i'm quite proud of myself today, i was my own mr/ms. gps (alexxi is usually mr gps, it's quite nice b/c then i sit back and just follow, trusting his navigational guidance. i'm not bad at it, but it's nice when all i do is photograph our way to our destination haah) on my own heading to eastbourne and after figuring out the intricacies of the national rail system at the victoria station, i safely arrived at easetbourne after 1.5 hrs on the train. thank goodness i was paying attention b/c the cabins of the train had split up at little hampton while the rest went off to eastbourne and if you're in the wrong cabin, then obviously you head to the wrong destination! talk about an epic fail. luckily, i discovered this whilst inside and was in the right sections for eastbourne.
once at eastbourne, i walked out of the station and used my spidey-gps sense... and asked a local the general direction of the devonshire tennis park. the town is quite small, so i just walked and walked, following signs until i basically stumbled upon the tv trucks, security and gates of the tournament. this took me about.. 15-20 minutes. ... i've always said, put me in a city by myself and i am fine, not scared, but like put me in a kitchen to host xmas dinner i'd be petrified.
so practically skipping down the street when i spot the tournament signs, i'm told i need to walk "400 meters around the corner, just keep walking on and on until you see the art gallery to pick up your ticket"
400 meters what? i may live in the imperial system, but i still have no idea how far 400 meters is.
anyway, finally get to the art gallery and w/ a giant beaming grin on my face i skip to the ticket pick up counter to get my centre court tix PRO shit. so excited. even MORE excited for today's line up!!
caroline wozniacki vs aravane rezai
KIM CLIJSTERSSSSSS vs yanina wickmayer
and more and more
SOO excited
i walked around the grounds for a bit when i got there. everything's really open. they have 5 courts: centre court, ct 1, 2, 3, 4, and a about 8 more for practice courts. the practice courts are great b/c you see the tennis players out in the open and you can literally be 2 feet away from them...behind a fence, but still, it's so close!
i was a complete papparazzi stalker today.... what else do you expect?! i was stalking anybody who was carrying a giant tennis bag, they weren't accompanied by body guards, just their coach and fitness coaches.
i spotted kim clijsters by accident. i was walking around and then a group of girls were milling around a practice court exit, so i immediately went over and realized OMG it's kim clijsters exiting. i even said omg out loud. hah dork, i know, but i was surrounded by other tennis fangirls so they all shared my excitement. i was bold. i ran up to her and asked if i could take a photo w/ her. she is super nice, said yes, and so instead of asking someone to take the photo, i quickly held up my hand and judged the composition and got the shot!! it's great! she is tall, a lot taller than i thought. i was absolutely euphoric when that all happened. ppl have their actors, actresses, footballers, hockey players they go gaga over, i get nuts over tennis.
i also spotted zheng zie, just standing there w/ her coach, so i went up and asked if i could take a photo w/ her. i think she was slightly wtf/scared, but then i told her, in mandarin (pro shit, i can whip it out if i really needed to) that i was from vancouver and wanted to know i could take a photo w/ her. so same deal, i took the photo of us together.
after more meandering and player stalking (azarenka, radwanska, wozniacki, wozniack etc) i went over to centre court and took my seat. i was soo excited b/c the 1st couple of matches were the wozniacki and clijsters match. i was in heaven.
the wozniacki vs rezai match was quite good, very evenly matched, despite the score. can't believe wozniacki lost, but rezai did play well and picked it up in the 3rd set.
the clijsters match was a lot more one sided and the 1st set only lasted 19 minutes!! it was great to see her play her live.
actually, it was great to see everybody play live. the balls are SOOOOO fast, i can't believe how fast they play, really makes me want to step up my own game and i can't wait to get back to it. i feel like... okok i can return the wta players serves, but not the guys. their serves are wicked fast and i'd be lucky if i could get the ball back, much less get it back well.
it was a hooooooooottttt day, was absolutely dying by the middle of the day. it was weird b/c it'd be very, very windy, breezy, very cold, and then the sun would pop back out and it'd be extra hot. so needless to say, a whole day outside.. yes.. yes i am sunburnt and i look like i wore ski googles all day today. i have a sunglass tan!! :( my face hurts right now, as i type... even my chest is red! my chest never gets red, even back home under the sun. quite alarming, hoping it'll go away or calm down by the time i get home. i look ridonkulous AND my face hurts. :( fail.
so after the clijsters match, i went to walk around the grounds. i saw a few minutes of the schiavone vs cirstea match. i heard schiavone lost and it wasn't a pretty score. oh well, she is the roland garros champion for a reason, b/c she's good at clay, and probably horrible on grass.
i watched more players practice, ended up watching li na practice w/ vera dushevina. caroline wozniacki came back out on the court to practice more, after her game loss. ... i guess to practice for next week's wimbledon as i don't reckon she's playing doubles.
caught some of the hantuchova/black vs some randoms doubles match.
watched zheng zie lose to shahaar peer.
and the BIG news... watched AMELIE MAURESMO play football tennis and then did some real tennis practice!!! say what/??? are you out of retirement? hearing other ppl talk, i realized that she's been out to the tourny's just practicing... for what? who knows, maybe she'll do doubles at wimbledon?? maybe she'll enter?
it was nice to see her in person. she's a lot more friendly looking and less... well butch. she's also VERY good, so nice to see her enjoy and just play for fun.
football tennis? football tennis is like doubles tennis, but w/ a football instead, same rules as doubles tennis, but you use your body to return the ball.
also saw some random atp players play football tennis w/ a tennis ball, that looked hard.
omg, on the grounds they were selling tennis gear!!!! the clothes were so much cheaper than tenniswarehouse and in canadian retails! i bought 3 skirts, a top, and 2 types of wrist bands. sooo excited.
while watching some random atp tennis guys practice, a ball went astray, i played ball girl and fetched it for them, but then i asked the coach if i had to give it back or if i could keep it as a souvenir... he said yes. YAY! it's a salzenger wimbledon 2010 ball!!! looks like they are all playing w/ that ball at the tournament.
canada's own alexandra wozniack was playing too! she played against a surprising wildcard entry, heather watson. she played fabulously and looked like just a kid doing it! wozniack did not perform well, i was disappointed w/ her performance. at the changeover, i yelled out "come on alexandra!! i came all the way from canada for this!!" and lo and behold, another spectator yelled out "so did i!!" and she pointed to her canada olympic hoodie!! how fun, what a nice coincidence.
i ended up leaving the tournament at around 530. all the players i wanted to see had come and gone, so again, i meandered back into town using the guise of my internal gps and the street signs and caught a train back to london victoria.
i ended up walking around the block, outside, wanted to look for some dinner, other than a boxed sandwich, which seems to be quite popular here.... found a nearby pub playing the brazil vs north korea game. had some chicken roast w/ some yorkshire pudding, a london pride, and then called it a day.
coming back to alexxi's, i felt like a local pro, knew when to change, how to get 'home' safely and okay...
today was an excellent day, i had such a good time. even watching the players practice for hrs was wicked.
but now my face and chest hurt and i look stupid :( like a lobbsterrrr :( boo
tomorrow i'm off to brussels!! early morning, 545am start!
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