OK, here we go. Our weekend report. Hope you all enjoy it ;D ;D ;D
The New Adventures of the A-Team in MoscowStarring:
The A-TeamAnnie – the mad host
Annette – the mad guest
Russian and French DC teams
Special guests: The Mad Lena and Annie's Hubby: the patient madness witness ;D
Friday, April 6The awakening was a rather tough one due to the fact that the night before we celebrated my 30th birthday. Annette had arrived late afternoon Thursday and went straight to my party from the airport to witness all the madness of the Russian big birthdays: with a never stopping entertaining band, with never-ending toasts from all the guests, with dancing to 80s disco music and Mr. Annie constantly singing for his wife throughout the evening. I bet it was a weird experience but it’s something different I suppose. I really enjoyed getting spoilt all day and was in a brilliant mood all Thursday.
My mad host had arranged for a fancy Mercedes with an English-speaking driver to pick me up at the airport, so the 2-hour-ride in Moscow rush-hour to the B-day venue was pretty smooth ;D ;D ;D But damn (!), had I known I'd have to give a toast to the Birthday-Girl, I might've thought of something wittier than came out of me. Hopefully none of the guests understood English 
And Mr. Annie was quite a revelation - I think he's seriously considering a career in showbiz! ;DSo considering we all went to bed after 2 am on Thursday night – the waking up on Friday was a late one indeed, even hubby was late for work. However the spirits were high despite me breaking the news to Annette that Marat won’t play, and we headed to the stadium fully equipped with our flags, camera and all and looked forward to some excitement. And oh boy…did we get that or did we get that!
The minute we got out of the tube station it started pouring down on us and it’s quite a walk to the stadium from there so we were totally soaking and even had to stop at a certain point to try and wait for it to calm down a little. A few minutes later we finally arrived at our final destination.
I must note at this stage that this was the first time I went to a sports event in Luzhniki and dare I say never again! I just hope this was a one-off thing and we’ll be back in Olimpiyski for the next tie. Apart from multicoloured seats all over the stadium that looked like bloody mosaics, our 150 euro seats
(per day, mind you!!! 
) in the second row were absolutely horrible. We couldn’t see the far part of the court 100 % and we couldn’t see the line closest to us. Totally unacceptable for all the money we paid for our premium (or so-called) seats. But what was done was done and there was no point staying mad about it especially since we couldn’t change much.
The stadium wasn’t packed as such but for Friday there were quite a few people I must admit. The French supporters were super organized as always wearing the same t-shirts, holding up banners and signs and using drums and megaphones for their cheering. However Russians weren’t as bad as they always are on Friday so the situation on the stands was pretty equal.
Yeah, it was 50 Frenchies vs. Mad Annie, LMFAO!!!!!! I had forgotten just how loud our little Admin can be...
So at exactly 2 pm the teams came out for lineup looking incredibly serious for the most part and after respective introductions and anthems it was time for some action. Kolya Davydenko played first against PHM and Annette just couldn’t pray hard enough for this match to be over quickly so that at least she could see her beloved Richard as a tiny compensation for Marat’s absence. The beginning of the match looked promising for Russians, first set was painless 6/2 and Kolya looked like a living proof of confidence. I was happy, Annette was happy, things were looking up. PHM in the meantime decided he needs to get off the court and once he was back I turned to Annette and said something on the lines of “Aaahhhh PHM left to take some drugs”. Well little did I know that what happened next during this match, would certainly look like he actually did. Kolya just stopped playing, nothing he tried to do seemed to work at all! PHM on the other hand was getting more and more confident with every mistake made by Davydenko, and quoting Marian Keyes “faster than you could say the word knife” Russia was down 2 sets to 1. We looked at each other in astonishment because all this seemed to be like some kind of a bad joke. The worst part of it all was that noone really believed that Misha would be able to beat Gasquet at that point in time, so the mood was getting more and more nervous and weary with time. In fourth set Kolya decided it was time to wake up and played some nice shots and seemed to find his game yet again but at 5 all some ridiculous mistakes became the reason for him losing his serve and a few minutes later PHM was waving his hands victoriously and it was France 1 – Russia 0. Some beginning that was.
While Annette was getting all excited for Richard’s match I was already playing the worst scenarios in my head and swearing constantly along with two women sitting next to us at the stands who drove Annette absolutely insane for the whole Friday and Saturday because one of them CONSTANTLY prayed and mumbled under her nose, and I mean she didn’t stop for a second! All you could hear on our left was “boo boo boo boo boo boo”, she was unbelievable!!! LOL
Rather "bla bla bla bla bla". I mean, come on, even during play?
?? What was wrong with the lady? It surely didn't help anyone but herself Anyway, 15 minutes after the first match Misha and Richard hit the court and we got ready for part 2 of what seemed to be quite a disaster for Russians so far. But yet another surprise was waiting for us there. Misha was thrashing Richie and it looked like he didn’t really have a very hard time doing it. He played his best tennis, he famous backhands were flying all over and little Frenchie looked like he had no idea what him. The match was far more exciting than the first one with a number of absolutely breathtaking points. But whenever a Russian team plays – nothing comes our way easily I suppose. Half was through the third set Misha started looking kinda tired and started making mistakes and I was getting nervous because he didn’t look too convincing as opposed to the first two sets. Annette was getting all excited that this might not after all be a straight set victory and we would get the most for our money, but I was not too cheery. Misha tanked a match point in third set and took it to the tie-break. At that point it was pretty obvious that his legs were giving in and he looked like cramps were on the way. We needed to win that tie-break to set our minds at rest before things got worse. But they just did. Richard hits an amazing forehand into the corner down the line, Misha runs for it and the next thing I know he is falling down, sitting on the court and looking at Tarpischev showing him that he cannot get up, he just cannot move. Oh boy… just when you thought it would all be over soon.
Russia takes medical timeout, Anatoly Glebov (the masseuse), Tarpischev, Sergey Yasnitskiy (the doctor), everyone runs out on court, massaging Misha’s legs, applying some kind of gels and stuff. It is such a mess all around, and we simply cannot believe that it is happening. Three minutes later the play is resumed but Misha still doesn’t look like he is fit. His movements become slower and slower and he doesn’t run as well as he used to and I start getting a terrible feeling in my stomach. Youzhny loses third set on a tie-break and the next set is pure pain to watch. I swear at a certain point I just secretly wished he would retire, I couldn’t bare it anymore. His face grimaced with pain, him not being able to walk let alone run or do anything more than just try to hit the ball to the other side of the court. Very predictably the match went to the 5th set and that is when tables turned again. Either Richard got tired and got desperate after his numerous attempts to break went down the drain, or it’s Misha’s character that got the French so shaky but with the amount of chances he had to close this game – he should have won that easily. However Misha’s cramps seemed to have backed off (about time too! ) and Richard started looking less and less sure he could win the match after all. Still they took it to 6 all and that is when Annette and I were like “Oh God, not another Roddick/Tursunov”. By that time it was past 10 pm, we were exhausted, famished (the stupid place has nothing but snacks like nuts and crisps and tiny sandwiches) and absolutely dead on the whole. Just at that point Teddy decided he is having none of this anymore and managed to break Gasquet with a little help from the latter who double faulted twice on his serve. And the crowd goes wild… the national hero Youzhny serving for the match after everyone thought he’d be taken off the court in a stretcher or something of the sort. He has a tough time closing off the game but does it just the same and while I still cannot completely believe this, he is going around doing his trademark salutation with a racket on his head. Russia 1 – France 1.
Yeah, this match was partly more a war zone than a tennis match! I couldn't stand watching limping Misha, it was sooo perverted! Amazing that he didn't give up! Annie expected him to throw the towel after the loss of the third set, then after the loss of the fourth set but he hung in there. I think that irritated Richard more than anything. He didn't use the situation at all. During the worst cramps he played a few stops that Misha obviously couldn't reach, but he was booed by the audience, and that threw him off track. I was so torn! I wanted Richard to win but I also didn't want Russia to trail 0-2 
For what it was worth, we really got some action for our money! And hats off to Misha for an amazing fight!Marat was there on the bench most of the time but he really wasn’t there in his head we thought. He hardly participated in all the cheering and supporting, just either clowned about with Sasha and the boys or just stared into space most of the time. While the whole bench was trying to show Misha some support he just sat there motionless. I must admit I kinda even got a little angry with him, Annette agreed LOL.
Indeed, at one point of time he even pulled a standing Sasha back down and told him to get out of his way! Not a lot of team spirit there...Oh boy, 11 pm and we are both feeling like we’ve been unloading trucks all day. Hubby comes to pick us up and takes us to this Italian place to eat before we all collapse. Happy and full we head home to recuperate our strength for what we think would be a big Safin day… uh huh..suuure.
Saturday, April 7Saturday we had a very early start since the doubles match was only scheduled for 3 pm we decided to do some sightseeing in the morning. We headed for some shopping first and then got on a bus to go to the tube station and that’s when it happened…SNOW… and not just any snow… A SNOW STORM! A frigging blizzard! It got dark in a matter of seconds, you couldn’t see your arm if you stretched it out, incredible! We had 16 degrees and sun all March and now THIS??? Annette and I just couldn’t believe it was happening. There goes our sightseeing. We finally decide upon a gallery of modern art and got to have some fun looking at weird and not so weird contemporary art, were almost blown away from the bridge over the Moscow River on our way there and back but managed to survive just the same
Cultural program was followed by a light lunch and off we went. Weather went more and more mad with time, the sun shined for half an hour and then the snow would start again… we totally gave up trying to react to it. We were looking forward to seeing Marat and nothing could spoil our mood… well almost nothing.
The minute we walked into the stadium our happiness was gone as we looked at the big screen which read “Davydenko/Andreev – Llodra/Grosjean”. Annette was not happy at all and I was very confused.
Not happy is the understatement of the year, LMAO!!!! I was devastated! I mean I know Igor and Kolya are the best doubles team after Misha/Marat that we have, because at least they played together for a while and actually won Kremlin Cup once, but still – with Kolya’s game the previous day I wasn’t too optimistic. But we were lucky yet again. We got 5 sets of absolute fun, some points were incredibly good, Igor served like God and Kolya played extremely well that day. Doubles are very very big fun to watch. Marat was there and this time he was support himself. He clapped and cheered and coached the guys, even got up once between the games instructing Kolya to start throwing lobs at Grosjean and once Kolya did that and managed to win a few points with this trick – Mr. Safin looked incredibly satisfied with himself LOL.
It was a tight match with both teams having their chances but Russians were too good at the baseline. With Kolya’s incredible return and Igor’s great forehand they covered the whole court much more accurately than the French team did in a lot of circumstances. It was a close battle but Russians managed to pull through and we seriously had a ball watching that match. We got the most we could for our money – an exciting 5-setter and the ruskis won ;D YAY!!!! Russia 2 – France 1.
The evening finished with hubby, Annette and me going to a typical Russian restaurant for dinner and having a great meal and a chat and then heading to church for Easter mass, so Annette had quite a few new experiences this weekend and I am glad about that ;D
A Russian-Orthodox Easter mass is indeed very different from what I know, it was a wonderful experience. I'm not religious at all but the whole ceremony was quite magic. Maybe I should mention that Mr. Annie went to church in the morning so the priest would bless the Ester cake and the Easter eggs for Sunday. The priests put a little table outside the church and people unload their food and then the priests walk around and bless all of it! Call that an interesting ritual!!!Back home at 1 am started to be a tradition
and a little less tired than Friday we drifted away into dreamland to get ready for the most important day of the weekend.
Easter SundayEvery single tie I went to watch in Moscow ended up with Sunday being the deciding day. On the one hand it is great - I mean I pity the people who went to watch the other three quarterfinals because you get your third day totally ruined and you wasted plenty of cash to watch the matches that decide nothing. But then on the other hand, sometimes I just wish this would end as fast as possible because my poor heart would burst one of these ties and my voice would just disappear for good.
Sunday morning we had a nice and big Easter breakfast with a Russian Easter cake, colourful eggs and other yummies, hopped into a cab and went to the same place we ended our Saturday at, next to University and now we got the panoramic view of Moscow in daylight so Annette got to take some pictures and have a clearer view of the city.
All right, one more pic. The big round building is Luzhniki Football stadium, the smaller one on the left is the DC venue. This will be of importance later on...
Afterwards we headed to now so dear stadium where our third musketeer was waiting for us. Yup, Lena was joining us that day and we were looking forward to that. Considering that we got stuck in traffic on our way there due to a huge number of army trucks going to the big sports arena, we arrived later than usual. Lena and some other girls were waiting outside and I got yet another birthday present ;D which later turned out to be a jigsaw puzzle which put together gives you a photo of me and Marat LOL (thanks Lena and Julia… that was absolutely grand! ). So we headed to the stadium to take our seats with Annette getting all excited about Richard playing and yup…yet another surprising disappointment! No Gasquet, no Kolya, no Marat. Igor – Grosjean. At that point in time I was more pissed off that surprised to be honest, let alone Annette who paid all that money to come here and now doesn’t get to see anyone she wants. We were getting rather furious there (sorry Igor, you know I love ya but it was getting too much).
Yup! My little teddy bear Richard was not playing? I mean, come on 
! Thank goodness Igor and Seb gave a great performance by playing the third match in 3 days that lasted 4 hours!The match kicked off and from the beginning we knew this would be no walk in the park for any of the players. It was a long long match with advantage moving from one player to the other and at times it felt like this would never ever end. The match was a long one, lasted for almost 4 hours and as much as I wanted it to be over there and then (as opposed to Annette) – Igor lost in the end. Grosjean played some high class tennis at the end of the 4th and in the 5th sets, I could hardly believe it was him on court. So 6 pm, Russia 2 – France 2. They announce the next match will take place in half an hour and by then we are all pretty much convinced Marat would play. He is the only person we haven’t seen all day whilst Kolya and Misha were all sitting there supporting Andreev during his match. So Annette walks over to me and says “Don’t worry, he will come out now, it will last 5 sets so that we get to see him for a long time and he will win and Russia will play Germany in Moscow in September”. I gave her one of mine “Yeah right” looks, because in situations like these I just tend to not get overexcited until I hear “Game set match Safin”. By that time I am pretty tired already and my throat is starting to hurt but we all know that the most important event of the whole Sunday is about to dawn on us.
During the first match Annette went out to get us some snacks and informed that winter has come back yet again and it was snowing like mad. Seriously, the weather has just gone completely insane here! Then we went out together between the 4th and 5th sets and went around sponsors stands and saw the Davis Cup itself and were very surprised to find out that 2006 winners were still not engraved on it
I was convinced since the beginning of the Seb-Igor match that Marat would play. He and Mathieu were notoriously absent throughout the match and traditionally only players who have to prepare don't sit on the bench. So Annie is actually wrong, I couldnt wait for the bloody first tie to be over, LOL! I wanted Marat!!!!!!!!! We couldn't be sure about him playing until he actually walked onto the court, though. Oh my God, it was torture for me until then...About 40 minutes after Andreev-Grosjean was over the whole stadium roars as Marat walks in with PHM. It doesn’t matter what ranking he is, it doesn’t matter how badly he’s played recently – he is everyone’s favourite. Every single person at the stadium worships him at that point in time and sends him the best vibes possible because everyone knows who else but him would save our country in this situation. Later I found out that when they told the Frenchies that Marat would play the deciding rubber, all of them held their heads in their arms and said “That’s the end of us”.
Yes, it was amazing how much he is loved in Moscow! Kolya is No. 4 in the world, Misha and Igor gave great performances - but EVERYONE wanted Marat! He was the only player who constantly had to give autographs during the first two days. Two kids who sat in the team box made quite a business out of it: They passed posters, tennis balls, calendars, etc. from the audience on to him and he signed whatever they gave him. I wonder if they took money for it ;DAnnette gets her dreamy look
(oh yeah, VERY dreamy, LMAO! ). He is here, he is playing, he is wearing our favourite lime. This was definitely worth the money LOL. We sat separately since she moved forward to be able to take better photos and apparently she said that every time she looked at me I was ready to pass out. I don’t remember being so nervous for ages! But whatever happened in the next 2 hours was called by Tarpischev “the best Safin match since USO 2000”. He was amazing, breathtaking, wonderful, I mean I don’t know how many more adjectives I could come up with here…
(what about controlled, powerful, infallible, beautiful, GORGEOUS...? ) He was all concentration throughout the whole match, the backhand was totally
, the serve was great, he just didn’t give any chances! After the first set it was pretty obvious Mathieu might be heading towards a hat trick at losing the deciding matches to Russians. There was nothing Marat could do wrong, after 3-0 in the third set I started to let loose a little (about time!!! LMAO) and screamed like there was no tomorrow (well there really wasn’t LOL) for him. The atmosphere was amazing, people could smell the victory in the air and the place was electrifying. Marat took no time at showing who was the boss and before we knew it, everyone was hugging and chanting “SPA-SI-BO” and “MO – LO –DETS” (thank you and well done).
Tarpischev runs out on court to hug him, Marat goes and shakes hands with the whole team, the Mayor of Moscow, the head of Federal Agency for Sports, everyone is out on the court congratulating the big guy. One of the girls who was sitting close to us throws a bouquet of flowers to the court and Marat runs to our side to pick it up, bows and smells it. He was such a clown but a really happy one ;D
We hung around a little longer to witness a HUGE crowd of kids and other people gathering at the other side of the stadium waiting for him to sign and take pictures. I think he was there forever but that is all Marat – his fans are precious and he does everything to keep them happy. Our spirits were high and it was time to head out of there.
It took him about 20 minutes to walk 10 m! He was so patient - unlike the stupid bodyguards who shoved people away from him rather rudely. He didn't mind taking pictures with his fans but his watchdogs did a "great" job not to let that happen .We said our goodbyes to Lena and Julia and started heading towards the tube station. We were totally floating on air, full of energy and excitement, we blabbed non stop and shared impressions about the match and laughed and here is when I should probably tell you a little about the layout of Luzhniki sports complex. The match took place in the Small Arena. On the way to the tube from it you have to first pass the Big Arena which is an enormous round building with a footie pitch and all and then a smaller building which is a swimming pool, and it kind of resembles the small arena. So we are walking and talking non-stop, we pass the big arena and keep going and start heading towards a smaller building….once we approach it and level with it I look up into one of the windows and stop in my tracks, I see a NH Hotels stand who are sponsors of the Davis Cup. I point in out to Annette and tell her how weird it is, then we see this group of people heading towards us and when they come closer we realize that those are LINESMEN!!!! It took us another 10 seconds to actually realize that we went all around the big arena and CAME BACK TO WHERE WE LEFT FROM!!!!!!!! We were absolutely hysterical, we laughed till our sides hurt, that was just sooooooo funny. We then finally headed in the right direction and managed not to get lost again LOL.
Please remember, we did this in freezing cold, constantly slipping on the icy ground! Oh, what a single man can do to two married ladies... 
Sunday traditionally finished with dinner and a lovely chat which was a little bit spoilt by a fight that broke inside the restaurant by some two drunk men who decided to fight over a drunk woman and made a whole big mess so that the personnel had to call for police… oh well.
Yep, a fight incl. a knife and quite a bit of blood. Moscow night life, huh?
A nice 15 minute walk in the cold later we arrived at home, tired and happy and VERY wound up still. Took a while to fall asleep and we had to get up early as Annette was leaving at 7.15 for the airport.
It was a grand weekend filled with tons of fun and emotions and Annette’s presence made it even more fun! It was a pleasure to have you girl and you are welcome to come back any time ;D ;D ;D
Thanks for the flowers, I can hand them back to the best host ever, xxx!Well, I guess see you all in September for another DC installation. We are playing at home again so hopefully I’ll manage to be there ;D
Sixpack guard 
) in the second row were absolutely horrible. We couldn’t see the far part of the court 100 % and we couldn’t see the line closest to us. Totally unacceptable for all the money we paid for our premium (or so-called) seats. But what was done was done and there was no point staying mad about it especially since we couldn’t change much.
?? What was wrong with the lady? It surely didn't help anyone but herself 
For what it was worth, we really got some action for our money! And hats off to Misha for an amazing fight!
