More pics

Stefi wins again!

What a day. Last night I went to bed depressed at the thought of not being able to attend Stefi's match since I had to work in the morning. I woke up sad and convinced that she was going to lose and that I wouldn't get to see her for another year. Yeah, I have great confidence don't I?

I stayed up too late yesterday and was so tired this morning. Got to the venue at the time I was told, before the gates were open. Stood around waiting in our designated area, which is right near the players locker room and I just watched as tournament cars pulled up and players hopped out. The first car I saw was Stefi and her coach. Perfect timing. Then Caro arrived and Delpo soon after, also saw Lopez get out with a nice red iphone in hand. The players stay in the locker room for about 20 minutes and soon they walk out to the practice courts. From my position I had a perfect view of when they leave the rooms and which direction they were headed. So obviously, when I had a chance to go for a wander before play began I headed to the court that Stefi was at. She was practicing with Lucic and while they were speaking to each other I had a few words with her coach. He asked me if I was coming to Melbourne. I really wish I was now but it is a trade off I have made. I don't even want to think about being at work next week. Larriere asked me the same question yesterday and in response to my response she says everybody has to work some time. That is true. Next year I definitely want to go to AO again. If I had it my way I never want to work during January.

The first match I went to was Dulgheru vs Arvidsson. While there I could see Stefi's coach having a long chat with Tony Roche. I wonder what they were talking about. I was doing to radar which is basically pressing the button to indicate where the serve lands and then BH and FH to count the rallies. During one of the change of ends a fellow stat person checked Alizé and Stefi's scores for me and they were both losing. So I thought that was the end. I'm stuck on Court one while my faves are going to lose just 100m away from where I was. Long story short, I managed to go see Stefi's match against Jovanovski towards the end of the second set which she had won. In the third I saw a bit of the beginning and then the end of the match. It was so satisfying to see the winning moment. The stands were full in stark contrast to her two previous matches. I'm so proud of the way she played today.

Tomorrow she has Azarenka in the first round of the main draw. Unfortunately it's a centre court match so I have to get in some how. I suppose it is a good opportunity for a lot of people to see her tennis. It will be on national tv and there will be a lot of people in the stands. Azarenka isn't the most easy to like player for spectators because they get annoyed at her antics. I'm sure Stefi will gain a lot of fans tomorrow if she can play her best. I don't think she'll be overwhelmed by the occasion since she has played Serena on Centre court at RG before. I really hope she wins. If she can get a lot of points and make it into RG main draw this year that would be amazing.

Beside's Stefi's win it was a pretty ordinary day. Only 3 WTA matches on Centre and the rest were qualies. I watched a bit of Parmentier's practice. I use to like her but I don't really anymore. Unfortunately my too good to be true 2 day streak of both Stefi and Alizé didn't continue as Alizé lost her final qualifying match. I barely saw much of her 3 matches here since it was always clashing with Stefi's. That is the biggest disappointment for me thus far.

Fanboys

This was totally adorable.

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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For the Ana fans

I had a mad flurry of RTs when I put some pics of Ana on twitter. Here are some better pics for those guys :)

Successful first day of qualies

Thank you for the comment in the previous post, Anon. I'm glad someone still reads this ;)

Okay, I'm back from a 7 and a half hours at the tennis. That is the number of hours I work on an average day. I can testify that being at the tennis is hard work because I'm a little tired right now, but it is only the first day of qualifying so I'm not that tired.

After raining all night last night it was grey and overcast the whole day today. Luckily it didn't rain at all and I didn't have to take off my jacket so I didn't need to apply sunscreen. The morning I felt really restless, walking around the courts seeing a few matches had begun and some players practicing. Nothing too exciting, I didn't want to sit at a match for too long in case I missed Stefi's practice. Seeing her practice and a victory were the two things I wanted to get out of today!

It was just perfect timing when I made my 3rd (or 4th) trip to the practice courts - yes, I was getting a bit paranoid. There was a girl there I didn't recognise waiting for someone to come hit with her. A few minutes later Stefi rocks up in her purple tracksuit. It was the funniest thing I've seen. I feel like such a stalker though. Commenting on her outfit then standing there during her whole practice taking photos, alone most of the time. Suddenly I had the thought that the other girl was Mandy Minella and after comparing the face to the WTA profile picture, surely it was her. After staying to watch the entire practice, I was satisfied and ready to start watching some tennis.

Saw a few bits of tennis here and there: Lepchenko losing the TB for the match to Kirilenko, almost an entire set of Ula v Peers. Sofia and Virginie winning. At 4 o'clock I had intended to see Cornet's match against Pirovarova after tossing up between that, Minella or Rus. I was heading to the bathroom when Stefi and her coach walked past me, towards the courts. Her match was supposed to be after Alizé's but it got moved so my whole plan was ruined. Disappointed that 4 players I wanted to see were all playing at once but it wasn't a choice. I have a favourite ;)

Stefi wins 6-3, 6-3 against this French girl I've never heard of before. My day was complete. I went home shortly after that.

I'm back and ready!

18 months have come and gone since the last post, I've been pondering whether or not to blog about the Sydney tournament and decided in favour of it. A lot has happened since the 2010 tennis escapades. I went to Sydney and Melbourne last year but I couldn't be bothered writing about it. Uploading the pictures is most tedious with my internet at dial up speeds (and I packed light for the Melbourne trip), but giving it a go again this time around. I hope you enjoy it. The women's qualifying draw comes out tomorrow and the qualifying tournament starts the day after.