Tag: Cori Gauff

A Short Break In Eastbourne, Mostly For The International Tennis Tournament, 25 to 28 June 2023

Camilla Giorgi practicing with Daddy

Having thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed, fun and friendly atmosphere at the Edgbaston Priory tennis tournament last year…

So-Called “Proper Tennis” At Edgbaston Priory, 17 June But Not 18 June 2022

…we decided to give Eastbourne International a try this year. That idea proved to be a resounding success. We loved the place and the tennis and everything about our short break.

We took an insane number of pictures for a three-night, two-day break. Here (and/or the picture link below) is the whole lot of them – just shy of 200:

If you prefer some words and a small sample of the pictures, don’t click, just read/skim on.

Sunday 25 June 2023 – Travel, Taking Root and Thai Grub

We booked an Airbnb house at the Sovereign Harbour end of town – beyond walking distance to the tennis but easy parking when at the house. The cricket & croquet club in Eastbourne runs an event parking arrangement for the tennis tournament that made a great deal of sense for us.

The house is lovely and that area quiet and well provisioned. We stocked up on picnic food at the main Waitrose in Eastbourne as we drove into town, thus we were set for our visits to the ground.

There is a selection of restaurants in the harbour. We chose the Thai one, which was a nice place with “Chinese-oriented Thai food” – i.e. mostly not too spicy and a lot of Chinese-influenced dishes mixed in with the traditional Thai curries.

In culinary terms, it reminded me a bit of Haozhan in Gerard Street and the late lamented Bangkok in Bute Street.

It was a very enjoyable way to start our break.

Monday 26 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day One

I was on picnic duties and rose early to make a tempting spread. Hot smoked salmon bagels and chicken sandwiches were the centrepieces that day, if I remember correctly.

We had front row seats on Centre Court that day. We saw:

  • Tomas Martin Etcheverry v Jeffrey John Wolf;
  • Shuai Zhang v Harriet Dart,
  • Daria Kasatkina v Anhelina Kalinina,
  • Ryan Peniston v Marc-Andrea Huesler.
We cheered for JJ Wolf, who played very well

Etcheverry seemed uncomfortable on grass

We took a stroll after the first set and snapped Maria Camilla Osorio Serrano playing Shelby Rogers on an outer court. It is that sort of place.

Shuai Zhang v Harriet Dart (see above pictures) was probably the match of the day.

After that match, we took another stroll. Janie got a bit groupie-like when she spotted Taylor Fritz just strolling around Devonshire Park.

At least Janie didn’t ask him for a selfie – plenty of people did!

Daria Kasatkina bested Anhelina Kalinina on the day. Try saying that after a few drinks – just as well we weren’t drinking

Ryan Peniston came off second best against Marc Huegler.

We took a late afternoon stroll, where we saw Jelena Ostopenko playing doubles on an outer court.

It started to get a bit chilly, so we didn’t stay for the “bonus doubles match” on Centre Court. We’d had a great day of tennis.

We even got to see some cricket as we walked around the cricket ground to get our car.

Janie loved the sun terrace at the back of our little house. It was just a bit too chilly to mull our day over a glass of wine out there, so we mulled indoors instead.

Tuesday 27 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day Two

A similar picnic for Day Two; I was still on picnic duty. I say “I”, but actually we have a prima-donna of a picnic chef named Igor who comes to make our picnics when it is my turn. He insists on absolute silence and no-one else coming near the kitchen while he is creating his masterpieces.

The central pieces for this one were smoked trout bagels plus ham and cheese sandwiches.

Janie snapped the Eastbourne front on the way to the ground

We were five rows back on Day Two – arguably a better vantage point unless you are especially keen to be on camera! The selfie on the Flickr link near the top of this piece is from those seats.

We saw:

  • Liam Broady v Jan Choinski;
  • Petra Martic v Katie Boulter;
  • Bernarda Pera v Coco Gauff;
  • Zhizhen Zhang v Lorenzo Sonego.

We had an early stroll around this day, where we saw, amongst other things, Camilla and her dad training (see headline picture).

Liam and Jan doing battle

Were Petra Martic and Katie Boulter going to play dressed like that?

…NO!…

Certainly not with Alex de Minaur and family looking on!

I sneaked a look at Mikael Ymer playing well on Court One

While Janie spotted Heather Watson on an outer court

Then back to Centre Court for some Coco (and Bernarda)

The pick of the day’s matches was actually the one from which I expected the least. Zhizhen Zhang is a very promising player but had not really played before on grass, whereas Lorenzo Sonego has shown decent form on the surface.

Sonego looked the part…

…but Zhang performed brilliantly

That match proved to be a suitable finale to our trip.

We certainly aim to return to Eastbourne again. The people were friendly and the atmosphere at the tournament lacks the corporate glitz and heave-ho of the bigger, more prestigious tournaments. Our style, we felt.

Wednesday 28 June 2023 – Driving Home While Listening To The Lord’s Test

A testing drive, this was, listening to England bowl in cloudy conditions but without the necessary luck/penetration in the second Ashes test match. The next few days were to be Lord’s days for me, but this day was the one day this week where the only live sport was dodging the traffic and the bizarre manoeuvres of other motorists.

Dumbo – tennis and cricket superstar – getting us there and back

Wimbledon Ladies’ Semi-Finals Day On Centre Court, 12 July 2018

We thought we’d failed to get tickets in the Wimbledon ballot this year. Janie and I had heard from several people that they or their loved ones had secured something. Odds are that you miss out more often than not, so we thought that was that.

But I suppose that most of the seats that come up in the public ballot are week one seats and that Wimbledon send out the week two letters the following week.

So, a few days after we had agreed that 2018 had been a miss, Janie announced that an envelope had just arrived from Wimbledon and that she’d let me open it.

OMG, we’ve got centre court tickets for Ladies’ Semi-Finals Day.

Janie was so excited; in truth we were both very excited.

A few weeks later the tickets themselves came through and turned out to be very good ones – Row F; near to commentary boxes and the Royal Box – just over our right shoulders above us.

Not bad for the public ballot

Janie actually has a superb record with the Wimbledon public ballot: it is only a couple of years since our previous success…

A Day at Wimbledon, No.1 Court, First Friday, 1 July 2016

…but second Thursday felt almost like hitting the jackpot.

I took on picnic duties again (that kinda makes sense for midweek Wimbledon), producing smoked salmon in poppy-seed bagels and prosciutto muffins as the centre-pieces for centre court. A Single Estate Villa Maria Sauv Blanc and an Aussie “Daydream” Pinot Noir (the latter partly surviving for another day).

I studied the order of play carefully when it came through and suggested that we aim to get to Wimbledon early enough to catch a little bit of juniors action on one of the larger outer courts before the main event.

We plugged for Court 18, where a couple of girls with similar rankings, Xiyu Wang & Cori Gauff, were doing battle:

Surprisingly good quality tennis

Gauff, who looked like Venus Williams’s mini-me in style of play and demeanour, took the first set and was well up in the second, before Xiyu Wang started to turn the match around.

Thinking about the turn around

Don’t confuse Xiyu Wang with her doubles partner, Xinyu Wang. That would be foolish of you. Also don’t assume that they must be sisters. They were born about 6 months apart which made the “must be sisters” theory bite the dust, unless an awful lot of artificial intervention was involved. The Wang pair went on to win the girls doubles title, while Cori Gauff, who turned out to be only 14 years old, really is a rising star, so remember where you heard these names first.

Janie took stacks of photos btw – here (and the picture below) is a link to the Flickr album if lots of photos is your thing:

P1020415

At the end of the second set on Court 18, we decided it was time to freshen up and progress to centre court in good time for the first semi-final.

Janie’s choices of photographers from the crowd was somewhat flawed. The first lady had the shakes so much that her efforts were very blurry indeed. Then one person somehow pressed the video button for a few seconds rather than the simple shutter release.  It sort-of looks like one of those Harry Potter photos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmyJiZBh_IM

Younger people in the crowd wanted nothing to do with having people take pictures for them – it is all about selfies and selfie-sticks these days – so my offers reciprocally to take pictures were rejected.

We chatted with a very nice lady next to us, Carolyn, and her friend, Deana, who had come all the way from Yorkshire for the tennis. They helped Janie do some celebrity spotting in the neighbouring Royal Box.

Janie spotted Cliff enjoying the privacy of the Royal Box

With you I am Bjorn again?

Billie Jean – who is not my lover…

We enjoyed some snacks and a glass of wine.Why were we here? Oh yes, tennis. Here come some players:

Jelena Ostopenko and Angelique Kerber

Ostopenko came out all guns blazing, but that is not usually the way to best Kerber and so it proved that day:

Kerber kept her cool

We had time to eat our smoked salmon in poppy seed bagels during that match; just about.

Next up: Serena Williams against Julia Goerges. We’d never seen Serena play live before, although we have seen Venus more than once at Wimbledon.

Get ready…

…Julia got set, but took no sets…

…Serena powered her way through the match; Julia seemed overawed…

…thank you, ma’am.

A Wimbledon summary vid shows some glimpses here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaXv5f3_QiA

In truth the semi-finals had been short and one-sided, but there was plenty of entertainment to come. I went for a leg-stretching stroll at that juncture, having been assured by a steward that the mixed doubles was at least 20-25 minutes away. So I leg-stretched for that period of time, looking at one or two outer courts and chatting idly with one of the volunteer stewards there.

On my return, the mixed doubles quarter final had started. Mercifully Janie had taken some snaps of the players arriving and starting. It was a young British pair; Jay Clarke & Harriet Dart, taking on a far more experienced, seeded pair – Juan Sebastian Cabal and Abigail Spears. The thing is, though, that no-one seemed able to tell these youngsters that they weren’t supposed to beat the more experienced players.

Shhh…let’s try to win.

Jay’s entourage to the right – dad Errol just visible (and more audible)

Heck, these kids can play

Smiles even in defeat

A semi-final place – very promising signs from young Clarke and Dart. I was impressed especially by Clarke in the days and weeks leading up to our visit but on the day I was especially impressed by Dart, who looks a very natural doubles player. Jay Clarke might go on to excel at either singles or doubles or even both; at 19 he seems a very complete player already.

Towards the end of the mixed doubles, the seats vacated by a rather grumpy couple in front of us were taken up by a very friendly couple who had come from Bristol to see the Court One action and were thrilled to have managed to grab a couple of £10 end of day returns to get to see some action on the Centre Court.

All three fixtures so far had been quite short matches, so the authorities laid on some entertainment for us in the form of a bonus match; Gentlemen’s Invitation Doubles. The couple in front of us were thrilled to get to see an extra match; she described it as a dream come true.

Mark Philippoussis and Tommy Haas both still look well fit

Sebastian Grosjean and Fernando Gonzalez not so much

Many years ago some kids in the park mistook me for Sebastian Grosjean while I was playing with Janie. I had no beard in those days and Grosjean did sport a bandana in a similar style to mine if I recall correctly. Back then, the tennis comparison seemed absurd, but now, looking at a chunkier, less agile Grosjean, I’m not sure whether either of us should be flattered by that comparison.

Anyway, the guys played some fun tennis; mostly clowning around but some exhibition quality shots too, with the result never in doubt. Entertaining tennis was the winner.

Slowest even for the group photo

Here is a link to the day’s results in full.

Heck, we had a lovely day, as always when we go to Wimbledon. It wasn’t the most competitive day we have ever seen, nor was it one of the better days of this year’s championships, tournament-wise. But such a day at Wimbledon is very special indeed and we feel very lucky and privileged to have been able to enjoy it.