Ily at the Sunniest Wimbledon 2008

[SAFINNO1]

With the end of the tennis season and possibly the end of Marat’s career, the TGFR has been a bit quiet, I presume some people are busy and there is no new tennis news so as i am on the train to London in November, I have finally decided to write my report a whole 4 months later so I hope I can remember everything. So here goes…..



For another year I have returned back to the home of the wonderful game we call Tennis. Wimbledon 2008 started for me on the Sunday 22nd June 2008. This year I decided to work somewhere different in the Officials Buttery Lounge – which is basically where all the stewards and all the match officials chill out and eat.
So whilst I was at work on Sunday a lot of the players were fine tuning their preparations – I wasn’t able to take many pictures as never had my camera this day but did talk with some of the players –as again I had unlimited access to all areas of the grounds.
It was a quiet day but the most shocking thing to me on this day was my encounter with Roger Federer. He had just finished his practise session and I politely went to speak to him and I got the silent treatment so I just let him be and then I had a request to get an autograph from him and so I asked him for an autograph and just replied ‘Sorry but I’m not signing any autographs today’ as he walked past me and a bunch of journalists. I was pretty annoyed and had cursed that I hope he didn’t win Wimbledon this year (And we all know that this didn’t happen!)
Marat Watch – No sign of him today

Monday 23rd June 2008
My shift started a 12-10 so I came early to see some of the players practising early and catch some of the action on the outside courts
I saw Maria K and got a picture with her


I saw Sveta K

As well as Zhenya Korolev

Kremlin Cup Winner Igor Kunitsyn

Marat Watch - I sadly missed all the action at the courts as I was working and was happy to see Marat winning a match so easy and I had already kind of come to terms with a loss against Djoko.

Tuesday 24th June
I had an early start today 10-8 so I missed most of the player in warm up but I caught Lleyton.

For Marat’s benefit I done some scouting on Novak and watched his practise which was very entertaining as he played to the crowd as well as trying to improve his football skills.





Mario Ancic was talking to Mats as was Tipsy his practise partner, as was Willy.



I walked past Rafa as well.

Marat Watch [/b]– He was practising at between 2-3pm with one of the qualifiers and practise seemed to go well. But outside the grounds on the walk from the tube station to Wimbledon there is an adidas billboard with Marat on and I looked on and thought tomorrow could be your day as I left in the evening.


Wednesday 25th June
I was late for work today as I was out the previous night but got some snaps of Kolya, Dinara, Misha






Marat Watch – I saw him before his epic match on the practise courts where he seemed in good heart and I wished him good luck and he was like I’m going to need it but who knows? I was half heartedly following the scoreboard as I thought he was going to lose but I saw Marat won the 1st set and I was impressed at least he had won a set and then news started to filter around the umpires that Marat was 2 sets up – first shock of the championships and then I ran to the hill to watch him win the last game on a DF and a nice embrace at the net.

Thursday 26th June
By far the best day for pictures, had a late start and the weather was boiling and as I entered the practise courts I saw no one but as time changed it packed up. First of all Rafa entered after his practise (looking at me quite angrily in this picture LOL)

he was then followed by David Ferrer

then they must have talked for about an hour and then Rafa’s trainer, David’s trainer arrived, Toni arrived, their agents arrived

and it was a Spanish armada as Lopez came and went. They were talking about football and food from what I understand LOL But I lost interest as Maratski arrived,





I also noticed that Jankovic who was sitting behind Marat could not keep her eyes of him and spoke to Marat as he sat down. Gumy arrived with a cigarette in hand as Marat started to talk to some old man. Before he got called over to the Spanish armada Marat pinched Miguel who was with David Ferrer on the bum obviously know each other from his time at Valencia and then they started to have a big laugh didn’t understand why but it was nice to see. That is when I had to leave but I saw Ollie Rochus with his child and Wife and I thought it was really cute


Friday 27th June
I saw a lot of interesting players today including our darlings Lena and Mitya.









Aswell as Vaidisova, Kiefer, Gasquet, Gonzalez, Hanctuchova.








Today obviously was a Marat match with Andreas Seppi which I watched the first set whilst on a break and as the match finished late I was required to work, and with the umpires they cant leave the grounds until the last match had finished and of course that day the last match on was Marat’s so there was a load of umpires surrounding the scoreboard cheering for Marat to win, they were shouting for Marat to win and every point until there was a big cheer when he win – I was part of the group and I got told off by my manager for not doing work which I replied I being polite to out customers when I was just talking to them about Marat – cant remember her name but the Greek umpire who was in Doha with WTA was a big Marat fan.
I did however see Marat at the practise courts in the morning – he was taking with Kolya for a while as well as Eduard and Philip







Saturday 28th June
Day started well as I saw a familiar face in Peter Lundgren (with Boggo & Baggy) and a friendly face in Bob Bryan


Soderling and Tojo, Lleyton, Dina and Misha





Marat Watch - Marat practised with Ferrer and it was a horrible session, broken rackets for first time this week, spraying balls everywhere and left early, he was really frustrated with his serve especially.

END OF WEEK 1 - WEEK 2 TO FOLLOW ASAP

[maratsmaiden]

Thank you so much for posting this - what a great report! and that photo of Marat laughing, well, what can I say about that - I only hope we see more in 2009... I can't wait for week 2!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States!!

[justsafin]

What a great report! Thanks so much Ily!!

Love every piccies of Marat. Looking forward to seeing more!

[jenhatter06]

woohoo! nice surprise - thanks mucho!

[annie]

Great report Ily! And even better pics! Thanks a lot for sharing, can't wait for the 2nd part.

[SAFINNO1]

Monday 30th June [/b]
This week is a quiet week as over half of the players have left and all the kids have arrived but I did see Kohlschrieber congratulate Rafa and Toni on Spain winning the Euro 2008 as they had been having banter over the previous week.
[img src="i73.photobucket.com/albums/i205/ily786/Wimbledon%202008/IMG_6243.jpg"][/img]

Marat Watch – Stanislas Wawrinka was the man put in front of Marat today and I had thought of the Rome match where Marat had chances and hoped he took them today and he did as he played powerhouse hitting to his best, utterly dominated him and the belief was there and I started to believe that he could reach the semi finals and put up a good fight. I also read something hilarious in the newspaper about Marat’s resurgent at his flat in Wimbledon he had been a calm presence and that he was seen watering plants in the garden at this flat which is a hilarious thought IMO.

Tuesday 1st July
Today was not much fun for me as I never saw much tennis but there was something that stands out. Out stores area where we keep our resources is under court number 1, players use this route to get to court number 2. I had seen that Dinara had lost in 3 sets and when I had to go to our stores. I saw a player distraught/angry in pain and floods of tears and it was Dinara along with her coach who was trying to console her and take at an injury (she got in the match) I felt in an awkward position as I genuinely care to ask her if she was okay but I didn’t want to bother her but then as I was just staring at her, her coach told me don’t worry she will be okay and I just took his word. She was there for a whole hour and then she was talking to someone on the phone for a long time as a doctor came to have a look at her. This really showed how much Grand Slams mean to Dinara and how committed and passionate she is to winning and have the confidence she can win a GS in 2009!
Marat Watch - Saw him train for a bit.



















LOL

Wednesday 2nd July
Busiest day of the tournament for the officials as many of them leave today with their pay check today so they try to get everything sorted out, use all their allowances, spend time together. From what I learnt they earn about £2-3000 for the 2 weeks work. I wondered why some of the people left but I was told that some had to go to Newport, Gstaad, Bastad reminding me the ATP/WTA doesn’t ever stop. Never saw much tennis today!
Marat Watch – An amazing win against Feli Lopez for Marat and I want to take some credit after watching the first set me and a friend on our way back to work done the rain dance as Marat seemed too nervous and thankfully the rain came and he showed a mental toughness not associated with him to come back and win in 4. Marat had now been in all 4 GS SF however I knew this was as good as it was going to get as he was too play the King of Grass Roger Federer next and as Marat said you need to be like a rabbit to beat him.

Thursday 3rd July
Very uneventful day until I went to watch the mixed doubles match between Bhupati/Mirza and Igor and Maria – as I was close to getting into a fight. The crowd was full of Indian supporters and as I have Indian heritage and look sort of asian, they were surprised to see me support my darling Russians and they were going to me – who do you think you are supporting them? Who are you etc etc and it got me really mad as I kicked up a fuss as I had to be contained by security. It took me a while to cool down and the fact that I didn’t want to lose my job so I went home and was even to see my team had won and made the SF.









Sveta in the Rain

Marat Watch – He practised side by side with Roger the day before their semi but with a barrier surrounding them – all they seemed to do was watch each other- Marat stayed out for 2 hours and spent a lot of time working his serve. As they both left the practise courts there were some youngsters who had been competing the juniors approach them both asking for autographs which show how youngsters still see Marat as an icon.


Rog and Marat









Friday 4th July
As the previous year I had seen Marat lose to Roger and I was hoping he could win a set. Today Roger practised first before Marat arrived and they were talking before they changed; no talk of tennis just a chit chat.
As for the match – I watched the first 2 sets but left at the TB as I couldn’t watch and sort of expected Roger to break Marat’s challenge. A quick summary of it was Roger was better than Marat at the start – when he broke him in the first game of set – in the middle – when he won the TB and at the end – when he broke to win the match. Apart from them Marat held his own and it was a good performance in my opinion but just lost concentration at key moment but I was happy at his display these 2 weeks and I saw him before he left and I thanked him and wished him a good week in Sweden next week.

Saturday 5th July
I missed the women’s final but I saw Rafa playing foot tennis with his camp which got a lot of viewers and Roger practising in the next area – Rafa had a little child with him and when he passed Roger he made him shake his hand which was lovely and Rafa and Roger spoke for a bit before they left – I think it showed the respect they have for each other but wanted to concentrate on tomorrow.






Sunday 6th July[/u]
This day will live on the memory of all tennis fans, the final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – the day started very badly as rain was in the air for one of the few times this week. So none of the players had much of a warm up, I had the graveyard shift of 12-10 on final day. When play started on Centre Court I was following a scoreboard which was no fun at all, my reaction as seeing Nadal take the first set was one of – Could it be the end of Roger – it seemed like it wasn’t to be as he went a break up in the second so I left for a bit and then return to see Rafa has taken the 2nd set and I thought it was all over so I didn’t pay attention till I heard of tie break which I then went to the Hill to watch it possibly be the end of the final but he survived and won this set – game back on and then to repeat it in the fourth set – Can I just say the backhand pass Roger saved on match point was amazing. I was back at work for the fourth set tie break and all the umpires and workers were following the scoreboard for the tie break in anxiety and we were just listening to the crowd on centre court and I went absolute crazy hen I saw Roger win the fourth set. This is when I took action and I skipped work to sneak onto centre court and was absolute distraught to see him lose his title; I was close to tears seeing how hard he fought back. Walking past the hill there was tension between Rafa and Roger supporters and the crowd were booing Rafa as Roger is our champion and it was a shock to see him lost. But I like to think that is what you Roger for being rude to me LOL







This concludes my long and boring report I used to talk everyday with the umpires making friends with Umpire Molina, Layhani, Armstrong and Bernades who were the nicest. Lars Graff, Ramos and the guy with the afro were pleasant too but I disliked Cedric Mourier – has no personality or manners. I always used to talk to the umpires and try and get some gossip about the players and here are some of the leading umpire’s thoughts.

What the Umpires said – Marion Bartoli is a chunky lady
Marat Safin is a pain to work with sometimes but is a lovely player off the court, he along with Federer, Nadal are who most of the umpires want to watch. Umpires aren’t too fond of Gonzalez either.
Roger Federer is the Umpires favourite with Serena on the WTA side.
Sharapova’s grunting can put off some umpires

[maryb]

Thanks for taking me back to Wimbles 2008, Ily. Many happy memories for me - and delighted to be reminded of the Big Yin's stunning success on grass. His best surface. LMAO. Everybody doubted me ... but with any luck, he'll go even better in 2009 at my sacred ground. ;D One more year Big Yin, that's all I ask ...

Re his brief foray into gardening, why not? Another point that I've made in the past about the Big Yin - he'd make a good gardener! It's very, very therapeutic ... I know. I've had lost weekends in mine, and drink was not involved (ok, maybe sometimes) ... No matter what work, or life, can throw at you ... even 30 minutes in a garden makes all the stresses melt away. Even looking after a windowbox is great! If more people had access to gettting their hands in the soil and nurturing something, the world would be a better place. It's something that's been lost over the years ... and it shows in so many ways.

Next June, I'm renting the Big Yin an allotment to tend. He can grow us all some lettuce ... hey, he could grow his own strawberries and then he can't have a mump about the cost of them at Wimbles. No idea what he'll do about the spaghetti ... LMAO. He can still have a mump about that ... and with any luck, he'll comment on the veggie burgers. They're awful. I'd rather chew my shoes. Or a furry slipper. ;D

[annie]

Oh Ily, no way is your report boring! It's great! Especially about the part with the "Gossipping Umps!" LOL. Thanks again for sharing your experience and the wonderful pictures you took!

[sam]

thank you for sharing, i really enjoy ur report!!!

[Anne]

Thanks so much for the report! It's amazing and I think you had a great time over there! I just hope Marat will play at least one more time at Wimbly..

[maryb]

Me too!!!

(Do you think tears would work on the Big Yin?) ;D

FG

PS Davis, I'm stunned. You'd love sitting in the rain ... ;D

[Annie]

Oh Ily thanks babe!!!! That was one fun read! I truly enjoyed that

P.S. Kremlin Cup report and photos coming out this week finally so look out for that

[helloticky]

SAFINNO1 nice pics & good report thank you so much ^_^

[Mrs. Fabregas]

Dec 8, 2008 10:40:09 GMT 3 Annie said:

P.S. Kremlin Cup report and photos coming out this week finally so look out for that

Yup, it''s time for that, completely finished and ready to post



Ily ..... thanks for this wonderful report, mainly because of you and ofcourse the lovely and sweet fairy godmother, Wimbledon is very high on my "to do" list , if only the hayfever (cuz you know, me and grass isn't the best combination ) would co-operate .... who knows in 2009

[aggie]

Hi ;D

About Your pictures taken last year in Wimbledon,

How did you take the pic of Marat on a bench ?

you was not far away from him ? everybody can approach him in Wimbledon ?