Hi everyone! How are you doing? We hope you are all doing well; we are getting more and more excited to see everyone as the weeks start to wind down! We are done with classes and only have finals left this week and then two more weeks after that before we come home. On Friday we were lucky enough to have gotten tickets to the quarter finals of the Monte Carlo Rolex Tennis Masters. Each year this tennis tournament is held in Monte Carlo, Monaco and brings with it the best tennis players in the world. The matches for the day were set to start at 10:30 and after catching the train we arrived shortly before 10:00. We decided to watch practice for a little bit before the first match of the day started, and were surprised to see Novak Djokovic walk right past us into a court to warm up! After he was done practicing one of the men working there gave us each two balls that he had used to warm up with. We also saw Nicolas Kiefer and many others practicing and as Kiefer was leaving one of his trainers gave us each one of his autographed players cards. The matches were about to start so we decided to head to our seats. A few of the matches from the day before had been rained out and were rescheduled for Friday.
The first match of the day was one that had been rained out and it was between Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Lapentti. Rafa crushed Lapentti 6-3, 6-0. The next match was the start of the quarter finals and it was between Novak Djokovic and Fernando Verdasco and Djokovic won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. The third match was between Andreas Beck and Stanislas Wawrinka and Wawrinka won with a score of 6-2, 6-4. The fourth match was between Nadal and Ivan Ljubicic and Nadal won 6-3, 6-3. It is incredibly rare for one player to have to play two matches in one day and every one was very impressed by how well Rafa played even though he had already played earlier in the day. The last and final match of the day was between Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko and Murray won 7-6(1), 6-4.
It was so incredible getting to watch some of the top players in the world play. Nadal is ranked number one in the world, Djokovic is ranked number three and Murray is ranked number four. The only player we weren’t able to see was Roger Federer since he had lost his match the day before. We have always watched the tennis matches on TV, but we had never dreamed that we would be able to watch it one day in person! The courts were beautiful and the players were so talented! In between matches we were able to walk around and watch other singles and doubles matches that were taking place as well as practice.
The highlight of our day came after Rafa’s second match. We have always been a fan of his and after he won his match we walked down to where he was being interviewed hoping to get a closer glimpse of him. As he was walking past signing autographs Jen called out for him to come over and take a picture and he walked over and stood right next to us while Jen quickly snapped two pictures. We were on cloud nine! Em had her arm around his shoulder and Jen had grabbed a hold of his arm, but unfortunately she was quickly asked by security to remove her hand! Haha! We each also got one of our tennis balls signed by him! The picture didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped because it was dark and we had to take the picture ourselves, but at least we still have the memory! Rafa doesn’t look quite as excited as us in the picture, but I think he was just tired!!!!
All in all it was a great day and a privilege to have been able to go, we will never forget it! We were extremely lucky to be able to see four different matches, two of which were played by Nadal. (12 hours of tennis!) We miss you all so much but we will see you soon! Hope everyone is doing well at home, take care!
Lots of love,
Jen and Em
The first match of the day was one that had been rained out and it was between Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Lapentti. Rafa crushed Lapentti 6-3, 6-0. The next match was the start of the quarter finals and it was between Novak Djokovic and Fernando Verdasco and Djokovic won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. The third match was between Andreas Beck and Stanislas Wawrinka and Wawrinka won with a score of 6-2, 6-4. The fourth match was between Nadal and Ivan Ljubicic and Nadal won 6-3, 6-3. It is incredibly rare for one player to have to play two matches in one day and every one was very impressed by how well Rafa played even though he had already played earlier in the day. The last and final match of the day was between Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko and Murray won 7-6(1), 6-4.
It was so incredible getting to watch some of the top players in the world play. Nadal is ranked number one in the world, Djokovic is ranked number three and Murray is ranked number four. The only player we weren’t able to see was Roger Federer since he had lost his match the day before. We have always watched the tennis matches on TV, but we had never dreamed that we would be able to watch it one day in person! The courts were beautiful and the players were so talented! In between matches we were able to walk around and watch other singles and doubles matches that were taking place as well as practice.
The highlight of our day came after Rafa’s second match. We have always been a fan of his and after he won his match we walked down to where he was being interviewed hoping to get a closer glimpse of him. As he was walking past signing autographs Jen called out for him to come over and take a picture and he walked over and stood right next to us while Jen quickly snapped two pictures. We were on cloud nine! Em had her arm around his shoulder and Jen had grabbed a hold of his arm, but unfortunately she was quickly asked by security to remove her hand! Haha! We each also got one of our tennis balls signed by him! The picture didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped because it was dark and we had to take the picture ourselves, but at least we still have the memory! Rafa doesn’t look quite as excited as us in the picture, but I think he was just tired!!!!
All in all it was a great day and a privilege to have been able to go, we will never forget it! We were extremely lucky to be able to see four different matches, two of which were played by Nadal. (12 hours of tennis!) We miss you all so much but we will see you soon! Hope everyone is doing well at home, take care!
Lots of love,
Jen and Em
**1: In front of the casino, every player had a giant picutre and tennis ball! 2: The court in Monte Carlo which overlooked the water -- very pretty! 3: Em watching practice before the games. 4: Jen in front of Nadal's lifesize picture! 5: Jen in front of the main court. 6-8: Rafa Nadal! 9: Andy Murray. 10: Novak Djokovic. signing autographs. 11: Us with our tennis balls signed by Rafa! 12-13: Us with Rafa!!
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