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Hi there, I'm tired as hell - the adrenaline subdued and I'm going back to non-tournament life :P
Nonetheless, I managed to finish uploading the doubles match - I hope you'll like it. Mauresmo and Bremond end up losing 2-6, 6-2, 3-10 (the third set has been replaced by an extended tiebreak).
My favorite game is the 7th in the 2nd set: Mauresmond lead 4-2 and Amélie earns 4 fantastic consecutive points at the net, winning the game at love. *heart-eyes*
Here is the Dailymotion and YouTube links. I'm sorry for the quality but keep in mind that it was shot with my cell phone :P
I hope you'll enjoy anyway, and if you want better quality I put all the videos on Megaupload: the links are in the video descriptions and below.
Link list:
Warming up:
YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Dailymotion: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Megaupload: Part 1, Part2, Part3, Part 4
First set:
YouTube: 1st game, 3rd game, 4th game, 5th game, 6th game (b/w) , 7th game (b/w), 8th game (b/w), set point.
Dailymotion: 1st game, 3rd game, 4th game, 5th game, 6th game (b/w), 7th game (b/w), 8th game (b/w), set point.
Megaupload: 1st game, 3rd game, 4th game, 5th game, 6th game (b/w), 7th game (b/w), 8th game (b/w), set point.
Second set:
YouTube: 1st game, 4th game, 5th game, 7th game, last game.
Dailymotion: 1st game, 4th game, 5th game, 7th game, last game.
Megaupload: 1st game, 4th game, 5th game, 7th game, last game.
Match Tiebreak: YouTube, Dailymotion, Megaupload
Match point: YouTube, Dailymotion, Megaupload
... according to recently Hall-of-Fame inductee Gianni Clerici, who was commentating the finals today.
He said Amélie has spent a lot of time with Dr. Parra and even if it might be a light injury, she is definitely not 100% yet.
What a mess of a year, so far :P
(I didn't see the match nor heard the commentary, so thanks Roby67 for the news ;) )
...according to Nathalie Dechy's husband.
I asked him today and he said she is fine and will play both tournaments.
Actually I didn't ask him directly - he called me first because he wanted to see the doubles semis on tv. I tried to switch the channels but then I learned that the match was not being televised so he couldn't watch it.
At that point I took the courage and said: "can I ask you something? We're hearing rumors that Mauresmo got injured and will skip Roland Garros. Do you know anything about that?" And he said "no she's fine now, in fact she's playing next week also". I thanked him then wished him good luck for tomorrow (Nath and Mara are playing the doubles final).
I had asked a few people who work for the tournament earlier who I thought were supposed to have info, but no one had accurate news: they said something like "oh yeah, we knew she was ill, but it's probably nothing serious".
So she DID get injured, but luckily it was nothing to worry about and she should be able to play. Let's cross fingers anyway! :P
Dang! Things could get worse apparently.
Amélie is still in Rome and is supposed to leave tomorrow. But today she got a thigh strain while training on the Foro Italico courts.
I don't know anything else about the injury so far, other than she's being taken care of by the Italian Federation doctor. I just learned it and I can't investigate further at the moment; I'll ask people about it tomorrow and will try to stay updated.
Let's cross fingers :P
So yeah, I'm surviving, somehow.
But today I was really depressed. I couldn't work. I had a meeting in the early afternoon but I didn't do much else. I kept getting images of Amélie in my head, knowing I would never get them again. Or at least in a long time.
I think I have an illness. I'm hypnotized by living beings who look like this:
Luckily I catch one once in every five or six years :P
However, I had a lot of fun at Sveta's match tonight. I think I like her. I don't understand why she gets so pissed at herself and starts acting mad on the court, but she's nice. I didn't find her bad-looking at all. Actually I was looking for her glance, as if I wanted her to look at me. Awww she's a puppy! I also like the way she looks at you. In brief, go Sveta go!
She was getting mad at herself during the match. At some point she even damaged her racket. She's very aggressive on the court, not just in her game but also in her attitude. She screams loud. At the end of the first set (which she barely won in the tiebreak) she screamed "soy idiota" at her coach while she was going to sit. LOL!
I also was there when she called the trainer. At the middle of the game she got close to the umpire and whispered "hey, physio". Anyone else would have replied "I beg your pardon?" LOL but the umpire understood. When she doesn't get mad at herself, she's really nice. I like her. I just found that out, this evening.
And yeah, the forehand. She has such an amazing forehand. I loved her tactic of slow, angled, heavily topspinned crosscourt backhand to open the court, and then to fire the crosscourt forehand winner.
What a crappy day. My first thought when I realized she had lost was "she really wants to win the French this year" (in case the bad losses before a slam function again as a propeller). After that I was sad because I won't see her play for a while.
I was so hoping to see her play the singles, but it wasn't meant to be. I miraculously managed to anticipate my late afternoon meeting, but the meeting was longish and when she started playing I was still at work. It was an important meeting, it was part brainstorming and part reporting. This didn't prevent me from going out to check the livescores on my pc every ten minutes. I thought she had a good chance after scraping through the 2nd set like that. When I saw she had an ample lead in the third, I almost relaxed.
When I finished my meeting I was a little surprised to find they had just started the 3rd set tiebreak. I was kind of pissed at Amélie for making me go through the wasted match points ordeal. I was ready to forgive her if she only won. But it didn't happen. When the live scores window reported "winner: Stosur", I was about to cry. I left the office in depression and flew to the Foro.
As I arrived on site, I ran to the press room. Too late: Amé had finished the press conference. It had started at 7:15 pm, and it was over quite soon. Extremely disappointed, I ran back and bumped into Stosur, who sported a proud attitude and was walking to her press conference with a dish of pasta in her hand. I was really sad, but I was trying hard to stay friendly and positive. Luckily I met a few friends for dinner and we started chatting. One of them had seen Amélie's match and he told me how she was outplaying Stosur in the beginning of the third. This sort of calmed me down. I thought "she was still there when it mattered, so she probably didn't want to stay here in Rome. She wants to reach really low unconsciously, in the hope of holding that French cup in 3 weeks".
I'm too tired to write anything else for the moment. I'll upload the photos and videos I took in the next days. Tomorrow I should hang around Sveta before/after her match. I hope I'll have fun for the rest of the tournament, but it's probably not going to be easy.
It was such an incredible day. I arrived at the site, got my new pass, then went to greet some friends. I didn't look around too much. However, I saw Dementieva hanging around, and Jankovic who was training in the adjacent training court.
At some point I was talking to my friend and didn't pay much attention to the rest of the area; when I was about to say goodbye to her, I turned my head on the left and was struck by an image. Three people dressed with white and light blue clothes were sitting around a table. One of them had long, blondish hair ;)
I tried to stay calm, wondering how in the world I'd have been able to actually look at her. She was wearing white shorts, her legs half spread under the table. I don't know how I saw what I saw, because I didn't look at it. I just saw, but I didn't dare look (if you know what I mean).
At some point my friend disappeared and I kept talking to a few other people I knew. I don't remember anything of what we were talking about; I just remember that I asked them something they didn't know, and they told me to ask my friend. I answered that she'd disappeared, and they said "no, she's right there". I turned my head and saw her stand like 10 inches from "the table". "Uhm... ok, I'm going to ask her......". I must have smiled a lot at that moment, at least inside.
As I got closer, Loic turned and looked at me for a few seconds. I turned my gaze, and started talking to my friend. I didn't dare turn. I was afraid to pass out or something. Ot that I wouldn't be able to stay cool.
They were playing cards. Michel stood up and told me "excuse me" because I was standing between him and the garbage can. I remember he bent down a lot, and was looking up at me when getting back up.
Ok, I couldn't look at her from a fixed position because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to unglue my gaze. So I had to move. As I was walking towards the other friends, I took a brief glance at Amélie. I looked at her face, in front of her.
The first thing I noticed were the moustache. How can this be? Can someone tell me why a woman is supposed to grow dark moustache by the age of 27? Or perhaps she was no longer allowed to epilate, suddenly? The other thing that striked me was the atmosphere. She had this extremely calm composure. Like a statuesque attitude. If you didn't know she was alive, you wouldn't have known she breathed. I had never really seen her so totally relaxed and static. Probably because I had never seen her in private. Compared to the way I was used to seeing her, she felt "dead". It must be something similar to when she's at home and she's relaxing. So different from all the other situations I'd always seen her in.
So I walked away, with my friend. I was talking to her and laughing when I turn my head in front of me and realize I had someone standing right in front of me who was going in the opposite direction. "Sorry", "sorry". It was Dementieva. I thought she was much taller than me, but she wasn't.
I went to eat, then prepared for the doubles match, which you should know about already. Except maybe I haven't commented on her ass yet. Well, it doesn't just sit up. It totally sticks out. It contracts and protrudes. I'd define it an extremely protrusible double object.
Now, the bad news is that I can't go to Amélie's match tomorrow because of my boss. Sooner or later I'll kill him. *rolls eyes* I hope the first two matches go to five sets... or whatever. I hope to catch the press conference at least, somehow.
To be honest I worked all day and didn't spend much time there :(
I arrived at around 7pm and took a quick look around. I bumped into Serena's mum and her friend, then I came across Gisela Dulko. I was amazed at how thin she is. Not like Hantuchova who looks like a praying mantis on court (I saw her last year) but still quite close. Camerin was "warming down" at the gym and Petrova was running on a treadmill while talking to her coach.
I greeted a friend, then made my way into the press room and looked at the interviews' schedule (I got a new pass this week which allows me into the press room, too YAY). I checked Spanky's blog from my wifi phone (LMAO, I swear, that's what I did) then headed to Serena's match.
She played extremely well. I took some videos. She hit incredibly hard and incredibly accurate. A friend of mine used to joke that the secret to play tennis is to hit hard on the lines (LOL), and sometimes you get the feeling that it's exactly what Serena does when she wants to win. She's such a powerhouse.
Ok, I'll try to go write the report for yesterday now before I fall asleep (I'm in bed now).
What a day! I can't believe I made it home safe and sound.
Actually I can't stand on my feet and I'm too tired to even sit on the desk and type, so just a quick summary:
1) I had a work meeting in the early morning and worked until mid-afternoon, at which point I managed to escape to the Foro;
2) I jumped into the... uhm, place where Amélie was waiting for her doubles match. I've seen her. I was pretty close. I hung around her for a while.
3) As soon as I ran out of excuses to stay there, I went to eat and prepared to film her doubles match.
4) I practically filmed the entire doubles match. Now and then I also watched it, if you know what I mean. It was nice to see her heavy ball again. And on a court that looked like the court next door on top of it. She has the cleanest heavy ball, if I might say so, in the women's tour I think. I won't even go into detail about her body and the millions of small shades and tiny curves the sunlight paints it with. But somehow the thought of her trainer going down in history as one of the greatest artists of all time seemed right.
I want to write the full report and share all of the videos, it's just that I don't have the energy right now. I'm collapsing on the chair.
Later...
This year I'm spending much less time at the Foro than last year. :( Damn work! ;)
So I don't have time to be there when it matters, and take pictures like this one below I took last year:
I'm so sad because Amélie will probably arrive this evening or tomorrow morning at the latest... and I can't be there! Damn!
I'm really torn. I don't know what to do. Instinctively I'd just spend the whole day there. But there are some people who have expectations on me and I don't want to let them down. Damn deadlines. Why does everyone want a piece of me? I don't understand... me, I don't want them. I only want a piece of Amélie. LOL ;)
I saw Nadal's match tonight - and I wish I hadn't *mad*
I just hate his game on clay. It's like me playing my 10 year-old nephew. There's no match. He should play in his heavy weights league, at least on clay, where strength matters (in terms of top spin strength).
He just kills tennis. If you're a woman, I don't know if you've ever played a man. Even if technically they're worse, men can kill you by putting so much spin on the ball that your weaker female arm won't be able to return it. That's basically Nadal's strategy. There are at least fifty pros who are technically finer and more complete than him, but he kills their weaker arms with his spin which on clay is most lethal.
It used to be tennis, now it's arm-killing.... I just wish they'd call it with its proper name.
And the fact that Nadal will never lose a match on clay EVER again, is not good for tennis. There's no fun for the audience, it's all written in the st... uhm, in Nadal's left bicep. It's not a sport anymore if there's no competition. Get the damn weight categories!
To see a moustache here you don't need high resolution *tape* (which I provided anyway)
*whispers* I didn't want say this, but it looks a moustache alright.
*normal voice* I like the tan though *love* finally a non-tennis tan *drool*
