So the much-discussed exo happened, but first, it was time to pretend these two get all bromantic.
Love the half-assed hug. Honestly, much as I talk crap about Federer, I find this kind of sweet. It’s like seeing your workmate out of the office and trying to make a good impression with your fancy social life. I’m just worried about the real evil plan up his sleeve. Conspiracy theories, anyone?
“Is always pleasure for me, seeing cities around the world. And the house of Roger.”
He said it, kids, not me.
On this day, one year ago, we were reeling from a change in the natural order of things. It was this day in 2009 that the world order changed and we were unsure how, or why, or who had allowed such a thing to happen.
Rafa was losing a tennis match. He was losing, a tennis match, on clay. He was losing, a tennis match, to a formerly barely-known top 50 player, Robin Soderling. He was losing, a tennis match, on clay, to Soderling, in his own backyard and living room, at Roland Garros.
We cried. We held hands in solidarity and took to Twitter to ensure it was real life and not a parallel universe. We changed livestreams in hope that we had ended up in a livestream wormhole but were found to be firmly within reality. We ranted on Facebook and spurred a Roger/Rafa debate of epic proportions among the tennis watching laymen of the universe. We fell asleep at 3am, clutching each other with tears and disbelief. It was 2009, and the Rafa era had shifted.
So on this day, being that it was before the Twitter days, I thought I’d show you an (edited) version of what the girls from Court Thirteen were up to, on my facebook page. EnYoy.
Rishe does rafa have a booboo tummy or something?
June 1, 2009 at 12:58am • Comment • Like
Mushka me thinks maybe
perhaps he has pain in his most famous ass?
June 1, 2009 at 12:59am •
Freda i think the wedgie pulling is a compulsive thing.
ROGERRRRRRR
June 1, 2009 at 1:01am •
Rishe im looking for dodgy random pubs with foxtel
June 1, 2009 at 1:02am •
Mushka world number one mallorcan adonis has earned his right to pull wedgies. rogers compulsive tucking hair behind ears into headband routine is resemblant to maria shrieka sharapova….go figure
June 1, 2009 at 1:04am •
Rishe hahaha freda and mushka, rafa vs roger… bring it on!!!!!!
June 1, 2009 at 1:04am •
(Please note the remainder of the Rafa/Roger debate has been removed as it is not vital to this conversation. I also want to protect my friend Freda’s credibility as a human being.)
Mushka ive virtually infected my laptop with viruses trying to find a LIVE STREAMING LINK THAT DOES NOT PAUSE EVERY FIVE SECONDS
June 1, 2009 at 1:06am •
Rishe soderling fifty friggin four winners, ouchhhh
June 1, 2009 at 1:08am •
Rishe ok i found a link but its insanely slow and commentary in portuegese.. apparently the US isn’t showing the match live either so 17,210 viewers are all watching this dodgy link from peru…
June 1, 2009 at 1:16am •
Leah oy va voy
rafale rafale
if you dont win fete toni might have to give you a spanking, on your famous ass!
June 1, 2009 at 1:21am •
Rishe LEAH PESHA… u made me cry
June 1, 2009 at 1:23am •
Rishe leah welcome to the world outside my limited profile
June 1, 2009 at 1:25am •
Leah shplikering?
June 1, 2009 at 1:26am •
Rishe potentially two games from the biggest upset in history… I THINK SO!
June 1, 2009 at 1:26am •
Leah i just got my tennis tummy ache..
June 1, 2009 at 1:27am •
Rishe THEY JUST CALLED FETE TONI “UNCLE TONY” ON RADIO
June 1, 2009 at 1:28am •
Rishe AGDSGKSADHGLDSAGHLKSDHJGSDLGSDKGHADLGHSDLKGAHSDGDSGDS
June 1, 2009 at 1:29am ••
Mushka sympathetic nrvous systems is out of control
June 1, 2009 at 1:30am •
Rishe ok good i think rafa has the set
can i go toilet now?
June 1, 2009 at 1:32am •
Mushka u’ll have to kick leah off and beat me to it!!
June 1, 2009 at 1:32am •
Mushka DAMN
FIVE ALL
toilet postponed
June 1, 2009 at 1:33am •
Leah get with it rish
5-5
June 1, 2009 at 1:33am •
Mushka cause u had a bad day (8) say what u liiike and how does it feel one more timee?
June 1, 2009 at 1:34am •
Leah lol
just heard you guys running upstairs
was like facebook live
June 1, 2009 at 1:35am •
Rishe can u hear me laugh w hen u say something funny?
June 1, 2009 at 1:36am •
Rishe rafa keep slooking at fete toni naughty naughty
June 1, 2009 at 1:37am •
Mushka hahahah
time for prayer ya recks?
June 1, 2009 at 1:37am •
Mushka ok i dont know what to do now
out of witty comments….
rafa rafa RAFA
WHAT ARE U DOING!
June 1, 2009 at 1:40am •
Mushka THEORY – all the players i chose to ‘follow’ in that box on rolandgarros.com are all out….and rafa is hanging by a thread…..
June 1, 2009 at 1:41am •
Leah yeah, ana ivanovic GONE
June 1, 2009 at 1:42am •
Leah ooh ooh
its my fav
JUICE
June 1, 2009 at 1:42am •
Rishe THAT’S MY BOY!!
June 1, 2009 at 1:43am •
Mushka what type? orange? apple?
June 1, 2009 at 1:43am •
Rishe this would be amazing tennis to watch right now. forget the result i wanna see the shots!!
June 1, 2009 at 1:43am •
Mushka love the french
“trente – quinze”
June 1, 2009 at 1:44am •
Mushka TIEBREAK
June 1, 2009 at 1:45m •
Rishe sHIT.
June 1, 2009 at 1:45am •
Mushka cant breatheeee
cant breaaaaaaaaaaaaht
June 1, 2009 at 1:45am •
Leah he is yellow he is blue
he is about to say boo hoo
June 1, 2009 at 1:46am •
Leah go loser go
June 1, 2009 at 1:46am •
Rishe is this a match point tie break?
June 1, 2009 at 1:46am •
Mushka YESS IT ISS
if soderling gets up a break!
June 1, 2009 at 1:47am •
Rishe OUCH
June 1, 2009 at 1:47am •
Mushka k time to get into the same room and hold each other children…
this is no time for being separate
unity, come on
June 1, 2009 at 1:47am •
Mushka stupid crowd
“roobin”
June 1, 2009 at 1:48am •
Leah fault… make it a double
June 1, 2009 at 1:48am •
Rishe my room
now
June 1, 2009 at 1:48am •
Leah just heard mushka go
so i guess im up
June 1, 2009 at 1:48am •
Mushka GET HERE LEAH!
June 1, 2009 at 1:49am •
Mushka im in full fight flight General Adaptation Syndrome arousal stress response
June 1, 2009 at 1:49am
It’s been 365 days of tears, tension and difficulty, until only one month ago, the joy returned to our lives. Rafa will be avenging that merciless slaughter on Phillipe Chartrier this time last year. And all of us Rafalovers, throughout the world, will watch, and smile, and clap our hands with joy. And let us say, Amen.
This week heralds a time when the colour of our screens change and life becomes happy and breezy again.
Here are a few reasons why we love it when the dirt of Europe takes over our lives and makes tennis full of joy, love and laughter.
10. Sliding is Sexy
9. The View’s not bad from here
It’s one thing to be a jet setter and travel all over the world on your yacht and private plane.
It’s another thing to be a tennis fan, where you can head over to the most gorgeous countries – and some pretty boring, grey ones as well – and get a glimpse of what they have to offer.
So far this year, we’ve been tempted to do things like play with lions in Joburg, swim with dolphins in Miami, and play golf in the desert (by far the most daring activity of all).
Clay season takes it up a notch. Is there anywhere you wouldn’t want to be?
The View from Monte Carlo is salivating:
Nice makes you want to take a spoonful, cover it in hot fudge and dig in.
And I love the ancient statues in Rome right up against the brick-red clay.
8. Longer Rallies make pretty watching
I love it when you settle in to watch that first clay match and just like the players have to readjust their game, we’re readjusting our watching eyes. The rallies are longer and for those of us who like to watch, it doesn’t get much better than that.
7. Rafa on Fire
There are reasons this sport was invented. This is one of them.
6. Time Difference makes ALL the Difference.
Australians all let us rejoce for we are young and free….
Free. That’s right. We’re so free that we’re on the other side of the world, a 24 hour planeride from most – except a handful of Southeast Asian countries, some islands for occasional holidays, and a random nation that copies our every move and then whinges about it.
We’re also desperately alone every morning as we venture into the day ahead, stealthily creeping into Monday, or Tuesday, or the 1st of January in the knowledge that we are going where no man has gone before. We take it on the chin for those of you on the other side of the dateline, because we’re hardened up Aussies and we like being adventurers. But sometimes, when you’re all still having a party up on Sunday and we’re stuck into Monday morning, it brings on the yuckness.
That’s where Clay season is made of joy, because come 6.30 in the PM, we can sit round the Teev with our dinners and our glass of wine and have a night made of fun right in front of us (or at least, after MasterChef. And for those of us without Fox Sports, in front of the Livestream). If you’re going until the late match, you only need to keep your tired peepers up until the relatively earthly hour of 2 or 3 am and then off to beddy-byes you go. Thanks Europe.
5. Umpire Love
Any self respecting tennis nerd will admit that aside from having a host of player crushes, the favourite umpire fan clubs are still reigning strong. Readers of Court Thirteen from Australian Open days (oh yeah, we still have more pics to show you from that) will recall that these particular ladies are fans of the gorgeously adorable Carlos Ramos and his Spanish bestie, Enric Molina.
Which is why the clay season brings umpire stalking to a whole new dimension, when the adorable man in chair gets off his fancy high horse and comes down to examine the line. Also provides many opportunities for cutesy umpire convos.
SO much more fun than the hawkeye “oooooooh”.
Unless you’re Gonzo….
4. Sammy is an Aussie and she plays on clay.
For anyone out there who isn’t Spanish or Swiss, it gets pretty irritating after a while when your country harps on about how title starved they are.
Aussies are no different, with a favourite topic of discussion being whether we will ever have a homeboy raise the trophy on our home slam ever again.
It’s also a rife time to whinge and complain at how hard it is to play on clay when you just haven’t been brought up with it, and for Aussies, Americans and Brits to shut their eyes and take a nap until grass season starts.
But for those of us backing Aussie Sam, it’s been a lovely time and the winnage is just going to continue.
C’MON SAMMY!
3. Spaniards Rule (always). And even more, on Clay.
Watching the hottest guys in existence, play deep into tournaments week in, week out?
Yes please.
2. Quarante-Trent
Say anything in a French accent and it will sound tres chaud. Just try listening to the scoreline being called after Jeu, Set, et Match.
1. Rafa Nadal
The King of Clay deserves two entries.
Please let me see more of this in the next few weeks?
For eleven months, we’ve been tearing our hair out, and wondering, WHY?
We’ve been remembering back to that dark and dreary night, June 1st 2009 to be precise, and thinking maybe that sinking feeling we had back then was real.
We’ve been watching him bounce back, then fall back down again, to bounce back, and then choke. With each tale of being “with colm”, and “finding my confidence”, we wonder what happened to that cocky little boy who was so sure of himself once upon a time.
He didn’t want the “pression” on him today, but he made it anyway – perhaps with thanks to the “pression” on Nando, who showed us that it’s true what your high school teacher told you – too much tension will make your neck sore, and breathing and relaxation exercises are pivotal when doing your final exams. (Or, you know, competing for your first Masters 1000 Tournament. Same difference.)
HERE IS THE KING.. He probably has clay riding inside his undies at this point and by the looks of this pic, I reckon it would have gone inside his ears by then too. But seriously, after an eleven month drought of seeing any positive results on what you’re meant to do best – would YOU care?
Kudos to Nando for making it this far – I think it’s an amazing effort and each of the guys got what they deserved. Nando’s back in the top 10, though how long he can stay there is anyone’s guess with all the activity happening between 8 and 12 these days. And he made it to his first Masters final, which proves he ain’t just a pretty face – or a fabulous underwear model.
Some of you may have noticed that I prefer not to post on tournaments I can’t actually attend. And being that my usual tournament attendance is on the limited side of only one, despite some exos bumping up this year’s frequency I’m still milking the same set of pics/videos from way back when.
Of course this just means you have something more to look forward to because there are still hella heaps of juicy pics and vids from Jan that have only just made their way back into my hot little hands.
However I do want to take the time to comment on the epicness of the week that has passed, and the joy that it foretells. Clay season has arrived, and with it, we are up for a claytastic bromantic time tomorrow with a Rafando final that promises win-win for many of us tennis nerds, particularly those I am familiar with in the Twitterverse.
I can’t remember what else I did on this day… except see Rafa. A lot. And talk to him. Not that he answered. And feel like I was ten metres away from him. Which I was. Lucky I know heaps of Spanish, like vamos. And lucky the guy sitting next to me at MCA had taught me how to pronounce it properly. Like, Bamos. Did anyone else know that?
Nothing like a good old bum pick before you ascertain your rulership over the universe.
Who else was playing that day? Oh yeah… Anyone wanna see a pic of Karlovic? What’s that? Can’t hear anything… Oh well here it is anyway.
Check the long midday shadow situation.
And Isner too. Though Muzza did kill him, I do like the guy. The man is like a tree. Karlovic is a crane. There’s a difference.
We even made it to see ARod and Gonzo and sing our best chi chi chi le le le. Not sure why I haven’t got any Gonzo pics.
Today’s charity match Hit for Haiti was INCREDIBLE.
Your new favourite bloggers queued up at Fed Square at the ungodly hour of 9am on a Sunday, raced to RLA where the queues were supposedly shorter, headed home and then back for another hour in queues, only to catch the best seats in the house for what was undoubtedly the best start to a slam in history. In fact, probably the best match of a slam ever… not sure if any of this week’s activities can top this!
Let’s start with the fact that all our faves were present. No one hadn’t been catered for, the lineup was massive. Andy, Rafa, Roger and Lleyton. Kimmy, Serena, and Sammy. Even Bernard hopped in for a serve or three. Next, the amazing camaraderie between the players. The hilarious banter. The snippets of gorgeous tennis they showed us to preview what we have coming up over the next two weeks. It made me wish players would be miked up more often… some golden highlights included:
Andy and Rafa debating over who should serve, who could do it better.
Kim to Novak, re. Serena’s serve: “now you know what we girls have to put up with!”
Roger to everyone, re. Rafa “He’s going to go the backhand then the forehand, then he’ll take it cross court then….” Telling everyone Rafa’s strategies.
Roger to everyone, “He usually plays that one as a half volley…” clearly he knows his opponent all too well!
Rafa, “I can’t serve this one, I don’t have the confidence.”
Rafa re. Tomic, “Let him serve, he just won the US Open, I haven’t won a tournament for….” Starts counting months.
Novak “Yeah I don’t know if I can make it through I might have to retire…”
Kim to Novak, “Ladies first… in that case Novak can serve.”
Rafa “Novak? Should I challenge?”
Roger, “I guess we can use hawkeye… we know that machine doesn’t work anyway. Sorry, I had to get it out!”
Kim to Serena, “Only 121? Come on!”
Andy to Roger: “how you feeling roger? Nervous?” as he prepares to serve. Roger: “The usual”.
Posted by courtthirteen 
Court Thirteen Tennis 