The first two days are done and dusted. The first day was really hot and sunny, while the second was more cloudy. Both days it poured in the afternoon. I hope that the rain doesn't disrupt play especially with the afternoon starts there won't be enough time/sunlight to dry the courts.
It is so crappy that they removed the stands opposite the player's chair on the outside courts and that all the seats are restricted viewing by the umpire's chair. It's so stupid and you can't even stand on the other side so I don't imagine that would end well.
Friday
It didn't start well as I hopped on the train and then realised it was the wrong train so I arrived a little late. First match I went to was Jaksic v Vekic. It was such a tight contest with great rallies. In the end I though Jaksic had it up 3-0 in the third set TB but Vekic ended up winning. Then it was time for Stefi's match in the peak heat of the day, I wasn't surprised that there were only about six people watching. She won comfortably against Arina Rodionova. Afterwards just walked around and that was it I suppose. Very quiet day.
Saturday
I arrived a little late again, but this time it was because the train was delayed. When I arrived Stefi had already started practising. She was hitting with a young boy. I usually see her hitting with other players so that was new. I took a bunch of photos since I really couldn't be bothered during the match. Ivo gave the kid some advice while they were hitting which was nice of him.
Then I went to the practice courts and just watched a few WTA players hitting and spoke to some fans. There is this guy who takes photos and prints them on their autograph and he was pretty much everyone which I'm so envious of but I really cannot be bothered putting effort into that. He doesn't know many players though so I had to tell him who everyone was. It is quite fun trying to figure out people.
Besides Stefi's match I watched from the second set onwards the Gibbs-Schmiedlova one. What a rollercoaster! It was like one player goes on a roll and then they implode. Anna looked like she was having trouble breathing or something and down three match points she would go for it and save them all, twice. In the end Gibbs won. After that I stayed for the Mladenovic-Dulgheru. I was sitting near Dulgheru's coach and there was a man who kept asking the coach questions like what is her string tension, her rank, if she is going to AO, etc. It was so annoying. The worst part was when he was telling the coach what she should do. I would not appreciate some random stranger telling me how to do my job.
I posted some photos of delPo on twitter so now I have all his fandoms following me and all these Spanish RTs. It is ironic that a few photos of him gets so much attention while I spend so much time looking for Stefi photos, finding out her upcoming matches and results etc. and after all these years we only have 850 fans. I guess it just depends on her, if she does well and more people know her she'll have more fans but on the other hand I don't understand how Conny Perrin for example has so many fans when she's not even on the WTA tour.
Sunday
Seeing as though most of the matches will be qualifying I decided to stay home. It then proceeded to rain all day and play began at 6pm when I contemplated heading there to see Bencic play but I decided against it. Hopefully she wins and I'll get to see her play Kerber in the second round.
Tomorrow until Friday I'll be at the tennis. There is rain forecast so fingers crossed that it doesn't delay play much.
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