ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament
2004
Valentine's day 2004: usually the day to go out with your
lover. Not for us, we went to the qualifications for the World Tennis Tournament 2004 in Rotterdam. Fred received a wildcard
and since we haven't seen him play for a long time, we decided to go.
The day started with bad news when we arrived at
the trainstation. My sister and I arrived there at 7.20 (the train would leave at 7.32) and a man told us that there was a
train delay. We had to wait one hour for the next one! While waiting we called Margo to ask if she had the same problem. She
told us everyone in Limburg had a delay.
Fred was the first match for the day, so we were sure we could not see the whole match.
Really frustrated with the NS, we arrived in Rotterdam.
We bought a ticket and we walked to court 1. Finally we could see Fred in action.
He played a good game, but Kratochvil played better. Sometimes Fred was really frustrated when it all didn't work out the
way he wanted. We got a bit frustrated with him, because it was also very bad luck at some points.
When Kratochvil made the winning point, we were a bit dissapointed. We really wanted
to see Fred in the maindraw.
After he packed his bag to leave the court, he took some time to sign autographs for
the little tennisfans that were there (pictures in the Rotterdam 2004 gallery). It was cute to see little kids happy with
his signature.
When Fred was gone, we went to see the other matches. A nice surprise when we walked
past court 1, after the last match had finished at court 3, was Reamon Sluiter. He was training with his coach and we were
the only three in the audience.
Fortunately, the day ended not so bad as it began and we had a pretty good time in Ahoy'.
I already looked forward to Tuesday, to see the main draw in action...
Eliane
