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Zurich 2002 by Caz (a story inspired by Bea's and Caz's sillyness in Switzerland!) Welcome to the Saturday 12th October The fun began when I met Bea at Gatwick airport on the Saturday evening, We made our way to a nearby hotel, where upon checking in we were asked what time we had to be at the airport, what time we’d like to be woken up and, after having replied 4am to that, what time we would like breakfast – Bea’s witty response being “3am?!?!” We checked in, went for a walk to Gatwick village, watched some TV, slept for a few hours before our 4am wake up call, then made our way to the airport to leave for Zurich and day 1 of the VIPcom challenge! Sunday 13th October At the airport, when we were all waiting to board the plane the steward kept shouting at us to “sit down!” “I said, sit down!” despite being totally ignored! Upon arriving in Zurich we made straight for our hotel, then straight to the tennis via the crazy drivers airport shuttle bus and the free bus from the airport to the tennis, getting there at around 12:30pm, not long after the first match of the day had started. The first two matches, Silvia Farina Elia vs. Amanda Coetzer and Chanda Rubin vs. Anna Smashnova were nothing to write home about, but the third match between the young Swiss Marie-Gaïané Mikaelian and Magdelena Maleeva became someting of a battle, with the Swiss player pulling out a three set upset over the frustrated Bulgarian. The final match of the day featured Conchita Martínez and Ai Sugiyama against the “Swiss Cheese” Myriam Casanova and Emanuelle Gagliardi. The crowd got very excited, chanting what sounded to us like “Swiss Cheese!”, but was actually, “Hop Suisse!” at every change of ends as the Swiss team edged to victory. Realising by this stage that it was going to be pretty difficult to get anywhere near Patricia to say “Hi!” , we sent her an e:mail to let her know we were there and were trying to contact her, before heading back to the hotel, thoroughly exhausted. Monday 14th October When we arrived at the stadium in the morning we decided to go and check if Patricia had left us any tickets, as she had said she was going to. Once we had established she hadn’t, we asked the nice Spanish guy at the ticket office if he could pass on a message from us to Patricia. He said he’d try his best and gave us a sheet of paper on which to write a note, however, later he found us and told us he hadn’t been able to pass it on, as it was not possible for us to have any contact with any of the players without a VIP pass. Again, the matches that day weren’t that great. Patricia and Caroline Vis lost 1-6, 1-6 to Elena Bovina and Justine Henin, Panova beat Kremer, and Dementieva beat Anca Barna in a match that was tougher than expected. In the evening Conchita defeated Myriam Casanova and Dokic beat Majoli before we had to leave to catch the bus back to the airport. Tuesday 15th October The day got underway with Alexandra Stevenson defeating Ai Sugiyama, after which Vivi Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez’s doubles match against Davenport and Rubin began. In the closely fought first set Paola’s serve at 4-4 was broken after umpire Sandra de Jenkin decided there had been a double bounce, when clearly there had not been. The second set again was close and Vivi and Paola had their chances, but Paola was looking tired and Vivi rusty after a few weeks break and it just wasn’t to be. Wednesday 16th October On the Wednesday was Conchita’s stunning defeat of Jennifer Capriati. Conchita was playing great tennis and even coming to the net and attacking throughout her amazing 6-0, 6-3 defeat of the number 2 seed. Much amusement was caused between Bea and myself at the beginning of the match as we noticed Giselle, Arantxa’s former trainer, was there, and yet again, with a towel! This led to jokes about towels making people feel important, which in turn made Alexandra Stevenson’s crys of , “gimme a towel!” even funnier! ;-) Later came Mikaelian’s defeat of Myskina, then we spent our last hour at the tennis cheering loudly for Tatiana Panova during her 2-6, 2-6 loss to Lindsay Davenport. The poor girl didn’t stand a chance, so we were determined to at least let her know we were there supporting her!! ;-) Thursday 17th October The morning began with some doubles; Lee/Prakusya defeated the “Swiss Cheese” (Casanova/Gagliardi) and Bovina/Henin defeated Davenport/Rubin. Later came a very long intriguing match between Russian Elena Dementieva and Slovak Daniela Hantuchova. Elena pretty much went mad after losing the second set when she should have wrapped up the match, and spent the rest of the match screaming in Russian, sometimes to herself, sometimes to her mother!! The tennis wasn’t thrilling, but the match was unpredictable to the last, making it very watchable. Stevenson vs. Dokic was another interesting three set encounter, following that Bea and I had to leave to catch the last bus to the hotel, but enjoyed watching the Bovina vs. Schnyder match on Italian TV in our hotel room. Friday 18th October The first match of the day was between Conchita and Alexandra Stevenson. The match wasn’t as good as Conchita’s match against Jennifer, but nonetheless was an interesting match. Alex was serving well, but Conchita was forcing her to over hit. Following the match, Bea and I finally managed to work out a way to speak to Patricia!!! We said “hi” and she told us she’d received our e:mail, and that she had left us tickets for that same day and asked us if we wanted some for the next day!! ;-) Later we had a great time at the Schnyder vs. Hantochova match. The crowd was really into the closely fought battle, which Patty eventually won. A great match! Saturday 19th October Sitting in the very comfortable seats that Patricia had left us tickets for we watched Conchita’s semi final against Patty Schnyder. Conchita was not playing anywhere near as well as she had previously, and Patty raced to a 6-0, 6-3 victory. We were very happy for Patty, but sad for Conchita! Sunday 20th October We decided to give the tennis a miss on the Sunday, as it was our last day, and to go to visit the city of Zürich instead. The city was small and pretty, but there wasn’t much to do. Later on we heard on the radio several times that Patty Schnyer had defeated Lindsay Davenport in the final. Well done Patty!! Give that woman a towel!! ;-) We arrived at the airport for our easyjet flight, checked in then went to find our departure gate. We walked past all the gates with comfortable sofas and TV’s and down some stairs to find wooden chairs and a small shop at our gate! Our cabin crew weren’t very happy either, announcing to us, “Just to remind you that the use of mobile phones compromises both aircraft and fellow passenger safety, so we do suggest that you switch them off or leave the plane now!!!” and that, “We will shortly be handing out the in-flight magazine. As this is one of the very few things you get free on an easyjet flight, we do suggest that you guard it with your lives!!” Then Bea saved the plane from flooding when she went to use the toilet and found out that the guy who had used it before her had broken the tap and left the basin to flood! She alerted a member of the cabin crew, who thankfully sorted it all out! Conclusion: The trip was fun, the hotel was good, the city was nice, it was great to finally get to speak to Patricia, however the tournament itself is all about the VIPs, all others were treated like second class citizens. At one point, Bea was interviewed for a Swiss radio station and she got asked "are you here for the tennis or the other things?" the other things we guess being all the VIP stuff! There is only one court, no practice courts on site, no possible way to have any kind of contact with the players, it’s the end of the season and the tennis isn’t that great, there are long breaks in-between play and no room even to sit and have a coffee!! (even if Bea managed to charm the owner of the one coffee shop and get herself free coffee and muffins!) So all-in-all, despite the fact that we did end up having an enjoyable trip, we have no plans to go back to this particular tournament, which is a shame, as everything else about the trip was so great! ;-) Marks out of 10 for the tournament: 3. The Tarabini Tales “VIPcom Challenge 2002” awards
Best Matches:
Worst Matches: Take your pick from the rest!!!! Worst Umpire: Sandra “double bounce” de Jenkin. Best Dressed Players:
Worst Dressed Players:
Most mispronounced names:
Funniest Comment:
Funniest Overall Player:
Roland Garros 2002 by Caz (a story inspired by Caz's, Bea's and Mel's sillyness in Paris!) Despite the fact that most of our favourites had already lost in the singles, we still managed to have just as much fun and to annoy as many people as ever as we hit Roland Garros for the third consecutive time! We (Caz & Bea) would like to add that upon arriving home and checking e-mail, Caz found an e-mail from Patricia's friend, who she e-mails every now and again, informing us that Patricia was offering to leave us tickets for the weekend and we just had to speak to her the day before to find out where she was leaving them! Unfortunately we never approached Patricia about the tickets or even to thank her for the kind offer of them due to the fact that a) she lost both matches she played, so we didn't really want to approach her about tickets after a loss and b) Caz only got the e-mail confirming she was going to leave them for us when she got back from Paris. So, Patricia, if you're reading this, both Bea and I (Caz) are very sorry we didn't even mention the tickets to you, let alone thank-you for the offer, but we would really like to say thank-you and to let you know how grateful we are for the offer! Thanks a million!!! The most memorable moments of our week at the tennis follow! Wednesday 29th May. Annoying the hotel receptionist! Before half an hour was out we had already caused the poor hotel receptionist to start tearing his hair out! We arrived and I immediately explained to him in my best French that an extra person was joining us and so we needed to change our reservation! After this, we put our things in our room then went to the supermarket to buy food and water, so as not to have to buy things at the extortionate prices they charge within the Roland Garros stadium. When we arrived back at the hotel, they’d already locked the door so we had to ring the bell to get the receptionist back to open the door for us. After this, I had to ask the poor guy to change a 20 € note for coins so we could buy a metro ticket, and finally, I oh, so helpfully offered to help some Spanish people who couldn’t even tell the receptionist their room number and then needed to know how to work a phone card. It was only after I’d said, “Can I help you at all?” to them in Spanish that I stopped to realise that my helping them meant translating from French into Spanish!! It took a while, but we got there in the end!! ;-) Thursday 30th May. Nathalie Tauziat/Kimberly Po-Messerli vs. Martincova/Ostrovskaya. The match in itself was nothing to write home about, however, we amused ourselves by discussing how Nathalie’s red and white striped “Ronald McDonald” socks have to go! If you’ve seen them you know what I mean! ;-) Friday 31st May. Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs vs. Martina Navratilova/Natasha Zvereva – Day 2. It was here that Bea and Mel met the big Rennae Stubbs fan, who informed them that “That Rennae … She’s gifted!”. Patricia Tarabini/Conchita Martínez vs. Petra Mandula/Patricia Wartsuch. Again, not an exceptionally good match, but Patricia was on court, which of course makes it worthy of a mention!! Despite Patricia and Conchita not playing their best, in the end, the match was pretty close. Lisa Raymond/Leander Paes vs. Paola Suárez/Lucas Arnold. Following Vivi Ruano Pascual and Gaston Etlis’s 1st round mixed doubles win, Charo, Marivi and I, accompanied by Vivi, her mother and Paola Suarez’s coach went across to watch Paola and Lucus’s mixed doubles match against Lisa Raymond and Leander Paes, where, much to Vivi’s amusement, Charo made me teach her how to ask Lisa Raymond, in English for her cap!!! ;-) After the match, however, Charo, forgetting the English I’d taught her went up to Lisa and simply said the good old “Lisa, Lisa, number 1! You, me, cap, cap!” To which Lisa simply replied that she needed her cap! Saturday 1st June. Daja Bedanova/Elena Bovina vs. Laura Montalvo/Elena Tatarkova. This was memorable as being our first brush with Elena’s little LAM. Mel, Bea and myself were, unknowingly, sitting behind Elena Bovina’s coach, and were discussing how we were cheering for Laura and Elena Tatarkova, (but we didn’t say anything derogatory at all about Elena Bovina in our discussion), and suddenly the Little Angry Man who coaches her turned round and screamed at us, “You want to take it easy girls?!? I coach Bovina you know!” After our little meeting with him, all I can say is I feel very sorry for Elena! Vivi Ruano Pascual/Paola Suárez vs. Caroline Dhenin/Stephanie Foretz. After the above mentioned little ‘indicent’ we made out way to Vivi and Paola’s 2nd round doubles match, where we met up with all our other Spanish friends and were sitting altogether, for once, and with Vivi’s mother and Paola’s coach and boyfriend, who are just the nicest people! The match was an easy win for the Spanish/Argentinean pair, but the most incredible thing happened during the match. In the middle of one of the games, a whole load of people descended upon the stands, trying to take photo’s of the men training on the court behind us. Right in the middle of play these people were moving around the stands trying to get into the best position to take their pictures of the other court and they would not sit still or move out of the way for anything. One woman really took the biscuit though, when Bea politely informed her, in French, that she was standing right in front of the players families and coach and the woman could not believe Bea was speaking to her like that and actually replied, “incroyable! incroyable!” and continued to stand in the way!! How rude can you get?!?! Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs training session. Lisa and Rennae’s training session on the Saturday, despite the fact we got badly sunburnt watching it, was highly amusing due to the fact that Charo was there watching and waiting for it to finish so that she could ask Lisa again for her cap …only this time she had a new tactic in mind!! She had been to one of the Roland Garros shops and bought Lisa a Roland Garros cap to exchange for her own cap! ;-) I was told be Bea it was my turn to act as translator, (apparently she’d had the honour previously in Madrid!), so at the end of the practice session I had to explain the situation to Lisa, who was very nice about it and said she’d bring one the next day for Charo – however, this never materialised and so the saga continues!! I have been told to include a transcript of our discussion, so here it is: Charo: Lisa, Lisa, number 1. Cap para ti, (indicating the one she’d bought), cap para mi, (indicating Lisa’s cap) Lisa stares at her with a confused look on her face. Caz: Lisa, this lady is a really big fan of yours and she asked me to ask you if you would give her one of your caps…she wants one so much that she’s even bought you one in exchange!! Lisa: (looking very grateful to have a translator) OK, tell her I need this one now, but I’ll bring her one tomorrow, ok? Charo: (in a strong Spanish accent) Tomorrow?!?!? Tomorrow?!?!? Caz: (to Charo) Sí, mañana! Caz: (to Lisa) Thank-you so much! Lisa: That’s ok! Caz: I’m really sorry to bother you! Lisa: No, problem! Patricia Tarabini/Brian MacPhie vs. Barbara Schett/Joshua Eagle: Again, the tennis wasn’t that great, it was still a highly entertaining match. During the warm up Mel offered to take some photo’s of Patricia for this website, and so the three of us were messing about, (as per usual), and jokingly we said, (and we didn’t shout it!), “come on now, smile for the camera Patricia!”, and the next second Patricia, turned round and smiled directly at the camera! Whether it was coincidence or whether she heard me, that was pretty funny!!! ;-) We sung, chanted and cheered everything imaginable throughout the first set as Patricia and Brian played OK and came back from behind to take the set on the tie-break, which really got us excited!!! However, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and Barbara and Joshua picked up their game and raced through the next two sets to victory. Still, it had been an enjoyable and entertaining match to end our Saturday at the tennis! Sunday 2nd June. Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario/Jared Palmer vs. Emilie Loit/Nicholas Coutelot. At the beginning of this nice win for Arantxa and Jared against the French crowd favourites, I found out via a text message from my friend from university that I had passed my degree with a 2:1, (the 2nd best of the 4 marks possible!), so I was very happy and excited and almost constantly on the ‘phone for the rest of the day! ;-) Vivi Ruano Pascual/Gaston Etlis vs. Cara/Wayne Black. Despite Vivi’s partner being such a bad player, they actually had chances in this match and probably should have beaten the number 5 seeds. A disappointing loss, but hardly unexpected given the fact that at times Gaston’s play was so bad that even the perpetually happy Vivi was visibly frustrated! ;-) Lisa Raymond and Leander Paes vs. Elena Bovina and Mark Knowles. Our second brush with the LAM. Though this time he had nothing to say to us, we could hear his constant commentary all the way through the match. And just why Elena’s mother was talking to her daughter in English during the match is beyond me!!! Nathalie Tauziat/Mansour Bahrami vs. Sandrine Testud/Jeff Tarango. A very funny encounter!! It was obvious right from the start, given that Nathalie is out of match practice and Bahrami should be playing in the Legends event that Sandriiiine and Jeff were going to win the match, so neither team took the match too seriously. They were all messing around on court; just having fun and entertaining the crowd – even the umpire was playing along! At one point Bahrami emptied the entire fridge of water and gave it all to the crowd!! ;-) All four players kept us well and truly amused!! Fantastic! You’ve gotta love them all! ;-) A great end to a great day!! Monday 3rd June. Magüi Serna/Alicia Molik vs. Petra Mandula/Patricia Wartusch. We began our final day at Roland Garros by sneaking in, mid-game, to court no. 1, for which we didn’t have tickets, to watch Magüi’s match. It wasn’t a great match and Magüi and Alicia lost in three sets, but it was umpired by the Legendary Laura Ceccarelli, who put up, in good humour, with our teasing at the end of the match, as we chanted “No caminen, sentarse por favor” to her as she left the court!! ;-) Vivi Ruano Pascual/Paola Suárez vs. Alexandra Fusai/Caroline Vis. A great match by Vivi and Paola. That pair are really on form and definitely my pick for the title this year. Their quick 6-1, 6-0 victory was marked by a big Caroline Vis fan in the stands, who was sitting directly opposite me and right behind Caroline Vis’s chair and kept us all entertained by singing various songs in support of his idol! Personally, I don’t know what was funnier – that fact that he was such a big fan of Caroline, the fact that he was chanting and singing my name for the entire match or the fact that no-one, (not even Caroline Vis herself), reacted to him, except for Charo, Graciela, Paola’s coach, Paola’s boyfriend and myself, who found it highly amusing!! ;-) Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario/Jared Palmer vs. Alexandra Fusai/Julien Varlet. Our last match at Roland Garros 2002 was a nice comfortable win for Arantxa and Jared. The funniest moments of the match were created by the Spanish woman sitting in front of us, who was not nice at all, (and that’s an understatement!) She started the fight by turning round and telling us that we were acting as if we were in a bar and not at a tennis match and that we had no respect for the players! Bea and Charo, then raised their voices a notch and had a conversation between themselves about indiscrete people and what a lack of politeness that shows!! The woman, determined to get the last word, but too afraid to say anymore to us and to stay around to hear the reply, at the end of the match got right to the exit, then looked over her shoulder and very quickly, very childishly and very much under her breath, called us “maleducadas”!! Needless to say we immediately burst into fits of laughter that lasted for about the next five minutes!!! It was a fantastically funny end, to a fantastic week at Roland Garros 2002!! Following that there was just time for us to take our long metro ride back to our hotel, grabbing take-away pizza on the way, pay our bill, eat, make enough noise to get yet another complaint from our oh so friendly neighbours, (just because we were talking at 22:50!!), pack and go to bed and get some sleep before travelling home early the next morning! |
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