TENNIS Magazine photo editor David Rosenberg attended the Berlin women's event last week and the first two days in Hamburg. He filed this report from both locations. I've got a post up about Ana Ivanovic and other WTA up-and-comers over at ESPN.com
Hey Steve,
The weather in Hamburg is fantastic right now [Monday]. I only mention this because last week's tournament in Berlin was so awful it was lucky to finish. I was thinking this morning as I walked from my hotel to the beautiful Rothenbaum neighborhood of Hamburg how forgetful the tennis world can be.
Of course no one can forget about Rafael Nadal's clay-court winning streak. Yesterday I watched the last player to beat Nadal on clay, Igor Andreev, out-forehand Dimitry Tursunov for a set before Tursunov retired.
But let's talk about the women for a bit. In case you have forgotten, last week saw The Queen of Clay go
down to Svetlana Kuznetsova with a little help from the cold, rainy, dark, slippery conditions. No one can forget about the past faster than Henin, who took out her other favorite headcase, Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals. Jankovic almost forgot about her sordid past against Henin (she was a choking 0-4 before their quarterfinal) when she was a point away from a 5-0 3rd set lead. But then she remembered.
"You can't believe how devastated I am," she said afterwards when asked why she has so much trouble finishing matches against Henin. Kuznetsova was able to forget that she blew a set and 5-3 lead against Henin on Saturday before choking that away for a 3-2 3rd set lead that was stopped due to darkness. Of course it's much easier to win 3 games in one day against Henin than 2 sets, and she managed to do that on Sunday.
The only player who doesn't want to forget about Berlin is Ana Ivanovic who was definitely the crowd
favorite (does everyone root for the pretty girl?) and smiled her way to the championship. Ivanovic seemed to have forgotten lately what a good player she is but brought it back in Berlin, fighting and digging deep against Patty Schnyder and Kuznetsova.
I had almost forgotten that I have now attended two of Ivanovic's three tournament victories. I was there for last year's Canadian Open, a tournament marred by withdrawals and injuries. Ivanovic was just about the last woman standing at that event. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I am good luck charm for Ivanovic—or am I bad luck for everyone else?
No one has forgotten about Serbian tennis as of late. When asked about the remarkable success she, Jankovic, and Novak Djokovic have had, Ivanovic said, "It is a bit amazing what we have right now. It was tough back home but we came through." Maybe that explains her resilience. Ivanovic didn't forget her luck this week, acknowledging as much during her victory speech that she had been able to finish all of her matches without delay. After Julia "Kimmie Killer" Vakulenko retired trailing 3-4 in their semifinal, Ivanovic said, "you never like to win this way," which, translated, means, "thank god she quit so I didn't have to play in the dark rainy conditions over two days and then play a 3rd set tiebreak final."
Let's hope that Amelie Mauresmo can remember that she can play on clay before Roland Garros. During her collapse against Vakulenko (Mauresmo was ahead a set and 1-1 in the 2nd before their match was postponed), Mauresmo actually roared after holding serve to trail 1-2 in the final set, but then she started playing about 20 feet behind the baseline and let Vakulenko tee off to finish the match.
Keep an eye out for Vakulenko. She's a solid player who has been unlucky with injuries throughout her career. "If she can stay healthy"—where have we heard that on the women's tour before?
A final thought about Berlin. The tournament is located in a beautiful park on the outskirts of the city. If you've been to Roland Garros and you look at both city's metro maps, they're on the bottom left hand side (how's that for directions?). The interesting thing is when you get off at the Gruneweld station you might expect Hansel and Gretel to greet you at the station. There's a charming stone and wood façade of a house with a beautiful clock on top once you exit the station. There are trees everywhere and lots of beer gardens, florists, and pretty stone paths.
What there isn't to be found are directions to the tennis. Not a sign in sight. And unlike Roland Garros withits hundreds of fans walking to the event, there were maybe 10 people when I got off the train. I
followed a few around corners through the woods until after about 10 minutes I heard the familiar sounds of
sliding and balls bouncing. The birds were chirping and the trees were rustling in the wind. There's a lake behind Steffi Graf Stadium (center court) and you can have a beer and bratwurst on a round bun in between matches.
Because the event is sponsored by Qatar Telecom, there is a little Qatar village with information about Qatar and Qatar Telecom, people in traditional Qatar dress, Shieks who give out the trophies, and advertisements for Qatar Telecom on Graf Stadium. At one point, a woman I assumed was from Qatar came up to me with a microphone and a cameraman and asked, "What do you think about this tournament? She wore a lot of makeup and was very aggressive, so I said it was fine. "What do you know about Qatar tennis," she asked. I wasn't sure what to say. "Well, I know there's a tournament there," I began. She nodded her head, smiling, her painted eyebrows barely moving. "In Doha," I continued. She nodded more
aggressively. I was on the right track. "It's in February."
What else could I say? "What is your name," she asked. I told her and she ran away. For a minute I thought I was actually in Qatar. But then it started to rain and I remembered.
Hamburg, Monday
It's always fun to watch the hometeam play when you're visiting, and today there were plenty of, pardon the expression, homeboys on court. Rainer Schuettler, Florian Mayer, and Alexander Waske (you know, the German dream team) all played on Center Court while Benjamin Becker, who seems to be the biggest German star of the moment, played for some reason on the significantly smaller M1, or Court 1.
Courts M1 and M2 are intimate courts bordered by trees that butt up next to one another, so if you stand at the side they share you can easily watch matches on both courts. Seats consist of long, thick wooden benches built on the grassy slopes next to the courts. There is no seating behind the baseline. If people weren't playing tennis, you might think you were waiting for Shakespeare in the Park or an open-air
concert.
The match between Becker and Oscar Hernandez was a tight three setter with a standing room only crowd. I expected the crowd to erupt after Becker won the second set in a tiebreak, but they just sat and clapped.
German fans seem to express themselves best when rhythmically clapping. They do it when they're impatient for a match to begin or when they want a player to rally.
Ana Ivanovic got a lot of rhythmic clapping in Berlin and so did Schuettler and Becker today. When something happens that they don't like, they just stay quiet. When Florian Mayer took down Mikhail Youzhny in a 3rd set tiebreak I did see some raucous cheering, mostly, "Bitte, Bitte, Bitte!?"
I am staying at a small hotel run by a 60ish woman named Sarah Peterson. There are two ways to
describe her: A red headed Albert Einstein or Mrs. Madrigal from Tales of the City by Armistad Maupin. The
hotel is full of her paintings and she talks fondly about her time in Santa Monica in the 60s when she was a
"counterculturist."
"The reason tennis people in Hamburg don't cheer is because they are upper middle class," she told me, adding, "In your culture it is the people in Trump tower who sit in those awful restaurants next to the beautiful marble with water running down eating those awful soft white bread sandwiches."
Uh, ok. By the way, a note about German hair. If you?re trying to find Martina Navratilova's 1990 hairdo, look no further than Germany.
There is another sort of counterculture movement going on at this tournament, but a far more sinister one involving young people. It is called the Hexenkessel or "witch's kettle." I stumbled upon it by accident when Schuettler was playing Julien Benneteau. A group of about 12 young kids, maybe 11-13 years old were screaming, and I mean the type of screaming when your veins pop in your neck, spit flies out of your mouth, and your eyes turn red. So un-German. They were saying (I thought) "Gimme a B, gimme an E, gimme a N, and so on (yes, they did eventually spell Benneteau).
They also had those loud blow-up balloon sticks you whack together to make a loud, grating noise, and even pom-poms of the French Flag. They cheered after every point. I heard a few mumbles around me.
I figured they were probably on a school trip from France. But then I caught a few more of these
hooligans cheering for Guillermo Garica-Lopez (yes, they spelled it out). Something wasn't right here. Julien Benneteau and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez both have fan clubs in Germany?
Finally, I sat next to a group of Andy Murray fans who sang "Happy Birthday" to him and did a mix of odd
cheers. The first was in German and sounded exactly like the song in the Grease, "We Go Together." The end, where they go "Shamalama bing di bing di bong," the kids threw in "Andy." They also sang "We will rock you" in German, again throwing in "Andy."
It turns out Hexenkessel is a contest of sorts where children's tennis clubs from around Germany are assigned a player to root for throughout the tournament. That school/tennis club team becomes the fan club for the designated player. Their job is to root via scripted cheers and cheering instruments for their player. Which must be odd for them when they go against a German player. Anyhow, if their player wins, they're able to attend that player's next match free, until that player loses. A lot is riding on the matches for these fans and they definitely let the players know it. At first I thought, "oh, that's sweet" and agreed with the press woman who said it was great to encourage the kids to come to the matches.
But then I thought about it some more. Those kids were serious about this, their cheers almost angry. It's as if they're taunting the player to win so they can come back without paying! Why not cheer and try to
anger the other player? Potentially an entire week of free tennis is on the line here. When poor Andy Murray injured his wrist, the crazy cheers for him continued even while his wrist was taped and then again after he retired. I am very suspicious of this. Maybe I'll ask Sarah Peterson what she thinks.
One last thought. Are the top men getting serious about doubles? I watched Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka lose in straight sets to James Blake and Mardy Fish. People were turned away because there was no room left on the M1 court. It's a nice trend I hope it continues the rest of the year.
David