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Aurelien

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

After Djokovic's first round victory yesterday, Jim Courier conducted the on-court interview for Channel 7 (Aussie's official TV channel for Australian Open). During the short interview, Courier asked Djokovic to do the Sharapova serve imitation. He was reluctant at first, but then the crowd seemed to want it. So he played along and did the Sharapova.

After Sharapova's victory against Davenport, Jim Courier conducted the on-court inteview again. He asked Sharapova about Djokovic's serve imitation. She laughed but then commented about how boring it is, and though it's entertaining, people will get bored by it soon. Jim then asked Sharapova to do an imitiation of Djokovic's serve (I have no idea what Djokovic's serve is like, but I assume something normal), Sharapova was quite strong in declining despite the crowd's cheer of demand. Sharapova then said something along the line, "It'll be boring anyway, just bouncing the ball all night long" in which Jim Courier then said, "It's like what? 18 bounces? 20 bounces?" and Sharapova replied, "Oh, I can do more than that."

I'm not sure how to take the interview. It was definitely entertaining (Courier is awesome for this kind of stuff), but I was rather surprised by Sharapova's reply. Though she was laughing as if she was kidding around, the words she said could've been quite sarcastic ("people will be bored", "his serve is boring", "just bouncing the balls all night long" etc). I wonder if Sharapova is actually annoyed at Djokovic for doing the service imitation or not.

As for the Sharapova - Davenport match itself, the first set was definitely as one-sided as it could be with Sharapova being up 5-0 first before closing it 6-1, but the second set was actually quite entertaining. Davenport's downside was simply because Sharapova kept on hitting the ball from one corner to another. And as we all know, Davenport is not the most agile female tennis player in the circuit now.

Kudos to Sharapova though for mentioning about how great Davenport is during the interview. She also said how Davenport's kid gave her a dirty look for beating Mommy, and how she felt bad for that. XD Entertaining stuff.

---

If everything is going to plan, I will be going to attend Day 4 of Australian Open. I was initially planning to watch Hantuchova and Djokovic's matches, but both of them played in Vodafone arena ><;;;; more expensive ticket and as far as I understand from the website, it's already sold out. I'll try again tomorrow from the ticket booth in case there's free seat somehow and if I can upgrade my ground pass. If all fails, well my main target would be Hantuchova/Davenport doubles match.

If time permits, I might also be able to catch Ferrer's match (I know ViktorFan likes him too). But yeah, we'll see how it goes. I have no idea what to expect as I've never attended before. This year, I MUST go no matter what. If not tomorrow, then maybe on the weekends or something. But first, I'll have to shop around in the morning to buy a digital camera.

Damn .. December 2007 - January 2008 seem to be like lots of spending for me. ><;
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ViktorFan

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

The Iron Fist King wrote:

If time permits, I might also be able to catch Ferrer's match (I know ViktorFan likes him too).


:oops:

Good idea to buy a digital camera. You could lurk around the area and maybe see the one or the other player and take some pics ^_____^.

How about the match Hewitt vs Safin/Baghdatis? I'm sure you wouldn't mind to watch Safin's or Baghdatis' victory (IF Lleyton wins his match vs Istomin).
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Aurelien

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Watching Hewitt's match is out of the question, though I would like to see Safin going far into the tournament. But the main reason why I avoid such match is because Hewitt's match would be so packed with Aussie supporters that it'd just be too crowded. Plus, I'd get beaten up for supporting Hewitt's opponent. >.>

And of course, Hewitt vs Safin/Baghdatis would happen on Day 6. Quite unlikely for me to attend Day 6 due to work commitment. But we'll see what happens.

EDIT: Damn I overslept. Let's hope I still can get tickets.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I must say, I am extremely extremely jealous of Aurelien who got to see Andy Roddick practice today without his shirt on.. Damn, I knew I should have gone!
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 1:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Andy Roddick is probably the best looking guy in tennis right now. I've had the pleasure of seeing him up close and personal without his shirt on at the Major in Washington, D.C. multiple times. ^_^ I've also had the pleasure of catching Andre Agassi play there many times, however seeing him without his shirt on wasn't at the top of my list of priorities. >_> Andre is my favorite tennis player, though.

I know you don't like him too much, Aurelien, but I'm watching the Hewitt match now, and he's looking pretty fabulous. First set was close, but the second seems to be going well, as he's up 4-1. He is a great player-- but he's getting a bit old, now, and can't keep up with the younger players. Seems to be playing better than last year right now, though.

To be honest, I had forgotten all about young American player Sam Querrey. He's still in this thing, and he's taken the fist set of his match that is on right now. There are quite a few very young American players to keep your eye on in the upcoming years. Sam Querrey, John Isner, and Donald Young are all terrific, and all very young. Give 'em a chance to get some more experience and you may be seeing future top 10 players in them.
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ViktorFan

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Gilly wrote:

Andy Roddick is probably the best looking guy in tennis right now.


I don't agree (the reason is NOT Rafa), but it's always good to see the opinion of others ^^. I just had a look at the results of the games today and I see that Hewitt won his game, there is no surprising result. I'm looking forward to the matches Safin vs Baghdatis and Del Porro vs Ferrer.
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Aurelien

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

The best looking guy in tennis right now (and has been in the last 5-8 years?) is easily Marat Safin. =D

Anyways, long day today for me. So tired and so burned (literally sunburned despite constantly trying to re-apply sunscreen) ... boy oh boy Melbourne Park is damn big.

First of all, my day started with trying to buy a digital camera. Got one! Asked the guy to charge the battery first for like an hour so that I can use it straight away for the day. Went out to get the ticket after that. Queued for like 25 minutes. Tempted to call Sunny to give him one last chance to come, but then changed my mind since he's not really a big fan of tennis and it's not going to be much fun to walk around the Melbourne Park all day long. Bought the ticket, and then went back to the store to get my camera. Caught the tram to Melbourne Park, entered and quickly worked my way to the venue map.

Damn I hate how they spread the courts. It's like Rod Laver Arena in the center, then Court 1 (Margaret Court Arena) to Court 15 to the west, while Vodafone Arena and Court 16 to Court 22 to the east. Only buying the ground pass ticket, I couldn't enter the Vodafone Arena and Rod Laver Arena. So I'm stuck with Margaret Court Arena and Court 2 to Court 22. Either to the east or to the west. I chose east anyways because Court 18 is the one that I'm looking forward to.

So I walked and walked. Got to the Vodafone Arena, watched the big screen outside showing Hantuchova vs Cortez (the match that was going on at that time). Sat down and then Operation: Assemble Digital Camera commenced. Surprisingly, despite never previously own any sort of camera, I was successful in assembling it in a quick manner (though the first thing I did with the brand new camera was to dropped it on the ground lol ... luckily I picked grass area to sit down, so nothing bad happened). Wooo camera assembled, time to take pictures and walk around.

Initially, I planned to take pictures of David Ferrer for ViktorFan, but then I realized that Ferrer played at Margaret Court Arena, and I wasn't in the mood to walk all the way back there to take a few pictures of him. Sorry, ViktorFan. I didn't get Ferrer's pictures.

However, as I walked around, I noticed that not all courts from 16 to 22 were used for matches. I saw people crowding one certain court. Hmmm ... so I took a quick look, and well, I took pictures too, for ViktorFan. Hopefully this will be good enough to compensate for not taking pictures of David Ferrer.







Yup, that's right, the first big star that I got to see was none other than Rafael Nadal. I hung out until the end of his practice session, hoping to see him at one point changing his shirt (that didn't happen despite one girl looking like she's 14 years old shouting "Take your top off!!" [and then she quickly hid behind the chair lol]). Rafa was definitely popular, though surprisingly there was a guy who seemed like a big fan constantly shouting "You're the best Rafa!!!" or "Rafa! You're the man!!" which made him grin/smile/smirk many times. It was adorable.

Oooh, I also took a picture of Rafa's practice partner. No idea who he is, assumed to be a Spaniard too because they spoke in Spanish to each other. But yeah, no idea who he is, and I'm labeling him as unknown dude below:



Then I walked nearby to check out Court 18. There was a women's doubles match, and woo, one of my favorites was playing. Czech Republic's own Nicole Vaidisova.


I walked further down to court 22 and saw someone who I felt look familiar. That guy was none other than last year's finalist Fernando Gonzalez


Walked back to Vodafone Arene's outside to watch the giant screen. Hantuchova finished off Cortez at the end, and Djokovic's match started. Walked back to the practice courts, and once again, the crowd gathered quite a lot. I wondered who it was this time. It was a she, and she was tall and blonde. Was she or was she not? Maria Sharapova indeed. You can tell by looking at how many people trying to take pictures there lol.





She finished her practice, and I checked the court that used to be Nadal's practice court and I saw that lots of people gathered there too. Hmmm ... who was it this time? A guy, no shirt, white cap, accompanied by an older trainer wearing glasses called Jimmy. Andy Roddick, Sir! BAM! Sorry, Sunny, I'm sending you an SMS, but many apologies for not asking you that time. XD Hope this makes it up to you.







Oh, and his practice partner, the Frenchman, Richard Gasquet who was surprisingly not too well-known. I have to admit that I was finding it quite difficult too to figure out who he was. He's quite good looking if I may say that.



And then I walked around to kill some time before the main finale of what I came there for. The fourth and last match of Court 18. Maria Kirilenko and Agnes Svazay (seeded 11) vs Lindsay Davenport and Daniela Hantuchova (unseeded).

Maria Kirilenko


Interesting pose with Kirilenko crouching so low when Svazay served (They won the points for like the first three times they used that style)


Davenport and Hantuchova


And of course, the main reason why I actually bothered to come ...

Daniela Hantuchova


Davenport/Hantuchova defeated Kirilenko/Svazay 6-2 7-5. Though doubles matches tend to be not as serious/hard as singles (all four players laughed/smiled a lot), it was definitely a quality match with many memorable plays. The crowd was mostly behind Kirilenko/Svazay pair with the constant "Go Maria!" or "Yes Agnes!" or "Kirilenko ... YOU BEAUTY!!" (lol ... Aussie crowd is surely creative) with a few "Go Lindsay" and "Go Daniela" in between. So yeah, that was my first time watching tennis match live as a spectator, and it didn't disappoint. I'm definitely going again next year, better prepared too. If I have the chance to, I'd go again before it ends next week. But we'll see how it goes. I'm definitely not in position to fork out money to pay ticket for Rod Laver and/or Vodafone Arena. So yeah .. we'll see.

Anyways, that's my report for Day 4 of Australian Open from the east side of the Melbourne Park. Hope it's not too painful to read. >.> Now ... thinking how screwed I am tomorrow when working with my left side sunburned while not on the right side lol. Oh well ... live and learn.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Haha, looks like a hell of a day. I am going to have to agree with Gil and say that Andy Roddick is probably the best looking guy in Tennis at the moment.

On another note, thanks for the photos Aurelien! ;)
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Thank you for the pics of Rafa, Aurelien!!! <3 I didn't expect that you really would see him. I envy you so much, you could watch him playing *sigh*. You know that I like Rafa much more than Ferrer so I'm really very happy that you could take the pics of him. I'm also glad that you could take pics of Daniela Hantuchova ^^. She looks much better than Maria Sharapova.

I enjoyed reading your report a lot.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

It's awesome to see how close you got to these great players. Really makes me want to head up to the US Open sometime. It's only about a 4 hour drive, so I should should go up there some time.

I'd say that Sharapova is quite pretty-- well deserving of her fame in that regard. It looks like she's got her act together physically this year as well, considering last year's disappointments. We'll see how she continues this tournament.

Nice pictures of Andy. :D
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Aurelien, I assure you I'm one hundred per cent jealous of you right now. How much did the tickets cost you, anyways?
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Aurelien

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

No worries, Sunny. Sorry that you didn't get to come. At least you got the pics of Andy Roddick. I did enjoy mentioning again and again that I got to see Andy Roddick in person while you were stuck at your place (probably watching Hachi-ko lol j/k). XD And no, Safin looks better than Roddick =P

ViktorFan, yeah, I was just teasing you. Other than Ferrer, I also missed out on Juan Carlos Ferrero, Anna Chakvetadze, Amelie Mauresmo, James Blake and probably more players that I simply didn't notice simply because I was on the east side while they were on the west side. But then again, seriously, I preferred getting to see Nadal, Roddick, Sharapova, Hantuchova, and Vaidisova anyways.

Gil-galad, if it's not too expensive, you really should head up to US Open, seriously. Especially that you're playing tennis and whatnot too. It's worth it even if you're just mainly sight-seeing like me rather than focusing on watching the matches. If you'd like to see as many superstars as possible, I'd suggest to come on Day 1 or Day 2 because you'd be guaranteed that everyone is still there (and ticket price is most likely still very cheap).

Sharapova does look solid this year, especially when she just dominated Davenport. As for her looks, I'd say that I quite like the overall look of her out of the pictures that I took, but when she's playing tennis wearing that dress, she somehow looks different. I think I don't like the way she dresses than the way she looks.

Oh, I could've watched Blake's match too yesterday if I wanted to, but at that time (7.30 PM) I was just already too tired to watch any matches. So I didn't get to see him. Not that I'm a fan of James Blake anyways. But yeah, thought I'd mention it.

Arevus, you should come down to Australia next year and we'll go together. =D The ground pass that I got cost me A$30. It'll stay A$30/day for the first week, and then it'll drop down to $20 for the second week because there are fewer players left and the Quarter Final onwards would be playing in either Vodafone or Rod Laver Arena. Hence, the price increase of Vodafone Arena and Rod Laver Arena's ticket price as the tournament progresses (Vodafone started at A$37 on Day 1, ended at $67 on Day 8, while Rod Laver Arena started at A$50 on Day 1, ended at A$250 for the Finals).

So yeah, if I have to go again on the second week, I'd have to fork out more money because it wouldn't be worth it anymore to get the ground pass tickets unless to watch some players practicing. Even then, at that time, there are less players already so some might've been gone already.

---

Anyways, back to tennis. Marcos Baghdatis defeated Marat Safin in 5 sets, and he is going to go play Lleyton Hewitt next round. Tough call. But I think Hewitt might've been the better players though I'm hoping he'd lose instead. XD
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Gil-galad

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Blake is awesome-- you should have checked him out. He's just a wonderfully nice guy. Been through loads of shit. Became a seeded player in the early 2000s, and then had a pretty awful back injury which nearly nixed his chances of ever playing tennis again. He persevered through it and became a seeded player again only a year after recovering from that injury. However, that year he also lost his father (right before the US Open, too)-- who was always very close to him. He's a really classy guy-- and sometimes I wonder if it would be him in the top 3 if he didn't have to sit out for nearly 3 years due to injury.

I'm watching a replay of the Baghdatis match-- I love Baghdatis, he's a really fun guy.

As for US Open costs, they're pretty cheap. Grounds passes for opening weekends are very manageable-- and I would stay with my family that lives right up there in New York. I'd stay for the whole weekend I suppose. Also, tickets for Center Court at Arthur Ashe Stadium are very, very cheap, too because of how effing enormous that stadium is. Seats a good 20,000. The only problem is in the upper deck your view is really terrible.

I would probably try to get up close with some of the star practicing-- maybe an autograph, who knows! ^^
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Aurelien

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Well I would've watched Blake played, but for me, that particular day was more like star-sighting day rather than watching proper tennis match day. So I passed that chance as I was too tired to watch another match. Also because I'm one of those who think that Blake is a good player, but will never be great because he's lacking consistency (even back in the past when he was rising) compared to the other guys. So as a tennis player, he didn't really interest me into wanting to watch him play. Though I follow tennis, and like watching tennis, it's not like I'm going to sit there for 2 hours or something just watching James Blake played. I'd take watching Hantuchova/Davenport vs Kirilenko/Svazay in a fun easy match for an hour or so over that. If I have to sit and watch a full match of tennis that can go beyond 2 hours, it'd better be between players who I really want to see. Blake is simply not one of them.

Baghdatis is good, but I also consider him as one of those who will never be great. To be great, really, you gotta be as high as you can when you're on the rise. Players like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Roddick, Agassi, Sampras, Becker, Edberg, Safin, Hewitt, Rafter, etc jumped to the Top 3 easily when they were rising and constantly stayed there for long period of time. They didn't spend most of the year of their rise stuck at 15th or 10th in the world. That's for good but not great players like Blake, Davydenko, Baghdatis, Gonzalez, Ljubicic, etc who would do great in 1 Grand Slam, and then knocked out early on the next Grand Slam and never reached Semi Final of a Grand Slam again.

If the ticket for US Open is indeed cheap, seriously, go for it. You're a tennis boy, it'd be worth it. If you don't like tennis, then that's a different case, might be damn boring to hang around for 6-10 hours. But since you do like tennis, it's definitely going to be damn worth it, Gil. Go for it. If you get Roddick's autograph, make sure you get two of them. One for you, and sell the other one for $1000 to Sunny. He'd pay for that. XD
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Gil-galad

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I went to bed seeing Rafa Nadal down 4-1 in the first set of his match-- but it looks like he managed to pull it out in straight sets after all. e looked pretty out of it when I was watching, but he must have really pulled it together.

I'll try to convince my parents into buying me tickets this year. :)

Seems like Andy Roddick is playing now, but I don't have time to watch it.
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