[Please use this post to continue your deliberations on the first day at Roland Garros - and Tribe member Mariej has sent us her description of the day].

By TW Contributing Writer, Mariej

Today was my first day at Roland Garros; I went there with my sister Isabelle. For more than twelve years now, we've been attending RG together. We are fully organized tennis KADs; well in advance we book as many tickets as we can afford (and to tell the truth, even those we can't afford - but what the heck; RG is only once a year!!) As for the extra tickets we hold, we sell them back to friends, colleagues and most recently friendly TW posters like Rosia ;) And If nobody shows up, we take Dad ;)

So today, we thought that the big issue was the rain... but we had no rain, and quite some sun instead; my nose is burned! It feels great ;)

When we arrived, we went right away to watch Juan Martin Del Potro, beating French qualifier Ouanna quite easily... no big story there; the Del Potro forehand and backhand were working well ;) Since we did not have any tickets for the main courts (Chatrier, Lenglen or No.1), we went to walk around the training courts. There, Ferru was wearing a sleeveless shirt - his upper arms are incredibly muscular. I took some pictures, and shouted to him that he was a crack (a word for champion used by some Spaniards) before I left him hitting big forehands with Kohlschreiber.

Advertising

Rog5

Rog5

We went to see the back courts as well, and saw a hugely packed court  - it had the smell of either Fed or Rafa training. When we went to look, we found it was Roger and Marat !!! I tried to sneak my nose and my camera between people just to take a  shot of both guys. It was the end of their practice set, and I think that Marat probably lost, as he looked frustrated missing some shots ;p  Roger left quickly, but Marat took plenty of time to sign autographs.

As I'm not fond of signatures (I prefer pictures), we went to watch Jelena training on the next court. She was hitting with a young guy; he looked like a junior, and she had no real problem handling him from the back of the court ;) OK, maybe he wasn't pushing too hard ;)

We left to take our lunch in the Place des Mousquetaires and to watch Djokovic on the big screen, and at this point my sister discovered, to her shock, that he was trailing 5-2 to Gremelmayr - I confess that I was less surprised, after he gave Fed so much trouble. I found Djokovic impatient - he wanted to finish points too early, and it cost him that first set. Moya-Schwank was about to start, so I left after he took the second set. My sister wanted to watch some more so we agreed to meet later.

The people who say that Rafa is bulky and too muscular haven't really looked at some other guys on tour; Eduardo Shwank from Argentina looks like a "hulk"... and he's so darkly tanned that even Blake would look pale next to him! By the end of the match, his socks were so full of clay that it seemed that his legs were made of clay as well, they were red dusted all over. His shots are as heavy and powerful as he is. His forehand and backhand are very solid strokes, and he can take the ball early. His crosscourt forehand looks lethal sometimes, he dropshots well enough, and he does not give away many points. Once he had Moya down by two sets, I was thinking "Oh my God, I don't want to see Charly going down" ... so I left. On the way to see the Almagro match, I went by the training courts again; Hott Sauce was having a forehand hitting session; too bad he was not shirtless :((

When I got to see Almagro, he was up by almost two sets. He screamed out loud after winning what seemed like a hard-fought set at 7-5. I thought that the battle would continue to be tough for the last set, but Pashanski made too many errors, and Nico sailed to victory without sweating any extra. He looked happy, and was probably relieved to win in straights. Then my my sister texted me - Moya was still alive!! So I went back to see the end of the match. As it was one of the last big matches, the courtside was packed. I saw the fourth set tiebreak on TV, and then was able to go in. Now I have regrets - when I was watching him he was losing, when I left he was winning, and when i came back he lost :(((

During the last set, after more than three hours, both guys were tired, but Shwank probably more so. He had a very low first serve percentage, and his serves weren't so fast any more - but Moya couldn't take advantage by being aggressive on the returns. Even with tired legs, Schwank was making the most of his chances and hitting forehand winners. So, at 4-3 in his favour,I knew he would go after Charly's serve, because he looked as though he wouldn't last much longer. Then the unthinkable happened; Moya, leading 40-15, lost his serve - he double faulted, he was foot faulted on first serves, and got annoyed that he couldn't put away the tired, iron-legged Argentinian.

After he was broken, there was more drama - Schwank got was cramping massively, which left him standing on one side of the court, unable to walk further to serve for the match!!! We were all baffled, including Moya. Schwank asked for the trainer, got a massage on his right leg, and recovered enough of the feeling in half his leg to serve it out... yes, he served it out. I think Moya lost his concentration because of the medical timeout, and, while thinking about the other guy, forgot to play him. He didn't fight as he usually does, and gave him three unforced errors for three match points. Then, with only one working leg, Schwank managed to hit a passing shot. He fell to his knees in disbelief; he looked the happiest of all the winners I saw today.

One last thought: Schwank is the man whose hotel room got burnt out, so that he lost all his belongings, including the cash earnings for his last Challenger - so i guess he was fully motivated to earn some money to pay for his trip back to Argentina. if he can progress more easily through the next round, he's going to do some damage, because he's fast, he's steady on both wings and he's hungry for victories ;)