Sunday, May 24, 2009

Paris Day One


Sunday May 24, 2009

Noon Paris
Arrived here last night from a four day holiday in Amsterdam. I thought it would be great to have a few days in Europe before starting to work so I could get on the right time and not have jet lag, but the truth is.. I’m having a little Amsterdam lag.

2:00 PM
Got the metro to the site, picked up my credential, got a locker, unpacked my gear, said bonjour to friends, and got a quick snack.

4:10 PM
I finally made it to my desk, have my laptop set up and am ready to work. Actually, that is not quite correct .. I am not ready to work, but am going to make a stab at it anyway.
There are five American’s playing today, so I’ll start with them.

Wayne Odesnik is playing on Philippe Chatrier against number seven seed, Frenchman, Gilles Simon, and is up 4-2 in the first set.

5:35 PM
Odesnik won the first but lost the second to Simon, so I’m taking a break and going to the Marat Safin interview.

5:45 PM
Gotta love Marat. When a reporter ask him if he would go to his sisters match and cheer for her, he replied, “Well, I saw already enough tennis in my life, so I just watch it on TV.”

6:10 PM
Back to Odesnik. He’s up in the fourth, but I can tell that this match is going LOOOOONG, and I need a few snaps of Murray, so I head back to Susan Lenglen.

6:45
Murray is going to win this match easily, so I just stay for three games, because I want to catch some of Robert Kendrick. The French apparently have no animosity against the British ... this sign is a French song cheering Murray on.

7:10 PM
Robert Kendrick is in a tight match with Germany’s Daniel Brands. Don’t know anything about Brands, but I want to shoot some of Kendrick and give the American a little support.
Wow, this is a match. Brands, won the first set 7-6, Kendrick the second 7-5 and the third 13-11 in a breaker. Way to go Robert!! Check out Kendrick’s sock .. They tell the story of a hard fought match on the red clay at Roland Garros. I’ve heard that the players just throw them away after their matches.

8 PM where has the time gone!! I can’t believe its 8 already. The sun stays out until after nine so it’s easy to loose track of how late it is. I’m starving and the press dining room is closed so I settle for a stale health bar that has been in the bottom of my back pack for weeks… maybe months so I’m using the term “health” loosely, but it’s keeping me from feeling faint. Simon has defeated Odesnik 6-3 in the fifth, but the American made a good show of it.

8:30 PM
Just checked the scores and Kendrick pulled out the match 6-3 in the fifth. Sam Querrey is not looking good against Gulbis, Gulbis is up 2 sets to 1 and it’s 4-1 in the fourth so I’m going to bag that match and finish my blog so I can meet up with friends at one of my favorite hangouts, CafĂ© Mabillion, at 10PM.

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