[AlistDakisa]

Do we know what virus he has?

Mono, according to his Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/RSoderling/sta...46762632224770

Airlines willing, I'm hoping to reach Paris in time to catch quals at Bercy. Does anyone here have advice on queueing up for tix (do you have to get there wicked early?) -- or, for that matter, anything else you wished someone had told you before your own first visit to POPB? (I have my tix already for [most of] the main tournament. )

[Relsenlilky]

Have a great time, Ribbons!

Though indoors, I heard it was very cold in the seats of the stadium last year, at least until the crowds got big later in the week.

[NewYorkDoctorD]

Nadal withdraws
03/11/11 - 16:07

On his Facebook page, he explains his decision : “I won't be playing this upcoming week the tournament in Paris Bercy. It's been a difficult decision to take but I understand that it is what I need to do right now to prepare well for the end of this season and also for 2012. I hope I can be back in 2012 to that great event in the most beautiful city in the world, and hopefully try to win it once day.”

Nadal is replaced in the main draw by Russian Dimitry Tursunov.

The Spaniard made no mention of any injury. He should compete at the season finale in London from 20-27 November and at the Davis Cup final from 2-4 december.

[inownsuipsy]

Main Draw: http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2011/352/mds.pdf

[AlistDakisa]

Have a great time, Ribbons!

Though indoors, I heard it was very cold in the seats of the stadium last year, at least until the crowds got big later in the week.

Thanks, Scotty! I'll be sure to bundle up.

(Just got to my hotel. Quals start at 10 a.m. tomorrow. WOO-HOO!

[RgtrsKfR]

Singles Qualifying Draw

(1) TOMIC, Bernard AUS v MAHUT, Nicolas FRA
(WC) SERRA, Florent FRA v (8) KUBOT, Lukasz POL
(2) YOUNG, Donald USA v RIBA, Pere ESP
EBDEN, Matthew AUS v (9) NIEMINEN, Jarkko FIN

(3) GIRALDO, Santiago COL v GABASHVILI, Teymuraz RUS
PAIRE, Benoit FRA v (11) ISTOMIN, Denis UZB
(4) KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp GER v ILHAN, Marsel TUR
(WC) CLEMENT, Arnaud FRA v (12) ROSOL, Lukas CZE

(5) SEPPI, Andreas ITA v (WC) GICQUEL, Marc FRA
QUERREY, Sam USA v (10) RAMOS, Albert ESP
(6) STAKHOVSKY, Sergiy UKR v (WC) DE SCHEPPER, Kenny FRA
ROGER-VASSELIN, Edouard FRA v (7) KUNITSYN, Igor RUS

[RgtrsKfR]

[B]Singles Main Draw

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) [/B]vs Bye
Fabio Fognini (ITA) vs Ivan Dodig (CRO)
[SE] Kei Nishikori (JPN) vs Qualifier
[15] Viktor Troicki (SRB) vs Bye

[9] Nicolas Almagro (ESP) vs Bye
Qualifier vs Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs Qualifier
[6] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs Bye

[4] David Ferrer (ESP) vs Bye
Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) vs Qualifier
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) vs Qualifier
[14] Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) vs Bye

[12] Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) vs Bye
Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) vs John Isner (USA)
Michael Llodra (FRA) vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
[8] Gael Monfils (FRA) vs Bye

[7] Mardy Fish (USA) vs Bye
Florian Mayer (GER) vs Radek Stepanek (CZE)
Juan Monaco (ARG) vs Qualifier
[10] Gilles Simon (FRA) vs Bye

[16] Richard Gasquet (FRA) vs Bye
Gilles Muller (LUX) vs Kevin Anderson (RSA)
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) vs [WC] Adrian Mannarino (FRA)
[3] Roger Federer (SUI) vs Bye

[5] Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs Bye
Marin Cilic (CRO) vs Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) vs Alex Jr. Bogomolov (USA)
[11] Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) vs Bye

[13] Andy Roddick (USA) vs Bye
Milos Raonic (CAN) vs [WC] Julien Benneteau (FRA)
[WC] Jeremy Chardy (FRA) vs Marcel Granollers (ESP)
[2] Andy Murray (GBR) vs Bye

[NewYorkDoctorD]

Doubles Draw

[1] BRYAN, Bob (USA)/BRYAN, Mike (USA) - Bye
BENNETEAU, Julien (FRA)/MAHUT, Nicolas (FRA) vs KNOWLES, Mark (BAH)/MALISSE, Xavier (BEL)
CLEMENT, Arnaud (FRA)/ROGER-VASSELIN, Edouard (FRA) vs FOGNINI, Fabio (ITA)/GRANOLLERS, Marcel (ESP)
[6] FYRSTENBERG, Mariusz (POL)/MATKOWSKI, Marcin (POL) - Bye

[4] BHUPATHI, Mahesh (IND)/PAES, Leander (IND) - Bye
GONZALEZ, Santiago (MEX)/KAS, Christopher (GER) vs BRACCIALI, Daniele (ITA)/RAM, Andy (ISR)
MELO, Marcelo (BRA)/SOARES, Bruno (BRA vs KUBOT, Lukasz (POL)/MAYER, Florian (GER)
[5] LINDSTEDT, Robert (SWE)/TECAU, Horia (ROU) - Bye

[8] MARACH, Oliver (AUT)/PEYA, Alexander (AUT) - Bye
HUTCHINS, Ross (GBR)/MURRAY, Andy (GBR) vs ALMAGRO, Nicolas (ESP)/MARRERO, David (ESP)
CERMAK, Frantisek (CZE)/POLASEK, Filip (SVK) vs CILIC, Marin (CRO)/DODIG, Ivan (CRO)
[3] MIRNYI, Max (BLR)/NESTOR, Daniel (CAN) - Bye

[7] BOPANNA, Rohan (IND)/QURESHI, Aisam-Ul-Haq (PAK) - Bye
FLEMING, Colin (GBR)/MURRAY, Jamie (GBR) vs LOPEZ, Feliciano (ESP)/VERDASCO, Fernando (ESP)
BUTORAC, Eric (USA)/ROJER, Jean-Julien (AHO) vs ANDERSON, Kevin (RSA)/ISNER, John (USA)
[2] LLODRA, Michael (FRA)/ZIMONJIC, Nenad (SRB) - Bye

[AlistDakisa]

Notes from a spectator in Paris, 5 November (times approximate):

9:55 am - 10:45 am: arrive at POPB; hunt for correct entrance; fail to find it, but wander around various areas being set up for the main event; get stink-eye from security guard in press corridor; go for cup of coffee; eventually find Door 28 and pay my 10 euros. Open seating.

10:45 am - 11:45 am: On Court 2, Donald Young is playing Maxime Teixeira. He's up 5-4 in the first set when I take my seat in the second row. Turns out I'm only six seats away from Teixeira's coach, who's quietly "Allez"ing a lot. MT mutters back at him now and then. DY wins the match 64 76; was broken serving for the match at 5-4. He is the most vocal person in the entire room (which feels like an aging high school gym), screaming things like "Oh man," "Dang it!" and "This is the slowest hardcourt I've played on in my entire life!" (Also disagreed with several linecalls, at one point saying, "No, no, no, no, no...that hit the line. Challenge? Yeah, right.") [No Hawkeye on either court.] MT also sassing the chair a bit, in French. Tiebreak is mostly MT UFEs.

(I do think the courts have to be pretty slow, because even I am seeing whether balls are in or out, and I'm usually not good at that -- and I'm usually agreeing with the chair or linesperson in question, even when the player isn't. Some of the calls are being voiced quite late, though, and I saw one chair umpire shoot a reprimanding look at the linespeople after an "out" call he made himself.)

[AlistDakisa]

11:45 am - 1 pm: Nieminen v. Ebden. I move to the far side of the court (facing the umpire's chair) -- and discover, after the match begins, that I'm now a few seats away from Nieminen's coach, who periodically mutters encouragement to JN, in English: "C'mon, Jarkko." "Good basic pace. Good movement." "Just play. Point by point." "Move as good as possible and just play." "C'mon, c'mon. Positive. Here we go." "Is good, Jarkko. Active. You're the one. Let's go."

I'm so close to the court that a ball hops into my lap 2 minutes in. The ballkids are extremely well-rehearsed and adorably intense. (Their kits are ugly, though.) The roof is low enough that it gets hit by at least two of Ebden's shanks. The match is much closer than the scoreline indicates (many, many deuces) and Jarkko is visibly frustrated for much of it, talking back at his coach at one point, snapping his towel, and at one point methodically bouncing his racquet in a square pattern within the service box. Ebden questions one call with an incredulous "Really?"

One of the linesmen sounds and looks like Neil Patrick Harris. This is the point when I realize that even though I'm a Jarkko fan, it's time to head to Court 1.

[AlistDakisa]

[probably more like 12:45 pm] - 1:23 pm: Edouard Roger-Vasselin v. Igor Kunitsyn. ERV's leading 5-2 in the first set when I come in. He's visited by a trainer-doctor-supervisor combo after winning the set, but nothing hands-on, from what I can see. I find the match so uninteresting that I decide to head back to Court 2.

1:23 pm: start of Kohlschreiber-Ilhan. Both making lots of errors, but it's a tier up from ERV-IK. Turkish fans applauding PEHK's errors but only one German kid applauding Ilhan's goofs. (Crowd etiquette varies widely from match to match -- some French fans applauding errors, but then in larger matches like Mahut-Tomic people behave.) Late in the set, Ilhan gets a surge of energy after a linecall goes against him -- his court coverage improves -- but PEHK eventually takes it 63.

[AlistDakisa]

The final match I watched (and only one in its entirety) was Tomic-Mahut, on Court 1. Crowd was heavily pro-Mahut, of course, but there was also a warm greeting for Tomic and solid applause when he hit winners.

Tomic is larger and older-looking than I expected. It's kind of a pity these two met in the first round of quals, because they again seemed a level above the rest of the qual field, even though Tomic was having arm trouble (requested the trainer 1 point into his first service game, and again a game or two later; when Mahut requested the trainer at the end of the first set, Tomic pointed over to Mahut when the med team came out as if to say "It's him this time"). That said, Mahut was having some trouble with focus and with overhitting; on the other hand, Tomic gets caught flatfooted more often than not when Mahut rushes the net.

[Whew! I didn't realize writing even summaries would take this long -- sorry about the spammage, y'all. *sheepish* I'll confine future writeups to my own blog and post just the links here.]

[AlistDakisa]

2:05 pm: I head back to Court 1. To my dismay, Roger-Vasselin and Kunitsyn are still duking it out (62, 46, 23...). ERV hurls his racquet after losing serve. The crowd tries to encourage him but he eventually loses the set 36. ("Encouragement" means rhythmically clapping. Very little in the way of vocal support.)

As we wait for Clement-Rosol, there's a verbal kerfuffle in the stands between two small groups of fans; security eventually arrives (after repeated calls for it from one of them) but it's not clear to me what actually gets resolved (from what I can tell, both sets of fans remain where they are, fuming).

Rosol is like a poor man's Isner: tall, lanky, powerful serve, not so reliable return, pretty bad at net. He disagrees a number of times with the linecalling, but mildly and briefly. Clement does his share of snarking at the ump as well. Clement starts the match wearing goggles but ditches them after the 5th game. Rosol making liberal use of the resin box. This crowd is more fair -- I'm hearing "oh la la"s from the older French men next to me whenever someone hits a pretty winner, no matter who made the shot.

Around 4:30 pm, it becomes clear that Clement-Rosol will be heading to a third set (Clement alternating between brilliant droppers and shanks so wild they practically land in Aix), and I head to the vending machines (no concession stand open) and then to Court 2.

[AlistDakisa]

4:30 pm: Giraldo v. Gabashvili. Battle of the bumblebees (they're both wearing yellow and black kits). I'm a few rows back from Giraldo's coach. Both criticizing a number of linecalls (Giraldo gets a laugh from the crowd when he holds up and says "Three fingers" to indicate how off something was). Gabashvili overhitting lots -- Giraldo romps through the tiebreak.

5 pm: Paire vs. Istomin. This was the second-best match of the day for me -- Paire was the first player who seemed to me to be playing anywhere near form, although he was also the only player I saw receiving a point penalty (after repeatedly bouncing his racquet [but not breaking it] on both the court and its walls). He's also awfully fond of kicking the ball -- sometimes into the roof, sometimes into ballkids' hands. He and Andy Murray would make a killer hackysack duo. Istomin took a MTO to get his left foot treated -- major padding and taping on it, but he didn't seem especially hobbled before or after. Both guys showing much better shot selection/variety/pace and court coverage than the other matches I caught; they also seem to get along pretty well (there was one smash from BP that almost nailed DI, but instead of getting ticked, DI just grinned and BP grinned back).

[Vomephems]

Keep posting here! Nice to see some first hand reports!

[zueqhbyhp]

Nah, keep posting ribbons. Nice to read someone obviously enjoying themselves!

[finasteridonline]

Agreed! Love the reports, ribbons! So glad you're having such a great time!

[Soadiassy]

Huge thanks for your reports Ribbon. Love them.

[Relsenlilky]

can't find a draw yet that has the qualifiers placed, but Monday's OOP shows where all but 2 of them are:
http://www.fft.fr/sites/default/file...programme7.pdf

[FelixQY]

Del Potro is out (shoulder injury)