A taste of clay
The plan this afternoon was to head west of Paris to catch some Roland actions. They have this 'Evening Visitors' programme, which allows fans who arrive at the venue after 5pm to purchase tickets for the remainder of the day's matches at a reduced price of 10 euros. While 90k might be beyond me for now, 10 euros is still within my means.
However, the weather forecast on Météo-France was for once accurate and rain threatened to spoil the plan. By 2pm, all matches had been suspended and the 5.15pm live update on the official website stated that 'it is highly likely that play would be called off for the day'.
At 6.29pm, I found out from the website of LeFigaro - the official newspaper of the right-wingeds in France - that the players were taking the courts again. Yeejia and I immediately changed (me out of the Guan-gifted I-love-NY t-shirt and her out of her Gryfinddor HangTen t-shirt) , grabbed the cinnamon baguette which a friend of ours had earlier brought over, some newspapers and a towel intended for drying the seats and within 10mins, we were out of her place.
By the time we reached the stadium, most people were already leaving and we seemed to be the only ones trying to enter. We asked a policeman if we could still purchase tickets but he told us the ticketing office had closed at 5. He suggested we could try asking the stewards in-charge of checking tickets, stationed beside the gate. I haven't even popped a proper 'bonsoir' when the steward told us, 'go ahead, you can enter'. So, we excitedly entered the stadium and began searching for the court, Court Philippe Chatrier, where Justine was playing. People were streaming out of the court where Serena had just won her match and a few of them were making their way into this particular court just beside us. We decided to follow them. However, there was a steward stationed, apparently to verify tickets, at the entrance to the staircase leading into the court. I wanted to explain to him that we had no tickets and we wanted to buy tickets but even before I could explain anything, he just said, 'yah, you can enter' as if he had knew we had no tickets but he was going to let us in anyway.
And so, that was how we entered Court Philippe Chatrier without evening knowing that it was Court Philippe Chatrier we were entering. I cheered for Justine's opponent, a certain Russian whose body was in the mould of Maria Sharapova, in the hope that we could sit through a 3rd set and not because of her body. However, Justine is Henin and we only watched 2 games (and not 2 sets, not to mention 3) in total. Nonetheless, we were still treated to a few good rallies between the two and had glimpses of Justine's classic delightful backhands. Given that we had not paid a single cent for them, there was nothing we could really complain about. I'll be hoping for rain again before 5 tomorrow because if that's the case, I might just be able to catch Roger in action. Clay never tasted so good before.
--nano justine in pink on the left --
However, the weather forecast on Météo-France was for once accurate and rain threatened to spoil the plan. By 2pm, all matches had been suspended and the 5.15pm live update on the official website stated that 'it is highly likely that play would be called off for the day'.
At 6.29pm, I found out from the website of LeFigaro - the official newspaper of the right-wingeds in France - that the players were taking the courts again. Yeejia and I immediately changed (me out of the Guan-gifted I-love-NY t-shirt and her out of her Gryfinddor HangTen t-shirt) , grabbed the cinnamon baguette which a friend of ours had earlier brought over, some newspapers and a towel intended for drying the seats and within 10mins, we were out of her place.
By the time we reached the stadium, most people were already leaving and we seemed to be the only ones trying to enter. We asked a policeman if we could still purchase tickets but he told us the ticketing office had closed at 5. He suggested we could try asking the stewards in-charge of checking tickets, stationed beside the gate. I haven't even popped a proper 'bonsoir' when the steward told us, 'go ahead, you can enter'. So, we excitedly entered the stadium and began searching for the court, Court Philippe Chatrier, where Justine was playing. People were streaming out of the court where Serena had just won her match and a few of them were making their way into this particular court just beside us. We decided to follow them. However, there was a steward stationed, apparently to verify tickets, at the entrance to the staircase leading into the court. I wanted to explain to him that we had no tickets and we wanted to buy tickets but even before I could explain anything, he just said, 'yah, you can enter' as if he had knew we had no tickets but he was going to let us in anyway.
And so, that was how we entered Court Philippe Chatrier without evening knowing that it was Court Philippe Chatrier we were entering. I cheered for Justine's opponent, a certain Russian whose body was in the mould of Maria Sharapova, in the hope that we could sit through a 3rd set and not because of her body. However, Justine is Henin and we only watched 2 games (and not 2 sets, not to mention 3) in total. Nonetheless, we were still treated to a few good rallies between the two and had glimpses of Justine's classic delightful backhands. Given that we had not paid a single cent for them, there was nothing we could really complain about. I'll be hoping for rain again before 5 tomorrow because if that's the case, I might just be able to catch Roger in action. Clay never tasted so good before.
--nano justine in pink on the left --
posted by le chye at
1:55 PM
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