Post by Annie on Jun 28, 2005 20:15:17 GMT 3
Marseille Report, Video & Photos
February 2004
By Alex
Please do not reproduce this without her permission.
Match Reports
I was at the match today so I can tell you... In the middle of the second set, Mayer did a strong shot, and it seems that Marat did a wrong move or something and between two points he asked the chair umpire to call the physio... and after this point in the middle of the game he came back to his chair and waited for the doc to come. The Doc put a strapping on his left ankle and foot, hopefully Marat was already leading with a break so he just had to hold his serve twice, and won!
I saw him after the match at the player exit and he looked ok, but a bit disturbed, he signed some autograph and they were managing that somebody could lead them to the hotel and wait for hem there to drive them then to the airport... Are they catching Dasha or somebody else here dunno... if he plays double tomorrow I will tell you if a new face arrived
Walt is already in Marseille, anatoly isn't... Yesterday in the car which drove them to the airport, there were Marat, Denis, Walt and another guy, but I don't know who that is... I will see today (if Marat plays the double, if a new head is there)
He played well!! He was really focused... He changed that compared to earlier where, when his opponent wasn't so high in the ranking he sometimes used to take his match not seriously, this time he did... 14 aces Mayer didn't brake him once...
He was powerful, but wasn't fast enough to get the drop shots even before his injury (but that has never been the easiest thing to do for him).
So it was supposed to be my last day in Marseille but I managed getting some tickets for tomorrow, so I will see him I hope this time! About the person they catched at the airport I don't know because the match has been canceled, so the I haven't seen Marat's team... But I will tell you tomorrow...!!
BUT... I came back on the center court to see the match between Arazi and Costa, and once I watched around the ppl in the stadium, and I saw a guy with a black baseball cap (it actually a Ralph Lauren, black and the little symbol red), a dark blue/grey blouse, with under it a white tshirt, blue jeans, white shoes (converse I think)... Do you know how I'm talking about?? MARAT!!
He was there talking to Arazi's coach (or at least somebody from his team), to other ppl, spending a long time on his phone, moving around the chairs in the vip section... getting up and down... going out to get something to drink etc... He once touched his left ankle... but otherwise didn't seems bothered by it... but he looked a bit tired.
I hope he will be in a good shape tomorrow...!
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So as you all already know Marat lost his match today against J. Bjorkman.
His match was scheduled at 7:30pm (French time). The match before stopped 1h30 before Marat’s so they said that the players would come and train on the center court, so that Marat would arrive in around 10 minutes.
Marat arrived with Denis and a French guy (who is playing doubles in the main draw) and they started to train. He looked quite relaxed, had no strapping on his left wrist, and was joking around with Denis... (who is wearing the same adidas outfit since the beginning of the week... Maybe he could ask Marat to get him some new clothes?!) hehe
Walt arrived a bit later, but stayed almost all the time out of the court talking to another guy.
After his practice Marat checked his cell phone... he was maybe expecting a call or something... (I might say that Marat is a totally cell phone addict ), signed some autographs, and left the court.
20 minutes later J. Bjorkman arrived to train.
At 7:35pm the players entered on the court and trained. Once the training over they sat down, and Marat took really a lot of time, much longer than what they are allowed to normally. He looked exhausted... It was really a big change between the Marat you could see 1h earlier... Maybe something happened between the training and the match, dunno but he looked really not fine.
About his ankle, I think he had his strapping under his sock, and once in the match he slapped his foot on the floor like if his ankle bothered him.
He had problems with his first serve... and got really mad (he has thrown his racquet once), he never looked like he was in his match... not really caring about it. The whole stadium almost was cheering for him, but he couldn’t manage it. One more thing, he didn't play that bad... I mean considering how "away" he was from his match today, trust me that's a good score... He looked like he had problems to run, he was very often late on the ball... and Jonas Bjorkman, played really good, and with a lot of power. It wasn't Marat's day that's it...
About the luck, Jonas was VERY LUCKY, which made Marat really mad at the end... because around 4 time Jonas did the point thanks to the net. You know the ball just touched the top of the net and fell down right behind it, and sometimes even on important points... So it might have been really frustrating for Marat! And considering the noice the crowd made when Bjorkman scored thanks to the net... Marat wasn't the only one frustrated by it!
About his box... No new head were there... No Dasha, no Leonid. So if they went to the airport to catch somebody, he/she wasn’t at his match. Hope that gave you interesting informations!
Now hope Marat will be better, and reach further in Dubai!
February 2004
By Alex
Please do not reproduce this without her permission.
Match Reports
I was at the match today so I can tell you... In the middle of the second set, Mayer did a strong shot, and it seems that Marat did a wrong move or something and between two points he asked the chair umpire to call the physio... and after this point in the middle of the game he came back to his chair and waited for the doc to come. The Doc put a strapping on his left ankle and foot, hopefully Marat was already leading with a break so he just had to hold his serve twice, and won!
I saw him after the match at the player exit and he looked ok, but a bit disturbed, he signed some autograph and they were managing that somebody could lead them to the hotel and wait for hem there to drive them then to the airport... Are they catching Dasha or somebody else here dunno... if he plays double tomorrow I will tell you if a new face arrived
Walt is already in Marseille, anatoly isn't... Yesterday in the car which drove them to the airport, there were Marat, Denis, Walt and another guy, but I don't know who that is... I will see today (if Marat plays the double, if a new head is there)
He played well!! He was really focused... He changed that compared to earlier where, when his opponent wasn't so high in the ranking he sometimes used to take his match not seriously, this time he did... 14 aces Mayer didn't brake him once...
He was powerful, but wasn't fast enough to get the drop shots even before his injury (but that has never been the easiest thing to do for him).
So it was supposed to be my last day in Marseille but I managed getting some tickets for tomorrow, so I will see him I hope this time! About the person they catched at the airport I don't know because the match has been canceled, so the I haven't seen Marat's team... But I will tell you tomorrow...!!
BUT... I came back on the center court to see the match between Arazi and Costa, and once I watched around the ppl in the stadium, and I saw a guy with a black baseball cap (it actually a Ralph Lauren, black and the little symbol red), a dark blue/grey blouse, with under it a white tshirt, blue jeans, white shoes (converse I think)... Do you know how I'm talking about?? MARAT!!
He was there talking to Arazi's coach (or at least somebody from his team), to other ppl, spending a long time on his phone, moving around the chairs in the vip section... getting up and down... going out to get something to drink etc... He once touched his left ankle... but otherwise didn't seems bothered by it... but he looked a bit tired.
I hope he will be in a good shape tomorrow...!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So as you all already know Marat lost his match today against J. Bjorkman.
His match was scheduled at 7:30pm (French time). The match before stopped 1h30 before Marat’s so they said that the players would come and train on the center court, so that Marat would arrive in around 10 minutes.
Marat arrived with Denis and a French guy (who is playing doubles in the main draw) and they started to train. He looked quite relaxed, had no strapping on his left wrist, and was joking around with Denis... (who is wearing the same adidas outfit since the beginning of the week... Maybe he could ask Marat to get him some new clothes?!) hehe
Walt arrived a bit later, but stayed almost all the time out of the court talking to another guy.
After his practice Marat checked his cell phone... he was maybe expecting a call or something... (I might say that Marat is a totally cell phone addict ), signed some autographs, and left the court.
20 minutes later J. Bjorkman arrived to train.
At 7:35pm the players entered on the court and trained. Once the training over they sat down, and Marat took really a lot of time, much longer than what they are allowed to normally. He looked exhausted... It was really a big change between the Marat you could see 1h earlier... Maybe something happened between the training and the match, dunno but he looked really not fine.
About his ankle, I think he had his strapping under his sock, and once in the match he slapped his foot on the floor like if his ankle bothered him.
He had problems with his first serve... and got really mad (he has thrown his racquet once), he never looked like he was in his match... not really caring about it. The whole stadium almost was cheering for him, but he couldn’t manage it. One more thing, he didn't play that bad... I mean considering how "away" he was from his match today, trust me that's a good score... He looked like he had problems to run, he was very often late on the ball... and Jonas Bjorkman, played really good, and with a lot of power. It wasn't Marat's day that's it...
About the luck, Jonas was VERY LUCKY, which made Marat really mad at the end... because around 4 time Jonas did the point thanks to the net. You know the ball just touched the top of the net and fell down right behind it, and sometimes even on important points... So it might have been really frustrating for Marat! And considering the noice the crowd made when Bjorkman scored thanks to the net... Marat wasn't the only one frustrated by it!
About his box... No new head were there... No Dasha, no Leonid. So if they went to the airport to catch somebody, he/she wasn’t at his match. Hope that gave you interesting informations!
Now hope Marat will be better, and reach further in Dubai!
