Sunday 2nd June: Weather: 16°C to 31°C: Sunny and hot with a dry wind
Paris: Tennis at Roland Garros with ground passes
Accommodation: Air BnB 20 Place de Nation
Ladies doubles Court 1
Mens double John Peers Court 1
Barty and Azerenko win on Court 7
Ash Brty in action womens doubles
Ian wathing Barty./Azerenko
Barty/Azerenko win 2nd round
Home to a beer and nuts
Highlight was being at the French Open with ground passes for 6 hours, and watching Ash Barty and Victoria Azerenka win the 2nd round ladies doubles.
Awake at 6.30am to do some phoning/blogging/emailing then Ian trots off to the Boulangerie to buy a fresh baguette to take to the tennis. Breakfast of coffee muesli and bread and jam and we leave at 9.30am to catch the metro line 9 to Michel Angelo Molitor. 26 stops and 36 minutes later we’re walking the 1k to Roland Garros. It’s a brilliant sunny day and signs of it being very hot. The queue is shorter than 2 days ago and soon we’re in and heading to Court 1 where there’s two ladies doubles matches. We find a spot in the shade of the TV box, along with 10 other people as it’s already hot.
The first match is Kichenov/Ostapenka who defeat Heieh/Strycova 7 - 5. 6 - 1. Then it was time for a cheese and butter baguette with a cold drink of water. The second match was the mens doubles with the Australien John Peers playing with the Finn Kontinen. They were beaten by the American pair Ram/Salisbury 3 - 6, 6 - 3, 7 - 6. The tennis was really good, but we decided that Peers needed to find another partner as Kontin never hit a return of serve for the last set and cost them the match
But the best match of all was when we shifted to Court 7 to watch Barty/Azerenka defeatBencic/Kuzmova 4 - 6, 7 - 6, 6 - 1 after staving off 3 match points at the end of the second set tie breaker. It was very up close and personal sitting only 8 rows back from the front and getting the feel for the players. There was no shade, and by then the sun had shifted so theer was no escape, but there was a dry breeze blowing to make the heat a bit more tolerable.
All in all, it was 6 hours of great tennis but by 5pm, we were ready to go home. Back to Michel Ange Molitor to Line 9 and another 26 stops and 36 minutes later we’re back at Place de Nation and up into our appartement. A few beers and nuts later and we’re ready for pork filet mignon, again, with salad.