Rolland Garros

For my 12th birthday the mom of one of my best friends arranged for me to take some tennis lessons, unfortunately, I was not destined to be the next Williams sister or even Sharapova, and since setting down my racket, tennis and I have had nearly no interaction until today.

The name Roland Garros meant little to me before Olga, a dear friend from Spain explained that it was not in fact some other int'l student we had met from uni (as I had mistakenly thought the first time she said it), but the French Open, one of the big tennis tourneys. She then mentioned what is called 'evening visitors' which allows people, beginning at 5pm to buy tickets for literally 1/10th the cost (say 10 to 30 versus over 200 euros), availability limited to the number of people who have left the establishment. I was not one to miss an opportunity to get involved in French culture (and a buddy back home insisted that it would be well worth it), so Olga and I went to catch some tennis, promising ourselves we'd get our essays done later.

Well, we were not the only ones in on the good deal, and despite arriving 2 hours beforehand, had to settle behind a considerable line/blob forming in front of the gates. We chatted up some gatekeepers to no avail as we didn't magically get to pass behind the green barricade, but they did offer a few handy tips on where to be in the more blob then line and so we decided to wait it out, getting some homework done and meeting people.

Then after a terrible rush as the floodgates opened (my feet never touched the ground, as people swarmed inside), we had to decide quickly if we wanted to chance a wait for the much demanded center court tickets or be happy with a less well known game. We opted for the assurance of at least seeing some matches after our long wait (and again discussions with some nice employees about the number of places available), and Olga assured me that once we were at least INSIDE we'd find a way to get to the center court...


the line, and the big court where we watched our first match

After wandering around the booths and little stadiums we went to the court for which we had tickets to see a few games(I think thats the right term?) between France's Ouanna and Russia's Safin (who was NO favorite of the crowd, the ref had to keep asking everyone to cut the noise). After evidence of a lengthy battle to come, we thought we'd make another go and try to get in to see the number 1 in the world, Rafael Nadal, in action on the court that we did NOT have tickets for (believe me, not having the right number on your piece of paper made was a problem, it was a well controlled access system enforced by non-humorous men in red jackets). Luckily, a light rain had started just before we arrived outside one of the entrances to the court where Nadal was to play, and as people left, expecting the game to be postponed due to weather, they handed their tickets to those outside (Olga and I at one point had 6 tickets between the two of us, which we then had to try and pass on to others). The game with the young man from Spain held especial interest since Barça plays ManU for the Euro title in futball today as well. There were several Catalan cheers going around the stadium and a few calls for him to hurry up and win so everyone could catch the game, which he did in quick and neat form (oh and style, who could miss that PINK shirt). We finished off our day with the first part of Venus Williams' match before back to central Paris and the barça game. It was almost enough to make me want to pick up the racket again...


Finally courtside to see the man in the pink