Post by Annie on Dec 5, 2006 16:35:01 GMT 3
Day 1. “In tennis, one thing leads to another, it's like a circle, which you cannot get out from” (Marat Safin)
So this is it, the moment we have all been waiting for is finally here ;D. It’s a gray and gloomy Friday morning in Moscow (what’s new?
Last time I saw sunlight was probably during the DC semifinals against USA LOL 
) but excitement is overwhelming, I am well rested, surprisingly calm and ready to go. Unfortunately my tennis trooper pal Lena has to study today and Saturday and will only be joining me on Sunday 
, so it’s me, myself and me. Oh well, as we say in Russia “it’s always great to hang out with an intelligent person” ;D. So at around 11.15 I dressed up in the colours of the national flag (blue jeans, white t-shirt and a red vest), grabbed my lucky red back-pack (it’s always with me during DC) and off I went.
I arrived at the stadium in an hour and experienced quite a shock upon arrival. All I could hear was Spanish EVERYWHERE
. White and blue striped shirts and tons and tons of Argentina fans. You see, this is the downside of having VIP tickets: not many people can afford to buy them or are not as mad as me to buy them. Tickets for the final were ridiculously expensive and it backfired on Friday. People, who buy tickets for the VIP seats are mostly people who come to watch this just because it’s a prestigious event or they do love tennis but find it beyond their coolness to actually get up and scream their lungs out…and I always feel kind of helpless when I cannot find anyone to go crazy with around me. Whereas if you buy standard tickets – that’s where the real fans are, with flags, posters and chants they invent themselves, but then you get no access backstage: no chatting with players, no seeing them walk past you, no pics together and no autographs, so you have to choose. I roamed around VIP area, got some water and saw Sasha and Zhenya Korolev being interviewed for our Sports Channel.
Anyway, time flew incredibly quickly and before I knew it, I was on my way to find my seat.
Turned out I was sitting right across the Russian bench with a whole stand full of Argies on my left-hand side headed by Maradona himself.
There were a real lot of seats empty on the stands on my right and around me too. This didn’t look good. What did look good however was what I saw on court: Marat training with Misha. Sasha was on court too closely watching them and passing on comments when necessary.
Marat seemed agitated, he couldn’t return Misha’s serve very well and was getting annoyed at himself and mumbling all the time. I started looking around and froze in my tracks because right across me on a bench was a very very familiar face nervously watching the training process: Mr. Peter Lundgren himself! ;D ;D ;D ;D
It put a huge grin to my face to see him there, to know that he was there for Marat and there are no hard feelings and they remained friends. A few minutes later Sasha told Marat it was time to go and they all headed off the court. My seat was in row 8 but I decided to try and stay down behind the photographers for lineup and warm-up so that I could take some photos. Luckily bouncers said nothing so I stuck to that technique for a whole weekend.
At 12.45 the teams came out on court for a lineup, all looking extremely serious and concentrated but you could also see the excitement in their eyes, well almost all of them. After the team introductions the national anthems were played and the teams turned to face their flags and…ME
. I was standing in the front as I mentioned and kept looking at my boys, that is when my eyes met with Marat’s and a glimpse of recognition hit his face, he smiled broadly and nodded saying hello ;D ;D ;D. I nodded back and mimicked “udachi” and lip-read “thanks” a few seconds later. The Russian anthem started playing and that’s when I kind of got worried to be honest with you, you can see it on the photos, when the others are either serious or excited Marat is absolutely spaced out, like he is in his own world. I decided this was not the time to start panicking and he might just be trying to think of the game. Later it was obvious my gut was right and there was reason to worry. But that was later…
First Kolya came up against Chela and everyone knew that this match would be exceptionally important . It’s always crucial to start off on a good note and set a tone. Well Kolya wasted no time really in the first two sets, I cannot say that this was an extremely bright or interesting match, even though some points were truly magnificent, but I supported him with all my heart as I always do and even though he started getting a bit tired in the third set and lost it eventually, I was absolutely certain he would bring us the first point. Chelita was starting to get tired and his legs were giving in towards the fourth set and Kolya knew perfectly well how to take advantage of that, making the Argentinean run from one corner to the other. And a few minutes later it was all over and we were celebrating our lead. At this stage I must point out that on Friday Argentinean fans totally outdid us. No matter how much I tried to scream LOL, it was impossible. All Russian fans were sitting really high up since those were the cheapest seats and our opponents occupied two stands right in front of the court, so when they would start their chanting, singing and mad dancing, all you could hear was they. And that was one of the factors that totally drove Marat even more insane than he was already during the next match.
(Check out Tarpischev in the last photo LMAO ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D)
20 minutes after Kolya’s victory Marat and Nalbandian were up. By that time some more people had come to the stadium since it was close to the end of the working day but still the support from the Russians that day was just not enough, no matter how hard Misha and Zhenya Korolev tried to wind up the crowd . Well, most of you saw the match and whoever didn’t see it – heard about what happened. Nothing extraordinary really, Marat just forgot to show up is all . He was nowhere to be seen on court that day. Everything annoyed him: the fans, the surface, himself mostly. Tarpischev never has long talks or discussions with players during matches but even he was trying to talk to Marat, Eduard Davydenko on the bench was trying to encourage him and give some advice but Marat just would not listen, he was in his own little world, kept staring at match statistics on the big screen in disbelief and kept losing it. It’s not like David played some amazing tennis or anything, on the contrary I thought he didn’t do anything special really, but he perfectly well knew what state Marat was in and used it to his advantage. 2 painful hours later it was Argentina 1 – Russia 1.
Pascal Maria umped Marat's match
David just won
I headed towards the locker rooms after it was ready and strategically positioned myself in the cafeteria there and had some snacks and water because I was feeling like I was about to collapse since I didn’t manage to neither eat nor drink in between matches due to ridiculous queues (and I am not the kind of a person that goes out to eat or drink during a match). Later I went to get my jacket from the cloakroom because they close them really quickly and then headed to some sponsor stands to buy some tennis magazines and newspapers. Just as I was heading back with my goodies, I see Marat walking with two bouncers towards the Tennis Channel Studio, he noticed me, smiled and said “You leaving for today?” I replied that I was gonna stick around a bit longer and he said then he would see me later. He gave his interviews to the Russian and Argentine journalists but you could see he was in pieces and blaming himself for not bringing a point today.
Mum was around too ;D
Afterwards I hung around a little longer and bumped into Peter, had a little chat with him.
Said that we fans miss him and it is jolly good to see him in Moscow. He said he loves Moscow and is extremely happy to be here at such an important time, that Marat is a great host and makes his Moscow visits really great. Later I bumped into one of the girls I know from another tennis forum – MTF – Julia and we decided to stick around and see if we can get some pics taken with the guys. First victim was Mitya, he was incredibly serious, looked like he was deep in his thoughts or something but he stopped and signed and took pics with everyone, who wanted to, very nice of him.
Then Zhenya Korolev showed up and since I already have a pic with him from the semifinals, I took one of him and Julia ;D
A few minutes later Marat and Peter emerged. I don’t know what Sasha and Peter spoke to him about or did to him but he looked much much better and calmer. And it was obvious he would actually stop and pay some attention to the fans. There was a bunch of crazy girls who jumped on both of them like mad, so Julia and I decided it would be better if we waited till this madness was over. So I just stood aside and took pictures of him taking pictures with fans and these are by far the best photos I took this weekend. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I asked Marat for a photo together since the one we took during semis was horrendous, but little did I know that this one would turn out even worse. While Julia was trying to take a picture someone called out to Marat and he turned away from the camera and me so I have an even bigger masterpiece now LMAO.
Then we started walking out and I told him to take care of himself and get some rest, tomorrow will be a new day and we will scream even louder. He smiled and said that we have a deal. After we were outside I wanted to take a pic with Peter but the moment Julia was gonna take one – the battery in my camera went flat. I decided that I have had enough of DC for that day and we were off, passed by Marat and his Mercedes where he was putting the bags in, we said goodbye to each other and that was the end of Day 1.
to be continued...
So this is it, the moment we have all been waiting for is finally here ;D. It’s a gray and gloomy Friday morning in Moscow (what’s new?
Last time I saw sunlight was probably during the DC semifinals against USA LOL 
) but excitement is overwhelming, I am well rested, surprisingly calm and ready to go. Unfortunately my tennis trooper pal Lena has to study today and Saturday and will only be joining me on Sunday 
, so it’s me, myself and me. Oh well, as we say in Russia “it’s always great to hang out with an intelligent person” ;D. So at around 11.15 I dressed up in the colours of the national flag (blue jeans, white t-shirt and a red vest), grabbed my lucky red back-pack (it’s always with me during DC) and off I went.I arrived at the stadium in an hour and experienced quite a shock upon arrival. All I could hear was Spanish EVERYWHERE
. White and blue striped shirts and tons and tons of Argentina fans. You see, this is the downside of having VIP tickets: not many people can afford to buy them or are not as mad as me to buy them. Tickets for the final were ridiculously expensive and it backfired on Friday. People, who buy tickets for the VIP seats are mostly people who come to watch this just because it’s a prestigious event or they do love tennis but find it beyond their coolness to actually get up and scream their lungs out…and I always feel kind of helpless when I cannot find anyone to go crazy with around me. Whereas if you buy standard tickets – that’s where the real fans are, with flags, posters and chants they invent themselves, but then you get no access backstage: no chatting with players, no seeing them walk past you, no pics together and no autographs, so you have to choose. I roamed around VIP area, got some water and saw Sasha and Zhenya Korolev being interviewed for our Sports Channel. Anyway, time flew incredibly quickly and before I knew it, I was on my way to find my seat.
Turned out I was sitting right across the Russian bench with a whole stand full of Argies on my left-hand side headed by Maradona himself.
There were a real lot of seats empty on the stands on my right and around me too. This didn’t look good. What did look good however was what I saw on court: Marat training with Misha. Sasha was on court too closely watching them and passing on comments when necessary.
Marat seemed agitated, he couldn’t return Misha’s serve very well and was getting annoyed at himself and mumbling all the time. I started looking around and froze in my tracks because right across me on a bench was a very very familiar face nervously watching the training process: Mr. Peter Lundgren himself! ;D ;D ;D ;D
It put a huge grin to my face to see him there, to know that he was there for Marat and there are no hard feelings and they remained friends. A few minutes later Sasha told Marat it was time to go and they all headed off the court. My seat was in row 8 but I decided to try and stay down behind the photographers for lineup and warm-up so that I could take some photos. Luckily bouncers said nothing so I stuck to that technique for a whole weekend.
At 12.45 the teams came out on court for a lineup, all looking extremely serious and concentrated but you could also see the excitement in their eyes, well almost all of them. After the team introductions the national anthems were played and the teams turned to face their flags and…ME
. I was standing in the front as I mentioned and kept looking at my boys, that is when my eyes met with Marat’s and a glimpse of recognition hit his face, he smiled broadly and nodded saying hello ;D ;D ;D. I nodded back and mimicked “udachi” and lip-read “thanks” a few seconds later. The Russian anthem started playing and that’s when I kind of got worried to be honest with you, you can see it on the photos, when the others are either serious or excited Marat is absolutely spaced out, like he is in his own world. I decided this was not the time to start panicking and he might just be trying to think of the game. Later it was obvious my gut was right and there was reason to worry. But that was later…First Kolya came up against Chela and everyone knew that this match would be exceptionally important
. It’s always crucial to start off on a good note and set a tone. Well Kolya wasted no time really in the first two sets, I cannot say that this was an extremely bright or interesting match, even though some points were truly magnificent, but I supported him with all my heart as I always do and even though he started getting a bit tired in the third set and lost it eventually, I was absolutely certain he would bring us the first point. Chelita was starting to get tired and his legs were giving in towards the fourth set and Kolya knew perfectly well how to take advantage of that, making the Argentinean run from one corner to the other. And a few minutes later it was all over and we were celebrating our lead. At this stage I must point out that on Friday Argentinean fans totally outdid us. No matter how much I tried to scream LOL, it was impossible. All Russian fans were sitting really high up since those were the cheapest seats and our opponents occupied two stands right in front of the court, so when they would start their chanting, singing and mad dancing, all you could hear was they. And that was one of the factors that totally drove Marat even more insane than he was already during the next match. (Check out Tarpischev in the last photo LMAO ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D)
20 minutes after Kolya’s victory Marat and Nalbandian were up. By that time some more people had come to the stadium since it was close to the end of the working day but still the support from the Russians that day was just not enough, no matter how hard Misha and Zhenya Korolev tried to wind up the crowd
. Well, most of you saw the match and whoever didn’t see it – heard about what happened. Nothing extraordinary really, Marat just forgot to show up is all . He was nowhere to be seen on court that day. Everything annoyed him: the fans, the surface, himself mostly. Tarpischev never has long talks or discussions with players during matches but even he was trying to talk to Marat, Eduard Davydenko on the bench was trying to encourage him and give some advice but Marat just would not listen, he was in his own little world, kept staring at match statistics on the big screen in disbelief and kept losing it. It’s not like David played some amazing tennis or anything, on the contrary I thought he didn’t do anything special really, but he perfectly well knew what state Marat was in and used it to his advantage. 2 painful hours later it was Argentina 1 – Russia 1. Pascal Maria umped Marat's match
David just won
I headed towards the locker rooms after it was ready and strategically positioned myself in the cafeteria there and had some snacks and water because I was feeling like I was about to collapse since I didn’t manage to neither eat nor drink in between matches due to ridiculous queues (and I am not the kind of a person that goes out to eat or drink during a match). Later I went to get my jacket from the cloakroom because they close them really quickly and then headed to some sponsor stands to buy some tennis magazines and newspapers. Just as I was heading back with my goodies, I see Marat walking with two bouncers towards the Tennis Channel Studio, he noticed me, smiled and said “You leaving for today?” I replied that I was gonna stick around a bit longer and he said then he would see me later. He gave his interviews to the Russian and Argentine journalists but you could see he was in pieces and blaming himself for not bringing a point today.
Mum was around too ;D
Afterwards I hung around a little longer and bumped into Peter, had a little chat with him.
Said that we fans miss him and it is jolly good to see him in Moscow. He said he loves Moscow and is extremely happy to be here at such an important time, that Marat is a great host and makes his Moscow visits really great. Later I bumped into one of the girls I know from another tennis forum – MTF – Julia and we decided to stick around and see if we can get some pics taken with the guys. First victim was Mitya, he was incredibly serious, looked like he was deep in his thoughts or something but he stopped and signed and took pics with everyone, who wanted to, very nice of him.Then Zhenya Korolev showed up and since I already have a pic with him from the semifinals, I took one of him and Julia ;D
A few minutes later Marat and Peter emerged. I don’t know what Sasha and Peter spoke to him about or did to him but he looked much much better and calmer. And it was obvious he would actually stop and pay some attention to the fans. There was a bunch of crazy girls who jumped on both of them like mad, so Julia and I decided it would be better if we waited till this madness was over. So I just stood aside and took pictures of him taking pictures with fans and these are by far the best photos I took this weekend. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
I asked Marat for a photo together since the one we took during semis was horrendous, but little did I know that this one would turn out even worse. While Julia was trying to take a picture someone called out to Marat and he turned away from the camera and me so I have an even bigger masterpiece now LMAO.
Then we started walking out and I told him to take care of himself and get some rest, tomorrow will be a new day and we will scream even louder. He smiled and said that we have a deal. After we were outside I wanted to take a pic with Peter but the moment Julia was gonna take one – the battery in my camera went flat. I decided that I have had enough of DC for that day and we were off, passed by Marat and his Mercedes where he was putting the bags in, we said goodbye to each other and that was the end of Day 1.
to be continued...
Sixpack guard 
Annie!
I'm just kiddin of course, that was wonderful 
, congratulations for the cup and for re- meeting Marat and all the guys ;D
WHat a great report, best that i ever read in my life ;D---feel like we were joining u inside the stadium!....How amazing! 
