Hard to beat today

Today was just awesome. I'm so tired and feeling delirious but I'll just write a summary of it or I'll forget most of what happened and won't be bothered tomorrow. I decided not to go to the ATP qualifying matches since it started so early and I'm not that big of a fan of those players anyways. So when I arrived I headed straight to the practice courts to see who was there. There were so many players there. Strycova was stretching, Cornet had just finished, Benesova just arrived, Voegele was hitting with Grönefeld and Ivanovic was practicing with her coach on the far side.

Afterwards, I went to the match courts to see some tennis. Nothing really interested me so I sat in the shade watching Russell v Gruel for a bit until Razzano's match began. Gruel was pretty bad, he said something in German which I can only assume to have meant 'first serve' even though I don't have a clue how to say 'serve' in German.

I was happy to see Virginie take the first set of her match in a tie breaker and it was time for Alizé's match. I didn't get to stay for very long as Stefanie's one was beginning shortly after. It seems like Krajicek made so many errors but Stefi still played pretty well, particularly when she goes to the nets. Her volleying wasn't bad at all. Some one tells me her ground strokes look so effortless and I agree with that. When she hits the ball it doesn't look like she's exerting most effort, although the pace isn't very fast compared to Larrier's balls yesterday. I was lucky that Stefi and Alizé's courts were adjacent so from my seat I could turn and watch either match. Alizé's went to three sets. The first went relatively smoothly. The second was bad. I heard a lot of yelling and she wanted to smash her racquet on multiple occasions but restrained herself, even in the first when she was leading she threw it a few times. I guess she won the internal battle with herself and she won the third set a comfortable 6-1. On the otherhand, Stefi was in control practically from the beginning of her match. She should of went to 4-1 in the second but a little lapse of concentration saw Krajicek told serve and break the next game. Luckily Stefi finished it off quickly so the match did not last very long at all. Once these two matches ended I went back to see Virginie and she was down a break (5-6) in the third. The trainer was called and they took a medical time out to strap her left thigh. I guess she really wanted to win badly. The match was practically over. One more game, or one plus a tie break max. She managed to break serve but couldn't take the breaker.

I then headed back to the practice courts to see what was happening. Nothing much besides Li Na practicing. There was also Domi there and Aga had just arrived. I was speaking to a few of these people, who have some how became my friends - we all met randomly at qualies in previous years and just talk about tennis a lot. Two of them have fancy cameras and one of them tells me Victoria Larriere's coach (plus dad?) had asked him to send pictures of her to him. So we were standing there and the coach comes up to us and brings up the photos again. He said it would be nice for her to have some souvenir photos to remember her time here which I though was pretty sweet. The 'friend' starts asking the coach about Larriere and we find out that it's her first year on tour, she's ranked inside the top 200.

At this stage I'm not yet a fan. I saw her match yesterday against Stefanie and of course I totally was not wanting her to win any point. She had a huge forehand which brought a lot of winners (which frustrated me) but also made too many UFEs (and I of coursed liked this). As she was standing there waiting for a hitting partner to arrive I felt really bad about yesterday. I'm positive that she would have remembered seeing me at the match since I was the only one watching the entire match and I only clapped for Voegele's points. What a depressing thought. Larriere was so nice when I apologised. She said Stefanie played well and that was her first time meeting her, I'm sort of surprised considering they are about the same age-ish? She said her friends are Mladenovic and Garcia. So this is the next generation of French tennis. I'm so excited I want to learn French now! Her game is pretty impressive for someone in only their second WTA event. I'm excited to start following another player on their way up. She has AO qualies and AO jrs. Seriously, Malek is at risk of getting dropped.

Pics of Larriere - I'll put pics of other people who aren't my fave/ex-fave/next-fave in the future. Promise!

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