Then the crazy thoughts became a reality. Here I was, on a weekend in London, with a ticket to both sessions of the final day of the Round-Robin matches, namely: Rafael Nadal vs. Tomas Berdych and Novak Djokovic vs. Andy Roddick. I can try words, but the pictures tell it all better:
The main suprise, compared to the Davis Cup, was the crowd. Which makes sense, really, because DC crowd is usually horrible, or at least that's what I thought at the first time I was there. So seeing and hearing thousands of spectators completely silent as the player serves, and faults, and serves again - it was pretty incredible. You see it on TV all the time, of course, but it really is something else when you feel it live. Also, the fact that the crowd cheers for good tennis, and not for the favorite player, is really great. I don't think you ever get this in any other sport.
After each match, it was autograph-hunting time! It wasn't too difficult to get down to where the winners (Rafa and Nole) signed for their fans, but it was difficult to predict on which side of the court you should stand in order to make it. So with Rafa I misjudged, and he ended up signing mostly on the other side of the court. Eventually he was 3-4 people away from where I was standing, and then left, so that's one signature I didn't get...
So then I thought I should go to the other side of the court when Novak finished his match. And of course, he started from the opposite side! But this time, I got lucky, as I managed to sqeeze in to the front with a couple of kids, and I was one of the last people who got his autograph that night!
I left the O2 arena that day feeling completely dazzled. And wanting more.
I'm so jealous that you got to watch Nole play and also got his autograph. I've been thinking about flying to London this year to watch him; hopefully I can make it happen, we'll see…
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