!Ancic2 By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor
Good morning. This will be today's thread for discussing the tennis action at the Foro Italico in Rome, or the WTA matches taking place in Belrlin.
As many of you know, I've spent some time in Rome this week, with a credential for photographing the tennis action there. Although I expect to be back at the event later in the week, I've given it a rest today, due to sore feet (and blisters - no, I'm not coming out in sympathy with Rafa; it doesn't help that I fractured one foot last year). Photographers at an event like this literally spend the whole day on foot, moving around, because there's competition for the prime spots to stand in, thus a rotation system operates to allow everyone a fair shot. Otherwise, you can keep moving around to other vantage points within the arena, but the rule is that you can't stay in one spot for more than five minutes. It makes watching an actual match a fairly disjointed affair.
For example, in order to photograph parts of James Blake's victory over Andreas Seppi, I had to haul myself to four different spots within Stadio Pietrangeli. In the middle of the match, I wandered over to Campo 1, and went courtside for a few minutes to photograph parts of the second set between Kolya and Mario Ancic (Mario's emotions were on display - he was looking distraught at himself). On the trek between the two main courts, I discovered several smaller courts tucked off to one side. These smaller courts are all immediately adjacent to each other, and surrounded by a series of steps which serve as seating. On two of the courts, I could see Roger Federer and Andy Murray practicing (the latter with Alex Corretja and Miles McLagan). On the other two, Fernando Gonzalez was playing Evgeny Korolev, and Juan Monaco and Igor Andreev were battling out. If you wanted to, you could just about watch both matches simultaneously - there was only a flimsy fence between them.
Walking up to the entrance to the venue, the pavement that I have been using literally has huge trees growing in the middle of it - some of them take up most of the pavement area. Whether the trees were there first, or the pavement, the fact is that by now the trees have distorted the entire footpath area - not a walk for someone in heels. Once inside, the hazards are less obvious. But they do exist.
For example, you will know by now that the Stadio Pietrangeli is being used as the main court this year, as the other court is being renovated. This means that the imperial-looking naked statuary on the former secondary court has had to be covered up by scaffolding, to expand the seating capacity upwards and outwards. In theory, I think someone should have closed off the area around the exterior of the court away from the obvious entrances, from which you can see the backs of the statues, somewhat (but not entirely) hidden by green plastic wrappings. However, the way is open, if not obvious - in wondering about photographic viewpoints, I had a wander (more of a stumble, in fact) along there. Rutted, with lots of exposed electrical cabling, and all the guts of the cover-up in plain view.
I've taken plenty of pictures - these will be put up us soon as I've had time to sort out web galleries.
For now, enjoy today's tennis.