tms of bercy

[MariaV]

You're welcome Teresa! I think I'm done for tonight! So c'ya tmrw!
LOL @ the withdrawal symptoms, I'm sure gonna miss seeing Marat at least on TV but I definitely have to get some work done meanwhile. ;D

[tall_one]

audio of of the atp website

www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackItA.asp?file=http://wm.atptennis-global.speedera.net/wm.atptennis-global/safin1_paris7.wma

and there is 2 new ones on the tms paris site ;D

www.fft.fr/bnpparibasmasters/audio.html

[Damita]

thanks Maria for this itw of Gerard! and oh i have to go listen to this audio you're all talking about! ;D

French commentators said at the beginning of the match that Marat's backhand has been terrific through the whole week, and that maybe they had never seen him playing backhand so well.
Another stats about Marat in Bercy: in 5 Masters Series here he won 13 of the 17 tiebreaks he played.

For the most unlucky of TGFR-ers who didn't see the ceremony, here's what happend (i'll write Marat's words in orange, and my comments in green):

When he was sitting on his chair first, the whole crowd was chanting Sa-fin Sa-fin and the camera was on him, his eyes were sparkling. French interviewer came to congratulate him and asked: i guess that this victory is going to stay a long time (in your memory) because not only did you obtain it in front of your... i was about to say "homecrowd" cute smile!! and shiny eyes! ... but also you had perhaps to fight more than expected?
lovely smile again, and still the shiny eyes Actually...it's easier to play here that at home cuz at home you have more pressure. Because ppl here support you, they don't care, you know, if you win or lose, but they support you as much as they can. And of course it was difficult, i didn't expect him to be playing so well because it's a final and he was for the 1st time in a final, and in such a big tournament. He gave his best, he had a couple of chances to get back in the match but luck was on my side smiles again

After that he came to get the trophy from the hands of young french gymnastic champion in Athens, Emilie Lepeenec. she's 1,51m and Marat's 1,93m. that was cute! Standing ovation for Marat. He talked a bit with the president of the french tennis federation (were both smiling and laughing). He lift the trophy, and not only did he look happy and proud, but also very touched.
Stepanek made a little speech. Then Marat congratulated him on his week here and on his season, and wished him good luck for the future.

Then he said: Thanks to the sponsors, BNP Paribas... then the crowd began to whistle and boo him. in france it's not in our tradition to thank the sponsors, cuz it's all about money, and we prefer the sports side any competition. but they were whistling peacefully tho, and Marat knows that he was amused and raised his arms to make them calm down Wait, wait, wait... I want to uhh... talking to the translator Translate! the most important will come later

Then he congratulated Cédric Pioline for his second year as the TMS Bercy director. Cédric acted as Marat's training partner on saturday morning and sunday morning btw. He had no partner and Peter asked Cédric to do this for Marat, and he was peased to so... he may be the director but he's a bit biased i think: he stayed around Peter and Amit a lot during the semi and the final (and probably the QF against Hewitt cuz he said on tv he enjoyed watching this match
Then: Of course to the ball kids...they were very fast this week as opposed to?... ;D;)
Then i wanted to say, i don't see any linesmen here but thanks a lot to them because without them i wouldn't have won a point, so thanks a lot ROTFL ;D

Of course the most important things showing the crowd with his hand thanks a lot for coming here *cough* i think he was really touched and moved Thanks for your support, thanks for keeping tennis alive. I'm...?... to come play tennis here again and again, in the summer, in the winter...and i realy enjoyed my tennis, i really enjoyed to have you herethen mumbling (probably moved again...ppl start applauding. Marat waited patiently, nodding thankfully. Beautiful smile ;D shiny eyes!!
I'd really have to say that i mean... i really love to play in France yes it's true crowd applauded

And of course there is a part of the success that i'm winning lately is also turned to his box for my coach, my team there, managers... finally success is coming Peter smiling proudly and i think he was touched by those words.

Then i didn't hear really good what Marat said because of french commentators speaking very loud... dammit. But Marat was looking at his box and smiling, and the look in his eyes was thankful.

[Damita]

Getty pics

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[MariaV]

Thanks for making the great transcript Steph!
And I just had to make a remark - THEY (I mean the French commentators) may have not seen his BH that good before this week, I HAVE!!! ;D It's his trademark, the BEST in the world!!!! (Fed's one is different, not THAT stable ...... if you wanna argue.) Especially in this shape, virtually flawless BH the whole week, yes! ;D

[Myke]

Teresa said:

LOL but I dont think that is what Marat had in mind!!



LOL go to the Bercy site, and click on the AUDI and then the audi where he says....I want to sleep in my own bed, his voice is clear and sexy as always ;D

Oooooh audiO! AudiOOO! Lol...okay, superblonde moment again *cough* I'm gonna check now!

Steph, thanks a lot for your report again

[Damita]

Less than an hour after the ceremony Marat was in the players' lounge answering questions of french journalists of the "Stade 2" show.

They first asked him about him moving in Paris ;D. It wasn't easy to hear him because of the guy who was translating his words at the same time, but he said (smiling):
It's difficult you know, you have quite high taxes so i can't move in but when i'm retired... i'll try to think about it (smiled again)

they asked if the taxes in Russia weren't high and he answered no, no... not so high... 13% only (looked amused)

They said that as he wins Bercy every two years, no need to come next year ;D.
Yeah of course. I mean there are lots of ppl playing well here, i can't win the title every year
Thanks to the translator i didn't get what he said then but it was something like: for some reason i was injured... others won... Henman won... (Marat raised an eyebrow) if the others don't win i can win here (uhh?)

After that they showed a video making a short summary of his career. they showed the final of bercy in 2000 when his racket hit his eyebrow, and said: 7 stitches, that's the only bad memory Marat has in Bercy ;D. They showed the final of bercy 2002 and the Davis cup final... and to compare they added that he's more impredicatble in RG, as he is in general if you take a look at his career.
They replayed the dropshot of his second round in RG against Mantilla.... and the "dropshorts" ;D LOL. Marat was looking at the video btw, and at this moment he laughed ;D
They said that 14 titles it's not a lot for such a gifted player. gifted? yeah, also to break everything! and we had a replay of the ceremony in Barcelona with the trophy falling. Marat was smiling when looking at those images.

They showed him breaking rackets. And the smile disappeared on his face a little ;D but he smiled again when he saw an image of him yelling on court in RG years ago after a good shot (fighting attitude, yeah! )

They showed the blondes in AO 2000 and Marat's speech in the final ("thanks to my family"). But erm, the camera wasn't on him at this moment anymore, so i can't tell you how he looked when seeing these images again.
The video ended with him winning Madrid and Paris, saying he had an extraordinary fall after a bad summer, winning 2 TMS in a row, a performance that has been done this year by the sole, the only, the unbeatable Federer.... and that we now have found a rival to the Swiss

back to the itw, they spoke about that short dropping again. Journalist asked Marat if the rules weren't killing tennis (cuz ppl blame players for not being enterntaining but when then try to be they got fined).
Answer: no but i think those kinds of things you've got to let it go (smile ) i mean it wasn't so bad
Translator was speaking loud again, grrrrrrr
but Marat was saying something like you have to let ppl decide whether it was good or bad ( he raised an eyebrow.... Christina>>his eyebrows are expressive not only when he plays ;D). He said he was passionate, won a beautiful point with this dropshot, he said he did it (the short dropping) without thinking of what the consequences would be.... and looking at this again he doesn't think it was that bad, doesn't think it deserved a penalty (and smiled again)

The journalist asked him a last question about the female Russian players and their very good year. He told Marat: some say male players are less good in Russia because they spread themselves too thin, with women, money... (Marat smiled at this ;D) and he asked him about his thought on this.
and gosh he was good at avoiding the question! ;D he didn't answered about male players, but just about the girls playing so well this year.
He spoke about Anna K., saying that she might not have won any tournament but she's been good tho, and she pushed the young girls. She went to the US with her mother, she did a lot for tennis in Russia. She's been the first Russian woman to enter the top 10, she's a nice and wonderful girl. And the other girls are following her, they play very well, new young girls appear each month. He said with Myskina and others they now have good young girls in the top 10, and others to come, and it's all because of Anna.

To conclude, journalists wished him good luck for Houston. He smiled, looked confident. He answered something but the micro didn't work . But if i read correctly on his lips he said: of course i'll be there.
They congratulated once more and said that now his new goal should be to beat Roger Federer (no reaction on his face). Thank you very much

[Damita]

MariaV said:

Thanks for making the great transcript Steph!
And I just had to make a remark - THEY (I mean the French commentators) may have not seen his BH that good before this week, I HAVE!!! ;D It's his trademark, the BEST in the world!!!! (Fed's one is different, not THAT stable ...... if you wanna argue.) Especially in this shape, virtually flawless BH the whole week, yes! ;D

LOL Maria, i won't argue! ;D and maybe i didn't say it correctly. Of course they know his backhand is his trademark, and they love it. They always say it's pure beauty to watch, but especially this week, that's what i wanted to say. They said that when they saw him play all his matches this week (erm... lucky guys, they watch him play, but they don't want to share the pleasure with spectators ) they were maybe more impressed than usual cuz he was really tough.

[MariaV]

Not arguing either, Steph! And hehe, I saw all the matches this week too!

Finally a video of Russian TV sports news on the semi! Not the best quality but still.....
When the news video on the final will be up, I'll post it too!

mms://video.rfn.ru/rtr-sport/7372.asf

[Teresa]

Well, I simply do not know where to begin to thank
Damita and Maria for the interviews, awesome amount of pics, and for the video (Maria for me it was great, its all I have and cannot thank you enough)

Damita, sweetie, I LOVED your report of the ceremony and the interview in the Players Lounge there after............I read both like 3 times........made me feel all warm and fuZzy all over..... pathetic I know, but that just the plain old truth.

I LOVE when he smiles and his eyes shine, bless his sweet, darling little heart. There have been so many sad pictures this year, its soooooo good to see the smile with the shining eyes cute cute smile as Damita says.......its really one of the sweetest cute smiles ever

You guys have been simply awesome in your reports etc and I dont think I will suffer so much again from the withdrawal symptoms, cause during December I can just sneak back here and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy

Cédric acted as Marat's training partner on saturday morning and sunday morning btw. He had no partner and Peter asked Cédric to do this for Marat, and he was peased to so... he may be the director but he's a bit biased i think: he stayed around Peter and Amit a lot during the semi and the final

LOL Damita thats so great, would not have known if you had not told us, its great just great ;D

Then: Of course to the ball kids...they were very fast this week as opposed to?...

ROTFL

And of course there is a part of the success that i'm winning lately is also turned to his box for my coach, my team there, managers... finally success is coming Peter smiling proudly and i think he was touched by those words.

LOL I am so warm and fuzzy all over, this is sooooo good

male players are less good in Russia because they spread themselves too thin, with women, money... (Marat smiled at this ) and he asked him about his thought on this.
and gosh he was good at avoiding the question! he didn't answered about male players, but just about the girls playing

LOL

OK OK........... I am going to stop, I could go on it seems like forever, but eveyone will be bored and no will read this anyway ;D

ALSO...... LAST BUT NOT LEAST....nicki thanks for posting the audio links here, makes it sooooo much easier to access, these too I shall sneak back to often to enjoy and savour ;D

[sirius]

Of course to the ball kids...they were very fast this week as opposed to?...

do we really need to answer that question? lol....

THANKS EVERYNE FOR THE LOVELY ARTICLES, PHOTOS, AUDIOS!!!!!

nicki>>>finally...no mumbley jumbley mumbo jumbo in the atp audio.

aaaahhhh BEEERRRRCCCCCYYYY!!!! 4 out of 5! woohooo (of course, i'm counting the DC too)...ahh...that treee..... still remember how i thought it looked horribly ugly first time i saw it lol.....

WE'VE GOT THE TREBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sirius]

i forgot to say something. if you go to the bercy site and look under photos, there's a "TOWEL STORIES" album...check it out..it's hilarious

[Jasmine]

Feel the same way as Teresa. Thank you Damita, MariaV and Teresa also. For such a good scoops, especially the incredible atmosphere from the ceremony and press room. Without this, I gonna miss my big chance of smile and laugh. Hope I can see rerun of the ceremony today. From TMS Bercy Highlight at Star Sport.

[sirius]

Jasmine said:

Feel the same way as Teresa. Thank you Damita, MariaV and Teresa also. For such a good scoops, especially the incredible atmosphere from the ceremony and press room. Without this, I gonna miss my big chance of smile and laugh. Hope I can see rerun of the ceremony today. From TMS Bercy Highlight at Star Sport.

JASMINE...did star sports show it live for u last night? cos someone put up screencaps for the match and it said STAR SPORTS LIVE!!!!

i HATE THAT BLOODY CHANNEL!!!!!!

[annie]

sirius said:

i HATE THAT BLOODY CHANNEL!!!!!!

Oh man, Star Sports?! i hate that channel too...except of course when they're showing marat's matches...but this week they are always putting the matches on delayed telacast...i mean, can you imagine having to watch the match 24 hours late?!! if not that then they keep showing football matches that were 2years old instead of the paris masters...then i also hate cnn for spelling Marat's name MARTIN SAFIN on the sportbar...i mean who the hell is MARTIN SAFIN?! Duh?!

okay, after getting that out...(i still didn't get to see it live...but i told my suitor to watch the match for me coz he has that channel that shows the match live which i didn't have. and i told him to sms me the result as soon as the match was over...and he stayed up all night to watch it even if he had to wake up early the next morning coz he's got to go to work...anyway, i am still going to watch the replay..)
I am so happy for Marat!!!
He is just sooooo great!!! that was an historical feat!!! man, words are not enough to express how happy i am for him...th best of luck to him in Houston!!!