Day #79 - French Open

Center Court - French Open

Clay Courts - they rake the clay like a baseball infield

Huge outdoor big-screen between Center Court and Court #1

Rafael Nadal - practicing

Roger Federer - in quarterfinal

Tuesday, June 1st

When I got up this morning, I was feeling better (not great). After taking a couple motrin, I felt pretty good. I decided I would do the French Open Tennis Tourney today. My thinking - the metro goes right to the stadium, there was little exertion involved. I was just going to be sitting down and watching tennis.

I had not purchased tickets. So, I headed to the stadium hoping I could pull off a ticket deal via a scalper on the street. I had done some research work on the ticket prices and I knew roughly where the number stood. It also seemed like there were still tickets available - so I didn't expect too big of a crunch.

When I got off the metro, I followed the crowds and the arrows to Roland Garros - home of the French Open. First off, I'm not a big tennis guy. I do watch the majors and enjoy following them - not like golf - but I still know what's going on for the most part. I checked at the front gate - all tickets were sold out unless purchased on the internet. I had passed a number of scalpers on my walk in. I headed back in the direction I came. Selling tickets for more than face value is illegal. The seller is committing a crime. The buyer - just the unfortunate recipient of the transaction. It was clear to me, that scalping rules were not that strict. These guys were standing right in front of the security guards. I did a few pass-throughs. Got some prices thrown out at me. All were too high. Then, I found this guy and just started to negotiate.

I got tickets to center court - Philippe-Chatrier. My ticket was good for entrance to all matches throughout the day. Big draw -- Roger Federer (#1 player in world and best ever tennis player) versus Robin Soderling (#5 seed). I paid too much for the ticket - but, there's some things I'm willing to pay more than others. Seeing Federer on center court in the French Open quarterfinals - it was worth it for me.

When I walked into the grounds, it was incredible. Roland Garros has 20 courts. The 3 major courts are: Philippe-Chatrier (center court), Suzanne-Lenglen, and Court #1. These 3 courts are all stadiums. The other 17 courts have just small bleachers. You can actually walk the grounds and get some peeks at most of the courts.

There were 53 matches going on today - on 14 different venues. All the smaller courts started play at 11am and had 4 matches each. The stadium courts started play at 2pm and had only 3 matches (except Court #1 - had 4 matches). Because this was the second week of the tournament, the quartefinals were going on in singles. They also had men/women doubles and a mixed doubles tourney. The majority of matches played today were by junior players (fillies & garcons). I didn't have much interest in seeing the youngsters. I had a couple hours to kill before 2 pm - so I decided to check out the 6 courts without scheduled play - maybe someone would be practicing.

Nice call. I walked around the corner - there was Rafael Nadal. He was 15 feet away serving. The #2 player in the world and 4 time Frech Open Champion. I watched him for a little while. I then walked over to Court #18 - there's Serena Williams. The #1 female tennis player in the world. Awesome - I had just seen 2 of the very best tennis players. It's impressive to see the skill and how fast the balls come off their rackets.

I headed into center court. First match was one of the women quarterfinals -- F. Schiavone (#17) vs. C. Wozniacki (#3). Wozniacki is a 19 year old up and coming star. Schiavone is a 29 year old Italian with alot of fire. Schiavone controlled the match - 6-2, 6-3 -- in about 1 hr - 15 minutes. (upon writing this - Schiavone has made it to the finals).

Next match - Federer vs Soderling. These guys met last year in The French Open final where Federer won his very first French to give him the career grand slam. This was not going to be easy for Federer. Fist set - Federer - 6-3. Then, the tides changed. Soderling broke Federer's serve on his first service game of the second set. He didn't look back. Soderling won that set and the next 2. He beat Federer in 4 sets. Monumental. This is the first time in 23 grand slam tournaments that Roger Federer has not made it to the semifinals. That goes back to 2004.

I have a thing about seeing greatness destroyed. I saw Tiger up in Minnesota last August at the PGA Championship lose a major for the very first time when he had at least a share of the lead going into the final day. Now - Federer's loss. I like greatness alot -- so I was routing for both Tiger and Roger on both occassions - bummer.

The last match of the night on center court was a men's doubles match. It had startd to rain. Federer's match was delayed for a while. It was now 6:30pm. I called it a night and got back to the hotel.

It was a really good day to experience something unique in the sports world. I'm glad I did it.