Tennis adventures

[TennisHack]

kiro said:

Denis Gremelmayer

He's pretty cute!

And the 3rd lefty I saw: Kenneth Carlson [DEN]. He played Heineken (Shanghai) Open 2004 too.

Dear Kenneth Carlsen, no matter how much time you spend shirtless out in the sun, you will never get a tan. But you'll always be our second favorite blonde lobster (after Stefan Koubek)!

About the Russian boys.
We checked the itf tennis site and found out their names and profiles. They're about 15~17 years old. They've got much to improve in their games but they're quite photogenic.

Baby-faces! So cute, all of them. Look like they're having a ton of fun, just what the need. And playing international events will help with the aforementioned tweaking of their games.

Sounds like you made their day by giving them pics. They probably felt like big tennis celebs to receive fan pictures ;D

Hmm...I'd say I miss Jarkko very much! Maybe that's why I noticed Mikhail Ledovskikh...

Jarkko is a total dream I'm sorry he didn't decide to return to Asia where he's so popular!

[kiro]

My Adventure @ 2006 China Open

Sep.12, 2006 [Day 2]

Mario vs Feli was scheduled on Tuesday afternoon. Stoney and Shanshan both took a day off work and we went to the stadium together. We arrived at 10:30 in the morning, it was a bit early. We watched some juniors matches.
Several pro players came to practice at 12 o'clock. Mario was hitting with Carlson. Denis Gremelmayer with Frank Moser[GER].

Frank Moser


Feliciano Lopez was hitting with Phillip King. I tried to take more pics of him, considering that he might be out of the tournament soon.


F.Lo practiced his backhand quite a lot... A friend of mine, who's a professional photographer, said to me: 'Lopez's backhand groundstroke looks great!' Hmm...So he does have a backhand? Don't you know that it's his backhand which always fails in the match?


Anyway, Feli 'The Beauty' still looks nice.


Most players practiced for an hour and left. And then we saw Nikolay Davydenko. He arrived on Monday evening.




The editor of the Tennis World Magazine asked me to write an article about Davydenko & Baghdatis @ CO. There was rumour saying that Davydenko's dating Baghdatis' former girlfriend, but I don't believe in it. Nikolay's together with his girlfriend Irina. This is quite clear now since Nikolay wrote about her quite a lot in his blog. They are a good couple.

I went to centre court to have a look. The 'Jarkko lookalike' Mikhail Ledovskikh wasn't able to deal with Karlovic's big serves and the giant won 6-2, 7-6.

I went out again and saw Schuettler practicing with Hrbaty.



They played some points and Rainer lost most of them...

The second match on centre court went on quickly. We went in to wait for the showdown of the good-looking guys: Mario vs Feli.

Feli was in black and red. Girls started to scream when they saw him.


Mario was wearing a blue shirt, a nice one too.


The match started.
Another thing CO copied from USO: we've got Hawk's Eye this time.



In the 1st set, Feli challenged twice and both were successful. Mario challenged once too, but failed.
In the match Feli tried too many Serve & Volleys and failed most of them. We felt that when he stayed at baseline he was able to control the rallies and make Mario run, and Mario always fails to return the ball while running. But it seemed that Feli wants to S&V so much...
Mario won the match 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

We had some dinner and missed the 1st match of the night session, which won by Ljubicic. The last match of the day was between Marcos Baghdatis and Denis Gremelmayer.

Denis surprised us all! The lefty from Germany has delicate touch and his drop shots and lobs made it very hard for Marcos.


Marcos was having problems with his first serve. But he ran well and played clever shots too. Two players played great points and it was entertaining to watch.


The match went on to the 3rd set tie-breaker. Denis got mini-break and was leading 5-3, but Marcos played some great tennis to get 4 points in a row and won the match.


He was excited after winning such a tough match. We were excited too. This match was much more enjoyable than Feli vs Mario.

***********************

About the Russian boys.

Sergey lost in the singles of the juniors tournament in the morning. He was a bit down, but a chat with friend helped him to smile again.
Sergey Strelkov and Ilyushin Artem. Ilyushin played in the qualifying round but lost.


Stanislav Vovk qualified for the main draw. He lost in 1st round too, but was not too upset.


Nikita Zotov also lost in the singles, but he and Evgeny Donskoy won their doubles.
In the evening, Evgeny was playing his singles match.



Unlike Stanislav and Sergey, who might be too young (only fifteen) to have a mature game, Evgeny, sixteen years old, has a solid baseline game. He can stand long rallies, and plays with nice control of rhythm and strategy. And he is always motivated in the match. He won the match smoothly.

We had more pics printed and gave them to Stanislav this time.

TBC...

[TennisHack]

Denis Gremelmayr is cute in regular gear, too! I think I found myself a new fave

Thanks Kiro, keep up the good work!! It's sooo much fun to hear about an event from an 'insider'

[kiro]

My Adventure @ 2006 China Open

Sep.13, 2006 [Day 3]

When I arrived at the tennis center at noon, I saw a small, old taxi car was arriving at the same time and...To my surprise, Denis and Moser got down from it. Maybe they've missed the shuttle bus...but they could have a better car to carry them and their ball bags. That kind of car is just too small, especially for Moser.

I had to stay in the news centre all day, writing the required article about Davydenko and Baghdatis. The main theme, according to the editor, was to emphasize that 'they are not good-looking, but they have good games'.
China Open Committee said that 'this year we're not inviting those idols who just have handsome looks, such as Safin, Moya & Ferrero.' Hmm...So why is F.Lopez here?

Well, among the top 10, 4 players come here and I won't say it's a poor entry list. Anyway, I'd like to watch Davydenko or Baghdatis play rather than Robredo or Blake. I do think Davydenko and Baghdatis have good games. But I don't think they are ugly or what...Both are pretty good-looking in MY pictures, IMO.

Since I was sitting in the news centre with the computer, I could only watch the matches on TV and missed almost all the chances to take pictures...Arhhhhh!

In the afternoon I finished writing about Marcos and had a brief idea of how to write the part of Nikolay. While writing I watched some points of Davydenko-Carlsen and Hrbaty-Peya matches. Davydenko had a routine win, while Hrbaty showed some ups and downs and won his match 6-1, 2-6, 6-0.

I got the infomation that F.Lopez, who lost in the singles on Tuesday, was still in Beijing and would sign autographs for fans at the tennis centre on 5:30 pm. I sent a message to Stoney, she and Shanshan hurried to finish their work and got here in time. They got the autograph and shook hand with Feli(according to them Feli was very nice in the whole session, smiled to every fan and let the fans take photo with him). Then they went to watch the matches on Court 1.
When they arrived Ivo Karlovic just retired in the singles match against Udomchoke [THA]. So the doubles match between Ljubicic/Kunitsyn and Fisher/Healey started earlier than they expected. I didn't watch the match, Stoney told me that Fisher and Healey had a poor performance and Ljubo/Kunitsyn won easily.

On Centre Court Baghdatis was playing Yeu-Tzuoo Wang, another quick runner with good touch. They exchanged some breaks. The match was quite close, and Marcos won 7-6, 6-4.

And finally I finished the article! I went to the centre court to watch the night session.
Mario was playing against Stefano Galvani [ITA]. Nothing special about that match. Mario won 6-3, 7-5.


The last match was a doubles match between Pless/Udomchoke and Gremelmayr/Peya. We were supporting Denis...but they still lost, 4-6, 0-6.

***********************

About the Russian Boys.

We decided to give them some photos everyday. Shanshan and Stoney met Ilyushin while watching the doubles match on Court 1 and gave him the photos.
Later we saw Stanislav, Sergey, Nikita and Evgeny in the Centre Court, together with their coach.


TBC...

[Lee]

kiro said:

p.s. Lee: yes of course you can.

Thanks

Sorry I don't have many pics of Rainer this time...It's quite to watch him in these days...

I know

[Lee]

Great reports, Kiro

[TennisHack]

Kiro, I like the continued commentary on the Russian juniors! They seem like nice kids.

LOL @ not thinking Baghdatis is cute! He draws a lot of attention for his charisma, unlike Davydenko (whom I like just fine even though he has 'no personality'). I just thought it was odd that they were paired up for your story for having so much in common

[kiro]

My Adventure @ 2006 China Open

Sep.14, 2006 [Day 4]

The juniors were playing in the morning and the Pros came to practice at noon.
Mikhail Ledovskikh was talking with Rainer's Coach. They seemed to be pretty close.


Hrbaty was practising. Ljubicic came at 13:30.
Ljubo warming up. My friend said that Ljubo looks like a big orange in that outfit. I was thinking that he looks like a big fan of the Netherlands...


His doubles partner, Igor Kunitsyn[RUS].

Talking about the 'not good-looking but good games' article. It contains 4 parts, Davydenko and Baghdatis written by me, Ljubo and Hrbaty written by another writer. (I've written similar thing about Ljubo and Hrbaty before.) Well, I've got the feeling that it's not easy to take good photo of Ljubo, since he's got such a bald head and such an orange outfit.
This one looks better.


On Centre Court Hyung-Taik Lee was playing Michael Berrer. It was a BORING LONG match. They started on 12:30 and when they finished it was already 3 o'clock. Lee won the match 4-6 7-6 7-6.

In the next match, Ancic/Bupathi beat Butorac/Parrott in a close battle. the score was 7-6 3-6 10-6.

Marcos was practicing with his coach.


His coach, Guillaume Payre.


Nikolay Davydenko was hitting too.



Nikolay's girlfriend, Irina.


Another pic of Nikolay.

We read Nikolay's blog every day. Those pics are so funny.

Marcos held another autograph session.


We began to see some WTA players in the evening. But I failed in recognizing some of them, especially those blonde girls.
Eleni Daniilidou. She was going to play the qualifying round.


Ljubo defeated Kevin Kim easily, 6-3, 6-4. Later he and Kunitsyn appeared on Court 1 for their doubles match against Berrer/Carlsen. We didn't have tickets to enter the centre court for the night session, so we went to Court 1.
It turns cold in the evening. When they started to play, the wind started to blow strongly.
I was not feeling good...I thought I might get a flu or catch a cold. The wind was still strong and we were all cold and hungry. After watching the 1st set, we left the tennis center for dinner. Berrer/Carlsen won 6-4, 6-1.

***********************

About the Russian boys.

Evgeny kept on winning! In the morning he got another win in the singles.


Evgeny and Nikita's doubles match was scheduled in late afternoon. They went to watch Ivan's match for a while, and then went to Wilson's field. They joined the shop assistants of Wilson to play some net points. Both had a lot of fun.
BTW, Both Evgeny and Nikita use Babolat racquets. But since they were playing at Wilson's field, they changed into Wilson temporarily.



And the other kids were having fun in training too.




We watched Evgeny and Nikita's doubles match. Their coaches were watching too. In that match they both played very well. They won the match in straight sets. When they got off the court and were ready to leave with their coaches, I said 'great match, guys' to them and gave them some photos. They were not suprised of getting photos this time, but they might be suprised by the pic I took on Wendesday...Evgeny even gave us a thumb up! ;D


TBC...

[TennisHack]

Ljubicic looks ridiculous in that outfit

Nikolay's girlfriend looks like the actress that plays Robin Scorpio on General Hospital...



Thanks for the reports Kiro!! They are fabulous and so are your pics!

[kiro]

My Adventure @ 2006 China Open

Sep.15, 2006 [Day 5]

Thursday night, after coming back from the tennis site, I went to meet a friend and we had a long long chat until 3:30 in the morning of Friday, so I was very tired when I came back. And I was not feeling well because of the flu.
I took some medicine and slept until about 12:00 at noon.
I arrived at the tennis centre at 2:00 in the afternoon. It was said that Feliciano Lopez played tennis with fans in the morning, but I missed the session.
On centre court, Mario was playing Hrbaty.

After watching Mario's performance in the past days, I predicted that Hrbady's baseline game will make trouble to Mario.
Well, I was right on that point. Mario lost the 1st set 2-6.
In the second set, he was also pushed very hard by Hrbaty. But Mario managed to force a tie-breaker. From then on it seemed that Hrbaty suddenly went off his game. He served 2 DFs and made UEs in the TB. Mario won the 2nd set with some good luck. In the 3rd set, Hrbaty was still not stable enough and Mario hang in there to won the match 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.
I went out to have some food. I saw some WTA players practicing:




But I don't know who they are...I know too little about WTA players. Please tell me if you recognize them, thanks~.

After Mario's match, Ljubicic was playing HT Lee on centre court. It's said that Mario was going to sign autographs for fans. When I was waiting in the line, I watched the big TV screen there and found that Ljubicic was losing. He lost the 1st set 3-6 and did not look good in the 2nd set either. He was not into the game, just like the last time I saw him play, in 2005 TMC Shanghai.
When Mario came to sign autographs, it was near the end of the 2nd set of Ljubicic's match. Ljubicic just got broken, Lee was gonna serve for match at 6-5. Of course, Mario was concerned about the result, since he's Ljubicic's friend, and was going to face the winner of the match in SF. In stead of sitting in a chair, he stood behind the desk to sign autographs, so that he could watch the TV screen while signing.
The atmosphere was tense...when my turn was coming, Ljubicic was facing a matchpoint. Mario's pen stopped for a moment as he was watching the screen with a straight face. Ljubicic saved the mp, and Mario went on to sign on my autograph book. And then, as he was signing, Ljubicic got break point in Lee's service game. Mario finished signing exactly when Ljubicic broke the game and forced the tie-breaker. Then Mario went back to watch the match.
Too bad that in the end Ljubicic still lost the TB and the match.

Baghdatis's match went pretty quickly. Marcos won an easy match over Udomchoke.
We went in to watch the last match of the day, Davydenko vs Srichaphan. But Nikolay was completely off his game that evening.

He lost the 1st set 2-6 and then, when trailing by 0-1 in the 2nd set, he decided to retire after consulting the trainer.


****************

About the Russian boys.

Evgeny won the singles QF in the morning. In the afternoon, he and Nikita were playing the doubles SF.



They won the match, but Evgeny seemed to be a bit tired in the end of the doubles match. 2 matches in a day, plus training, for several days continously, this is quite much to a boy.

When Nikolay was warming up before his match, one of the coaches of the Russian boys was his hitting partner. Then Sergey and Stanislav came. The coaches of the boys talked with Nikolay, and introduced the boys to him, and they had a picture together.


Now quiz! See the man by Stanislav? He was the coach I just mentioned. I always got the feeling that I've seen his photo somewhere before, but I couldn't remember at that time. Do you know his name? I didn't find out until I got some information about him on Sunday and went back to have a check. Yes, he used to be an ATP player. Some of you might already recognize him at first sight.

Another interesting thing of the day happened in the afternoon. When I was watching Evgeny and Nikita's doubles match(the other boys and their coaches were watching too), Ivan, the biggest of the boys, went to me. (We used to thinking that he was the eldest among the boys, but we were wrong! Later we found that he was younger than Nikita.) He looked a bit shy and asked me: 'Hey, do you have our (digital) photos? We want to buy them.' I told him: 'You needn't pay for it, I'll bring you a DVD tomorrow. It's my pleasure.' He was very glad, said thank you, thank you to me, and then went to tell the other boys. I thought that they must have discussed about it and decided to ask Ivan, the one who looks the most mature, to talk with me about that.

In the evening Sergey and Stanislav were watching Nikolay's match. After the match, we met them out of the centre court and gave them the pics we printed as usual. They thanked us and Sergey said to me: 'See you tomorrow!' So he must have heard about the DVD matter from Ivan. I confirmed: 'OK, see you tomorrow.' They smiled and left in a happy mood.

We went home after a brief dinner and started working. We decided to make one DVD for each of the boys, that means 6 copies. I was selecting the pics to be written to the disk. Rincy was designing the cover. Shanshan was helping us.
I started to burn the DVD one by one, but I was too tired that I fell asleep during the production of the second copy. Shanshan finished the job for me.

TBC...