Red Clay

It has been some little while since my last blog post due, I think, to some disillusionment with social media generally but more to my not wanting to make this a travelogue. Sort of been there, done that kind of thing. That's why the Greek Odyssey petered out early on. Sorry about that. It was a great trip. An abiding memory for us.

So, onto this one. And yes it is a tale of a trip but one that Viv and I have planned out in our minds for quite some time. Going to the European red clay tennis tournaments, but not the culminating French Open as we have been to that already and were a little disappointed overall with the event. Organisers and media may say look how well done this event was. So many more people attended this year. And so on. What they tend to forget is that they jack up prices to even more egregious levels each year and crowd people together even worse than before. The French Open for example is a great location of course, but probably maxed out in terms of the numbers of people it could properly hold 20 years ago. Today it is just a zoo. Endless crowds, lines everywhere. Ridiculous prices. It was not a great experience. Incidentally I feel the same about Wimbledon (and have done so for years). The US and Aussie Opens size wise can take the crowds as the venues are enormous, but there you have another issue. The enormous size of the venues. On balance I tend towards the Aussie Open as my favourite. Below the major level of tournament are the second tier, so-called 1,000 point events. In the red clay season, these are Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome. I have been going to Rome since it was a men only event in 2003, today it is a mixed event lasting 10 days like Madrid. This is a way I believe to make the women's events actually commercially viable as the big draws in the last 20 years certainly have been on the men's side with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic being the huge draws. Only Monte Carlo remains a men only event today. Below this level are the 500 point events, third tier events that the lesser ranked players compete in more readily but which attract some of the top names as well. In the red clay season, this includes Barcelona and maybe I think Estoril in Portugal (but that may be a 250 point event). As the red clay calendar goes Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and then finally Paris, Viv and I thought why the hell not? So here we are.

Monte Carlo has just finished for us. We watched the semi-finals yesterday and are moving on today. Finals have a tendency to not be great matches and for the extortionate prices are not really worth it. We have watched a few and that has been the case for most. The most notable exception being the Nadal/Federer final in Rome we skipped which turned out to 5 1/2 hours long and ended the tradition of 5-set finals in those 1000 point events as neither player was able to play the following week and pulled out of those events. Money won as usual with organisers cutting the length of matches down to 3 sets but of course keeping the ticket price the same.

Monte Carlo has been great though and could easily become my most favourite tennis tournament going forward. The location is small, venue is tiny really although on the side of the mountains so very hilly. Quality is outstanding and for us this year the weather has been brilliant. Expensive, of course but that is Monte Carlo. The tennis prices were no more expensive than at other places so if you like tennis, this really is a great place to come. For me though, this year is tempered with a little sadness. Federer has gone. This will be Nadal's last year (and a good part of why we wanted to do this trip this year). Djokovic is clinging on. His ego says he can still do it, but let me tell you that that from watching seems to be the only part of him that says he can. Viv pointed out that it is far easier to say you're keen to carry on and play (and do all the back breaking training, traveling, etc) than actually do it when you've won as much as Djokovic has. One game he played against a guy he'd never played before, probably didn't know his name. It was awful to watch. Clearly he wished he was anywhere than on the court and his play showed it. Had his opponent been less overawed at the chance of playing him, he would surely have lost. Yet somehow Djokovic prevailed in as ugly a manner as there could be. This did not do him much good for he lost the following day (last night as I write) again in agonising circumstances. Great as he was, he no longer is and I think these matches this year may be the final actions of a wonderful career. I do not think Djokovic's ego wants to give up yet, but I do not think that will be enough when he loses week after week to players he doesn't know. In addition, he is getting grumpier and grumpier too. Never a fan favourite, he's fast becoming a grumpy curmudgeon. Perhaps this will be the final year of the Big Three. I am not sure I will be as interested in the newest batch of very tall guys that hit the ball incredibly hard time after time after time after time after time. The older guys seemed to have a bit more nuance to them. Perhaps this is an extension of the old T-shirt logo: the older I get, the better I was. The venue itself is something out of a fairy tale... except for the new tennis club bits of course. Not sure if it started in 1897, 1927 or 1928 as there were signs up for all these dates. The VIP seats overlook the court below and have a fantastic view of the Med. Just gorgeous and it all rather left us wishing we were very, very wealthy indeed. I surely would drive my Lamborghini SUV here (I couldn't get into or out of the sports version any more!) and know I could park it anywhere I damn well chose.

Today we move on. Our tour next takes us to Barcelona. We will be driving and stopping off along the way at some interesting places. Very much looking forward to it.