1) WTF 2010 – friendliest fan encounters + Fed autograph + Fed beat-downs in great seats.
While watching Rafa practice, I met two boys from Spain who just wandered into the O2 and felt fortunate to see Rafa up close. I didn’t take too much offense when they expressed amazement that I loved Fed.
I got into a heated hour long debate with two Rafa fans; we went to our respective corners unchanged in our fan love 🙂
At Fed’s practice in the main stadium, I met and took photos with Fed fans bearing the ‘shhh genius at work’ banner and got Fed’s autograph.
On Thursday, I wondered what the view from a suite might look like and then on Friday, I met a lovely lady who invited me to join her as a guest in a suite. Alas, it was Djoko giving Roddick a severe beating, so things went too quickly for me.
2) Meeting @jusbjen on Stadium 3 at Indian Wells, CA
[18] T Robredo (ESP) vs D Sela (ISR)
Why I left Tsonga vs Montanes on Stadium 2 is beyond me. Probably because Tsonga was playing really sloppy tennis and I was getting frustrated. Anyway, I left that crowded match for the sparsely populated match with Robredo vs Sela. Stadium security took care of a too boisterous Israeli fan with a flag and I turned to share sympathetic looks at a fellow onlooker. We got to chatting and found that we love IW and we loved checking out Armada boys under the sun. It was @jusbjen. After the match, we exchanged numbers/twitter names and went our separate ways. A few hours later, we were seated in front of the giant screen by the main stadium when a couple gave us tickets to the upcoming doubles match: F Lopez (ESP) / F Verdasco (ESP) vs [WC] M Lopez (ESP) / R Nadal (ESP).
We could not believe our luck. Our seats were courtside. It was a fun and fast-paced match. I was cheering for team hotness but team cute won. Oh well, it still wasn’t a bad way to spend the day.
3) Watching Ryan Harrison play Rui Machado of Portugal during 2nd round of qualifying at USO. This boy came from being down 2-5 in the 2nd set tiebreak to take it to a third and deciding set while experiencing severe leg cramps. It was a painful and heartfelt performance that won me over as a fan. I’ll happily hitch myself to this wagon to see what else Ryan has to offer.
4) Heartache as I watched Ferrer lose to Verdasco after being up by 2 sets at the USO. This had to be the most frustrating match I watched live all year. Ferrer got off to such a quick start winning two sets quite easily. Watching an error-prone Verdasco come back and snatch the victory in 5 sets made me one pissy bitch. Who knew that I enjoyed Ferrer so much? Reason 309988 why I enjoy big boy tennis; baseline boys who can’t finish off points with a powerful forehand is just too damn painful.
5) Federer vs Dabul at USO
While the match was not particularly memorable, the moment when Fed hits his tweener brought the crowd to its feet. They were ready for the usual USO night viewing excitment and for a brief moment, Fed gave us a glimpse of what could be possible. It was all too brief. Few of the night matches delivered that first week.