Paris, Day 5 aka French Open, Day 2

Paris, France

I grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs at the hotel (I guess Matthew is rubbing off on me!) then met Daddy and Jeffrey in the lobby for our first day in Chatrier at Roland Garros! Matthew had plans of his own (see the pics!). We navigated the Metro very easily then caught the complimentary van from the RG Metro stop to the venue itself – what a nice treat! We were hoping to see Sloane Stevens play on Court 1 but found out our tickets weren’t valid for that stadium. Lucky for me, we wandered onto one of the smaller courts nearby and found out that Rafa Nadal was scheduled to practice there in just a few minutes – SCORE! Rafa, Uncle Toni, and Marc Lopez came out for a hit – we were sitting front row courtside, and I was, of course, hanging on the fence in complete awe! The pace of the ball coming off their racquets was incredible! They hit for about 45 minutes or so, then left the court in time for John Isner and Janko Tipsaravic to warm up. As we were walking toward the exit, I yelled, “Go Bulldawg!” and John looked over and smiled at me!

We headed over to Chatrier to find our seats and to watch Victoria Azarenka play Alize Cornet, a local favorite. Azarenka wound up winning in 3 tough sets. Next up were Maria Sharapova and Jie Zheng, another tough match. Then, the highlight of the day for me: Rafael Nadal versus Fabio Fognini! Before the first serve of the match, I spotted Rafa’s momma in his player’s box crossing herself – being a Tennis Parent is tough no matter what level your child plays! Those two were making shots that just blew my mind! I was in complete and total heaven! And, to top it off, I got to experience my very first French Open Wave! After Rafa finished off Fognini, Daddy and I went in search of a snack and decided on an ice cream bar from the Hagen-Dazs concession – yum! Novak Djokovic played Grigor Dmitrov who I was excited to see live. The match wound up being pretty boring, though, as Nole pretty much destroyed Dmitrov in straight sets. Regardless, it was an incredible day of tennis!

We left RG around 8:45 pm, just in time to catch the last van back to the Metro station. Jeffrey left us to go meet some other French friends of his for drinks and dinner, so Daddy and I headed back toward the hotel for a late dinner at Terminus. We both had the amazing onion soup au gratin, then I had foie gras and crepes for dessert. Our server, Nicolas, was adorable and helped us decipher the menu since we didn’t have Jeffrey there to interpret!