Encounter 1: Canadian Open 1999 by Ericha.

"I was at the Canadian Open 1999 and the tickets i had allowed me to get in back around where the players ate and practiced. It was after Conchita beat Dokic, so I just went out back to look around and who did I see walking out from the eating area but Conchita and Patricia!!! I grabbed my camera and asked for a picture with Conchita which Pato took, then I asked Conchita to take a picture of Pato and I, she put her hand around my shoulder, smiled for the camera and said something to Conchita in Spanish (I have no idea what was said). I told them good luck for their doubles match and they said thank you, that's it!!"

Encounter 2: Roland Garros 2000 by Caz

"My very first encounter with Pato came at Roland Garros 2000, after Arantxa’s quarter final match against Venus Williams, as I went with some other girls to watch Conchita Martinez practice before her quarter final against Marta Marrero. During that practice session my friend Stacey and I got chatting to a friend of Pato’s who was at Roland Garros with she and Conchita, then during Conchita’s quarter final match the three of us went down to the bar in the players lounge for a drink, meaning to be back in our seats by the end of the match. Unfortunately, though we were trying to follow the match on the TV screens in the players lounge, we somehow kinda missed the end of the match, and thus were still in the bar after the end of the match. At this point Pato came to find her friend – she didn’t even look anywhere else, she just came straight to the bar!! – and arrived just as I was paying for our drinks. She saw me about to pay, and said not to worry about it, and handed over her players pass to pay for our drinks for us.

For the semi final match, Stacey had this idea to bring some rum with her to the match, mixed in with some coke, so Pato’s friend, Stacey and I sat in the stands drinking rum and coke throughout the match, for which Stacey and I were supporting Arantxa, while obviously Pato and her friend were supporting Conchita – but we still managed to sit through the match together!!! Afterwards, the three of us were sitting in the players lounge finishing off the rum and coke, and Pato came over and asked what we were drinking, to which her friend replied it was only coke!!! Of course, since Stacey and I were in fits of laughter, Pato didn’t believe her, and smelt the drink, (which was like ¾ rum, ¼ coke) and smiled!!!! She then offered to buy us any food or drink we wanted - despite the fact we’d just been supporting Arantxa against her player!!!!!

On the day of the final, Pato sent her friend out to us with passes into the players lounge, and her players pass so she could pay for yet more food and drink for us!!

We saw Pato briefly before and after the final, and said goodbye to her as she and Conchita were leaving Roland Garros.

We’d really like to thank Pato for all she did for us at Roland Garros – so if you’re reading this, thanks loads Pato!!!!!"

Encounter 3: Various Encounters by Melinda

"My encounters are brief, but I will share them at the request of the webmaster".

Los Angeles 2000: "I arrived at the tournament in LA wondering how I was going to manage to deliver messages to all the players I had messages for. They were easy. I saw Patricia leaving the practice court and told her I had a message for her. It was from Caz. She said, "Oh, thank you. That's very nice."

I ran into her again 2 days later in the hotel lobby and asked if she had read it. She had. I told her I was going to write to her. She said, "Tell her, 'Hi.'" I told her, "I know all those crazy girls." She said, "They're fun. It's good to be like that, have fun. Tell them, "Hi."

Lipton 1999: "I briefly talked to Pato at the 1999 Lipton the day after she played a really fun doubles match. Another person, Marsha, was telling her how entertaining and fun the match was. She had really pulled some antics reminiscent of Nastase, and she and Conchita came back from a set and way down to win the match against Amy Frazier and some other girl from Michigan".

Amelia Island 1993: "I saw her play in Amelia Island in 1993 or so, and I remember hearing her yell out a word in Spanish that was not "miercoles" during her singles match (for those of you who know enough Spanish to figure out what it was). For those of you who don't speak Spanish, "fertilizer" would be a loose translation. Pato is always entertaining".

Encounter 4: Filderstadt 2000 by amsog

Alright, this is my one and only addition to the encounters section of this site. I much rather get other people to write!

After building this site we thought: "If there was a site out there on the Internet about us (that some stranger had built), we would like to know about it and have the possibility to express our ideas about it", so we felt it was only fair to tell Pato about the site.

So, once we were at Filderstadt we decided I would tell Pato about the site - the whole encounter was very brief. I went to her and told her about the existence of this site and gave her the URL, also I told her that if there's anything she doesn't like to please let us know about it, she said thanks and gave us a big smile and that was it. We didn't approached her again in quite a long time, so we don't know if she even checked the site then, but, she now knows about it, which was the whole point!

Encounter 5: Amelia Island 2000 by Marsha.

"Here is the best picture of Pato that I could find offhand -- (go to "Pictures" to see the fotograph of Pato wearing a red hat under "Various Pics").

this was taken this year (2000) at Amelia Island when she played doubles with our "friend" from Gainesville, FL, Nicki Arendt. It was the first time they had ever played together and they got through three rounds (they beat two Japanese players, Rika Hiraki and Yuko Yoshida (I *THINK*) and then (oh, crap! I forget!) and lost to Schett and somebody, I'm pretty sure! Nicki commented on how much fun Pato os to have as a partner. They were a very amusing and entertaining team! At one point, after Pato had made a really good shot, Nicki did the "I am not worthy" salute to Pato".

Encounter 6: Chase Championships 2000 by moon

"The Chase Championships were coming to town, and I had my tickets. Before the tournament, I got an email from Bea (amsog), asking me if I would deliver some messages to Conchita and Pato. I told her I would, but I wasn't very optimistic about being there on the days that Conchita was playing. I actually had tickets for 2 days, and I knew Conchita was not playing on Wednesday, the first night I went. I didn't even think about bringing the messages. It was such an insane week, the thought did not even cross my mind to bring them just in case.

So I'm there Wednesday night, and I've just finished watching Monica Seles play Sandrine Testud. My friend and I were talking to Monica, and just hanging in the front row, when all the sudden they announce, a mini-retirement ceremony for Dominique Van Roost. Dominique is suddenly standing right in front of me, waiting to be introduced. I blinked and then I noticed someone who looked suspiciously like Patricia Tarabini, standing off a little ways, to my right. "Is that Tarabini?" I asked my friend. I had never seen her in person so I wasn't sure. She looked pretty cool, all dressed in black. She was talking with another woman who looked familiar. Then I turn my head, and Conchita is like a foot away from me, looking great, wearing a long black jacket. I couldn't think of anything to say except Vamos Conchita! Then I realized I could have brought the messages! "Oh no!", I thought "Bea (amsog) is gonna kill me!" Had I known they were having any type of retirement anything that night, I would have. I was so pissed. Oh yeah, the woman Pato was talking to earlier was Natalie Tauziat. Hopefully, sometime in the future, I'll get to redeem myself".

Encounter 7: Wimbledon 2000 by Mel

"Okay, here it is; my FIRST encounter! Everyone else had already met Pato before but I was yet to have the pleasure. It was SO COOL! Bea (amsog) asked me to tell you guys about it but I don’t know that my words on the page can really do it justice – or her!

I know, I know, get on with it – I’m waffling again aren’t I?! You know I waffle when I get excited.

Well, we (The Magüi Maniacs – [that’s Mel, Stacey, Caz, Kat, Paula and Bea (amsog) for those who don’t know] (www.geocities.com/maguimania/ come visit us!)) were just walking along, minding our own business, finding the end of the queue outside Wimbledon when a Courtesy Car pulled up alongside us and one of the blacked-out windows in the back started to wind down. I don’t know whether it happened too quickly to take any notice; we were just too wiped to take any notice; we were too dumb to take any notice; whether it was just me who didn’t take any notice; or the final, most probable option – we had been drinking all day and were just too intoxicated to take any notice – but anyway, none of us seemed to take much notice! Then this familiar, sun-tanned face just all of a sudden appeared!

“Hey guys! How’s it goin’?”

We were greeted with the usual big grin and a thumbs-up, as she sat there playing with her ever-present back-to-front cap. (That’s not a derogatory comment – I dig the hat! I LOVE the hat! No, really!)

Anyway, it was right around this point that we woke (sobered!) up and dropped everything – literally – especially our jaws! But then of course we acted all cool, you know, like our idols pull up and talk to us through their car windows every day – yeah right! So then there were mixed cries of,

“Hey Pato!” “Hey, it’s Patricia!” “We’re good thanks. You?” “How you goin’ mate?” “Good to see you!”

See, we were reeeeal cool! Actually, in all fairness, Stacey was cool. Stacey is always cool. (If you guys don’t know Stacey, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME?!!!)

Then…okay…this is the cool part…what am I saying?…all of it was cool! Okay…this is the REALLY cool part…okay – I’m gonna have to correct myself again…all of it was really cool. This is just a part that is more unbelievable than the rest. Are you ready for this? Okay, she said to us…are you really ready? She asked us,

“Are you guys okay for tickets?”

Were you ready for that? D’you wanna hear it again? We did! Okay, just give me a couple of seconds to recompose myself… Alright – I’m good to go! Now, just stepping back a little; do you remember I said we were all like “oh my God” (or “oh dios mio” for those of us who speak Spanish (not me!)) but Stacey was really cool? Well Stacey answered straight away but kind of gave the wrong answer! You see, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of spending time with Stacey – and, trust me – it is always a pleasure (love ya Stace!), she’s an Aussie and she was to fly home the following day, therefore, Stacey didn’t need tickets! If I just tell you that the remainder of the group spent the following week basically living on the street----QUEUING FOR TICKETS!----you can guess what answer Stacey gave her!

But it didn’t matter then and it doesn’t matter now. The point is that Pato thought to pull up and say hi and she thought to offer us tickets. We still got in every day and cheered her on from the stands and it was just cool knowing she knew we were there".