Valencia Open MD Day 2
Oct. 23rd, 2013 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meobnalAgain no practice schedule to be had so it was a surprise buffet at the practice courts. Simon must really like practicing cos he was there again (funny considering how he got annihilated by Falla later that day), this time with his doubles partner for the week, Kas.
Here's to give you a view of the other practice court:
After them is was Haas practising with Sa (playing doubles together later that day), sharing the court with Tomic practising with Andujar.
And after that is was Almagro's turn:
Both Andujar and Almagro were wearing some kind of high tech medical vest underneath their shirts, I assume for health data gathering.
Then is was time to park myself on Court 1 for pretty much the rest of the day. First I caught the tail end of Sousa v GGL:
GGL was really pissed off losing this one. After that is was Tomic (with the world's ugliest shoes) v Youzhny:
Lots and lots of slice backhand rallies here. It was actually pretty tight, though both played badly in patches. Then in the third set, Tomic suddenly starts to complain about a headache and two games later retires.
So it was on to Haas/Sa v Bautista-Agut/Carreno-Busta.
The little Spaniards fought valiantly but Haas and Sa were just too good in the end. That meant it was time for the dreaded first round for M&m v Tursunov/Nieminen. Since this was their one and only time, you get lots of pics...
Yeah I know Marc is fuzzy, but it's so damn hard to get a photo just when they're touching, so I'm keeping it!
I know I resigned myself M&m can lose to just about any team nowadays, but that doesn't make it easier when you sit there and watch it :( The match itself was erratic to say the least. There were more breaks than holds, mostly decided by Tursunov's temper at any given moment. Once M&m went down in the match TB, they looked pretty much resigned to their fate.
Here's a point in the match TB:
For the strong at heart: this is MP for Tursunov/Nieminen.
After that I wasn't in the mood for Simon v Falla. I sat down for a quick ciggy and had pretty much decided to just go home when I spotted in the corner of my eye the unmistakable hair stylings of Vicente at the padel court. Turns out Marc's way of dealing with the loss is to immediately go out and play some padel. Feli was already there, playing with some other people I didn't recognise, and Marc and Vicente took over from the other team.
They played for about 40 minutes, with Marc taking it really seriously, getting mad at missed balls and arguing points. Then all of them quit except for Marc. He played by himself for a bit, just hitting balls against the sides, then some other random person showed up and they played together. And by then it was time for me to leave.
Here's to give you a view of the other practice court:
After them is was Haas practising with Sa (playing doubles together later that day), sharing the court with Tomic practising with Andujar.
And after that is was Almagro's turn:
Both Andujar and Almagro were wearing some kind of high tech medical vest underneath their shirts, I assume for health data gathering.
Then is was time to park myself on Court 1 for pretty much the rest of the day. First I caught the tail end of Sousa v GGL:
GGL was really pissed off losing this one. After that is was Tomic (with the world's ugliest shoes) v Youzhny:
Lots and lots of slice backhand rallies here. It was actually pretty tight, though both played badly in patches. Then in the third set, Tomic suddenly starts to complain about a headache and two games later retires.
So it was on to Haas/Sa v Bautista-Agut/Carreno-Busta.
The little Spaniards fought valiantly but Haas and Sa were just too good in the end. That meant it was time for the dreaded first round for M&m v Tursunov/Nieminen. Since this was their one and only time, you get lots of pics...
Yeah I know Marc is fuzzy, but it's so damn hard to get a photo just when they're touching, so I'm keeping it!
I know I resigned myself M&m can lose to just about any team nowadays, but that doesn't make it easier when you sit there and watch it :( The match itself was erratic to say the least. There were more breaks than holds, mostly decided by Tursunov's temper at any given moment. Once M&m went down in the match TB, they looked pretty much resigned to their fate.
Here's a point in the match TB:
For the strong at heart: this is MP for Tursunov/Nieminen.
After that I wasn't in the mood for Simon v Falla. I sat down for a quick ciggy and had pretty much decided to just go home when I spotted in the corner of my eye the unmistakable hair stylings of Vicente at the padel court. Turns out Marc's way of dealing with the loss is to immediately go out and play some padel. Feli was already there, playing with some other people I didn't recognise, and Marc and Vicente took over from the other team.
They played for about 40 minutes, with Marc taking it really seriously, getting mad at missed balls and arguing points. Then all of them quit except for Marc. He played by himself for a bit, just hitting balls against the sides, then some other random person showed up and they played together. And by then it was time for me to leave.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-10-24 08:39 am (UTC)However, I can feel my tinhat polishing itself as I noticed that Big M's shirt has faint stripes in to match little m's, so I consoled myself with that for a while ;)
The videos of Marc are adorable (although I really could have done without Vicente's thigh :p)
no subject
Date: 2013-10-24 10:32 pm (UTC)It's a good thing a few other teams that look to be qualifying for the WTF are also not having the best of seasons, so maybe they could still win a match there with a lucky group draw ::positive thinking::
no subject
Date: 2013-10-25 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-25 07:02 am (UTC)