#Domi thanking Diego first and calling him a 'great friend'... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

domiandsascha · 6 years

Text

Wimbledon diary ~ Tuesday the 3rd of July 2018

If you've followed my adventures at the French Open (x x x x x), you must know I don't do short reviews so… You've been warned :D

I arrived at Wimbledon early, alone (because Jue, my partner in crime, had to work until 1pm) and super stressed. We had tickets for Court 1, which granted us access to every single court except for Centre Court and Court 2. The order of play on Court 1 was Kyle Edmund, then Petra Kvitova, then Novak Djokovic. Pretty good and Jue was super happy that she wouldn't miss the beginning of Novak's match. Also the program on the side courts was awesome. BUT. Massive BUT. Bigger than Domi's but-- Shut up Helene. BUT, on Court 2, Sascha, then Domi were playing. And, I mean… What are the chances of having the both of them, on the same court, the exact same day I'm attending a tournament? One percent? Well, that was the one, I couldn't miss it and I was ready to sell my soul to the Queen for a Court 2 ticket. Few problems: The Queen was nowhere to be found (although I've heard that Meghan was around that day, I should have looked for her). I had only one ticket to exchange which made my task trickier as people, weirdly, have friends and family. And mostly, Wimbledon officials are crazy uptight and bound by rules. So the one rule I heard over and over again during my first hour in the resort was "Tickets are not exchangeable". It felt like I was talking to robots. One guy even told me I would be removed if I were to try and swap my ticket outside of Court 2. Seriously? Dude, come on, have some weed and chill… Anyway, I usually like and follow rules but I decided to completely disregard this one. I made my way to Court 2, at the very end of the resort, and started my quest, using my sweetest smile and sweetest French accent. It was still quiet as matches hadn't started yet, but there were already people waiting outside the court. I truly believed my "Edmund + Djoko" combo was gonna be super appealing to British tennis fans but it turned out it wasn't. The five first persons I approached bluntly replied "Absolutely not. Court 2 is way better today!" Well, yeah, I know… but you guys aren't supposed to think the same! The only interested guy I found had a girlfriend who had no intention of spending the day away from him… It started to feel like I was gonna fail, when I spotted a woman, obviously on her own and who seemed nice enough to hear me out. When I asked if she would be interested on swapping for a Court 1 ticket, she replied "No." She paused, just the time for my heart to break again, and then she casually added "But I've got a spare ticket for Court 2 if you want." OMG. It was good I was wearing my sunglasses because I legit started tearing up. She refused my money offer and just gave it to me. I could have hugged her, but she didn't look like the hugging type and I didn't want to scare her to the point of changing her mind, as we were about to spend the day next to each other. But I gave her my Court 1 ticket, which she gladly accepted. OMG. I couldn't believe my luck. I couldn't process I was actually gonna see Sascha and Domi. I couldn't go and sit down yet. I needed to calm down. I needed a coffee, three cigarettes, a wee and a walk. So I left Court 2 to go and explore the resort I had barely looked at earlier, too obsessed with my mission. Gosh, Wimbledon is so so so pretty, all green and purple and flowery. It makes you want to drink all the Pimm's and eat all the strawberries (but to do so, you'd need all the money…). I crossed path with Rafa in an alley, the exact same way I had at Roland Garros : he was surrounded by security, followed by a crowd of fans, super close yet untouchable (I mean, I could have touched him, but I wasn't taking any risk to be actually removed by security now that I had my ticket haha). But my timing is always quite amazing! I tried to go to the fanzone, which is the only place where players stop for pictures and autographs on their way back from practice, but it was packed so I turned around. I went to sit and drink my coffee on the Henman Hill, because apparently, you cannot go to Wimbledon and not sit once on the hill, and then I went back to Court 2 to watch the second set of Jo Konta's match. I discovered how good my seat was and I tore up again. OMG I was so close!!!! Jo was lovely enough to win her 2nd set tie break so there it was : Sascha time! I think I lost plenty of brain cells when he walked on court. I don't need to describe how amazing he looked in his white kit, you've all seen the pictures, but. Wow. And his hair is just perfection. He's truly a piece of sunshine. The 1rst set was tight, but I was too happy to stress. Plus he was playing really good and won it. The way he "Come ooooooooon!" after he got the break destroyed what was left of my brain cells. He also yelled in Russian at some point, that was hot. I was a bit disappointed with the British crowd, way quieter than the French one. It was deeeeead. The only person I could hear was Hugo, Sascha's physio, and his constant "Allez, allez, allez!!!!" haha. I tried to scream "Come on Sascha!!" once and ten people turned to look at me like "what the hell are you doing girl?" so I kept cheering for him in my mind. There was something highly disturbing : whenever Sascha was on his chair, and even sometimes on the court, he was looking towards me. I'm not saying he was looking at me, I know he wasn't, there was no way I was standing out from the rest of the crowd, no. He was probably looking at the score board above me. But as it felt like it, I chose to believe he was looking at me haha. Fun. He won the 2nd set super easily and I totally called the 3rd set bagel. I said it to Claire, my ticket provider, and she didn't believe me. But I was right. Sascha was doing everything perfectly and his opponent wasn't doing much anymore. So straight sets stress-free victory. Thank you Sascha! I think the gods of tennis should make it a regular thing : if I attend one of my favs' match, my fav should always win easily, for the sake of my nails, my hair, my stomach and my sanity. That'd be super great. Yeah. That would have been great to ask the gods before the start of Domi's match… Oh sadness… But let's start at the beginning. D.o.m.i.n.i.c. First of all, he was clean-shaved. Clean-shaved Domi makes me weak, it's not even funny. Second of all, he looked like an angel who could sin at any second in his white kit and I. couldn't. handle. it. Third of all, I just love him so much, it's unreal. I spent the entire warm-up staring at him, my hand on my chest, smiling like an idiot, feeling blessed. If a therapist were to ask me where my happy place is, I'd say "On a tennis court bleacher, ten rows away from Dominic Thiem". Also, just like Sascha, he was looking in my direction all the time, so my heart was crumbling. I was legit talking to him, moving my lips and all, just in case he would actually look at me at some point and understand my motivation speeches haha (spoiler alert : he obviously didn't…). Now, the match itself. Well… Not gonna lie, it's way more fun to watch him on clay. I didn't have much expectations for Wimbledon but I believed he could at least beat Baghdatis. Until he got broken. And lost the 1rst set. Then got broken again. And lost the 2nd set… I was mad at him, yet still hopeful at first, but I quickly made my peace with the idea I was going to watch him lose badly. Because he wasn't "there". He wasn't yelling at himself or fist bumping like he does when he truly wants it. He looked so out of it. I couldn't understand why, as I hadn't made much of his fall in the first set. Sure, it had been quite a bad and scary one, but he had stood up so quickly and acted like it was nothing. So it was nothing to me. I went out for a smoke between the 2nd and the 3rd set so when my friends talked about the physio in our group chat, it was a massive and very unpleasant surprise. I rushed back in and… baby… <///3 He looked so small and fragile, it broke me (and also, how do I become a physio on call please??). The 3rd set started really badly and at this point, it just felt like watching the inevitable. So it was almost a relief when he retired. It was still sudden and heartbreaking and disappointing as I wouldn't have minded an extra set of clean-shaved white-wearing Domi. But it was safer, all things considered. A small consolation : I'm 90% sure Günter spotted me from the box. He was on the opposite of the court but right in front of me and looking in my direction super often (really, there probably was someone or something super attractive on my bleacher!). At some point I was standing to stretch my legs and Günter kind of froze and removed his sunglasses as if he wanted to have a better look. His eyes were clearly on me, but I got too shy to wave or nod, stupid me haha. So after a few seconds, he went back to his conversation with Alex. But yeah, I believe he had a flash of "I've seen this girl before" and as I still want him to adopt me, it really pleased me. I left the court immediately after Domi did and ran to the side courts area. Jue had arrived during Sascha's match. She had been to Diego's match, then Karen's match, but she was now on Court 1 for Djoko. I was a bit torn between Karen and Mischa vs PH. But they were closer and as I managed to find a seat in the first (and only haha) row, I stayed there. PH was already two sets up and playing amazing. I was cheering for both though. After Domi, it was soothing to watch this match. Both outcomes would have made me happy. I realized towards the end that Alexander Senior and Irina Zverev were six seats away from me. When Mischa lost, we left the court at the same time. I walked right behind them in the crowded alley (didn't have any other choice) then I passed them, but I turned around on an impulse. My friend Aline really wanted me to ask them if she could marry their youngest son, but I'm not that bold haha. I just said congratulations for Sascha's win and wished them luck for the rest of the tournament. Alexander thanked me five times and Irina just smiled, nicely. Next time Aline, next time… I saw Nadal again, standing on a bridge above an alley and being a sweetheart. Karen had won so I tried to go see Shapo but the queue for his court was huge. So I went to buy a Pimm's (thought Domi's heartbreaking match called for some comfort alcohol) and decided to try and push my luck because why not ? I texted Jue to get our gate-row-seat number on Court 1, thinking I could pretend I had lost my ticket or something (I knew Claire wasn't on my seat then). Didn't even need to. Perfect timing being perfect, I walked in with a group. The security guys were too overwhelmed to check tickets. Haha! Epic win! So I finally joined Jue and we watch Djoko destroy Sandgren and everything was right in the world. Then we tried Shapo again. Impossible again. So we went to the court where Benoit was playing. As we've certainly been blessed by all the gods of tennis, after two minutes, we were seated, front row, next to each other. Benoit was so much fun to watch hahahaha. We laughed a lot. And we cheered in French, really loudly, so after he won, he smiled at us and gave us a thankful thumb up. He didn't come to our side to sign stuff but he had to leave the court same way as the audience. He spent so much time in the alley, taking pictures and being amazing with fans. We both got a selfie with him. Gotta love Benoit. We went back to Shapo's court and queued, but we didn't have much hope to get in. Our only chance would have been for him to lose the 4th set and we couldn't wish that to happen. So we just spent fifteen minutes, listening to the cheering, chatting with a French fan and following the England football game on our phones. Shapo won and I made my way to the bleacher just in time to see him wave goodbye. That's something I guess haha. There was only one match still on : Sharapova on Court 2. And again, we decided to try our luck. They were still checking tickets at the doors, which I found silly and unfair considering half of the court was empty. British people and their rules… Anyway, I showed mine and hid Jue behind me so she managed to sneak in. Truly, we win at life. I didn't think someone could be as loud as Maria, but I was wrong. Vitalia Diatchenko is. Their long rallies were hilarious to listen to. It was kind of a shocker to see Vitalia win this one, but she played great tennis so that was well deserved. And… that was it. Tennis was over for the day. So we wandered around the resort and then we left, hungry, tired but so so so so so so so happy. We're going back tomorrow. We're on Court 1. And. OMG AGAIN ! They put Sascha on Court 1!!!!! Ahhhhhhh! I was so sure they wouldn't!!!! I'm so happy! We'll also see Simona's match and Kyrgios VS Nishikori. I mean, we probably won't watch this one as Karen will be playing on a side court. So will PH and Nico! And also, Dennis Novak didn't finish today so unless it collides with Sascha's match, I'm so gonna go cheer the hell out of my lungs for him (and ask Günter to adopt me). I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and if you're watching Sascha's match, I'll be wearing my green Germany jersey so you might see me on TV (they kept showing jersey-wearing people during Angie and Sascha's matches yesterday) :D Thanks for reading and thanks for all your lovely messages and comments when I said I had managed to swap my ticket <3

#wimbledon 2018 #dominic thiem #sascha zverev #helene writes

12 notes · View notes