Barcelona, SFs, Saturday
Apr. 26th, 2014 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meobnalMatches dwindling fast, so I didn't need to get to the venue till 13:00. The area where I'm staying is pretty boring and there's not much to do here, so I stayed at the hotel, surfed the internet and read for a bit.
My diet this week of muesli bars and canned olives (hey, I'm all for local cuisine) is beginning to tell and I was very low on energy anyway. After the final I will get into town and treat myself to a McDonalds :p
Anyway, eventually it was time for some tennis. Being the final weekend, it was pretty busy again. I was greeted by someone handing out official program books for free. I guess they must have over-stocked, cos they were 1 Euro at the start of the week. The whole thing is a Spanish unfortunately.
The first SF was Gulbis v Nishikori.
Ernie
Kei
This started out pretty quiet and not much like the excitement it was billed as. Gulbis was remarkably subdued. The first set went pretty quick, then in the second set they suddenly started having these epic long games. I decided I better leave while I could and get to crt 1.
Crt 1 was still deserted at this point, so I could claim a front row, behind the baseline seat and wait for the first Doubles SF: Nestor/Zimonjic v Dodig/Melo.
D/M
N/Z
Once they started Gulbis and Kei had just about finished so there was a gap on the CC schedule and crt 1 filled up nicely.
Nestor and Zimonjic were much better than I had seen them all tournament, getting almost everything back. There was nothing Dodig and Melo could do. Clear favs for the title now.
The end of this connected nicely again with the second singles SF of Almagro and Giraldo.
Santi
Nico
Well...Good on Santi I guess. But what a shame for Nico :/
This being over pretty quick, a good crowd stayed for the last SF Fognini/Melzer v Huta Galung/Robert.
F/M
HG/R
It was pretty strange this match got on CC over the other 'bigger' Doubles SF. Maybe they thought Fognini would be the attraction?
Anyway, there was nothing attractive about this match. Melzer blew a fuse over a line call on deciding point in his opening service game, agruing with Mo and riling the crowd up to boo him. After that neither him or Fognini seemed to give a fuck. I mean, they got bagelled in the second set by two lucky losers. The crowd was whistling them, for a SF and Center Court it was really pathetic to see :/
PS: funny thing about the Spanish papers here is they keep treating Huta Galung by Spanish naming conventions and consistently refer to him as only Huta :p
My diet this week of muesli bars and canned olives (hey, I'm all for local cuisine) is beginning to tell and I was very low on energy anyway. After the final I will get into town and treat myself to a McDonalds :p
Anyway, eventually it was time for some tennis. Being the final weekend, it was pretty busy again. I was greeted by someone handing out official program books for free. I guess they must have over-stocked, cos they were 1 Euro at the start of the week. The whole thing is a Spanish unfortunately.
The first SF was Gulbis v Nishikori.
Ernie
Kei
This started out pretty quiet and not much like the excitement it was billed as. Gulbis was remarkably subdued. The first set went pretty quick, then in the second set they suddenly started having these epic long games. I decided I better leave while I could and get to crt 1.
Crt 1 was still deserted at this point, so I could claim a front row, behind the baseline seat and wait for the first Doubles SF: Nestor/Zimonjic v Dodig/Melo.
D/M
N/Z
Once they started Gulbis and Kei had just about finished so there was a gap on the CC schedule and crt 1 filled up nicely.
Nestor and Zimonjic were much better than I had seen them all tournament, getting almost everything back. There was nothing Dodig and Melo could do. Clear favs for the title now.
The end of this connected nicely again with the second singles SF of Almagro and Giraldo.
Santi
Nico
Well...Good on Santi I guess. But what a shame for Nico :/
This being over pretty quick, a good crowd stayed for the last SF Fognini/Melzer v Huta Galung/Robert.
F/M
HG/R
It was pretty strange this match got on CC over the other 'bigger' Doubles SF. Maybe they thought Fognini would be the attraction?
Anyway, there was nothing attractive about this match. Melzer blew a fuse over a line call on deciding point in his opening service game, agruing with Mo and riling the crowd up to boo him. After that neither him or Fognini seemed to give a fuck. I mean, they got bagelled in the second set by two lucky losers. The crowd was whistling them, for a SF and Center Court it was really pathetic to see :/
PS: funny thing about the Spanish papers here is they keep treating Huta Galung by Spanish naming conventions and consistently refer to him as only Huta :p
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no subject
Date: 2014-05-04 06:56 pm (UTC)Considering it's Barcelona it's a shame that there isn't much to do near the venue. :\ But San Jose (ATP) and Carlsbad (WTA) were the same way when I went to those.
Shame about the Melznini match. D: But lol "Huta"--that's cute. :D
no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 09:51 am (UTC)I guess it's only to be expected, most tournament sites will be outside the city center (that is, *if* they are in the city they claim to be in the first place!).
The only exception of the tournaments I've been to would be Valencia. Even though it's not in the center of Valencia as such, the area where it is, is stunning and a tourist attraction in itself and has plenty to see and do.