 |
| Latest News |
| Search Articles |
| Audio Listing |
| Photo Galleries |
|
|
 Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 07 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 07 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 07 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 08 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 09 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 09 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 09 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 10 Aug 2006 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 10 Aug 2006 |
|
| 12 Aug 2006 - Prostejov, Czech Republic | |
| Players' blog from World Junior Tennis Finals |
Shaun Bernstein of the USA Boys' Team and the whole France Girls' team have agreed to do a blog this week from the World Junior Tennis Finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic.
Saturday 12th August 2006
Shaun:
Hi guys. Everything was pretty hectic yesterday so here’s my blog for the last two days. Thursday evening was the players’ party at Plumlov Dam. The party was very fun and filled with some dangerous/entertaining times. There was a huge ball that everyone was throwing at one another and if you didn’t pay attention you risked getting hit. The dancing on the girls’ part was a little weak and lacking, but us men found a way to suck it up and act feminine and dance with each other. It was good to see that people from all of these countries could come together and have a good time. The food was good and the fireworks were flashing and colourful, as they usually are!
The next morning we had to wake up and refocus to take care of business against 5th seeded Brazil. I started off with a win in the singles 2 and my team-mate Ryan Harrison had a gruelling battle against Joao Victor Fernandes, winning 67 64 64. After the 2-0 advantage in the tie we relaxed a little but still managed to take doubles and sweep the tie.
Later that night was an educational forum held by the ITF talking about important topics for juniors to develop and learn. For example anti-doping, agents, nutrition and all about the ITF. I learned a great deal about how much the ITF does for tennis, and what are the correct pre, during and post-match meals.
Today (Saturday) we had to get off to an early start due to rain predictions. We are scheduled to play Spain, who is arguably the best non-seeded team. As of right now, we split sets for our No. 2 singles. I am looking forward to watching the No. 1 singles consisting of Ryan Harrison and Carlos Boluda, two of the best players in the tournament. After that match, I will make my final appearance playing at this event in the doubles.
Last but not least is the Farewell Party tonight. Hopefully the party will be as eventful as the other night’s bash. Maybe the Czech girls that I mentioned in the previous day’s blog will turn up ;-)
Us and all the other teams that are heading to Vienna have to leave at 2 in the morning. It will be a long night/day ahead, and will hopefully end when I arrive in New York at 12 pm tomorrow (with the time difference). It has been lovely doing this blog daily and I hopefully have provided you with a good idea of what a player goes through at an event like this and also some free entertainment. Farewell to all.
Chloe:
Sorry for not being here the last two days, but things were just too busy in the ITF office and we also had so many things to do on and off court.
I am here today, because I am a little bit injured and cannot play the placement play off for 7th place.
I will tell you what happened those two last days.
Against Holland in the final group match, we had so many opportunities to win the tie. We had three match points in the decisive double, but we were not able to play at our best level. So we did not make it to the semifinal and we were very disappointed.
Thursday evening was the players party at the Plumlov Dam Resort. We were just expecting a dinner, but it turned out to be a great party with those magnificent fireworks at the end. So it was really a good surprise for us.
We were chatting to everybody and most of us (not me) were dancing quite a lot. I am not really to keen to dance …. But maybe tonight at the farewell party … it all depends how my ankle feels as well.
The referee, Stephane, has just come in complaining as usual and mentioning that because we started an hour earlier today, he will be hungry one more hour!!
Actually, he is very nice. Did you know that he was French as well? This might be one of the reasons why we like him.
Friday we played Usbekistan. Quelle catastrophe!!!
During my first match I got injured and I did not want to call the physio so that the opponent would not notice that I have a problem. I could have won despite my injury, but I did not have the right attitude.
Maybe I did not have the same will to win than in the matches before, and Roch (our coach) was not happy. More because of the way we played and not that much because of the result.
This defeat (we lost the entire tie) has helped us in the long term. It is better to have this experience at our age and it gives us the motivation to carry on practicing.
And to be even stronger for the Junior Fed Cup, for example.
Friday evening we were at the player educational forum. We did not understand everything because it was all in English. But from what we saw, it was really interesting. We saw how an anti-doping test was done, for example.
The presentation of the ITF at the beginning was really impressive. Especially the pictures from the players at Fed Cup and Davis Cup and the pictures from the Olympic Games were great. It really gives you the desire to be there one day.
Today after the last match, we will have the presentations and then the farewell party. And we will take the plane tomorrow to France.
AND THEN I AM GOING ON HOLIDAYSSSS. I will be going home to La Reunion to see my family. I can’t wait to see my little paradise again with the beaches. Now we are in winter there, that means, we will have about 25 degrees Celsius in the evening. I will spend 3 weeks there to relax and not touch a racket for one week.
(Kristina is just coming in and is happy because she played her first singles match today and she won it quite easily 63 60).
Kristina:
I have had my holidays just before Prostejov, so when I am back to France I will start practicing again immediately at the training centre of Roland Garros.
My holidays I spent them in Croatia in Pula. This is on the “prequ’ile” of Istra. I was on the beach all day and played a lot of sport, especially beach volleyball.
Chloe:
Well, now it is time to say goodbye as we need to go to encourage Marie for her match. We really hope to be back for the Junior Fed Cup in two years.
Kristina:
And because I am born in 1993, I hope to be playing here in Prostejov next year.
Kristina and Chloe:
Merci a tous nos supporters et a tout le staff qui a été parfait !
Et bien sur a nos lecteurs.
Thursday 10th August 2006
Shaun:
The USA came back today not losing a match in both the boys and girls ties.
It was also a better day for me personally, because I got a shot to play a couple of matches for my country.
Both were victorious and very enjoyable.
I almost gave it away in the singles, because I was up a set and a break, 63 41 and let him back into the match. I closed it out with a strong service set holding one break and winning 64 in the third.
Although I am here representing my country, it felt much better to play for my country. My coach did a great job of getting me through a tough match against Tomas Buchhass. That is also a very cool part of this event having the coach on the court with you.
A few hours later after a nice shower to freshen up, I went back on the court to play doubles with my buddy Raymond Sarmiento. We played very strongly and enjoyed the match very much winning 62 62.
Off court, tonight is the players party at Plumlov Dam Resort. I am looking forward to some good food and a fun time. As the bus to the party will leave shortly, I must leave you now and make myself handsome….
Wednesday 9th August 2006
Marie Menacer (on behalf of all the French girls)
It’s been a very hard day, playing against the USA. We won 21 in the end, but it was a close match and the American girls played well. Our mascot Frenchou joined us on court today. That’s him in the photo!
At last the weather is good, thank goodness. It’s the first time we’ve actually played properly on clay since we got here. There was a great atmosphere today, everyone being all together in the same place.
We couldn’t get in for a massage this afternoon because all the other players had the same idea. And apparently, Paul, the ITF photographer was holding everyone up too. Our legs are feeling a bit tired after today’s matches; probably everyone else is feeling the same thing.
Last night Chloe was happy as she got back in time for the poker on TV. Kristina and I beat Russia at table football (in a friendly game!). There is always a good atmosphere in the Player’s Lounge, everyone gets on well and has fun together.
Tomorrow we play Netherlands. We are feeling a bit tired at the moment having had two long ties in the last two days, but we are feeling good nevertheless. Frenchou will be there cheering us on tomorrow. Actually Frenchou is getting a bit noisy at the moment. He was chatting with Chloe and Kristina the whole time I was playing my singles match, but this did not break my concentration!
That’s all for today. We’ll be back again tomorrow!
Shaun:
Another rough day for the USA!
Both the girls and boys went down in their deciding doubles matches …. Again I found out how much my nerves were tested when I watched my team come back from a 40 deficit in the third set to then give it back and lose 75.
The tennis was enjoyable to watch – quality tennis.
Thank god that we played outdoors today, which puts everyone in a better mood. It was nice to see the sun again after four straight days of rain.
We will play Argentina tomorrow and hopefully get our first win of the tournament so we can’t finish last.
I am going to practice tonight with my coach David. The girl that I met the other day is coming back tomorrow, which hopefully will cheer me up a little.
I have to go practice and hopefully get a chance to play tomorrow.
Tuesday 8th August
Marie, Chloe and Kristina:
The day was good. We played on lino for the first time in ages, so it was a bit difficult to adapt. We had to take a bus early in the morning to get to Prerov and we almost fell asleep again. Our coach had a headache upon arrival, we were simply not used anymore to driving by bus.
We played against Indonesia, they were underdogs against us, but they really played well. And they were really fair play. I (Chloe) played the first match and I had be focused right from the start with the short set method. It is going soooo fast.
I (Marie) played afterwards. It was nice to start with the knowledge that Chloe had already won the first point for our team. I thought that the doubles match with Chloe was more difficult than my singles.
I (Kristina) did not play today, but I played the match “in my head”. It was fun to encourage our team. Indonesia played surprisingly well and in the difficult moment, it was good to cheer for our team.
Our biggest mistake of the day was to forget the key in the hotel room and we locked the door, so that the key was left inside …. But even worse, we have forgotten to take “Frenchou” with us, our mascot. We told you about it yesterday, didn’t we?
The team is getting on really well. The three of us are all in one hotel room in the hotel tennis club on site. We don’t have any problems deciding who gets the bathroom first in the morning.
I (Kristina) practiced tonight for the first time outside, and during the 90 minutes I played, it was raining three times and it was so heavy, that we almost had to stop. I am getting really worried about the weather here and we will pray for good weather. We think, that mostly the rain is due to the fact that our coach Roch is always singing…
We would love to have all play on one site from tomorrow onwards, it would be so much better for the atmosphere!!
Now, we are going to eat and then Chloe needs to head back to her room quickly, as she does not want to miss the Poker Show on television. We (Kristina and Marie) are going to play table football …. with … we don’t know yet.
Catch up with you tomorrow…
Shaun:
It was a rough day for the US today. First the girls lost their match against Holland and then we lost in an epic third set of the deciding doubles going down 97.
We served for the match at 65 in the third – I could not feel my legs anymore from the suspense as I was watching.
I never realized how nerve wracking watching my country play could be.
So I guess you’ll all understand that I am not in a very good mood tonight!!
I have to say that although it rained so much the tournament did a great job of organising all of the matches, both the boys and girls, today.
We are going to practice right now in order to forget and prepare for tomorrow’s battle against number 8 seeded Hungary. We really hope to still have a chance to make it to the final four by beating them tomorrow.
By the way…. Something good at least… the thing I said yesterday about the Czech girls …. It came true. I struggled to communicate with two local cheerleaders, coming away with some digits J.
I will keep you posted on that … (The ITF staff are also also very curious to hear more about it).
Monday 7th August 2006
Shaun:
I live in New York and we all met in New York. We had an 8 hour flight to Frankfurt and it was very long and we read and tried to sleep to get used to the time difference. We drank loads of water, because you get quite dehydrated during the flights.
We changed in Frankfurt, flew to Vienna and took a coach bus there. Something happened when we crossed the border to the Czech Republic. It was kind of annoying that on top of the long journey we were held up for more than an hour at the border. Not sure what happened exactly, but someone did not have the right Visa papers.
The ride took 5 hours including the hold up. We stopped at a grocery store.
It’s my first time in the Czech Republic and I was told before that the girls here were really pretty. So far I haven't had much time to scope around. I am hoping it is true, though :-)
Last night we had the welcome party and the draw ceremony. I thought it was very good, the only thing I noticed was (from what I understood, because most of them were in Czech) that the speeches were all pretty similar! The draw part was very good. It was exciting and there was a lot of suspense. Stephane Cretois had drawing chips which decided which team we were going to play. So we were all biting our nails.
I was pretty excited and I know that every team is good. Spain was not seeded, so I was glad to see that they ended up in a different group from us.
This morning we had the opening ceremony and the rest of the day we were forced to stay indoors and entertain each other due to the bad weather. The other thing that I noticed about the Czech Republic was that 3 out of 3 days it has been pouring so far!!!
That’s all for today folks. My team-mates (Ryan Harrison and Raymond Sarmiento) are waiting for me for a team meeting and hopefully we will be practising later in the night.
Marie, Chloe and Kristina:
Hello! We are the France Girls’ team: In the photo our coach, Roch Vidal, is on the left, then Chloë Babet, Kristina Mladenovic then Marie Menacer on the right.
This isn’t our first visit to Czech Republic, but the weather was nowhere near this bad last time! Despite the rain, there is a good atmosphere here and all the players are getting on really well. It’s cool hanging out in the Players’ Lounge as we have table tennis, table football and video games. While waiting to play we have also been watching DVDs, playing poker with our coach and listening to music.
It was an interesting experience attending the Opening Ceremony this morning. The accompanying music was pretty cool, though it would have been nice if all the players’ names had been announced, but with so many teams here it probably would have taken a while!
We like the hotel and the club too and it’s handy staying on site, particularly in this weather. The rooms at the hotel are nice and big, and of course we have been behaving ourselves, not making too much noise or anything else naughty. The food isn’t bad either, but dessert would be nice after lunch. Czech food is a bit different from what we normally eat, but we’ve had a lot worse!
The tournament seems well organised and decisions are taken quickly. Unfortunately because of the rain, we haven’t had as much time to practice as we’d like, but we have another training session later, before having an early night, ready to play tomorrow morning (weather permitting, of course). Like everyone, we are really REALLY hoping that the rain stops soon. Most of us don’t have umbrellas and running around getting soaked is getting a bit boring now. We have a team mascot ‘Frenchou’, so hopefully he is lucky enough to help us win and put a stop to the rain.
We’ll be back tomorrow, if we haven’t drowned by then.
^ Back to Top
|
|
|
|
