Post by yse on May 4, 2006 17:13:54 GMT 3
I found this ;D ;D ;D
estorilopen06.blogspot.com/
Wednesday – Day 3
I arrived at the usual time (11h00) and met one of my friends at the entrance. He had to check if some tickets he had won through the Eurosport website for the next day could already be picked up, but because he had had an accident some time ago and is still walking with crutches I helped him to the Ticket Box. The tickets weren’t there yet so we went to Centralito to see the match of Gisela Dulko against Paola Suarez.
Since it was getting near noon by now, I said I would go to the training courts to check who was there. In the two previous days Safin had practiced at around this time of day, but I also was hoping to see Tursunov so I could ask for his autograph.
Checkmate! I had been at the top of the stairs that go down to the training courts for a while, zooming the area to see who was around, when I suddenly saw Dmitry Tursunov crossing the avenue towards me, very relaxed listening to some music on his iPod. I called out to him and asked for his autograph. He stopped and I presented him with a pen and a picture I had printed of him with Safin from their doubles match. Suddenly his earpiece came out of his ear and he excused himself with a smile while he arranged it. Then he signed and I apologized for the fact that it was not a photo of him alone but with his doubles partner. I also told him, again, that I really liked his blog and he said thanks with a smile. I smiled back and with humour thanked him also for saying that he liked the Portuguese better than the Spanish (no offence hermanos, it’s just a joke!) and he smiled again and said it was true. And then he was off. I still shouted at him to be gentle on the Portuguese guy (his opponent for tomorrow) but I don’t think he heard me.
As I turned back to go away, I experienced a feeling of déjà vu; there were Marat Safin and Peter Lundgren coming down the stairs on their way to the training courts. They passed me and I said “good morning” to Peter but he probably didn’t recognized me. I followed them at a relaxed distance and saw them enter the court where Tursunov already was. I took some pictures while they were doing the warming up and had to step away from the fence to escape the sprinkles of water coming from the hose Peter was using to wet the clay. Marat started jogging around the court and twice, as he passed behind Peter still holding the hose, he bent down and tickled Peter on the knees. His coach protested good naturedly. They seem to have a very good relationship, kind of like a sort of a good humoured father and his jokester of a son.
This time they practiced mostly backcourt strokes and only tried volleys and smashes at the very end. The training evidently was mostly for the benefit of Safin, for his match against Davydenko later in the day, since Dmitry was having the day off."
Even though it was only practice, Safin was not happy with his strokes. His serve was not the way he liked and even his forehand and backhand were not responding to his wishes. He complained here and there and even shouted something in Russian of which I only understood the word “portugalia”. A couple of Russians behind me watching the practice laughed at what he had said. I asked them what it was but they replied it was a Russian expression. My feeling was that he had said something not very pleasant about Portugal, perhaps complaining about the weather (it was very windy, which affected his serve) or of his lack of luck here. Anyway, the Russian man said something to him to which he replied complainingly while Peter watched smiling. Eventually the Russian couple went away and Peter with good humour said to Safin “See? Now they went away!” His pupil just shrugged.
By the time they were getting ready to go out I took my camera, a photo of him I had printed earlier and a pen, ready to ask for a photo and an autograph, in that order. I asked my friend, who in the meantime had arrived and had come to meet me, to hold the camera for me if he agreed to the photo. A group of little boys was also ready with pens and note books in their hands, but I asked them to ask the autograph of Tursunov first so that Safin would be free for my photo (one has to establish priorities when the time is limited!). As he approached the door I said in Spanish: “Marat, una foto por favor?” (Marat, a photo please?) and he said yes. I placed myself next to him and he rested his left hand on my waist and the so awaited photo was taken – it seems they all like to rest their hand somewhere Gaël Monfils had placed his arm around my shoulders when I took a photo with him! I then said gracias and he rushed away, still signing for the kids and I didn’t have the heart to stop him again for an autograph. A kid asked me to take a photo of him with Marat, but we were not quick enough and he went away.
There is just one more little detail I would like to mention here; after she had taken my photo with Marat, my friend shouted at him: “good luck for later!” and his answer was only a very feeble “thanks” said with without eye contact and no smile.
My friend then turned to talk to Peter about some photos she discovered on the internet of various players at their hotel rooms in Miami, taken with what looked like hidden cameras. It seems Marat had only some innocent photos of him sitting on the bed and going from one room to another, but there were other players with worse photos: like coming out of the shower only with a towel, or playing with their kids, or arguing with their relatives… Peter was shocked to know of these photos and asked if we could identify the website. My friend said yes and Peter asked for her to give him the address the next day. We all agreed that it was not correct to invade the players privacy like that and that some measures had to be taken to straighten the situation.
After all of this we went back to the Centralito where Dulko had won the first set with a 6-1 and was going in good way to win the second. After the match had ended and after we had eaten something, my friends went to ask for the Eurosport tickets again while I went round to the Medical Office to ask for a wheelchair to transport my friend from the Centralito to the Centre Court by the private road used by the players. It was much easier for him to go like this than having to hop on his crutches down and up stairs, along the usual path for the public."
At the Centre Court, Gaël Monfils had won the first set against Albert Martin, and was also winning the second. But the Spaniard managed to take it to a tie-break which he won and then also won the third set and hence the match. We didn’t know yet but this was a glimpse of what was going to happen in the next match which was Safin vs Davydenko.
Safin began well, with both players holding their serve until Davydenko was broken in the 9th game. At 5-4, all Safin had to do was hold his serve which he did. But although he won the set he never seemed happy with himself, mumbling is disappointment to himself here and there, and talking a lot to Peter who kept nodding and gesturing his incitement.
What seemed only a little annoyance suddenly became a catastrophe. In the next two sets Safin only held his service twice and as his service disappeared and his number of unforced errors mounted so raised his frustration and his temper. He mumbled to himself, shouted, made gestures of frustration and even talked and gestured openly to Peter (I’m surprised the umpire didn’t warn him a single time!), threw rackets on the floor and at a certain point even broke his chair with one. All Davydenko had to do was be consisted and solid to win. I then remembered the episode at practice, Marat’s complaints about his strokes, and the unhopeful way he had said thanks to my friend when she wished him good luck. It seems, he never believed in himself enough to win.
I had the impression that he needs lots of confidence to believe in himself right now and because he is a perfectionist when things don’t happen the way he wants, he starts to obsess about them and enters in a downward spiral of defeat. Perhaps it’s still his lack of rhythm that leads to this lack of confidence, or perhaps he wasn’t feeling 100% physically fit, or something else was bothering him. Whatever it was, today was not his day. I was sad, of course, because I hoped to see him do well here, and I hoped to be able to see him more days, but things are what they are and he is still my number one player, perhaps because of this very emotiveness he has. It makes him more human and therefore more close.
Anyway, he will still be here tomorrow for the doubles and then we will see what happens.
A.C. May the 3rd, 2006
estorilopen06.blogspot.com/
Wednesday – Day 3
I arrived at the usual time (11h00) and met one of my friends at the entrance. He had to check if some tickets he had won through the Eurosport website for the next day could already be picked up, but because he had had an accident some time ago and is still walking with crutches I helped him to the Ticket Box. The tickets weren’t there yet so we went to Centralito to see the match of Gisela Dulko against Paola Suarez.
Since it was getting near noon by now, I said I would go to the training courts to check who was there. In the two previous days Safin had practiced at around this time of day, but I also was hoping to see Tursunov so I could ask for his autograph.
Checkmate! I had been at the top of the stairs that go down to the training courts for a while, zooming the area to see who was around, when I suddenly saw Dmitry Tursunov crossing the avenue towards me, very relaxed listening to some music on his iPod. I called out to him and asked for his autograph. He stopped and I presented him with a pen and a picture I had printed of him with Safin from their doubles match. Suddenly his earpiece came out of his ear and he excused himself with a smile while he arranged it. Then he signed and I apologized for the fact that it was not a photo of him alone but with his doubles partner. I also told him, again, that I really liked his blog and he said thanks with a smile. I smiled back and with humour thanked him also for saying that he liked the Portuguese better than the Spanish (no offence hermanos, it’s just a joke!) and he smiled again and said it was true. And then he was off. I still shouted at him to be gentle on the Portuguese guy (his opponent for tomorrow) but I don’t think he heard me.
As I turned back to go away, I experienced a feeling of déjà vu; there were Marat Safin and Peter Lundgren coming down the stairs on their way to the training courts. They passed me and I said “good morning” to Peter but he probably didn’t recognized me. I followed them at a relaxed distance and saw them enter the court where Tursunov already was. I took some pictures while they were doing the warming up and had to step away from the fence to escape the sprinkles of water coming from the hose Peter was using to wet the clay. Marat started jogging around the court and twice, as he passed behind Peter still holding the hose, he bent down and tickled Peter on the knees. His coach protested good naturedly. They seem to have a very good relationship, kind of like a sort of a good humoured father and his jokester of a son.
This time they practiced mostly backcourt strokes and only tried volleys and smashes at the very end. The training evidently was mostly for the benefit of Safin, for his match against Davydenko later in the day, since Dmitry was having the day off."
Even though it was only practice, Safin was not happy with his strokes. His serve was not the way he liked and even his forehand and backhand were not responding to his wishes. He complained here and there and even shouted something in Russian of which I only understood the word “portugalia”. A couple of Russians behind me watching the practice laughed at what he had said. I asked them what it was but they replied it was a Russian expression. My feeling was that he had said something not very pleasant about Portugal, perhaps complaining about the weather (it was very windy, which affected his serve) or of his lack of luck here. Anyway, the Russian man said something to him to which he replied complainingly while Peter watched smiling. Eventually the Russian couple went away and Peter with good humour said to Safin “See? Now they went away!” His pupil just shrugged.
By the time they were getting ready to go out I took my camera, a photo of him I had printed earlier and a pen, ready to ask for a photo and an autograph, in that order. I asked my friend, who in the meantime had arrived and had come to meet me, to hold the camera for me if he agreed to the photo. A group of little boys was also ready with pens and note books in their hands, but I asked them to ask the autograph of Tursunov first so that Safin would be free for my photo (one has to establish priorities when the time is limited!). As he approached the door I said in Spanish: “Marat, una foto por favor?” (Marat, a photo please?) and he said yes. I placed myself next to him and he rested his left hand on my waist and the so awaited photo was taken – it seems they all like to rest their hand somewhere Gaël Monfils had placed his arm around my shoulders when I took a photo with him! I then said gracias and he rushed away, still signing for the kids and I didn’t have the heart to stop him again for an autograph. A kid asked me to take a photo of him with Marat, but we were not quick enough and he went away.
There is just one more little detail I would like to mention here; after she had taken my photo with Marat, my friend shouted at him: “good luck for later!” and his answer was only a very feeble “thanks” said with without eye contact and no smile.
My friend then turned to talk to Peter about some photos she discovered on the internet of various players at their hotel rooms in Miami, taken with what looked like hidden cameras. It seems Marat had only some innocent photos of him sitting on the bed and going from one room to another, but there were other players with worse photos: like coming out of the shower only with a towel, or playing with their kids, or arguing with their relatives… Peter was shocked to know of these photos and asked if we could identify the website. My friend said yes and Peter asked for her to give him the address the next day. We all agreed that it was not correct to invade the players privacy like that and that some measures had to be taken to straighten the situation.
After all of this we went back to the Centralito where Dulko had won the first set with a 6-1 and was going in good way to win the second. After the match had ended and after we had eaten something, my friends went to ask for the Eurosport tickets again while I went round to the Medical Office to ask for a wheelchair to transport my friend from the Centralito to the Centre Court by the private road used by the players. It was much easier for him to go like this than having to hop on his crutches down and up stairs, along the usual path for the public."
At the Centre Court, Gaël Monfils had won the first set against Albert Martin, and was also winning the second. But the Spaniard managed to take it to a tie-break which he won and then also won the third set and hence the match. We didn’t know yet but this was a glimpse of what was going to happen in the next match which was Safin vs Davydenko.
Safin began well, with both players holding their serve until Davydenko was broken in the 9th game. At 5-4, all Safin had to do was hold his serve which he did. But although he won the set he never seemed happy with himself, mumbling is disappointment to himself here and there, and talking a lot to Peter who kept nodding and gesturing his incitement.
What seemed only a little annoyance suddenly became a catastrophe. In the next two sets Safin only held his service twice and as his service disappeared and his number of unforced errors mounted so raised his frustration and his temper. He mumbled to himself, shouted, made gestures of frustration and even talked and gestured openly to Peter (I’m surprised the umpire didn’t warn him a single time!), threw rackets on the floor and at a certain point even broke his chair with one. All Davydenko had to do was be consisted and solid to win. I then remembered the episode at practice, Marat’s complaints about his strokes, and the unhopeful way he had said thanks to my friend when she wished him good luck. It seems, he never believed in himself enough to win.
I had the impression that he needs lots of confidence to believe in himself right now and because he is a perfectionist when things don’t happen the way he wants, he starts to obsess about them and enters in a downward spiral of defeat. Perhaps it’s still his lack of rhythm that leads to this lack of confidence, or perhaps he wasn’t feeling 100% physically fit, or something else was bothering him. Whatever it was, today was not his day. I was sad, of course, because I hoped to see him do well here, and I hoped to be able to see him more days, but things are what they are and he is still my number one player, perhaps because of this very emotiveness he has. It makes him more human and therefore more close.
Anyway, he will still be here tomorrow for the doubles and then we will see what happens.
A.C. May the 3rd, 2006
Sixpack guard 
The report is great! ;D
Marat & Mitya won 
