US Open 2011 - Wednesday, Part 2
So we eventually wandered over to Gilles, who was in the fourth set of his match against Ricardo Mello. And it was very crowded (packed with French people!!). And we were almost the last people let in our changeover and there were basically no seats left and we ended up Right. Behind. His. Chair.
SO CLOSE. SO AWKWARD. Hahaha every time he came back for a changeover I didn't even know where to look. I was like "ajdidsofds Gilles is right in front of me I should soak it in... but what if he looks at me? And we make eye contact from like 2 feet away??" It was the closest we got to anyone and we spent the whole day on small courts.
And of course, he is ADORABLE up close. *_________* So presh!! Such, um, sinewy legs...
He wasn't playing well when we were there and kept shouting at himself in French. And the crowd was all French and kept saying "Allez Gilles!!" And making these "ooeuuah" sounds that are really hard to transcribe but extremely French. It was fun as hell.
And Katie captured his derp face!
but mostly he was pretty.
And he ended up winning the 5th set! Probably because we left. . .
Flavs was next, back on the court where we saw Feli. Good times on Court 11.
Flavia was all fuckin' business. She's so light and jokey and full of personality that I was actually a little surprised, but hey - she was doing her job and she was taking it seriously. It was epic. And she played pretty great! Beat a fellow Italian, Romina Oprandi, who wears a ridiculous hat with a bill that goes almost straight up. So Flavs clearly was not going to go down to someone in a hat like that.
Bam. While I'm talking clothing, I love her kit!
But it was a bit of a blow-out so we didn't stay too long. Also I think we were behind Oprandi's cousins or friends or something. . . two dudes kept cheering for her super hard.
Pablo Andujar is one of the hunkiest players on tour, so obviously we had to stop by and watch him and doubles partner Daniel Gimeno-Traver (who had lost the 5-setter against GGL) beat up on douchey Bernard Tomic and Ivan Dodig. (Tomic in particular comes across douchey. he was wearing a hat backwards...)
Particularly exciting because Andujar's shirt was coming apart! Unfortunately, this just meant something was flapping at his shoulder, but we were so overcome by his hunkiness that we imagined him flexing his muscles and ripping the thing to shreds.
At this point the evening was wearing down and the timing became a major concern, cos several matches that we really wanted to be able to sit and get good spots for and watch for a while we're all due to start somewhat shortly - an all-Spanish doubles match featuring Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers, Jamie Murray's mixed doubles, and Ana Ivanovic-Nenad Zimonjic mixed doubles. (We also thought we'd be able to stop by Aisam's mixed dubs but his team withdrew. :/)
Ana-Nenad was starting later, and the other two matches were on adjacent courts. We decided to start with Marcel and Marc.
AND OH MY GOD WERE THEY CUTE. They were playing GGL and Albert Montanes and Marcel came in all joking around with Montanes and we totally were thinking they were ready to just switch partners. Everyone was very relaxed and in a good mood. Lots of smiles during the warming up. :D Marc Lopez is just beyond adorable and was looking quite trim and attractive up close. Quality stubble.
Marcel was also looking cute, although seeing him just made us miss Tommy Robredo more. We were flashing back to last year when Marcel was that adorable awkward gangly kid playing with dashing Tommy. :33333 (Cos I'd only been a tennis fan for two and a half months and I'd managed to discover Tommy - although I didn't fully appreciate his perfection until I saw him in person - but not Marcel.) ::sigh:: memories. . .
Not that Marcel isn't presh on his own!
This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of the day. SO ADORABLE, Marc Lopez waiting for Marcel to serve. And giggling while doing so. They were all SO SMILEY, especially Marc. :D
Unnnnnfortunately it was not all fun and games. After only 3 games - without even a changeover! - GGL had to retire. (remember that 5-setter I said was important?) ::sigh:: So that's why we don't have oodles of pictures of chatty, giggly Spaniards. We thought we would have more time with them!! ;____;
However, the entertainment was not over yet! Marc had two friends who were over on our side of the court, so he came over to the little fence to talk to them. I was sitting. . . right next to that bench!! His friends were very good-looking, by the way. And of course Marc was all smiley and it was all very adorable. Then... Feli Lady reappeared!! We'd noticed her before, getting to the match all early like we did, haha, and we were like "omg is that Feli Lady?? Here to support Feli's friends??" and after the match her and her friend were standing right up on top of Marc's friends and I heard one of them say, really loudly, "I got a great picture of them talking!!"
I was like "...wth, Feli Lady. That's... so rude and awkward!" but then it turned out - she'd befriended Marc's friends! God, she's good. Advanced level fangirling. When they turned away from Marc, one of them said "You forgot to get her picture!!" - I guess they wanted to take a pic with Marc. And his friends looked so upset that they'd forgotten!! They were looking back to where Marc was already practically across the court like "ooooh nooo!" thinking "do we shout at him to call him back? but he's so far! and it'd be a pain for him! but we promised this lady DD:" and it was SO CUTE. But Feli Lady was cool, she was like "haha no, don't worry about it, i got a great picture of you guys talking" and everyone was happy again.
Oh, and they asked the dudes why GGL retired, which I assumed was because of the 5-setter earlier (we'd been worried that he was going to just withdraw, to be honest, so at least we got three games!) and I got the more specific answer that the long match had led to some sort of problem with his toe. Hopefully he'll feel better for his next singles match!
All that concluded, and Katie back from the facilities (she missed all the above because I got all nervous about time... I stink. :( ) we whisked over to Jamie Murray and Nadia Petrova playing doubles against Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina. Jamie and Nads are a good combination but neither of them was firing on all cylinders tonight. Leander was a bit off as well but Elena was being awesome enough to overcome that. Again, I felt so bad for Jamie, but it was such a fun match to watch. Mixed doubles is just massively entertaining.
Serious faces. :(
Happy faces. They were a good team, though. Elena is adorable!!
I was joking that Katie should take a pic of Leander's butt, which she'd done for me with Feli earlier, and she actually did because she's mean. But I won't inflict it on you.
MOST AMAZING MOMENT. Ahahahaaa a squirrel ran along the fence and hopped onto the court. WPS fans will remember a similar incident at the final, just this past Saturday. A fucked up sickly crazy squirrel ran onto the field and ran in circles and stopped play for 5 full minutes, until he was dragged off under a box.
This squirrel was way cooler and was just confused and adorable and hilarious for a little. Katie and I were like "WHAT THE HELL SQUIRRELS, LEAVE OUR SPORTS ALONE" but we were cracking up. And as you can see, Elena was laughing and trying to shoo it with her racket. XDD
An old dude who was working for the tournament had been chilling next to use in between changeovers and he missed the squirrel action so he came back and was like "what's going on??" and hew as adorable. <333 We thought he'd left but as we were leaving he was coming back in and we were like "YAY!" haha idk, we amuse ourselves.
Anyway, at this point I checked twitter on Katie's iphone (i don't have a smart phone, I'm like the only person in the universe) and Judy tweeted a picture of the squirrel. Jeiwofjsifd we were in the same match as Judy Murray!!! What if she was RIGHT BEHIND US hearing us freak out over being in the same match as her??
Luckily we could tell from the angle of the shot that she wasn't, and Katie was able to spot her!
Can you find her?
We stayed for most of the first set but I started to get antsy because the match before Ana-Nenad was wrapping up. I wanted to get there early because it was going to be on a tiny court and we anticipated that being very popular, even though it was late - and even though EVERYONE was in Isner-Baghdatis. They had to make an announcement that no one else was getting in (chronologically this happened in between Andujar and Marc-Marcel, I think. We also got crepes at that point! So tasty!!) and we'd just seen ENORMOUS lines right before they made that announcement.
Of course...after we got there all early and got ourselves good seats...Ana-Nenad was moved to a larger court. Haha that was good though - it was around 8 at that point and most of the courts were empty. There was just like... one other doubles match stretching on.
At this point I was pretty friggin tired (also at this point in writing this entry, although I did it in three sittings) so I was thinking about my back and the time as much as anything. But! Ana is lovely. And the crowd was so behind her! Cheering madly for every shot she made, gasping in disappointment over the misses. (although the woman next to me, clearly a fan, was calling her Anna - like anne-uh, the American way. Um. ...)
And Nenad is very, very attractive. My heavens! So hot!! And doing all doubles strategy things and being awesome. It was really fun to watch them interact, although they were pretty serious business.
bonus Ana epic action shot:
So yeah... I was totally slagged at this point so we didn't stay the entire first set there either. It was around 8:30 and we finally head for home!
A super-duper incredibly full and fun and satisfying day! I can't believe how many awesome people we saw! And just had so much fun doing it. Everything went well and everyone was nice and we stayed hydrated and happy! I love doubles, so it was fantastic to see so many matches, and especially with so many of my favorite players!
We're going back on Saturday and we expect to be more interested in the bigger matches and less into the smaller ones, which will allow us to be much more relaxed and stationary and kind of get into the tennis more. I anticipate Petko will be playing, and hopefully Juanqui vs Marcel, and Verdasco and maybe Feli again! Unfortunately, it looks like David Ferrer won't be on Saturday cos he's playing tomorrow, but it still looks like a fantastic line-up. And maybe I'll see Ferru on the practice courts again! of course if he hits with Rafa I won't be able to get a glimpse. XDD Anyone know where the practice schedules can be found? (if anyone got this far.)
Oh, and I have to end by saying once again that all the pictures were taken by my sister Katie, and aren't they amazing? :D I'm such a proud twinsie. There are at least a few more of most of these people so if there's anyone you'd like to see more of, feel free to let me know!
SO CLOSE. SO AWKWARD. Hahaha every time he came back for a changeover I didn't even know where to look. I was like "ajdidsofds Gilles is right in front of me I should soak it in... but what if he looks at me? And we make eye contact from like 2 feet away??" It was the closest we got to anyone and we spent the whole day on small courts.
And of course, he is ADORABLE up close. *_________* So presh!! Such, um, sinewy legs...
He wasn't playing well when we were there and kept shouting at himself in French. And the crowd was all French and kept saying "Allez Gilles!!" And making these "ooeuuah" sounds that are really hard to transcribe but extremely French. It was fun as hell.
And Katie captured his derp face!
but mostly he was pretty.
And he ended up winning the 5th set! Probably because we left. . .
Flavs was next, back on the court where we saw Feli. Good times on Court 11.
Flavia was all fuckin' business. She's so light and jokey and full of personality that I was actually a little surprised, but hey - she was doing her job and she was taking it seriously. It was epic. And she played pretty great! Beat a fellow Italian, Romina Oprandi, who wears a ridiculous hat with a bill that goes almost straight up. So Flavs clearly was not going to go down to someone in a hat like that.
Bam. While I'm talking clothing, I love her kit!
But it was a bit of a blow-out so we didn't stay too long. Also I think we were behind Oprandi's cousins or friends or something. . . two dudes kept cheering for her super hard.
Pablo Andujar is one of the hunkiest players on tour, so obviously we had to stop by and watch him and doubles partner Daniel Gimeno-Traver (who had lost the 5-setter against GGL) beat up on douchey Bernard Tomic and Ivan Dodig. (Tomic in particular comes across douchey. he was wearing a hat backwards...)
Particularly exciting because Andujar's shirt was coming apart! Unfortunately, this just meant something was flapping at his shoulder, but we were so overcome by his hunkiness that we imagined him flexing his muscles and ripping the thing to shreds.
At this point the evening was wearing down and the timing became a major concern, cos several matches that we really wanted to be able to sit and get good spots for and watch for a while we're all due to start somewhat shortly - an all-Spanish doubles match featuring Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers, Jamie Murray's mixed doubles, and Ana Ivanovic-Nenad Zimonjic mixed doubles. (We also thought we'd be able to stop by Aisam's mixed dubs but his team withdrew. :/)
Ana-Nenad was starting later, and the other two matches were on adjacent courts. We decided to start with Marcel and Marc.
AND OH MY GOD WERE THEY CUTE. They were playing GGL and Albert Montanes and Marcel came in all joking around with Montanes and we totally were thinking they were ready to just switch partners. Everyone was very relaxed and in a good mood. Lots of smiles during the warming up. :D Marc Lopez is just beyond adorable and was looking quite trim and attractive up close. Quality stubble.
Marcel was also looking cute, although seeing him just made us miss Tommy Robredo more. We were flashing back to last year when Marcel was that adorable awkward gangly kid playing with dashing Tommy. :33333 (Cos I'd only been a tennis fan for two and a half months and I'd managed to discover Tommy - although I didn't fully appreciate his perfection until I saw him in person - but not Marcel.) ::sigh:: memories. . .
Not that Marcel isn't presh on his own!
This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of the day. SO ADORABLE, Marc Lopez waiting for Marcel to serve. And giggling while doing so. They were all SO SMILEY, especially Marc. :D
Unnnnnfortunately it was not all fun and games. After only 3 games - without even a changeover! - GGL had to retire. (remember that 5-setter I said was important?) ::sigh:: So that's why we don't have oodles of pictures of chatty, giggly Spaniards. We thought we would have more time with them!! ;____;
However, the entertainment was not over yet! Marc had two friends who were over on our side of the court, so he came over to the little fence to talk to them. I was sitting. . . right next to that bench!! His friends were very good-looking, by the way. And of course Marc was all smiley and it was all very adorable. Then... Feli Lady reappeared!! We'd noticed her before, getting to the match all early like we did, haha, and we were like "omg is that Feli Lady?? Here to support Feli's friends??" and after the match her and her friend were standing right up on top of Marc's friends and I heard one of them say, really loudly, "I got a great picture of them talking!!"
I was like "...wth, Feli Lady. That's... so rude and awkward!" but then it turned out - she'd befriended Marc's friends! God, she's good. Advanced level fangirling. When they turned away from Marc, one of them said "You forgot to get her picture!!" - I guess they wanted to take a pic with Marc. And his friends looked so upset that they'd forgotten!! They were looking back to where Marc was already practically across the court like "ooooh nooo!" thinking "do we shout at him to call him back? but he's so far! and it'd be a pain for him! but we promised this lady DD:" and it was SO CUTE. But Feli Lady was cool, she was like "haha no, don't worry about it, i got a great picture of you guys talking" and everyone was happy again.
Oh, and they asked the dudes why GGL retired, which I assumed was because of the 5-setter earlier (we'd been worried that he was going to just withdraw, to be honest, so at least we got three games!) and I got the more specific answer that the long match had led to some sort of problem with his toe. Hopefully he'll feel better for his next singles match!
All that concluded, and Katie back from the facilities (she missed all the above because I got all nervous about time... I stink. :( ) we whisked over to Jamie Murray and Nadia Petrova playing doubles against Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina. Jamie and Nads are a good combination but neither of them was firing on all cylinders tonight. Leander was a bit off as well but Elena was being awesome enough to overcome that. Again, I felt so bad for Jamie, but it was such a fun match to watch. Mixed doubles is just massively entertaining.
Serious faces. :(
Happy faces. They were a good team, though. Elena is adorable!!
I was joking that Katie should take a pic of Leander's butt, which she'd done for me with Feli earlier, and she actually did because she's mean. But I won't inflict it on you.
MOST AMAZING MOMENT. Ahahahaaa a squirrel ran along the fence and hopped onto the court. WPS fans will remember a similar incident at the final, just this past Saturday. A fucked up sickly crazy squirrel ran onto the field and ran in circles and stopped play for 5 full minutes, until he was dragged off under a box.
This squirrel was way cooler and was just confused and adorable and hilarious for a little. Katie and I were like "WHAT THE HELL SQUIRRELS, LEAVE OUR SPORTS ALONE" but we were cracking up. And as you can see, Elena was laughing and trying to shoo it with her racket. XDD
An old dude who was working for the tournament had been chilling next to use in between changeovers and he missed the squirrel action so he came back and was like "what's going on??" and hew as adorable. <333 We thought he'd left but as we were leaving he was coming back in and we were like "YAY!" haha idk, we amuse ourselves.
Anyway, at this point I checked twitter on Katie's iphone (i don't have a smart phone, I'm like the only person in the universe) and Judy tweeted a picture of the squirrel. Jeiwofjsifd we were in the same match as Judy Murray!!! What if she was RIGHT BEHIND US hearing us freak out over being in the same match as her??
Luckily we could tell from the angle of the shot that she wasn't, and Katie was able to spot her!
Can you find her?
We stayed for most of the first set but I started to get antsy because the match before Ana-Nenad was wrapping up. I wanted to get there early because it was going to be on a tiny court and we anticipated that being very popular, even though it was late - and even though EVERYONE was in Isner-Baghdatis. They had to make an announcement that no one else was getting in (chronologically this happened in between Andujar and Marc-Marcel, I think. We also got crepes at that point! So tasty!!) and we'd just seen ENORMOUS lines right before they made that announcement.
Of course...after we got there all early and got ourselves good seats...Ana-Nenad was moved to a larger court. Haha that was good though - it was around 8 at that point and most of the courts were empty. There was just like... one other doubles match stretching on.
At this point I was pretty friggin tired (also at this point in writing this entry, although I did it in three sittings) so I was thinking about my back and the time as much as anything. But! Ana is lovely. And the crowd was so behind her! Cheering madly for every shot she made, gasping in disappointment over the misses. (although the woman next to me, clearly a fan, was calling her Anna - like anne-uh, the American way. Um. ...)
And Nenad is very, very attractive. My heavens! So hot!! And doing all doubles strategy things and being awesome. It was really fun to watch them interact, although they were pretty serious business.
bonus Ana epic action shot:
So yeah... I was totally slagged at this point so we didn't stay the entire first set there either. It was around 8:30 and we finally head for home!
A super-duper incredibly full and fun and satisfying day! I can't believe how many awesome people we saw! And just had so much fun doing it. Everything went well and everyone was nice and we stayed hydrated and happy! I love doubles, so it was fantastic to see so many matches, and especially with so many of my favorite players!
We're going back on Saturday and we expect to be more interested in the bigger matches and less into the smaller ones, which will allow us to be much more relaxed and stationary and kind of get into the tennis more. I anticipate Petko will be playing, and hopefully Juanqui vs Marcel, and Verdasco and maybe Feli again! Unfortunately, it looks like David Ferrer won't be on Saturday cos he's playing tomorrow, but it still looks like a fantastic line-up. And maybe I'll see Ferru on the practice courts again! of course if he hits with Rafa I won't be able to get a glimpse. XDD Anyone know where the practice schedules can be found? (if anyone got this far.)
Oh, and I have to end by saying once again that all the pictures were taken by my sister Katie, and aren't they amazing? :D I'm such a proud twinsie. There are at least a few more of most of these people so if there's anyone you'd like to see more of, feel free to let me know!