Post by Corina2605 on Oct 30, 2004 14:10:56 GMT
Basel 2004 was definitely my favourite Basel tournament so far. But then, it isn’t really surprising – the entry list couldn’t have been better this year for fans of some Argentine tennis players !!
Swiss Indoors is not a very fan-friendly tournament. Practice courts are at a tennis centre outside of Basel and player’s access at the tournament venue is pretty bad. So considering all this, we had the best time in Basel we could have had !!
I had some troubles to decide whether to go to Basel or not, for school reason and some other reasons, but I finally saw that I just HAD to go (thank you to my lovely friends for helping me to figure that out!!), especially after the doubles draw has been released .
I somehow survived Tuesday morning at school and then travelled to Basel. I met up with my friend Husa who had done an interview with a tennis journalist earlier that morning. She was a very lucky girl, since she was given a tour through the players lounge, player’s restaurant, media room, etc. by that journalist. Unfortunately no Argentine was seen, but Paradorn and his dad definitely liked to see an Asian face among all those European ones .
Ok, we decided to install ourselves at the little court to watch Michel Kratochvil, who happens to be my favourite countryman tennis player. He played doubles with another Swiss against Nadal/Lopez. I was really happy to see Micha again, as I haven’t seen him for ages. But then we spotted "someone" in the stands and our attention was not on the happenings on the court anymore (sorry Michel . The Swiss pair won and left the court for Arnold/Hood who played the next doubles match. Mariano Z. started to have a “shouting-conversation” with Lucas Arnold ! I was really brave and caught M as he left the match to do my delivery job and to wish him good luck for his match later that day. It was a nice moment .
We decided we needed a drink, so left Arnold/Hood after the first few games. There was a big chaos going on. We had no idea what happened, but then found out that Roger Federer was injured and couldn’t play his home tournament. We felt really sorry for all those persons who only came to Basel to see the Swiss superstar. But above all we were sorry for Roger himself. Winning his home tournament was his big dream.
The doubles matches on court 2 went really quickly (Arnold/Hood only lost 3 games!!!), so we prepared ourselves for Mariano’s match against Hanescu. Some other friends joined us with an Argentine flag. We were a bit surprised to see Hernan Gumy (with short hair since Vienna!!) sitting in M’s box next to M’s fitness trainer, but thought he probably just came to support Mariano as a friend. However, as we found out the next day during M’s doubles match, Gumy coached Mariano in the Basel week.
Mariano, wearing his orange shirt and looking great, played very concentrated from the very beginning. The match was very intensive and close. Both players played very well and fought for their lives. The crowd was very happy to see Mariano’s magic, everyone loved him ! At some point team Chela came and sat down just in the row in front of us. We were really pleased to discover that Chelita’s hair was longer again . And the award for the best smelling tennis coach goes to Gabriel Markus . We all witnessed Mariano winning the first set in the tie-break ! The match continued to be on a very high level. They were loads of great rallies, most of them won by Mariano. It was a very entertaining match. Unfortunately the guy from Romania managed to break M at 5-5 in the second set. But we were not too worried, as we felt that M wanted to win this match absolutely. Third set was the closest set. Hanescu played really well and was close to win the match, but Mariano fought like a lion and made it into the tiebreak. He played his best tennis when it was needed and won the tie-break, yay !! M looked really happy, jumping around, etc ! It was so lovely to see !
We decided to watch some games of Gaston Gaudio’s match on centre court until we had to hurry to the station to catch our train back to Zurich. It was great to see Gaston again on the court after his injury time out. He looked great and very relaxed .Unfortunately we only saw the first set (won by Gaston!!!) but consoled ourselves that we will see him on Wednesday playing doubles with Mariano against the Bryan twins.
Back at home I slept my four hours sleep before getting ready for school. I arrived in Basel around 3 pm, just in time for Chela’s match. Poor Chelita didn’t have his best day . But we also had to give credit to Ljubicic. The croat played very well. His aces were coming when he needed them and he also played some really beautiful dropshots.
Then it was time again for Kratochvil watching. He faced Massu on Centre Court. Michel had lots of support from the crowd (we almost felt like attending a Davis Cup match), but unfortunately Massu was just too strong for him . But anyway, it was still a great tournament for Michel, making the single main draw and winning some doubles matches.
We returned to the smaller court to see Volandri retiring against Spadea in the second set. So, this meant it was Mariano/ Gaston show time now !!! I have never seen Mariano playing a doubles match before and of course I couldn’t have been happier that he teamed up with Gaston !! My two favourite players playing doubles together, just wonderful !!!
Gaston and Mariano started not very well in the match. The first point was funny. Mariano served while Gaston was still walking to his position to the net ! They were not really organized on the court… ! But they had lots of fun, joking around and laughing all the time. The second set was a lot better! Mariano and Gaston showed that they are two brilliant tennis players. The Bryans had to play their best tennis to finally win the match 6-4 in the second set. It was a very nice and funny match to watch ! My friend took loads of pictures of my personal “dream team” and promised me to send them to me. Of course I will share them with all of you !
When the match was over a very nice Argentine tennis coach recognised me (from Kitzbuhel probably) and said hello to me! I was in heaven !! Thank you!!! So, that was a perfect ending of my Basel tennis trip!
We had a great time and I am so glad I went to Basel!
Husa - thanks for everything! I am already looking forward to April 2005 !
To Melanie, Sabrina and Tanja - It was lovely meeting you! Enjoy the rest of the tournament!
And to Mariano - thanks so much for playing the Swiss Indoors for the first time. We all hope you will return to Basel next year !!!
Swiss Indoors is not a very fan-friendly tournament. Practice courts are at a tennis centre outside of Basel and player’s access at the tournament venue is pretty bad. So considering all this, we had the best time in Basel we could have had !!
I had some troubles to decide whether to go to Basel or not, for school reason and some other reasons, but I finally saw that I just HAD to go (thank you to my lovely friends for helping me to figure that out!!), especially after the doubles draw has been released .
I somehow survived Tuesday morning at school and then travelled to Basel. I met up with my friend Husa who had done an interview with a tennis journalist earlier that morning. She was a very lucky girl, since she was given a tour through the players lounge, player’s restaurant, media room, etc. by that journalist. Unfortunately no Argentine was seen, but Paradorn and his dad definitely liked to see an Asian face among all those European ones .
Ok, we decided to install ourselves at the little court to watch Michel Kratochvil, who happens to be my favourite countryman tennis player. He played doubles with another Swiss against Nadal/Lopez. I was really happy to see Micha again, as I haven’t seen him for ages. But then we spotted "someone" in the stands and our attention was not on the happenings on the court anymore (sorry Michel . The Swiss pair won and left the court for Arnold/Hood who played the next doubles match. Mariano Z. started to have a “shouting-conversation” with Lucas Arnold ! I was really brave and caught M as he left the match to do my delivery job and to wish him good luck for his match later that day. It was a nice moment .
We decided we needed a drink, so left Arnold/Hood after the first few games. There was a big chaos going on. We had no idea what happened, but then found out that Roger Federer was injured and couldn’t play his home tournament. We felt really sorry for all those persons who only came to Basel to see the Swiss superstar. But above all we were sorry for Roger himself. Winning his home tournament was his big dream.
The doubles matches on court 2 went really quickly (Arnold/Hood only lost 3 games!!!), so we prepared ourselves for Mariano’s match against Hanescu. Some other friends joined us with an Argentine flag. We were a bit surprised to see Hernan Gumy (with short hair since Vienna!!) sitting in M’s box next to M’s fitness trainer, but thought he probably just came to support Mariano as a friend. However, as we found out the next day during M’s doubles match, Gumy coached Mariano in the Basel week.
Mariano, wearing his orange shirt and looking great, played very concentrated from the very beginning. The match was very intensive and close. Both players played very well and fought for their lives. The crowd was very happy to see Mariano’s magic, everyone loved him ! At some point team Chela came and sat down just in the row in front of us. We were really pleased to discover that Chelita’s hair was longer again . And the award for the best smelling tennis coach goes to Gabriel Markus . We all witnessed Mariano winning the first set in the tie-break ! The match continued to be on a very high level. They were loads of great rallies, most of them won by Mariano. It was a very entertaining match. Unfortunately the guy from Romania managed to break M at 5-5 in the second set. But we were not too worried, as we felt that M wanted to win this match absolutely. Third set was the closest set. Hanescu played really well and was close to win the match, but Mariano fought like a lion and made it into the tiebreak. He played his best tennis when it was needed and won the tie-break, yay !! M looked really happy, jumping around, etc ! It was so lovely to see !
We decided to watch some games of Gaston Gaudio’s match on centre court until we had to hurry to the station to catch our train back to Zurich. It was great to see Gaston again on the court after his injury time out. He looked great and very relaxed .Unfortunately we only saw the first set (won by Gaston!!!) but consoled ourselves that we will see him on Wednesday playing doubles with Mariano against the Bryan twins.
Back at home I slept my four hours sleep before getting ready for school. I arrived in Basel around 3 pm, just in time for Chela’s match. Poor Chelita didn’t have his best day . But we also had to give credit to Ljubicic. The croat played very well. His aces were coming when he needed them and he also played some really beautiful dropshots.
Then it was time again for Kratochvil watching. He faced Massu on Centre Court. Michel had lots of support from the crowd (we almost felt like attending a Davis Cup match), but unfortunately Massu was just too strong for him . But anyway, it was still a great tournament for Michel, making the single main draw and winning some doubles matches.
We returned to the smaller court to see Volandri retiring against Spadea in the second set. So, this meant it was Mariano/ Gaston show time now !!! I have never seen Mariano playing a doubles match before and of course I couldn’t have been happier that he teamed up with Gaston !! My two favourite players playing doubles together, just wonderful !!!
Gaston and Mariano started not very well in the match. The first point was funny. Mariano served while Gaston was still walking to his position to the net ! They were not really organized on the court… ! But they had lots of fun, joking around and laughing all the time. The second set was a lot better! Mariano and Gaston showed that they are two brilliant tennis players. The Bryans had to play their best tennis to finally win the match 6-4 in the second set. It was a very nice and funny match to watch ! My friend took loads of pictures of my personal “dream team” and promised me to send them to me. Of course I will share them with all of you !
When the match was over a very nice Argentine tennis coach recognised me (from Kitzbuhel probably) and said hello to me! I was in heaven !! Thank you!!! So, that was a perfect ending of my Basel tennis trip!
We had a great time and I am so glad I went to Basel!
Husa - thanks for everything! I am already looking forward to April 2005 !
To Melanie, Sabrina and Tanja - It was lovely meeting you! Enjoy the rest of the tournament!
And to Mariano - thanks so much for playing the Swiss Indoors for the first time. We all hope you will return to Basel next year !!!