Post by Lee on Mar 17, 2009 0:34:23 GMT -5
I am not going to write a day to day report. Just bits of this and pieces of that.
1. Most players are very comfortable around fans and are extreme confident of the integrity of fans there too. Soderling left his tennis bag outside the practice court with all his credential attached. Gasquet and Simon had their tennis bags sitting on the steps next to the practice court where fans sitting all around the bags.
2. Carla Suarez Navarro is a fangirl of Federer.
3. I can't understand how Carla lost to Alexa Glatch although I was there watching the match and further puzzled by how Alexa Glatch lost to Urszula Radwanska.
4. I went to Stadium 2 to watch Li Na vs Tamarine Tanasugarn, Tamarine was serving at duece when I arrived, I watched her served 3-4 double faults and still, she WON the game.
5. Talking about Radwanska, the sisters wanted to practice more but all courts were occupied, so they went into the empty green clay courts to practice. They placed tennis balls in certain positions to practice placing and suddenly, the automatic sprinkling system turned on and they had to scramble getting their equipments and themselves out.
6. The ball kids have really nice outfit this year thanks to the new sponser BNP Paribas. The girls' dress is really cute so I went to the Fila store on site and checked it out. The dress only is USD70.
And you need to add the short shorts underneath plus the jacket (it's freezing cold at night). Altogether, it cost a fortune to dress them.
7. I watched Donald Young vs Michael Lammar. Young is a better player, unfortunately, he made stupid mistakes, could not get over his mistakes, and ended up losing 6-2 4-6 5-7. In 2nd set, he was serving at 40-15, playing well and he made a mistake losing the point. He was thinking about that he lost the next 3 points and the game, and went on losing the 2nd set. Many times, he was dictating play and Lammer ended up with a sitting duck return, Young would miss the easy winner because he could not decide how to play the point, he had so many options.
8. Most players had one hour practice sessions. But superstars like Federer, Nadal and Murray were able to occupy a practice court for 2 hours. Murray usually play tennis-footy with his team. 2 on 2 for an hour while shirtless. Then he would put on his shirt and practice.
9. May be I am prejudice but Djokovic is the most fun to watch in practice. The fun loving kid, who disappeared from center court under all the criticism and pressure, is still on practice court and the green area after practice. He and Marian Vajda are made for each other because both are kids in heart.
10. Stakhovsky kept flirting with Dementieva while he was practicing with Troicki. Although Elena was merely being polite.
11. During the Bellucci/Marc Lopez match, Thomaz was coached by his Guga-look-alike coach whenever he was at the north end of the court. At first, the coaching was not the obvious but as the match went on and the umpire turned a blind eye on what's going plus Marc Lopez didn't make any protest, the coaching was very open.
12. Last year in Indian Wells, I saw the Frenchies always practiced together. So this year, I was really surprised on Wednesday when I saw Richie practiced with Kevin Anderson, then Simon with Ancic followed by Monfils with Nicolas Lapentti. Although I saw earlier that Benneteau practiced with Gicquel. But the very next day, order restored and Richie was with Simon, Tsonga with Chardy.....
13. Bolelli and his girlfriend have exactly same tattoo on their left forearm. Tattoo means life long love. (Not 100% sure but should be close)
14. Twice I was an inch from bumping into Viktor Troicki.
15. Daniel Koellerer vs Marc Chiudinelli, 2nd round qualifiying match. Marc imitated Dani's grunt during a point. Afterward, Dani complained to umpire about Marc's grunt. :rolls: The crowd was not shy in expressing their opinion.
1. Most players are very comfortable around fans and are extreme confident of the integrity of fans there too. Soderling left his tennis bag outside the practice court with all his credential attached. Gasquet and Simon had their tennis bags sitting on the steps next to the practice court where fans sitting all around the bags.
2. Carla Suarez Navarro is a fangirl of Federer.
3. I can't understand how Carla lost to Alexa Glatch although I was there watching the match and further puzzled by how Alexa Glatch lost to Urszula Radwanska.
4. I went to Stadium 2 to watch Li Na vs Tamarine Tanasugarn, Tamarine was serving at duece when I arrived, I watched her served 3-4 double faults and still, she WON the game.
5. Talking about Radwanska, the sisters wanted to practice more but all courts were occupied, so they went into the empty green clay courts to practice. They placed tennis balls in certain positions to practice placing and suddenly, the automatic sprinkling system turned on and they had to scramble getting their equipments and themselves out.
6. The ball kids have really nice outfit this year thanks to the new sponser BNP Paribas. The girls' dress is really cute so I went to the Fila store on site and checked it out. The dress only is USD70.
And you need to add the short shorts underneath plus the jacket (it's freezing cold at night). Altogether, it cost a fortune to dress them.7. I watched Donald Young vs Michael Lammar. Young is a better player, unfortunately, he made stupid mistakes, could not get over his mistakes, and ended up losing 6-2 4-6 5-7. In 2nd set, he was serving at 40-15, playing well and he made a mistake losing the point. He was thinking about that he lost the next 3 points and the game, and went on losing the 2nd set. Many times, he was dictating play and Lammer ended up with a sitting duck return, Young would miss the easy winner because he could not decide how to play the point, he had so many options.
8. Most players had one hour practice sessions. But superstars like Federer, Nadal and Murray were able to occupy a practice court for 2 hours. Murray usually play tennis-footy with his team. 2 on 2 for an hour while shirtless. Then he would put on his shirt and practice.
9. May be I am prejudice but Djokovic is the most fun to watch in practice. The fun loving kid, who disappeared from center court under all the criticism and pressure, is still on practice court and the green area after practice. He and Marian Vajda are made for each other because both are kids in heart.
10. Stakhovsky kept flirting with Dementieva while he was practicing with Troicki. Although Elena was merely being polite.
11. During the Bellucci/Marc Lopez match, Thomaz was coached by his Guga-look-alike coach whenever he was at the north end of the court. At first, the coaching was not the obvious but as the match went on and the umpire turned a blind eye on what's going plus Marc Lopez didn't make any protest, the coaching was very open.
12. Last year in Indian Wells, I saw the Frenchies always practiced together. So this year, I was really surprised on Wednesday when I saw Richie practiced with Kevin Anderson, then Simon with Ancic followed by Monfils with Nicolas Lapentti. Although I saw earlier that Benneteau practiced with Gicquel. But the very next day, order restored and Richie was with Simon, Tsonga with Chardy.....
13. Bolelli and his girlfriend have exactly same tattoo on their left forearm. Tattoo means life long love. (Not 100% sure but should be close)
14. Twice I was an inch from bumping into Viktor Troicki.
15. Daniel Koellerer vs Marc Chiudinelli, 2nd round qualifiying match. Marc imitated Dani's grunt during a point. Afterward, Dani complained to umpire about Marc's grunt. :rolls: The crowd was not shy in expressing their opinion.
Practice courts are the best part of a tourney ;D
It's becoming increasingly obvious that the backlash he's suffering from the press & other players is getting to him. It will be interesting to see if he can overcome the pressure of suddenly being a top player (with a new racquet, no less 
) Good to know he still can have fun out there, even if its just in practice.
Thanks for the pic!