[Nymeria]

Originally Posted by Mae

I didn't know his nickname was "Fly". And I don't like tattoos But Kristof's blog is good

I did know his nickname is Fly, it's a nice nickname, tho actually it's only a translation. I don't like tattoos either And I do like the blog as well
Entry of today, before he knew he lost...

Hello, today I’m writing to you between my two singles matches in Auckland. It’s pretty rare that we play two singles on the same day.

I just played a really long match against Nicolas Almagro [winning 7-6(2), 2-6, 7-5]. It’s the first time it has been hot here, the crowd was large and both of us were fighting to play our best with the last five or six games the highlight. There has to be one winner and I am glad to have survived!

My level was not good at the end of the second set and start of the third. The crowd has been very good this week. They do not support one player, but watch the game and appreciate good strokes from both players. That is nice.

At times I was frustrated and talked to [ATP umpire] Gerry Armstrong, but it was no problem. He is one of the best umpires we have. You can always talk to him and he will always answer you. If you put me in the chair I know I would not do a good job. It is really tough to be an umpire of line judge, or even a player! Sometimes it is tough, things are going bad and I go to the chair to talk to the umpire. Sometimes it relaxes me and gets me back into the game. We talked a couple of times, but nothing bad.

After my match I called my girlfriend, Catherine, who was looking at the live scores online in bed back in Belgium. I always have contact with ‘home’. We don’t talk about tennis a lot, but about things that are happening in Belgium. Catherine told me she didn’t look at the score when I was down 2-0 in the third set. She had seen the final score, when I called her though!
Stephane Vivier of the ATP, works his magic.

This morning, I didn’t do anything different in preparing for potentially two matches today. But when I was in my first match I did think, ‘If I win this one, I could be playing a second match in a couple of hours’.

Having won I had a massage with Stephane [Vivier], with the ice bags, just to get my legs ready for another match. My next opponent, David Ferrer, will be a tough opponent; he lost one game in his second round win [d. Daniele Bracciali]. If I can start as well as I finished my first match, then I have a good chance.

Olivier [Rochus] was playing next to my match against Almagro. I caught myself watching some of his points. It is always strange playing on open courts. It was special; we spend a lot of time together. He was struggling [against Juan Monaco] when I was too, but as a crowd favorite they gave him their support. I heard he just lost, so that is a shame. He had a long game, but I’ll try to get him through for the doubles either today or tomorrow. Olivier is trying to get his best level for next week, but you can only do that with matches under your belt.

Wish me luck.

Fly