The Girl with the Goalden Boot

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

 

Carlos Moya's ass

I really suck at updating. Having the internet continuously crap out on me for the past week doesn't help either.

Anyways. After my last post about seeing Feli at the Medibank Tennis tourney, I kept going back there (for the next 3 days). Honestly, once you get to Olympic Park, it felt like another country, or an island, like a mini vacation. Everyone was so friendly - the players, the volunteers, the bus driver, other spectators from Sydney or from overseas. It's been such a wonderful experience, I can't wait to go back next year. Even though it's the last tournament before the Australian Open (AO), the players are quite relaxed, perhaps because it's a small tournament, giving it a rather intimate atmosphere. All the players I've come across are nice, polite, approachable and none of them have an entourage or security guards with them. It's a shame Rafa decided to skip this tournament, but I forgive him, because he's doing so well at the AO right now.

Day 2: More Feli. Plus others.
On Monday, Day 2 of the Medibank, I went during the day to watch Feli v Verdasco. Verdasco is another Spaniard, and is Feli's regular doubles partner. When two players are great friends off court, they have plenty of respect for each other on the court, and give everything on the court. The match went to 3 sets, with Feli unfortunately losing. Feli had an amazing serve, but he lacked variety with his shots (too many backhand slices). I had about 15 min. left before I had to head to work (the Tennis Centre is halfway between home & work - how convenient!), so I headed to the practice courts to see who was there. I was too late for Richard Gasquet (who was just leaving the court), but I saw Justine Henin. She really is quite petite for an athlete, which makes her powerful shots even more amazing.

Day 3: Best day of 2008, for sure! Meeting Gasquet. Moya's ass...
The next day (Tuesday, Day 3), I headed to Medibank later in the afternoon, because I was too tired from work, and there weren't good matches on the outside courts earlier in the day. Little did I know what was to come... The first thing I did after I bought my ground pass was to head to the practice courts, and the first player I saw was Gasquet, practising with Fabrice Santoro. Surprisingly, no one was around, so I found a nice seat and had my lunch while watching Gasquet. While Gasquet took a quick drinks break, I got him to autograph my program - yay! And I even managed to say "merci beaucoup!" :P After his session ended, I had my photo taken with him! I never realised how cute he was until this moment. :) Quite a good player too - I saw some of his doubles matches with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

I walked around the practice courts to see if there were any players I liked, but no one I knew were practising yet. I found myself a nice spot on the grass overlooking practice courts 14 & 15, and there was the Mallorcan lady we met on Sunday. We had a chat for a while, and then she decided to go get food. I checked the courts again, and saw a guy practising quite intensely. Shirtless too. ;) There was another girl, Denisa, who was watching him as well, and I found out from her that the player's name is Igor Andreev. He'd lost his first round match to Gasquet, but was obviously practising for the AO. As he took a drinks break, Denisa and I helped each other take photos with Andreev (hot, sweaty and shirtless!). Though I must confess he actually isn't as good-looking as I first thought.

Denisa and I walked around for a bit and chatted. We saw Safina, Marat Safin's sister. Denisa was telling me how Safina's temper was just as bad as his brother's, also breaking as many racquets, lol. Another player with his coach was approaching from the player's lounge... I said to Denisa, "That's Carlos Moya, isn't it?" Denisa wasn't sure, because Charly Moya had his hair tied up. But I knew it was him - Nike t-shirt, Nike shoes which looked like Rafa's and Babolat racquets. Yep, that was Charly. I had my photo taken with Charly first...gosh, he's TALL. Charly put his arm around me (omg) so I put my arm around him too, but because I wasn't used to standing next to such a tall guy, my hand accidentally brushes past his ass (omfg *panic attack*) before finding his back. I nearly died right there! How embarrassing. I guess he was cool about it, he didn't react to it... he's probably used to all those French models and Spanish actresses grabbing his ass anyways, lol!

Charly heads to court 14, but Andreev was still there. Denisa and I decided to go there too, and there was a spare bench (not many people were around) - perfect. We sat for a while, with Charly speaking in Spanish to the guy practising on court 13. Then Denisa had to leave to watch a match on Court 1 (her mum was there), leaving me at the bench between courts 13 & 14. Andreev was still not finished with court 14, but Charly couldn't wait any longer as he had a match coming up later in the afternoon. Charly began his warm-up routine, starting with some stretches and a bit of jogging. I kept my cool and pretended to watch Andreev. Before I knew it, Charly put his foot up on the bench, right next to where I was sitting, doing some leg stretches *panic attack*. Again, I kept silent as I didn't want to embarrass myself or seem like a stupid fangirl. A few people saw him and asked for autographs, which he kindly signed. And then he tied his shoelaces (don't ask me why he didn't do that before jogging!) on the bench, right next to me. I waited till he finished before I opened my mouth (finally!) and asked him to sign my Spanish flag. Which he kindly did. And I said to him, "You played great against Rafa in Chennai." (Rafa beat Charly in a 4 hour marathon match: 6-7 7-6 7-5). Charly said (in a soft voice that would make any girl melt), "Thank you", with a smile. I died again! I let him get on with his warming up (with those pulley things tennis players use - not sure what they're called, but they warm up their arm muscles with them?). Andreev still hadn't finished on court 14, so Charly and his coach went to court 15. I didn't follow immediately (again, trying to keep my cool) and watched Andreev for a bit longer. I then went around to the bench facing court 15, and sat there watching Charly's entire practice session. It seemed like a dream, not that I ever dream of him though, hehe.

When Charly's practice session was over, I went to watch a bit of Gasquet's doubles match, where I sat behind the players' seats again. Next to me was a kid with his grandpa, holding a Gasquet banner the kid drew (with coloured pencils - how cute!), and calling out every now and then, "Allez Gasquet! Allez Gasquet!" A photographer from the French paper L'equipe spotted the banner and pointed his camera towards our direction. Not sure if it made the press though! I left after the first set to get ready for Charly's match.

I found the Mallorcan lady with her husband tying up their Mallorcan flags in the back row, so I joined them up there and tied my Spanish flag right next to theirs. As Charly and the other player (Koubek) walked out, the Mallorcan couple stood up and shouted something in their local dialect to Charly. I had no idea what they were saying but I stood up and waved the flags with them, lol! I saw that Charly was wearing the white Nike bandana (I was expecting black), so I took my hat off and put mine on too! A few people, also with a Spanish flag, came up to the back to join us. Turned out they were just like me, Aussies who supported the Spaniards. Yay - cheer squad! Charly played badly in the first set, but he came back to win the match! :)

Day 4: More Moya. Bryan brothers.
I only had a night session ticket the next day (Wednesday, Day 4), as Linda and I had planned to watch matches on centre court together. The good thing was that Charly's match was the last of the "day" matches, so Linda and I went to his match first. I'm not sure why the organisers didn't put Charly's match on centre court. Showcourt 1 was jam-packed full of people and I missed half of the first set waiting to get in! :( When Linda and I finally found seats...sigh... Charly was losing. And I was getting more and more upset by the minute. I yelled "Vamos Carlos!" many times to no effect. Charly was wearing the black bandana (his usual one) today, I wonder if he spotted me the day in the stands the day before and decided to wear a different coloured one? Hee. Anyways. He was losing and couldn't find a way back into the match. While he was at his seat during the last changeover, he looked around at the stands, and then looked at the stands in our direction... I wonder if he spotted my white bandana again, lol! Of the 4 days, I hadn't spotted a single person with any bandana, let alone the same Nike one the players wear... So Charly ended up losing, and those crappy bandwagon fans moved towards the other player's (Calleri) direction for autographs (which he didn't sign!). While I go towards Charly, of course. I yelled, "Good luck in Melbourne!" I think Charly responded to that by tossing his sweaty wristband to the crowd. It one metre in front of where I was, and a kid had already picked it up. Nooooot fair! (And I wasn't mean enough to snatch it off the kid!).

Linda and I sat up in the rafters in centre court, because we got our tickets late. The view wasn't too bad though. I must say it's much more comfortable and relaxing watching a match as a neutral. You simply don't have to worry about your player playing badly or losing. We watched Vaidisova v Jankovic, and the Bryan brothers in action. The Bryan brothers are awesome, and they are so, so similar in every way. Except they're actually mirror images of each other, because Bob is left-handed while Mike is a righty. Very fun to watch! There was a crazily-long rally in which the Bryan brothers won, and they did their trademark chest-to-chest thingy, how cute!

I know this is really long. I had to record all my memories here - it's like nothing I've experienced before. I gained much, much more than I'd expected. Before the tournament, I thought I'd go on the free Sunday and one more day, just to see a few matches, and that was it. I met all the players that I like and watched them play. The whole Carlos Moya thing was just unbelieveable - I was simply at the right place at the right time. Photos have been uploaded on Facebook (if you have Facebook, you've probably seen the pics already!).

Lola Nadal 8:00 PM