I don't want to go to bed yet, so I'll write my report now.
I got to the arena at 10.15 am, because the day before they told me the doors would open at 10, and so I was hoping to see some people practise. but they only opened at 10.45 and as I got in Ancic was finishing his practise, but he then almost immediately left.
I kinda saw him all the time today, he was watching bits of tipsarevic/chardy too and after his match today he sat in the box right next to us to watch montañes/moya.
we saw ljubicic too, who sat for quite some time among the crowd to follow the matches. baghdatis and his gf sat there quite long too.
my friend could only come later during the day, so I sat with some girls we had met yesterday. turned out one of them was a big Gulbis fan too.
I was feeling a little tired during the day, so I went to drink a coffee, but that only made me nervous as hell. as ernests's match was getting closer, I was almost freaking out. I'm never drinking coffee again lol I was so impatient the whole day, I only wanted the other matches to finish and quite frankly most of them weren't really that great.
I managed to calm down and after tipsarevic/chardy finished, I couldn't believe I was gonna see ernie play now. the 2 minutes in between the 2 matches seemed like forever though lol but then they appeared, ernie and ancic behind him. ernie seemed actually quite small compared to ancic. he looked so serious as he walked in. the girl next to me and I were hoping he would come sit right in front of us, because we were sitting right behind one of their chairs. and he did come to that one.
I think I had the "oh he really is real" moment when they started hitting the ball, I hadn't had time to think about that the 2 times I'd seen him before lol I felt so lucky being able to see him for a bit more than 3 seconds this time :lol: the first impression he gave was actually one of a spoilt child. he asked the ballkids impatiently to give him the balls, asked for new water and he had this look on his face that says "I'm above everything". but maybe it was just his way of being concentrated.
he started very strongly into the match and I was impressed by the speed of his balls! I was amazed after the first points, he played SO much better than anyone else I had seen in those 3 days and I decided to enjoy every second of this match. it was a real pleasure, although he kinda started to lose concentration in the first set and made more UE. that's also around the time when he started to make those double faults. they never came at the best moments and the crowd was like "awwing" in the end when he had made yet another one.
but in general the crowd didn't show too much reactions, that's why I didn't dare to really cheer him on, the atmosphere just wasn't hot enough. he started quite well into the tie-break and at the change at 4/2 I shouted "allez ernest" to him. he made 3 of the 4 following points to take the set.
I also had the impression he looked at me a few times (he kinda had to when he walked to his chair) but then almost shyly turned his eyes away. maybe he remembered me from yesterday and was scared :lol:
except for that small down in the first set he actually appeared superior to ancic the whole time, at least to me. his dropshots didn't work too well though. I remember he missed at least one and lost the point on another one. I think he made 2 fantastic lobs though which made the crowd go "ohhh". and there was one point he finished with a cross passing shot that was just amazing. I'm sure there were other great points I just can't think of now.
he also moaned quite some time, he was unhappy about the umpire not overruling a ball that was clearly out to him and shortly after that some kids were making noise while leaving in the middle of the game. ernie then turned to the umpire saying "say something!" with an angry face (which I thought was just so cute :lol: ) then he accused the umpire of never saying anything. a bit later he thought another ball was out but the umpire didn't say anything and so ernie gave him the angriest look ever. he didn't say anything, but as we say if looks could kill, the umpire would have dropped dead down his chair :lol:
another detail I found so cute was that he everytime thanked the ballkids in French when they gave him the towel. I heard that "merci" a few times.
the girl next to me and I cheered him on a few times in the second set alhtough he didn't really need it, and in the end I think it was logical that he won. he signed the girls at our right a few autographs and the girl next to me called him. when he was done with the autographs he came over and took pictures with us. I took another one with him and when the last girl asked him for a picture, he already had this kind of annoyed look on his face. it wasn't mean, he was still patient, but I think he doesn't like to have pictures taken.
then he left and gave us a nice waving and at that moment one could feel how much the crowd appreciated his match. then I looked at the picture that had just been taken of me and him and... I have my eyes closed on it :haha: it's worse than the first one we took lol but my friend was a bit higher in the crowd and she took one at the same moment from above and I quite like that one, because it has my hair and ernie :lol: and I am having a good hair day
that was about my day, I don't think anything interesting happened after the match. the match was everything I was looking forward to anyway haha
I feel extremely lucky, and metz is really an ideal tournament, you can get close to the players and there are never too many fans in the way. I really don't regret going