I am a Londoner, but until this year I had never attended the World Tour Finals. When the showdown event initially moved to London, attending it just didn’t really appeal to me – I thought the O2 would be inaccessible and the venue too big to make watching tennis enjoyable. Then in 2010 I moved to Hong Kong and suddenly the O2 was no longer in my city and I found myself watching with growing interest from afar. Earlier this year I knew that I would be moving back to London and so I decided to take my chance and buy tickets as soon as they went on sale.
Monday November 4th was a glorious winters day here in London. It was cold but the sky was incredibly clear and blue and London looked simply stunning. I travelled into Waterloo around 9am and took the Thames Clipper east to North Greenwich. I had never used this boat service before and I felt like a tourist but I actually really enjoyed watching the beautiful London riverside views as we travelled towards east London. I arrived just before the first of the boats carrying the players. Thomas and Stan stepped off the first boat and both were wrapped up very warm and I was amazed at how easy it was to approach them and how close to the players fans could get while waiting for them at the pier.
It had become a dream of mine to have a photo with Rafa, although I had been to many tournaments I had never managed to get close enough to him. I spotted a few other Rafans with Spanish flags scarves around their necks and went over to say hello. We soon started chatting and I really enjoyed meeting like-minded people ;). Having not seen Rafa courtside all year, I could not wait for the event to start.
Rafa arrived on the second boat, wearing his big red jacket but no beanie hat. He stopped to sign autographs and I told him that it has been my dream to have a photo with him and can I please have one. He said yes but continued to sign and walk towards the exit where cars were waiting to take them into the venue. I had to ask again just before he was about to go inside and he said “I am really late” and smiled, typical Rafa, but then he stopped and I put my arm around him. He gave his lovely big smile and after we had taken the photo he went inside, I shouted a massive thank you as the door closed. I hope that he heard it. I turned around to the Rafans I had met earlier who also had my camera and when they showed me the photo, I was so happy I started hugging them. I had a spring in my step the rest of Monday. I have now made the photo as my iPhone wallpaper and it gets me through hard days at work – I still can not believe it happened – I actually talked to Rafa, put my arm around him and took a photo with him without passing out or going completely speechless!
We all headed inside to watch Rafa’s practice, he was on the practice court 1 and there was a huge crowd by that court watching him. I managed to get a good enough spot and using the manual zoom to get rid of the netting separating us from the court started to snap away and some of the photos of Rafa came out pretty well. I really enjoyed the experience, Rafa is definitely fun to shoot, as we all know you cannot watch a Rafa practice without catching his many expressions and his lovely and goofy smile. I had tickets to watch the Stan v Thomas match in the afternoon session but instead of going to my seat I got greedy and headed back to the pier in the hope of catching Rafa leaving the venue. I wasn’t so lucky this time, I missed the match and Rafa didn’t leave till much later.
In the evening session I watched Delpo beat Gasquet in a very close three sets and I must say I actually really enjoyed the atmosphere inside the O2. It’s not the traditional tennis atmosphere but then there is nothing traditional about this event so I think it all works. I loved the heartbeat sound that plays before the video replay of a challenge, and the lights that flash before the big points and the loud music is are all part of what really is a showdown as the name suggests :).
My first day at O2 was amazing so I could not wait for Tuesday, Rafa’s first match day. I got to the O2 early to see Rafa arrive in the morning, I was hoping to get my Rafa jacket signed but I was too slow to react and there were too many other people there that morning asking for photos. After Rafa had gone inside, I headed to the fanzone where I met up with a few Rafans whom I have been lucky enough to get to know via twitter. We couldn’t watch Rafa practice as he was due to warm up in the arena. Instead we gathered around watching Robbie, Alex Corretja and Rosco while they were recording Holding Court. We even managed to steal a photo with Alex just before he was due to go on. He was absolutely lovely and Judy is right he could be George Clooney of tennis ;)
I headed for my seat around midday, I had the lower tier facing the baselines and I was pleased with my seat. After watching a really good doubles match, Rafa started at 2pm against Ferru. I felt the goosebumps when Rafa walked on court, it definitely had been too long since I had watched him courtside (last time being Tokyo 2011). Ferru was not having a good day and Rafa won the match comfortably which was lovely to see considering Rafa’s loss to Ferru previous weekend. He was all smiles after the match and I am sure he was relieved to a degree as I had noticed his team discussing the bounce of the balls a lot during his practice the previous day and I could tell that was something that was on their mind.
I had to go back to work on Wednesday so decided to leave the O2 around 6pm. I was at work only physically the next two days and on Friday I was lucky to be able to head back to the O2 for a work event. The tickets we had were court-side across from players’ chairs and I watched the only match that M&M managed to win together in WTF2013. It was an amazing match and the hugs and smiles between those two was the cutest thing I saw all week. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any tickets for the evening session and I headed home to watch Rafa win over Berdy on TV.
The schedule for Saturday had Rafa practicing at 11:45 on practice court 1 so I decided to go back to the O2 to watch him practice. I got there bright and early and secured a really good spot next to the practice court. I watched Fed warm up for half an hour before Rafa arrived late to practice with Verdasco. It was a really good practice session, Rafa gave me all his cute expressions although Maymo unfortunately blocked my view during his shirt change. I came away with some lovely photos and I was really pleased to have made the effort to head back there early on Saturday. After practice I headed down to the boats with some of the other Rafans but after two hours of waiting and no sign of Rafa I decided to call it a day as I had a friend’s birthday to attend in the evening. I heard later that Rafa came out all happy and smiley but not until two hours after I had left.
I watched the rest of the tournament on TV and I could not have asked for a better week at the O2. I got my photo, I watched Rafa practice twice and I met many of my tweeps in person. Next year I will not hesitate to secure my tickets when they go on sale, although you can have loads of fun for free as the fanzone and practice courts are situated in the public areas of O2 and you do not need a ticket to be able to access them.
Next stop for me hopefully will be Rio, I am definitely going to Brazil for a holiday in February and I hope to catch Rafa in Rio Open…fingers crossed.
