between the news center and the match courts were in a mess too. The rain became heavier and we felt too cold to stay in the stadium. We left the stadium. We didn¡¯t see Juan Carlos the whole day. (Later we knew that since it has been raining the whole day and it was impossible to practice, Juan Carlos went to Tokyo to attend the opening of Sergio Tacchini shop. It¡¯s said that he met Patricia at Beijing Airport and they two flew together to Tokyo. They had a little time together there and Juan Carlos flew back in the night.) After that we heard that all the matches was postponed and the opening ceremony was called off, and of course, no fireworks anymore.
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Post by Lee on Sept 22, 2004 8:57:39 GMT -5
Thanks for the report. I didn't know Ferrero flew to Tokyo  during the tournament |
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Post by Ilhame on Sept 22, 2004 9:13:34 GMT -5
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Post by Kiro on Sept 22, 2004 9:22:17 GMT -5
Hmm, He is faithful to his sponsor. He said that this arrangement was made pretty early, maybe it's a part of his contract, I don't know. Now I understand what Luevano said about Roger. Roger lives his own way, without any agents, everything to be decided by himself...COOL. |
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 22, 2004 9:48:48 GMT -5
Whoa That's loyalty! Getting to spend time with Patricia was probably a big incentive |
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Post by Vera on Sept 22, 2004 21:11:48 GMT -5
Thx Kiro for the lovely piccies. So Juanqui's been cranking up his mileage on the plane, like flying to Tokyo for a day and flying back and fro from Spain to China to Spain to China... Well, if he had known he would lost so early in Beijing, maybe they would have scheduled the grand opening on friday so he don't have to fly there for just an evening . |
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Post by Kiro on Sept 24, 2004 1:15:20 GMT -5
Sep 15th, 2004, Wednesday
Day 5The rain stopped in the morning, but it¡¯s cold and windy. Juan Carlos was scheduled to play both singles and doubles matches. We went to the stadium. Juan Carlos, Andres and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez arrived pretty early. Fans gathered at the practicing court to watch Juan Carlos. I went to ask the ppl from the Magazine if they can give me 2 tickets of the center court match. I got two VIP tickets, lucky! Juan Carlos vs Justin Gimelstob. Gimelstob won the toss and selected to receive. The first service game of Juan Carlos made me worry a little bit, but I believed he would win this match. I joked with Dindin, said that she was JCF¡¯s lucky charm. Hmm, the rain came at the key points. The match was interrupted twice, the first time, when Juan Carlos had bp in Gimelstob¡¯s service game; the second time, when he was facing bp in his own service game and he saved it. The second stop lasted quite a long time. I didn¡¯t count the exact time length. Finally the match was resumed. Gimelstob was making too many errors and the second set went pretty easy for Juan Carlos. Gimelstob got upset, he hit a ball to the stand and therefore got a code violation warning. There were several camera men by the court side taking pictures. In the second set, during one of Juan Carlos¡¯s service games, it seemed that a camera man suddenly remembered to take pics of Juan Carlos¡¯s serve. He pushes the button once and his camera automatically takes 5 pics. Well, his camera, I think it¡¯s a digital camera, was very NOISY. So everytime when Juan Carlos tosses the ball, there he goes ¡°click click click click click¡±. Juan Carlos was clearly disturbed by the noise, he made 3 or 4 double faults in that game. And Gimelstob, who was preparing to return the serve, was also affected. So in the end it was Gimelstob who got very angry, claiming to the umpire that the camera man is bothering. The camera man might not understand what the problem really was, but he was scared a little and didn¡¯t make stupid noise again. (BTW I think that the ¡°click¡± sound can be shut off, since it¡¯s a good digital camera.) Juan Carlos won the match. We went to watch Rainer and Youzhny¡¯s doubles match on Court 6. JCF and GGL¡¯s doubles match was supposed to be after that. During the match I went to watch Nalbandian vs Pless on Court 1 for a while. Srichaphan was playing in the Center Court but I didn¡¯t watch, hmm, I¡¯ve watched too much of him on TV. (BTW, Srichaphan is the player whom I didn¡¯t take any pics of, LOL.) Rainer and Mikhail lost the first set but won the second. Funny thing was that after the second set, their opponent asked for toilet break, Rainer and Mikhail then asked for toilet break too. ;D All 4 players left, accompanied by line ppl. Then it started to rain again. We waited for a while, but it was still raining. We heard that the matches scheduled on outside courts will all be postponed. And DinDin saw Youzhny left the stadium. JCF and GGL won¡¯t play their doubles match. Later we went to the hotel where the players were staying. I met Rainer, Jarkko and other players. Dindin talked with Graydon Oliver. I saw Nalby coming. I said, ¡°Hi David, did you like the cartoon?¡± He recognized me and smiled : ¡°Oh, yeah, thank you!¡± I asked about his match, he said he didn¡¯t finish it. I wished him good luck. David was quite friendly and nice. On the way home I got a message from a friend, telling me that Moya lost 4-6 4-6 to Tsonga. :rolleyes:
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Post by TennisHack on Sept 24, 2004 9:44:57 GMT -5
Daveeed Cool! |
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Post by Kiro on Oct 4, 2004 23:14:23 GMT -5
Sep 16th, 2004, Thursday
Day 6I went to the airport to see Dindin off before went to the stadium. Safin was practising in the center court before his first round match. Jarkko and Dent were practising with partners respectively. Pless and Nalbandian¡¯s match was resumed. Juan Carlos, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Andres went to practise. Juan Carlos didn¡¯t practise much, then he was sitting there, watching GGL and Andres, smiling sometimes. Safin defeated Bogomolov easily. Juan Carlos Ferrero vs Alex Kim Alex Kim hits the ball flat, and slices the ball with his backhand to Ferrero¡¯s backhand. Juan Carlos was not playing well, his groundstrokes were not strong enough to finish points at baseline, and he missed some easy points at net too. In the end Juan Carlos lost the match. I went out of the stadium. A lot of fans were waiting for Juan Carlos at the entrance of the stadium. After quite some time, a bodyguard came out, saying to the crowd: ¡°Don¡¯t ask for autograph any more, he¡¯s unhappy now!¡± And then, Juan Carlos appearred in a red shirt. Andres was following him. Juan Carlos himself didn¡¯t look too upset, or maybe he was controlling himself not to show his feelings. When Andres was about to enter the stadium, he stopped to talk to me. Juan Carlos and GGL would play doubles match in the evening, but I knew that it was already time to say goodbye. I stayed to watch the doubles match, Guillermo was not playing too well and they lost. Juan Carlos waved goodbye to the crowd. I left the stadium. Hope to see you again, Juan Carlos, Andres! Sep 17th, 2004, Friday
Day 7I was tired out on Thursday. On Friday, I went to the sadium a little late. I watched Youzhny vs Hrbaty. Mikhail was playing well, he slice the ball well and was very consistend. Hrbaty was not playing badly, just Mikhail was too good on that day. I met a friend, who was running a tennis website. We chatted and he asked me if I could help him to interview a photographer, Jeff Davies. Jeff and his wife Manuela Davies are running the website Tennis.info. Both of them are great photographers and they took fantastic pics of the players. We had a chat. This was the first time Jeff came to Beijing. The culture and ordinary ppl here inpressed him more than those players and matches. He took some great pictures this time too. I didn¡¯t watch the Srichaphan match, lol. Then I watched Jarkko vs Nalby. In the 3rd set, Jarkko serving at 4-1, 40-30, there was an amazing point! The crowd was so excited. I thought, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s the point of the match! No, it must be the point of the tournament!¡± It was lucky that I took the pics of Jarkko¡¯s celebration after the point. Few ppl got that pic, I guess most photographers were preparing to take pic of Nalby, but I was spotting Jarkko ;D Acutally, this point was selected to be the ATP play of the week. Don¡¯t forget to watch it! Safin was playing in the evening, but I haven¡¯t got tickets, and I was so tired. I went back home. This was the last day I went to 2004 China Open. I took the train on Saturday and went back to Shanghai.
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Post by TennisHack on Oct 4, 2004 23:39:16 GMT -5
We chatted and he asked me if I could help him to interview a photographer, Jeff Davies. Jeff and his wife Manuela Davies are running the website Tennis.info. Both of them are great photographers and they took fantastic pics of the players. We had a chat. This was the first time Jeff came to Beijing. The culture and ordinary ppl here inpressed him more than those players and matches. He took some great pictures this time too. Cool! Yes, they do have great pics. The whole www.tennis.info site is great. I was wondering if you ran into him at all Manuela was in Delray Beach that week. |
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I said hello to them, both were very nice! But they were in a hurry, why? I asked Rainer, ¡°when will the draw be made?¡± He said, ¡°Right now!¡± They were going to attend it.
during the tournament