My trip to Roland Garros started on the 06:35am flight from London to Paris CDG airport. After landing and making a quick stop at my hotel, I made my way on the annual pilgrimage to the clay courts of Roland Garros for the thursday session of qualifying.
As I leave the Porte d'Auteuil Metro station on the the walk to the club grounds I always feel so excited to be back in Paris again - the 16th Arrondissement of Paris, for me is France at it's best! Entering the gates for the first time and seeing the perfect terracotta coloured courts in front of me, always fills me with a mixture of excitement, emotion and pure passion for the beautiful game that is tennis!
The thing that is always so special about qualifying, besides the tennis, is the opportunity to see the players on the practise courts interacting with eachother and the different training methods they use. On the practise courts today were Safina, Likhovtseva, Ondraskova, Flipkens - all of the top players were training in closed sessions on Court Philip Chartier. After meeting with some of my usual Roland Garros friends I then got the chance to meet Richard Williams who spent quite a long time meeting fans - though he has ignored me in the past, this time he was charming, shook my hand and spoke to us as if we were old friends of his! He told us that him and Venus had only just arrived the day before. He was in a great mood and seemed to be really enjoying the atmosphere of the day.
Friday Qualifying -
My second day was much more eventful! After arriving at the grounds, I immediately made my way to the practise courts again - first player I saw today Italian Romina Oprandi practising over on court 12. She seemed to be really enjoying her training, with lots of laughs between herself and the other girls on court - I never realised that she actually speaks fluent German! After her practised finished, I spoke to her for a few minutes about her recent wins and about the amount fans she has accumulated in the last couple of weeks. After I watched some of Flipkens practise - then moved over to the far side of Court Suzanne Lenglen to check who else was training today. On court 8 was Daniela Hantuchova practising with Gisela Dulko - as Daniela was leaving the court I got her to sign a photo for a friend of mine. Then after I got some photos of James Blake as he was meeting fans and making his way back the locker rooms. Next to practise was Flavia Pennetta with Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo - while Justine Henin Hardenne practised on court 9. Also on the practise courts today was - Francesca Schaivone, Sunitha Rao, Tsvetana Pironkova, Dinara Safina, Patty Schnyder.
Other players seen around the grounds - Marcus Baghdatis (with his ever visible blonde girlfriend in toe) Greg Rusedski, Gisela Dulko, Anna Smashnova, Nathalie Dechy, Laura Pous Tio with her father, Maria Kirilenko, Zuzanna Ondraskova with her boyfriend and Lleyton Hewitt's wife - Australian actress Rebecca Cartwright with their new baby!!! (Rebecca was a real sweetie, gave me a lovely smile as she left the player's area and it was so lovely to see the baby)
Saturday Journee Benny Berthet Charity Day -
This is the first day that the whole grounds are opened up to the public and is the first day when the tournament atmosphere really starts to build! After getting through the gates I went down to the practise courts again and the first person I saw was the Greek beauty, Eleni Daniilidou practising with Karolina Sprem. Eleni seems to be working again with her former coach, Ute Strakerjahn. After the session I spoke to Eleni and wished her 'Good Luck' for the tournament, she signed a photo for me and then posed for some photos with the fans. Next on that court to practise was Francesca Schiavone with Gisela Dulko - I stayed for a bit then I went to Court Philip Chatrier for the start of the charity exhibition matches.
Today had a really great schedule - first up was crowd favourite, Fabrice Santoro v Russian Mikhail Youznhy - the match was in good spirits with Santoro warming the crowd up on this cold day, the match ended in very close tie break! Next up was Roger Federer v James Blake - this was definately a match up to get any tennis fan drooling!!!! James played with all his usual style, Roger seemed very low key today and didn't show the crowd his full range of spectacular tennis - this match also went to a close tie-break and was eventually won by Federer. After the match, James gave the speech of the day direct from his heart - He said that it was an honour to play on such a great court with this great crowd and to be doing it all to raise money for charity, was what made playing tennis so special and that it doesn't doesn't get any better than this!! He then spent the next 20 minutes signing autographs for everyone who asked him - he really is a genuinely lovely person and an inspiration! Next match up was the king of the clay courts, Rafa Nadal v Juan Monaco. By this time the crowd really were getting involved and gave huge cheers of welcome and excitement for Nadal, who definitely didn't disappoint the crowd! He played this exhibition match as if it was the final of Roland Garros itself, he played with such verve, enthusiasm and showed the crowd the pure emotion of his talent - he was awesome to watch live!!! You could feel that the crowd was really feeding from Rafa's energy, at the change of ends the crowd erupted into cheers and endless rounds of Mexican waves at the pure excitement of the whole day! As you can probably guess, Nadal went on to win the exhibition match 6-4! Last match I saw today was Amelie Mauresmo v Daniela Hantuchova - Amelie is always loved here and the crowd at this stage was totally full!! Though Daniela played well, her game was nothing compared the to variety and style of Amelie Mauresmo who gave everything to please her home crowd. Like Nadal, Amelie also played with the great heart and passion - going on to win the match 6-4. After sitting in Court Philip Chatrier for 4/5 hours I decided to go for a walk around the grounds, meeting friends and talking in the atmosphere.
