Wednesday was going to be our last day in Dubai. It was a shame, as it felt like the tournament had only just started, but luckily, our flight was not 'til after midnight, so we could still enjoy a whole day of tennis. We went out to the tennis centre around 2pm, and, as we were leaving the hotel, we bumped into Marat in the lobby. I wasn't expecting to see him, since he wasn't staying at the hotel, but I think he was waiting for Peter. He was very sweet and said hi, though he looked pretty tired. When we got to the tennis centre, we watched the second round match between Nikolay Davydenko and Dominik Hrbaty. It started to spit at one stage and we were lucky not to have a rain delay, but then it cleared up. Davydenko surprisingly accounted quite easily for Hrbaty, winning 7-5 6-3. Next up on Centre Court was the match between Roger Federer and the Czech qualifier, Ivo Minar, who had been the finalist in Sydney a month earlier. It was Roger's first appearance at the 2005 tournament, as he had arrived quite late after winning in Rotterdam on Sunday. I watched the opening games and was already impressed by Minar's play - he was really taking it to Roger. I then stepped out for a while and caught the last few games of Tommy Robredo's match against Tomas Berdych on Court 3, before heading back to Centre Court. I was amazed to see Minar had taken the first set in a tie-break! Roger then seemed to find his game and won the second set with reasonable ease 6-3. Fernando Verdasco was in the stands and was joking around with another guy. It looked like they had some sort of bet going. Fernando was going for Roger and the other guy was going for Ivo. Their expressions after every point were quite amusing to watch! In the third set, however, Minar again fought back and led with a break. He really had Roger on the ropes, but the world #1 held his nerve and managed to force a final set tie-break, which he ended up winning 7-5. It had been an awesome match. I really like Roger, but it had still been good to see him challenged by the rising Czech. I then met up with my friend and we sat and watched the night match between Felciano Lopez and Andre Agassi. The last time these 2 players had met, it had been in Madrid in 2003, and, though Andre had won, Feli had really pushed him, so I was hoping for something similar tonight. Unfortunately, it was not so. Andre was really on fire and Feli just couldn't do anything to stop him. Andre seemed very relaxed and happy and the crowd were virtually 100% behind him. Fernando was back again to support his friend, but it was not enough. The match was over before we knew it, Agassi winning 6-1 6-3. Following that match was Nicolas Kiefer against Hyung-Taik Lee. We stayed for a while and watched the first set. Tommy Robredo's coach, Mariano, was there taking notes, as the winner of this would meet Tommy in the quarterfinals, and he said hi. After that, however, we had to leave, as it was already about 9.30pm and we were flying out a few hours after that.
When I went down to the lobby at midnight to leave for the airport, I saw Juan Carlos and his entourage come back from dinner, as well as Tommy and his coaches playing their boardgame in their usual corner for the third consecutive night. At the airport itself, I also saw Ivo Minar and Thomas Johansson, who were obviously off on their way somewhere too, but that was where the tennis sightings ended. It was sad to leave Dubai when I knew there was still so much tennis left, but I had still been lucky to see what I had seen and I had enjoyed every minute of it! |
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