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Egg (Author), Kitzfan, Giovi - Hungary

Happy days are here again.
Kitzbühel 2003

After having a blast in Kitzbühel last year, we started counting the days back on our way home already. It’s been a very eventful year tennis-wise, a whole week in Vienna, a whole week in Barcelona – both of them great tournaments, but we were waiting for Kitz like kids for Christmas. And boy, were we satisfied with our presents?!
Learning from Murielle’s experience last year, we made sure to arrive on Saturday. We found everything as we left last year (except for the lack of the Nike shop – very handy in case of sudden bad weather for unprepared tournament-goers). We had a look at the practice courts, but didn’t see anybody exciting, so we actually sat down to watch a qualy match. With good view to the clubhouse. :) So we saw when team Holland (Chela, Gaudio & Co) arrived to check in (a huge thank you to Haggard and Sa who beat them on Friday. Never was I waiting for a loss so eagerly :), and when they were leaving they ran into Mariano, arriving for practice. I guess they hadn’t met since Wimbledon, and it was great to see how happy they were to see each other. Lots of hugs, and laughs all over the place.
Then Mariano went off to practice, and we watched it a little. He practiced the usual way – hard and shirtless. Long live the summer heat of Austria! (The same can’t be said about the rain, which messes up everyone’s life to some extent, but it seems to be the pattern of Kitz: starts off really hot, then comes the rain, and then the extreme heat comes back. Makes it easy to get a great tan and a bad cold.)
After Mariano finished practicing, he stopped by the next court where Team Holland just arrived to practice, and he shouted something to them, (it seems that some people like having conversations from a distance – right, Corina?:) and there were lots of laughs again. Than Mariano left, and we stayed to watch the most entertaining practice session of the week. I just hope Gaudio wasn’t really singing what Giovi thought he was. (Note to self: learn Spanish!). By the way, Giovi doesn’t speak Spanish, she was just making things up, but we were all in stiches, and the guys on court seemed to be having a good time, too. But as the time of the draw ceremony got closer, and it looked like the concert on court was over as well, we headed to the town.
The draw ceremony is a big deal in Kitz, There’s a stage in the centre if the town, a big Tirolen band playing, and there are kids holding the names of all the players. We didn’t know what to expect, if all the players would be there or just some of them, but we soon found out. There were just 4 players, but lucky us, Mariano was one of them. I’m sure everybody knows the pictures, so you know that the other three were local heros Koubek and Melzer (who failed to correct the stupid MC, when he said that he won Newport – he was just a finalist), and Nico. Everybody but Mariano was wearing street clothes, he was in Adidas and slippers. When it was his turn in the draw, he was called to the centre of the stage for a little interview. Now, that stupid MC was really unprepared, pronounced names badly, and didn’t know much about the players. He suspected that Mariano had been in Kitz before (yeah, played some little semifinal last year, the match of the tournament!!), asked him what he thought about Kitz (beautiful town, beautiful tournament), and then talked about parachuting from the top of some Mountain,which he did last year (didn’t know that), and he said it was scary, but would do it again. He didn’t seem too comfortable up there (we could understand, stupid MC, stupid questions), and he seemed a little bored and uninterested in the whole thing. At least he had Nico to talk to sometimes, but he seemed relieved when the show was over. However, the video hasn’t turned out half bad. :)
All in all, a great day for us. Thanks Mu for the idea of a Saturday arrival. :)
Not much happened Mariano-wise until Tuesday when he played Victor Hanescu, a young Romanian player we had only heard about. He’s actually quite talented, very tall and skinny, with nice fluid groundstrokes, and a good touch too, but he loses his concentration every once in a while, and then he’s easy break.
Mariano came out flying, very focussed, and won the first set 6:2. The second was much closer, if I remember correctly Mariano was up a break early but Hanescu broke back. However, when they got to 5:5 Mariano just switched gears, and broke Hanescu in no uncertain fashion, really going for his shots, and then served out the match.
In Kitz seeded players have their own support groups, usually a group of some adults and many kids, (or like in Chela’s case, a group of young guys who put on a great show), who chant the player’s name, and whatever they can come up with, wear a “uniform” of a T-shirt with the pic of the player (a great pic of Sara, in Mariano’s case), have flags, hats, and Mariano’s group were like cheerleaders, so had pompoms as well. They were a very enthusiastic bunch, very vocal, and Mariano was very appreciative of their efforts, hit lots of balls to them, and kept smiling and waving to them when he won the match, and even as he was leaving the court.
That was lovely to see. He’s just great with kids. We saw him once with the baby of Lucas Arnold in his hand, and they loooked really sweet together.
Mariano was to play Younes El Aynaoui next on Thursday, and we were doing some really serious planning about who should play long matches, and who should finish quickly, so that we can watch everyone we wanted to. Of course nothing went as planned (by us), too quick matches on Court 2 where Mariano was to play, too slow on Centre, but no problem, the rain took care of everything!
In the meantime we heard that there WON’T be a Mariano-Younes match, because of Younes, but we had to make sure it was REALLY Younes who withdrew, so we made a little investigation. A good program during a rainbreak. And we learned that Younes was sick. Funny, we heard the same line in Barcelona when he was about to play Guga. Mr El Aynaoui is never injured, he’s always sick. Or maybe he was just scared to play Mariano. :)
Friday was a busy day for many players, as the rain stopped play totally on Thursday (and made poor Bea very sick). Mariano was to play the winner of Ferrero-Saretta, and he was seen in front of a TV watching the end of the first set, and he didn’t look too happy when Ferrero won it (in a tie-break)..
Ferrero won the match, and was to play Mariano as the last match on Centre court. Somehow we had a feeling, that it might just be Mariano’s day. We hadn’t seen Ferrero’s previous matches, but we knew that he didn’t win them easily.) It was such a lovely evening, and finally we could sit in the shade, after a whole day under the sun.
So the match begun, and after the first few points we knew we were about to see something special. Mariano was hitting winners left and right, one amazing point after the other. The French Open champion and fresh No 1 didn’t know what hit him. He had no answer whatsoever to stop the Mariano-express.
The first set was over in no time, 6:1. We couldn’t believe our eyes, but no complaining, it was soooooo much fun to watch.
The second set started in similar fashion, and Mariano was up two breaks, but Ferrero started playing better, and he got one break back, but his wake up call came too late, and Mariano finished the match in exactly one hour. That is 60 minutes. YAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!! Such an extraordinary match, a wonderful display of attacking tennis, and a nice revenge for last year’s semifinal!!
After the match we went to celebrate with our daily Caipirinha, and from our regular table we saw Mariano and his coach walk back to the clubhouse. A very happy Mariano, talking to someone on his mobile, and an equally happy Gattiker by his side.
On Saturday we bought the more expensive tickets, hoping they would be in the shade (they weren’t), and hoping to see two very good matches up-close. (There weren’t any.) Coria made quick work of Lopez (the new favourite of the ladies – not mine, but of many :), and it was time for Mariano and Massu. We thought it wouldn’t be easy, as Massu is a fighter, and he came to Kitz full of confidence after his win the week before, but we weren’t prepared for what we saw, and still have no explanation for it.
Mariano kept going for his shots, like the day before, but they didn’t work. Massu hit back everything with interest, and Mariano had to work very hard to win every point, and when he finally put himself in a winning position, he hit it long, wide, into the net, you name it. It was actually a very hard fought 6:1 6:2, he kept trying and trying, but no luck. He couldn’t find his winning racket. (Was it really a stringing problem? Maybe.)
It wasn’t a happy sight, but such is tennis, up one day, down the next. Why? Who knows. Nothing to take away from Massu, he played a really solid match, but Mariano was not even the shadow of his Friday self. BUT, he made it to the semis, like last year, which was nice, but we saw one less match – thanks to Younes being a coward to face Mariano.
All in all, we probably saw less great singles matches than last year, when Corretja was a treat to watch in all of his matches (and he played many! :), but we still saw some good tennis, lots of great doubles encounters (the best being between Lapentti/Lopez and Schüttler/Braasch – great game, great atmosphere, great fun), and supported lots of Argentine players, old and new favourites - vocally and with our flag. :)
Gaudio produced his trademark “can’t-finish-my-matches” thrillers, eventually winning one (against local matador Werner Eschauer), but losing the next to Senor Look-at-me-aren’t I-beautiful Lopez.. (Yes, you are, but you should still behave yourself!)
Chela played a very impressive first match against a Czech qualifier, then a very exciting one against Mirnyi, before being rolled over by the Coria Terminator. Whose most resistant opponent, by the way, was Vinciguerra in the second round. The Swede played a fantastic match, and was rewarded by a record 7 games!
Our latest discovery of the bunch was Gaston Etlis – with and without his lovely doubles partner, Martin Rodriguez. They made it to the semis, on the way playing a great match against Black/Ulyett. Our support must have helped them (and was appreciated – thank you, guys! :), but we couldn’t do much against the whole stadium when the played an Austrian pair in the semi. But it seems to be our fate: being in a minority and root against the home favourites. Good practice for Malaga. :)
Etlis also played singles. He got through the qualies, and then beat Squillari in a very entertaining match. Being an old Rafter-fan, I’m a sucker for serve-and-volley tennis, and it was nice to see someone play this game, even on clay, and play it well. Others must have taken notice, too, because he made the cover of next day’s tournament paper. Well done! And then we haven’t even talked about the man’s talent on the dance-floor, and his interpretation of Joe Cocker’s You can leave your hat on... :)
We would be happy to give an account of the players party with the famous Atomic Kitten, but we missed it. It was way too expensive, and we were watching TENNIS at that time anyway. As for the unofficial players parties, you can check out The Londoner to get a feel of THE place to visit in the evenings. No wonder the players like to go back to Kitz. :)
And so do we!!!
Egg, Kitzfan, Giovi - Hungary

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