Serious Entertainment
Aternoon. In fact, it's evening in London. I'm again writing today's update from the media room in the Albert Hall. Sorry that this post is getting to you later than usual - it's the "typepad ate my homework" story. When your internet connection on a laptop crashes and you lose an entire post that you thought had been saved, which has just happened to me, there's nothing that you can do except start again. There seem to be a few less journalists around the place today, perhaps because it's the weekend, so fewer people were around to overhear my unrepeatable mutterings after this happened.
Hopes of a local winner are now ended. In the early evening session last night, the wily Guy Forget took out Greg Rusedski, eight years his junior. I haven't had the chance to upload all of my pictures from yesterday yet (plenty from the match between John McEnroe and Paul Haarhuis, which I'll sort later today). Here is the link, however, to some of the pictures from the evening singles sessions, including the Rusedski-Forget encounter.
Looking through the images, it's even clearer than it was at the time (look at his complexion, and how he was sweating) that Rusedski wasn't at his fittest. Sometimes he was puffing heavily. After all, he wasn't brought on board until the late withdrawal of Goran Ivanisevic, so wouldn't have been in training beforehand. I know that Forget had been preparing well for this tournament, because we discussed it. He said, rather self-deprecatingly, that he hoped that he'd be able to last the week. Having now reached the final, he'll have to.
The Rusedski-Forget match started with Greg rolling to take the first set 6-2. But he wasn't the only big server on court last night - Forget hit some rockets of his own, and was also able to hit his elegant groundstrokes deep and use his volleys to good effect. He managed to squeeze out the second set by breaking Rusedski to take it, 7-5. Then, after saving two match points, he won the Champions tiebreak 13-11. It really was a match that could have gone either way and was played at a pretty good level - it certainly wasn't all about serving.
Rusedski wasn't the only one with supporters in the crowd - there were some people yelling "Allez Guy!" I'm not sure whether the fans were French themselves, or if they thought, as many tennis fans seem to do, that their exhortations would have more potency if expressed in the player's own language.
The two players, while clearly taking the outcome seriously, also took the time to banter with each other and the crowd. One of my early pictures shows them approaching each other at the net for one of these little conversations. Rusedski behaves quite naturally with the crowd - he's able to show a more relaxed side of himself than we saw on the ATP tour. And, as his recent experience of commentating has already shown, he's able to talk well. I think he is able to show more natural warmth out there (as an "entertainer") than our other recently-retired local hero, Tim Henman. Though it doesn't matter much - but Tim looked very focused when he was playing Stefan Edberg earlier in the week - he didn't relax until after the match was over.
I couldn't help thinking, yet again, how much Guy Forget reminds me of a dancer, when he flings out his right arm to balance himself as he plays his groundstrokes, and then rises up, as though on his tip-toes, as he follows through on his backhand. The neat-looking shoes that he's been wearing this week only add to the balletic impression. He's moving really well, and should pose a serious threat to whoever he plays in the final. That will be decided tonight, when Sergi Bruguera plays Paul Haarhuis in the second semifinal. After his win today over Cedric Pioline (and probably an extensive massage session), Forget also took the time to answer some questions for TennisWorld - I'll save the answers until after the current week is over.
Sergi Bruguera ended the other local hope last night when he took on the "forgotten Englishman," Jeremy Bates. Bates, who I believe is now a club-level coach, was once the British No. 1 (world No. 54) and also John Lloyd's predecessor as Davis Cup captain. Though once the national poster boy at Wimbledon, his place in local affections has been eclipsed in recent years by the exploits of Tim and Greg, and now Andy Murray and his brother Jamie.
Earlier in the week, he played well enough to win his group, beating Henri Leconte and Wayne Ferreira in the process. But Sergi Bruguera was one step too far - he looked as though he could keep running all night, and Bates was having trouble receiving some vicious serves, and some of Bruguera's spins. Bates was broken in his first service game, which must have lasted about 15 minutes, and after that Bruguera had no difficulty holding to take the set 6-4. The second was a similar story. Bates didn't play badly - but Bruguera keeps extremely sharp and fit these days, having won seven titles on the Tour this year.
I'll sign off for now. I have a little free time before the next match starts, and just might wander around with a camera. And then, I'll go and sit courtside this evening for my pictures. It looks a bit different out there than it did earlier in the week - the TV cameras are now out there, as the business end of the tournament is being televised by the BBC. However, I've taken some better pictures down there in the second part of the week, so I must be learning something.
-- Rosangel
[Update - the pictures from the Haarhuis-McEnroe match have now been uploaded, and you can find them here. More facial expressions from McEnroe - and he acknowledges the crowd nicely at the end.]