I had my first sight of the tennis at the Queen's Club yesterday, arriving fairly late on in the day - there hasn't been much time to catch breath after the excitement of Roland Garros, so I couldn't make it for the start of play. Today I expect to arrive earlier. However, even though I missed the excitement of Marat Safin being taken to three sets by a British qualifier, I've picked up my photographer's credential, and begun to work out where to go to capture the action. The media centre at the Artois Championships is located in the Queen's Club Pavilion, which is a complete rabbit-warren of a building, so I've also successfully managed to lose my way inside several times already; there's nothing exceptional to report regarding my unscheduled visit to the club's kitchens.
Some of the photographers' positions on the Centre Court are just behind the umpire's chair, and that's where I sat for the last two matches of the day, just getting a feel for the place, and adjusting to taking pictures so close to the court (mostly I shoot from some distance away - it's a different challenge being so close). The red-and-white theme of the hoardings around the bright grass, picked up in the colours of the seats, is visually very appealing. Some of the players seemed to pick up on the theme - Sebastien Grosjean and his opponent, Rik de Voest, were both decked out in red-and-white ensembles.
The last match of the day was a doubles: last year's singles finalist Nicolas Mahut, and Richard Gasquet, versus Andy Murray and the Venezuelan Daniel Valiverdu (no, I haven't seen him before, and nor have I ever heard of Rafa's doubles partner, one Mariano Hood, though I expect to get look at him later today, during the last Centre Court match). Murray was clearly the stronger player within his pairing, and looked determined to pull off a win in front of a home crowd in spite of the loss of the first set. His serving performance improved throughout the match, as did his returns, and eventually his team came through in the tiebreak.
The grass looks to be almost unreally fresh and manicured. Although it was a sunny day yesterday, players were occasionally slidiing on it; at one point, I saw it happen to Murray. Because the players sit just in front of the photographers, it's possible to hear much of what they say. After that game had ended, I heard Murray say to umpire Steve Ulrich: "How long do we have to play tonight? It's quite slippy out there". The time was around eight o'clock. The reply was that play could continue until nine. "Players have been slipping all day," said Ulrich. "That's because it's green."
OK, I know what he meant. But it certainly was beautifully, restfully green. A feast for the eyes.
So endeth my first day at Queen's Club in 2008 (hey, there are all kinds of possibilities in using the near-biblical style adopted in Pete's last post!).
