mmmm8
12-03-2007, 01:59 PM
I'll post a day 3 note and tons of photos and some video a bit later, but wanted to share this before I forget.
As I got out of my cab at the Portland airport for a flight back to New York this morning at 5 am, I realized that the guy with the humongous bags getting out of a cab in front of me was John Roddick, and that the bags held Andy's rackets. I congratulated him as we walked into the terminal, and he disorientedly thanked me and went on with a confused look on his face. Like me, he must not be an early riser.
I then realized I was in the tennis mecca of the moment, as virtually everyone around me was tennis related, while most of the tennis world is resting in the off-season. I've never seen so many racquet bags concentrated in one place. USTA officials, Russian TV crews, spectators, were all reduced to one as they had to wade through the airport's long lines to get on flights to New York or Atlanta.
John Roddick and Andy's racquets must have gone on to Atlanta , but I did find Betty Blake (mother of James and Thomas) two people in front of me in the security line, and that was the first memorable encounter of my flight.
To me, off-court details are telling about on-court personalities, so it was great to get a bit of an inside look. Some tidbits:
Cute or Ugly?
Cute: Betty Blake. Very friendly woman, with not a hint of arrogance parents of famous kids often get.
Cute: SOOO cute. PMac's daughter Victoria. Absolutely adorable blond little thing. I think she is a year old.
Cute: Tennis players who read books and can pull off looking stylish in a T-shirt, baseball hat, and a heavy wool scarf
Ugly: Putting Igor Andreev and Patrick McEnroe on the same flight, within 5 feet from each other
Ugly: The bitter look Andreev flashed at PMac when PMac was not looking
Cute: The little green case for the Davis Cup replica trophy
Ugly: A ridiculously humongous Yonex sack (hardly a bag) in which Andreev carries his stuff. It was black at some point, I think.
Ugly: People trying to stand next to Igor Andreev and listen in on his conversation, pretending they are not
Cute: Igor and PMac saying their goodbyes. Good sportsmanship all around.
Ugly: 6:00 am flights
Trying not to be noticeable, because it's kind of rude, I took a (bad) cell phone photo of Andreev and his trophy (the case at his feet). That's PMac's daughter crawling in the background.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/mmmm8/Davis%20Cup/Andreev.jpg
As I got out of my cab at the Portland airport for a flight back to New York this morning at 5 am, I realized that the guy with the humongous bags getting out of a cab in front of me was John Roddick, and that the bags held Andy's rackets. I congratulated him as we walked into the terminal, and he disorientedly thanked me and went on with a confused look on his face. Like me, he must not be an early riser.
I then realized I was in the tennis mecca of the moment, as virtually everyone around me was tennis related, while most of the tennis world is resting in the off-season. I've never seen so many racquet bags concentrated in one place. USTA officials, Russian TV crews, spectators, were all reduced to one as they had to wade through the airport's long lines to get on flights to New York or Atlanta.
John Roddick and Andy's racquets must have gone on to Atlanta , but I did find Betty Blake (mother of James and Thomas) two people in front of me in the security line, and that was the first memorable encounter of my flight.
To me, off-court details are telling about on-court personalities, so it was great to get a bit of an inside look. Some tidbits:
Cute or Ugly?
Cute: Betty Blake. Very friendly woman, with not a hint of arrogance parents of famous kids often get.
Cute: SOOO cute. PMac's daughter Victoria. Absolutely adorable blond little thing. I think she is a year old.
Cute: Tennis players who read books and can pull off looking stylish in a T-shirt, baseball hat, and a heavy wool scarf
Ugly: Putting Igor Andreev and Patrick McEnroe on the same flight, within 5 feet from each other
Ugly: The bitter look Andreev flashed at PMac when PMac was not looking
Cute: The little green case for the Davis Cup replica trophy
Ugly: A ridiculously humongous Yonex sack (hardly a bag) in which Andreev carries his stuff. It was black at some point, I think.
Ugly: People trying to stand next to Igor Andreev and listen in on his conversation, pretending they are not
Cute: Igor and PMac saying their goodbyes. Good sportsmanship all around.
Ugly: 6:00 am flights
Trying not to be noticeable, because it's kind of rude, I took a (bad) cell phone photo of Andreev and his trophy (the case at his feet). That's PMac's daughter crawling in the background.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/mmmm8/Davis%20Cup/Andreev.jpg