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Personal details Louise (Author), Mandy, Corina, Jelena, Kitzfan, Lyn, Chan, Ros, Denise, Chris
Paris Bercy 2003
Monday night. The mood was a bit low Monday night - I had no real desire to stay and watch the evening matches so I walked with Ros back to her hotel - we told everyone to meet us there. That was when I met Denise! - Denise welcome to the site! - Denise is a Marat Safin admirer. Slowly our little party grew adding Jeff, (friend of Denise's) to our group and the alcohol started to flow nicely, Mandy, Lyn and Chan returned from the Tennis with all the news and our little party carried on until the early hours of the morning - a good night was had by all. Message for Jeff - thank you for walking us back to our Hotel - Kitzfan and Louise.
Next day Ros and I had arranged to meet in her hotel at 10.00 to walk up together to get tickets for the others etc. So I waited for her in the lobby, on my own, feeling very awkward - but then I thought - hey I am allowed to be here!!! I am waiting for my friend!!! stop feeling so Paranoid!!!! - little pep talk to myself worked wonders. Until I saw that Alexandro Gatticker was still around... then I suddenly realised there was a wall of Argentine coaches (AG, GG's Coach, EI, and Gabriel Markus) all standing in a semi circle facing me... so I ignored them :-) thinking ROS!!! appear NOW please!!! I have Senorita Superstalker tattooed on my forehead..... My telepathy worked and Ros appeared at the perfect moment, so the "Coaches" could see that I really wasn't waiting for their proteges at all, just my friend :-) The tennis was good as usual, I can't really remember most of the matches, we were camped out in our usual place on Court 1 for the week - dissappearing into Court 2 occasionally for various doubles matches too. Court 1 was the best place to be, because it was such an intimate court - always packed but unlike the main stadium you felt you could really get involved in the matches. The only really annoying aspect of the trip was they always put Guga on as the last match on the Stadium Court - in hindsight this actually worked out quite well!!! - Mandy adores Guga (so does Chris) and Ros had EXCELLENT Stadium court tickets - so the pattern worked out well with Mandy taking over Ros' ticket every day to see Guga at very close range!!! - Ros and I walking back to "base" to start building the party tables..... this seemed to be a perfectly acceptable habit adopted by North Americans and South Americans too. So Ros and I were mellowing nicely Tuesday evening, putting the world to rights and of course, casually watching David Nalbandian being ignored by the Bar staff was really amusing too. Lets face it, the Argentines Players are all basically natural born cheeky entertainers. David knew we were not there to hassle him... so it was just a lovely atmosphere. He was then joined by Guillermo Coria and Coach, and then left alone again. Then Ros informed me of his latest table guest (of course I knew he was there.....;-) ) so Ros gave me running commentary, talking to David, looking over, talking to David, looking over, talking to David, looking over... Ros was a stuck record... greeting David, leaving.... Of course during Ros' commentary I was "naturally" pouring out two cups of tea, and I did not spill a drop - I was impressed!!!! THEN MUSM No3 happened (thank you) - and thank you to David too!!! Then he dissappeared. 30 minutes later - we saw a sad sight - 6 Argentines were checking out. Team Gaudio were leaving Paris. Mariano was with them. So this was Mariano leaving Paris. They spent about 30 minutes at the desk. There was a really impressive Halloween Pumpkin display next to the desk. It must have taken ages to prepare, maybe it was a unique commission? Mariano and Gaston decided to rearrange it during checkout... of course we did notice that Gaston was dressed to leave (coats etc) and Mariano was not... but we did not like to jump to the wrong conclusion. Team Gaston left. Mariano then dissapeared again. We thought he had gone to get his bags this time.... he came back 10 minutes later.... with Calleri - I then decided I had to ask him when he was leaving.... found out he would be there all week.... ;-) so that was nice to hear. Our Party table grew as usual and carried on until the early hours again. Our Party Group was starting to sadly break up too. Kitzfan had to leave very early Wednesday morning - but she assures me she had a most wonderful trip. Corina and Jelena were also leaving Wednesday - Corina early morning, and Jelena afternoon. Corina decided Tuesday night that she really had to change her train and stay another night - for the sole reason that she had not seen Mark play yet - and he was scheduled to play Guga last thing Wednesday. She was successful in changing her train and had an extra bonus special day added to her trip! I had promised Kitzfan faithfully that I would take pictures of Alex during his doubles match with Lopez. I kept my promise. I did plan on watching the whole of the Calleri/Massu doubles match before that one, but as Calleri/Massu got destroyed 6-0 in the first, Ros and I decided to take a food break. I rejoined the match at 5-4 - I told the Guard it was ok I would wait until the end of the match now, as play had started again!!!!! - THE GUARD said - no its ok - in you go... so everyone saw me go to my seat - how embarrasing!!! - I thought at least noone important saw me!!! - MEM3!!! - All of Team Argentina were dead opposite me and saw everything... but as usual.... MEM3 turned into MUSM 4 :-) thanks!
Kitzfan - your pictures will be ready shortly! Meanwhile back on Court 1. We had got the best seats in the house booked for David v Jonas.... - we were all in our seats waiting for the players to walk on... flags were in position, everyone was waiting.... the Scoreboard clearly said.... David Nalbandian (Arg) v Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) - the players walked on.... and everyone suddenly went - "what?" in union... Mandy said - I may not be an expert like the rest of you... but even I know that's Nicolas Lapentti!!!!!! Flags instantly dissapeared and the realisation set in.... David had pulled out - and was replaced by Lapentti. Lapentti lost. Mandy and Corina had made arrangements to watch Guga and Mark together and also planned to walk back together. Ros and I started the Party camp - Denise, Ros and I had an entertaining meal. Mardy Fish and James Blake were playing cards, everyone was watching Mark and Guga on the screen. Mardy was commentating!!! Suddenly we look up and the camera is on Mandy - we all shout (in the middle of the Hotel Bar) That's Mandy!! - everyone looks at the screen! - as if to say - "who's Mandy?" it was fun. Guga won - unfortunately for Corina - but they arrived after the match, and the party continued until nearly dawn again. Corina can definitely confirm that even though Mark lost - Wednesday night was very special and well worth changing her train for! Oh yes - this is a message for "The Guy" - you know who you are.. To The Guy that decided to "join" our table at 1am Thursday morning. As a matter of respect and good manners, it is always polite to be invited to join someone's table before barging in uninvited as you did. Thank you for your "invitation" to be introduced to Mark Miles, and his friends but I really do not think they really wanted to see us then, and we were not really impressed with your offers of introducing us to "Famous Players" like "Nicolas Lapentti" either because in case you did not notice - he was trying to have a quiet evening with his girlfriend - I did not really like to say this to you at the time, we've all ready met the players we are interested in thank you - and are not really the sort of "groupie-fans" you thought we were... we don't need your help - and - far more importantly.... you were blocking our view!!! :-) - of course, if you tried to offer to introduce us to the Player on THAT table, we may have taken you up on your offer and had some fun.... but you didn't offer to introduce us to them - so we could not have the fun... your loss!!! hehehe Now to end this - it was so lovely to see everyone this week. Thank you for all your kind messsages and cards - see you all again soon!! The next proposed big Group Get Together is probably going to be Monte-Carlo. If you would like to join us - feel free and contact me at louise@sportfiles.com - with Monte-Carlo - interested, in the title. Message for Mariano - congratulations on a very successful 2003 - best of luck in 2004 - you KNOW you will have worldwide support where ever and when ever people who visit this site can get to where you play! - and if we cant get there in person! you KNOW we are in the chatroom suffering all those break points you so like to convert :-) Best of luck for 2004 - and "thank you for everything this year!"
Louise Lewis-Price back to part 1
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