World Tour Finals III

[meobnal]

Before making my way to the O2 again, I had to pop into the post office to mail my souvenir tourney towel to myself, cos I couldn't get it to fit into my hand luggage anymore :p

Back at the O2, I figured Fed would get the CC to practice since he ranks above Ferru. Turns out they both got a quick turn and I got to see both of them practice :D





Knowing the drill by now, I took up a spot at the practice player exit, along with a few assorted other Fed fans. He passed right by us, but he wasn't in the mood for signing, so I went to find my actual seat for the afternoon session.
Luck had it my seat turned out to be right low in the corner near the main player enter/exit (aka the one Ferru seems to think is the practice player exit). It wasn't the best seat to actually see the tennis, but definitely a good seat to get close to the players.

In the mean time, Ferru was having a quick practice session. Afterwards, he passed right by my seat :D Seeing as I had already got him to sign my flag yesterday, I didn't want to bother him for another one. I snapped some pictures, tho :D





Now on to the real matter of the SFs. First up: Mirnyi/Nestor d Bryans 7-6 6-4
Again, not a good match for the Bryans :( This hasn't really been their tourney. I had a lone grannie in the row behind me cheering for Nestor, which was bit *wtf!lol*









Then it was time for the match-up from hell :p Federer d Ferrer 7-5 6-3
It's safe to say, I had no hopes whatsoever for this one. I just sat back and cheered when I could. I'm more than happy Ferru made it an respectable score line <3 (lone!grannie was now cheering for David, so I had some support amits the Roger fans :p)









After the (awkward, much?) post match interview, I was now in prime position to get his autograph. I refused to budge under the pressure of little kids holding out their tennis balls and stuck to my seat. Roger was clearly in a better mood this time after his win and took a long time signing everyone's stuff. I got my Swiss flag signed after all :D *yayformethrice*



Clearly, not only is Roger the GOAT of tennis, he's also the GOAT of flag signing ;)

This wrapped up the afternoon session rather quickly so I had time to kill by wandering around the Fanzone some more and getting something to eat.
Check out the $17000+ bag of Lindt chocolate...



For the evening session I had a seat behind the baseline for the first time. The seats there are not as comfortable, but it does give you more of a familiar tennis watching perspective as used by TV.
There were no players practicing, so I just hung around till the start of the second doubles SF: Fyrstenberg/Matkowski d Bhupathi/Paes 6-4 4-6 10-6
I'd say the crowd support was favouring the Indians, so I was happy the Poles made it through this one in quite an exciting match!





I didn't really care all that much for either player in the last of the SFs: Tsonga d Berdych 6-5 7-5
For variety's sake, I hoped Berdych would win it, so we would at least get a different match-up for the final. But other than that, I just sat back and hoped for some good tennis. The match was okay. No classic by any means, but a nice enough end to my three days of WTFs.









Random observation in keeping with the 'no love for Berdych' theme. All week, the official merchandise shop sold flags for every nationality in the singles, EXCEPT Czech. Now, that's harsh :p (on the plus side, he is currently last in the charity auction by only 1 single dollar!)


Then it was endless queuing to get into the tube station (although better than last year, they still have a few kinks in their crowd control armour :/), a few hours sleep, and onwards to the airport and my flight home.

Last bonus for this year: A bit of Roger ;)