View Full Version : Linda at Monte Carlo 2012
I promised a blog so I guess I'd better make a start! I'm very busy though - had to go in to work on my day off :grrr: so it will probably take days to get it all done.
I flew out on the Tuesday as I had tickets for Wednesday-Sunday. I was staying in the same block of apartments as last year, sharing with another VBer. There were over 30 VBers in Monte this year - mostly from the UK but also from France, Germany, Belgium, USA, Australia, Russia and Serbia. About 20 of us were staying in the same apartment block. Some of them had been there for several days already but I had to work Monday so couldn't go earlier. My apartment looked out over some allotments (we also had a sea view - virtually everywhere in Monte does because the ground rises so steeply).
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On Wednesday morning we walked to the Monte Carlo Country Club and looked around to find out where Rafa would be practising. We managed to get front row seats for his practice but on that court there is a wire fence which makes taking photos difficult. (He was practising with Stakhovsky.)
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Afterwards, walking past the other practice courts I saw Ferrer and Nieminen practising directly below me, and Andy and someone I didn't recognise on the further court. I stopped to take a few pics. Ferru came and sat down immediately below me and started complaining about either his upper arm or shoulder (the right one), demonstrating how he couldn't make his shots. Someone who I assume is his physio took a look at it. I thought that he would probably have to withdraw from the tournament.
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I wanted to put a second strip of photos in the above post but it wouldn't let me put more than 5 photos :confused:
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Meanwhile on Centre Court I had missed Simon v Gil and part of Nole v Seppi. Went in to cheer for Seppi. I must say he seemed very surprised to find someone cheering for him. There were some strangely dressed Nole fans.
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Next match up was Rafa v Nieminen :cheer:
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Last year I'd got Andy to sign my Union Jack by dangling it over the side (we were sitting where the players come in). This year I'd deliberately chosen a seat there again for the Wednesday and Thursday as I wanted to get Rafa to sign my Spanish flag. However when I arrived on Centre Court I saw that it had all been blocked in! Dangling the flag over the top rather than at the level of my feet would not reach anywhere near Rafa! I was discussing this with Jan who was sitting next to me. Then we saw a boy a couple of rows back putting one of those big balls on a long piece of string. If only I had some string! I said to Jan that I would have to buy some string and try tomorrow. Then she remembered that she had a scarf in her bag - she got it out and it had a fringe on it, which made it really easy to tie to the flag. So I got my flag signed by Rafa! :yahoo:
We saw the beginning of Bellucci v Ferrer (yes, he hadn't withdrawn but he might as well have done for all the good it did him) but both Jan and I decided that we wanted to cheer on Colin & Ross, who were due to play on court 11 at "horaire a determiner". So we went out to try to find out what time the match would be. There was a man not letting people onto court 11 but he said that the match would be at 5pm and to come back then. It didn't seem worth going back into Centre Court and back out again, so we stood where we could see into the court from above and had an ice cream. Then we went back to Court 11 and sat down and waited. But gone 5pm there was no sign of anything happening, so we went and enquired. We were told that the match would now be on Court 9 so we went and sat there. There was quite a crowd already seated so it looked promising. Then Molay arrived! We gave him a big cheer which made him smile. Then he put up the names of the players - and it was different players entirely. So we left, which must have looked a bit odd after our cheering.
I only found out the next day that Colin & Ross had withdrawn the previous evening due to Colin being injured, but their match had still been listed on the day's programme and nobody seemed to know. So we'd missed Ferrer's match for nothing. Yet another reason why I really must get a laptop because then I'd be able to find out stuff like that.
On Wednesday evening some of us went to an Italian restaurant and had delicious pizzas - I had the seafood one which had on it mussels on the half shell, squid and octopus. It was absolutely delicious. Decided that we must go back and that I would have the seafood risotto next time.
Back at the apartment Jo and I looked up the OOP for Thursday and decided that it was an excellent programme on Centre Court - Andy v Benneteau, Verdasco v Tsonga, Djokovic v Dolgopolov and Rafa v Kukushkin.
On Thursday morning the first match was Andy v Benneteau, so I went straight to Centre Court to watch that, although unfortunately it clashed with Rafa's practice :grrr:
You all know what happened: it was shaping up to be a very good match - they seemed to be evenly matched though I don't suppose Benny could have kept up the level for three sets - when Benny fell over and didn't get up. He stayed down for ages. Various people rushed over to him, including Andy. They put his foot up on a rest and Andy brought two bags of ice over. They bandaged up his ankle and also his wrist, although it seemed that the ankle was the main injury. It took a very long time. We thought that he would have to retire, but eventually he got to his feet and attempted to play on. He played one game and then retired - they announced that it was due to pain in his arm (We later found out that he'd broken his elbow! Poor Benny. He'll be out for ages - he may never come back. :sad: )
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Next up was Verdasco v Tsonga. After only a few games it started to rain quite heavily so they stopped the match and we sheltered under the stand. Eventually it stopped so we went back to our seats. Then we saw on the scoreboard that the match on Court 2 between the Murray Bros and the Bryan Bros was about to start, so I went to watch that.
It turned out to be a good decision because shortly after I took my seat on Court 2 the heavens opened again and play was suspended again on other courts. Court 2 has a retractable roof (rather a Heath Robinson affair but it does the job). It seemed lots of other people had the same idea as it was really crowded in there - as well as all the seats being taken, there were also people sitting on the steps.
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The majority of the crowd were cheering for the Murrays. It seems that the Bryans are not popular in Monte Carlo? It was a very close match - MurMur had a set point in the first set but Jamie df'd . It was also a Jamie error that gave the Bryans the break in the 2nd. Of course I cheered loudly throughout and waved my Union Jack, but it didn't do any good, even though I'm pretty certain they looked up and saw my flag. There was one point in the last game where Andy argued with the umpire - I forget the exact problem now but it was over a late call. Anyway, they lost :sad:
After that, I went back to Centre to cheer for Dolly against Nole. I took care to call out 'Alex' and not 'Dolly'! :lol:
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KnightOwl
25-04-2012, 22:39
Great stuff Linda - really great read - I loved the bit about getting your flag signed!
:thanks:
Great read Linda & so pleased you got the flag signed & that you had a great time! thanks for sharing & BTW great pics!!!!:thumbup:
Enjoying the blog Linda, :thanks:
RoastLamb
26-04-2012, 01:55
Excellent! Love all the piccies too. What does "Heath Robinson affair" mean? Also, I think the Djoko fans were dressed as the Teletubbies but I can't fathom out why exactly. Brill that you got your flag signed - smart thinking! The seafood pizza made me cringe. I couldn't eat that if it was the last thing left to eat in the world. :lol: ;)
Golden Lady
26-04-2012, 07:58
Brilliant blog and pics Linda, thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had a great time and I'm glad you got your flag signed by Rafa!
hfwardhouse
26-04-2012, 08:42
Keep it coming Linda - loving it all :thumbup: :thanks:
What does "Heath Robinson affair" mean?
It means that something was made rather haphazardly, from bits and pieces found lying around and held together cheaply with tape and string, rather than being made professionally with proper designs, materials etc.
At least - that's what I understand by it!
Great blog Linda - thanks. I like your ingenuity in getting your flag signed!!
Oh goody! I've been checking the 'Thanks for the memories' thread waiting for your blog to come up .... not that I'm impatient or anything!! Really enjoying it, thank you.
5 whole days of tickets, that's amazing!! Isn't it very expensive for tickets and to stay in Monte? I would love to go one year. Gill and I keep saying we will go to the French one year too. We have a 'big' birthday in a couple of years so maybe that will be it ....
Thanks for the great blog Linda and pictures. Keep it coming :):)
What a brilliant idea for getting a flag signed.
Thanks for all your kind comments! :thanks: Now, where was I? Oh yes - watching the Dolly match. I cheered for him like crazy and was thrilled when he took the first set but unfortunately he lost the match. :sad:
By now I was wet and frozen (as I'd lugged my coat around all day yesterday I hadn't taken it today) but couldn't go because Rafa was due on! :cheer:
So I was very glad that Rafa won in superquick time! Hardly any tennis pics from this one as it flew by so just a couple of "shallow thread" pics!
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And on to Friday! And yet again the schedulers want SHOOTING 'cos they'd put Andy on first again - not what he likes, and again it would clash with Rafa's practice! If only his match and Nole's were switched around as I had no interest in the Nole-Haase match. So today I was the only VBer there for Andy's match (nobody else wanted to miss Rafa's practice two days in a row, and I was seriously fed up about it too). I had to be there as this was likely to be a tough match, with already a negative H2H. So I cheered like crazy and kept waving my flag. On two occasions, when Berdych was my end of the court, I cheered really loudly for Andy and waved my flag, and Berdy looked up straight at me and gave me daggers. But all my cheering didn't do any good. Andy was not in a good mood and was berating himself. One of those matches that isn't too enjoyable to watch. :sad: Of course you all saw it so no need to say anything else.
After the match I went and joined the rest of the VBers and they were all very sympathetic towards me. I think they thought that I would be devastated but I was quite philosophical.
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Anyway, I didn't have to sit through Nole v Haase 'cos there was dubs to watch on Court 2 - Marc & Marcel v Melzer & Mayer. (4 Ms!) When I arrived there were quite a few VBers already there. We all got out our Spanish cheering stuff. It was a great match to watch as Marc and Marcel played brilliantly and won easily. Melzer was seriously fed up and deliberately hit the ball way out of the court a couple of times. Any other umpire would have given him a warning but it was Molay
Towards the end of the match we were all getting very twitchy as Rafa was due to play on Centre and Nole's match was nearly finished, but in the end there was plenty of time to get from one to the other.
Thanks, Linda, for the great blog and pics. :swingin:
Brilliant blog Linda! Love how you got the flag signed! MoLay is AWESOME!!!!!!!
Now, why is it that some pics are in a strip and others are in a box called "attached thumbnails"? I'm sure I've done the same thing to attach them to my post each time :confused:
Then we all dashed back to Centre to watch Rafa v Wawrinka :)
Stan is pretty good on clay and he put up the most resistance to Rafa all week. But Rafa still won in straights. :)
After Rafa's match, I started to watch Simon v Tsonga but Tsonga couldn't do anything right and it was really boring, so I left.
Met up with the others and we all walked a roundabout way back to the apartments in order to do some grocery shopping on the way. Saw a nice church (cathedral?) in a pretty square on the way so Jo and I decided to come back Saturday morning to photograph it.
That evening a group of us went back to the Italian restaurant (I think it was 17 of us) - they gave us a long table in a separate room. We had great fun. This time I ate the seafood risotto which was even more delicious than the pizza! The king prawn on the top was the biggest one I've seen since I went to Lanzarote!
So on Saturday morning, as the tennis started later, Jo and I set out to take out sightseeing photos. Unfortunately Jo found that her camera battery needed recharging so she had to go back to the apartment to recharge it (did I mention that she is a brilliant photographer?). I carried on and took a few snaps - here are some of them.
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Anyway, onto the tennis. First up was the doubles match between Marc and Marcel and the Bryans. Unfortunately this clashed with Rafa's practice again so most of the VBers went to watch that. I stayed and cheered for Marc and Marcel. The previous day Sebastian had been there but no sign of the ladies. Today Ana Maria and Xisca were there watching the dubs. Marc and Marcel didn't play as well as they had the previous day. The Brians took the first set but the second set was heading for a tiebreak. Then Rafa and Maymo arrived to watch! They must have come straight from practice. I'm afraid I didn't take too much notice of the rest of the match :shamed: as I was so busy watching Rafa and taking photos of him. Marc and Marcel lost - you can see that Rafa didn't enjoy watching his friends lose.
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Next up was Nole v Berdy. Now, as Berdy had taken umbrage at my cheering for Andy the previous day, I thought he would think it rather strange when he heard me cheering for him today! So I tried to disguise my voice by calling out 'Allez Tomas' instead of 'C'mon Tomas' in the hope that he would think I was someone else entirely. :rolling:
Like Dolly, Birdy took the first set and got us all excited but then went on to lose the match.
Next up of course was Rafa v Simon. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was sitting next to Sarah. We were both a little concerned about the way Rafa was playing against Simon - he seemed to be just sending the ball straight back into Simon's hitting zone all the time instead of going for winners. And Simon was winning most of the long rallies. Very strange (although the reason for this seemingly strange tactic became apparent the next day). Anyway, it wasn't that bad 'cos Rafa still won in straights. I took several photos of him, a couple of Ana Maria and Xisca and maybe one or two of Simon.
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Afterwards most of us got together for a group photo. What was funny was that other people came up and snapped us too, just as though we were a tourist attraction! Some people even had their photo taken with us! :rolling:
Then that evening, a big group of us met for post-dinner drinks in one of the bigger apartments. One of the girls made the most delicious mojitos. Those with an artistic bent were preparing letters to hold up during the final - and some to only be held up if we got the right result (RAFA the GR8). I said that we needed to do some co-ordinated cheering too so we all practised chanting Raaa-faaa, Raaa-faaa. I understand that the neighbours complained in the morning :shamed:
When Jo and I got back to our own apartment I wanted to borrow her laptop to enter the FTM for Barcelona but I fell fast asleep without doing it - the mojitos completely knocked me out. :shamed: At least I would sleep well and not be racked by nerves.
And here we were on the morning of the final. On leaving the apartments, we saw a very good omen:
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On arrival, we were told that Rafa would be practising on Court 2. That would be a very good court for us to watch his practice, as there are plenty of seats and no wire netting in the way. However when the time came for his practice he was nowhere to be seen and a little boy was practising there instead. We were then told that Rafa had swapped and would now practise on Centre, so we all dashed off there.
The problem was that they were not allowing admittance to Centre until 11.15. Rafa started practising at 10.45 and they wouldn't let us in. Flo (who is French) pleaded with them for the whole half hour but they wouldn't budge. :grrr: At first they had let people in over the other side, but they made them leave again and sent in the police to eject those who were refusing to leave.
Finally it was 11.15 and we were allowed in to see the rest of Rafa's practice. He didn't look too happy - I think he would have preferred it if his whole practice had been in private. After practice he had interviews and photos.
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So, here at last was the match that we had been worrying about. We were all there with our flags, hats, pompoms, letters, facepaint and so on. Sarah said that she was really nervous but I said that if we just concentrate on our cheering then we'll be OK. So Sarah and I attempted to lead the whole crowd in cheering for Rafa We were pretty loud and led the chants at every change of ends. Lots of people turned to look - including Ana Maria and Xisca. Xisca called out for Rafa several times too. I heard some fans over the other side (I'd noticed them with their flags all week) singing the Spanish Davis Cup song and I wished that I'd learned the words so that I could join in.
Nole looked quite strong in the first game and we were expecting a tough match but after that it was plain sailing for Rafa. And the reason for his different tactics became apparent. Normally with his wide lefty serve and painting-the-lines winners he beats other players but it doesn't work against Nole - if you give Nole an angle he returns with an even greater angle. That's what beat Rafa all last year. This time Rafa served up the T and hit the ball down the centre of the court rather than the sides. It worked, 'cos Nole couldn't play the angles. Rafa won 6-3, 6-1. We were all ecstatic. The whole crowd was jubilant. Ana Maria and Xisca were so happy. I caught Ana Maria's eye and clapped in her direction - she smiled and nodded and did a little wave. And our group over the other side were able to lift up their letters spelling RAFA the GR8.
It was so good to see Rafa biting a trophy again. I took loads of photos of the trophy ceremony.
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Once Rafa left the court we all went outside to celebrate by the champagne bar! The four Spanish girls who had been singing the Spanish Davis Cup song came and joined us. There was much singing and merriment for ages, and lots of other people came up to say congratulations to Rafa, to high-five us, take photos and vids and so on. It was such a great party atmosphere! The Spanish girls led the singing of the song - we were all mainly singing lalala as we didn't know the words except for 'Rafa, mi corazon'.
I was catching a flight back that evening - Irene and her husband were too and they kindly offered me a lift to the airport, so we had to say our goodbyes to everyone and leave.
I had a fantastic time. Earlier in the week I was talking of going to Rome next year instead of Monte Carlo, but there's no way I would want to miss this. Besides, 9 is my lucky number!
Here (http://s227.photobucket.com/albums/dd287/Granny_Linda/Monte%20Carlo%202012/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ36) is a link to my photos (678 of them!)
hfwardhouse
27-04-2012, 22:24
What a great blog Linda - thank you for sharing - would love to go to Monte Carlo - it looks wonderful!
hfwardhouse
27-04-2012, 22:29
And all those photos are fabulous!!! You even managed a couple of pics of my favourite player ever (until oor Andy came along ...) Bjorn Borg :thumbup:
RoastLamb
27-04-2012, 22:38
Yeah, really gr8 photos!!! Not just of the tournie but of MC as well. Very entertaining blog! A tad envious.
Fantastic blog & pics Linda, it really made me smile & so glad you enjoyed yourself............just great!!!!:thumbup:
thanks Linda! Glad you had such a great time :)
JAMES4578
28-04-2012, 11:16
Fabulous blog Linda and glad you had a fab time, it certainly was eventfull!
Thoroughly enjoyed the blog & pics Linda - :thanks:
Would love to go there, looks wonderful. Are you able to go to any court with your tickets & do you get specific seats on the main court??? I noticed you seemed to be able to watch any match you wanted to without too much trouble. :cheer:
I booked tickets for Centre Court. If you want to go to Court des Princes (equivalent of no 1 Court) you need another ticket. The Centre Court ticket also admits you to no 2 Court. There are also some outside courts, two of which have limited seating and the others don't have any. So it's just like Queens, really. Except that it's much easier to get tickets - you just go on their website and pick the seats you want. They have already put up the date when next year's tickets will be available - see here (http://www.monte-carlorolexmasters.com/).
VamosVixs
29-04-2012, 11:09
Fab blog Linda! :cheer:
"NadalNews" tweeted a link to a YouTube vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hloKeh7f-8k), which was actually taken by one of the VBers, of the Spanish girls singing the Davis Cup song.
Brilliant blog Linda and loved the pics :clap: Felt sorry for the neighbours in the apartment though while you were all practicing shouting for Rafa :rolling:
WimbledonAce
07-05-2012, 15:18
Linda, looks and sounds amazing! Must add it to my growing wish list of tournies to attend - Rome, Dubai, Australian open, Miami etc!
Great blog thanks, Linda.
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