TENNIS NEWS AND HAPPENINGS IN LONDON IN NOVEMBER 2016 FROM THE 02 ARENA BY FRANCISCO RESENDIZ

Written by: Resendiz on 17th November 2016

TENNIS NEWS AND HAPPENINGS IN LONDON IN NOVEMBER 2016 FROM THE 02 ARENA BY FRANCISCO RESENDIZ |

Arrived in London, once the plane lands the captain says, “the weather is cold, damp and gloomy.” But who cares, we didn’t come for the British weather, we came for the tennis at the O2 Arena.

Best way to get to the event is via the river Thames. It takes about 25 minutes to 35 minutes depending on the roughness of the water and the boat traffic – yes that’s a thing. There’s a bit of sightseeing on the way too – London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The London Eye, just to name of few. …

We get to the O2 and everything has changed. For starters there is tons of security this year. Walk over to the “fan zone” it still has plenty of booths and attractions. This year they have a virtual 3D game set up, the children and adults playing seem to really enjoy it. The fans can also check out some player’s practice – the practice court is set up on the center of the fan-zone. It is amazing to have the players there, during practice they still seem to give it 100 percent for the audience – specially when playing for, “friendly” points. Gael Monfils was practicing his usual game style – hiting everything, lunging himself to get the ball, just giving the tennis fans a great show. Some fans were saying:

“If Monfils is playing this rough during practice his match vs Roanic should be excellent.”

The fan-zone is definitely a place to check-out.

We met up with a friend, Peter Mirnyi, who took us to the VIP section of the event. You are basically on a balcony or you are allowed to ask for a spare ticket to sit in the lower front rows of the stadium. Either seat is great! We opted to sitting upstairs for the afternoon sessions.

Lovey’s favorite photo. Nikolai Mirnyi doing a photo bomb in the family players box.

The Bryans played amazingly well. You heard tons of American support and yes they won the match.

Then the Djokovic and Thiem match started. Many people around us thought Djokovic was going to win his match fairly easily and quickly. Which wasn’t the case after losing a set to Thiem, he was so upset that he hit a ball to his box located courtside – frustration or maybe they weren’t cheering loud enough? Ultimately, Djokovic became very focused and came out victorious.

For the evening session we were able to sit courtside. The doubles – Mirnyi/Huey vs Murray/Soares. It was great tennis. The guys were serving hard and aggressively. At one point Treat hit the ball directly to Soares getting him on his ribs, which they joked off. Murray/Soares kept synchronized and focused and won the game.

The Monfils vs Raonic match was great to see courtside. Raonic was serving so fast 136mph, yet Monfils was able to return the serve. It seemed the crowd was cheering on the Frenchman, “Allez Gael” was heard throughout the stadium. Gael was running for every point, jumping for balls, moving Raonic side to side. Yet, Gael lost. Raonic was just too consistent.

The tennis finished at 10pm and the British fans all seemed to leave very content after experiencing the first day of tennis.