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INDIAN WELLS 2003 trip report - L Lewis-Price
Hi and welcome to this year's Indian Wells Diary! Ok - here we go! - Marcus and I went for the complete tournament starting from Day 1 Ladies Qualies. We stayed in 3 hotels this trip; the Player Hotel for the first week, but left before all the men arrived; a different hotel middle weekend and ended our trip at the Rancho Las Palmas resort - wow this place was just awesome!!! (Priceline rules!) - We couldn't stay at the Players Hotel for the second week as apparently it was all booked up due to some major Tennis Tournament happening ...... would be curious to find out who had room T610 after us though.... Marcus had promised me that we would go to Scottsdale for a day to see Mariano play. Unfortunately..... it didn't happen. He was snapped up by an agent all week to take pictures of 6 extremely pretty ladies instead (including Emanuelle Gagliardi!!) - this included exclusive photoshoots too - he was in 7th heaven! SO I was offering a free trip to Scottsdale, (fuel, tickets, car-hire if necessary - I cannot drive in USA) to anyone who would take me - but unfortunately it didn't happen either - I tried. Before I forget... The best coffee bar in IW was Jazzy J's - thanks for keeping the caffeine flowing for us - PG Tips are on their way to you! Wednesday arrived - and so did Betsy! we had a great day catching up on news and stuff - oh and selling the occasional Tennis Week subscription too. First Player (Male) to arrive was Mario Ancic - I didn't recognise him; just took notice because he was male and carrying a racket (a rare sight that week!!) so I was really surprised (and delighted!) when Sven (his new coach - I knew him as Greg Rusedski's coach) came over for a chat! - then Michael Youzney and his brother arrived (I cannot tell them apart) they were out practicing all of the time.
Thursday
Sara arrived - looking far too brown! but I guess the fact she had been travelling South America for weeks was a good enough excuse! - Maria (from Mexico) arrived too - it was so great to catch up - I think Maria will agree that we had LOTS of fun before she left the following Thursday!
Sara informed me straight away that "Some Guy in Argentina" had contacted her saying he was doing Mariano's Official Page and wanted her photographs. I spent a couple of days worrying about this; thinking does this mean I have to close my page down? why didn't the guy contact me? does he not like what I do? After speaking with various people (ok I admit there was one person I did NOT speak to about it - but the opportunity just did not happen) I have been given the unanimous view that this page stays and that too many people would miss it if it was gone. That felt nice - thanks guys. To "Some Guy in Argentina" (if you see this - please do not get offended by this comment - thanks :-)
Arnaud Clement arrived! - he was on the green; topless; showing off "Owl" and stopped and had a lovely chat with me. His wrist is now fine! and he is now healthy and cant wait to start winning again. He told me he had started playing again last week; (like I didn't know he lost to Michael Kratochvil...) so that was nice.
Thursday Evening
Interesting elevator experience! - message to the 3 Argentinians involved - there was a (really small) notice saying the Elevator didn't stop where you wanted it to. I hope you didn't think you were being kidnapped by a crazy Mariano fan! - I was only trying to be helpful.
Friday
Mariano was still in Scottsdale....
Vicky and Debbie turned up - Vicky was lucky enough to be sitting next to Guillermo Coria on her flight over - she really wanted to take him back to Texas with her!! But we checked her hand luggage - she left him behind.
Saturday
Mariano was still in Scottsdale..... but Mark Philippoussis beat him in the Semis. (Bad Mark!")
Sunday
This was Marcus and My 7th Wedding Anniversary - thanks for all the e-cards and card cards :-) - Marcus spent most of the day taking pictures of pretty ladies in expensive clothes - so he had great fun! - Emanuelle personally wished us happy anniversary so that was really sweet!
Mariano turned up at 4pm - yay! - he looked totally shattered; but it was great to see him again.
Marcus and I then went out and did the "romantic meal thing..." which was lovely - the Miramonte Hotel do a perfect duck dish that is to die for!
Monday
The big news was that Andre had withdrawn with a Shoulder Injury - Gaston Gaudio took his place in the draw. Gaston Gaudio then withdraw 0-4 down against Rios complaining of the Virus that wiped out 12 players this week!
Mariano was practicing and looked "full of life!" so that was good - Maria and I caught him for photographs it was a lovely moment.
(Maria and I had worked out the perfect "capture the player" technique - basically these guys didnt stand a chance - I think we had a 100% record! Marat Safin got "caught" about 10 times!!!)
Tuesday
Mariano faced Davis Cup Hero Mikael Youzney.
Fact 1 - Mikael did not have his DC "Coach Safin" today
So I caught up with the 2003 Argentine Superstar about an hour after the match and had a fun chat (thanks).
Wednesday
Mariano faced Rainer Schuettler again. The good point about this match; comparing it to the last Indian Wells meeting of these two was.
Mariano was already one round further than last year - so Entry System points were in the bag.
He played really well; fought from behind, managed to break the German, there was a noisy supporter supporting Mariano right up until German set point - which unfortunately Mariano failed to save - when suddenly the "noisy supporter" in the crowd changed alliegance and
started supporting the German guy even louder. This was really annoying; people in the stands next to me were NOT impressed by this behaviour; god knows what sort of effect it had on the actual players. But anyway; to cut a long story short - Rainer made it through to the 3rd round.
After the match Mariano informed me he would be leaving Friday; but that was the last time I saw him.
Thursday
Maria left today - but not before saying a special goodbye to her Maratito.
Saturday
It rained!!! - Guga's semi got cancelled.
Sunday
Marcus should have got some fantastic Finals Day pictures. Lleyton and Kim won.
As usual it was a great trip; it was great to see all our friends again, and make some new special ones too.
Next Stop for me .... Monte Carlo!
Best wishes
Louise and Marcus Lewis-Price As at March 19 2003 - the photos are currently being developed we hit the scanner this weekend. Give us about a week then watch this site and the Sportfiles.com/photogallery for the pictures! . Marcus and Louise Lewis-Price |