Day 2 (Sunday): Mario is polite but not friendly, surprisingly JCF is becoming the opposite :)

Mission Complete!

Thanks to Christina's tips ;) I found out when JCF was appearing today so I pretty much had the morning free. Apparantly Mario had already practiced (this was at 9.30am) so I wasn't expecting to see him at all. But thought it was weird - unless he's going somewhere else for those tourist things????

Anyway, I haven't actually given anything to JCF for a couple of years now and this time, I made an effort! loool. The plan was to make a calendar with fan messages on them. I had to go to the photo printing place to get a couple of the pages printed so by the time I got to the tennis, it was after noon. Here's the finished product (sorry I didn't take a pic of each page, but yeah, most of it is my old site layouts! whooo. I'm so lazy!)


The front cover (in action!) & what the pages look like



So I found Via at the qualifying match between Zverev & Lapentti. I wanted to take photos but the match was behind the fence so I didn't. We just talked for a bit and then was planning to get some food, but found Christina on the way. Eventually, we just waited for JCF loool.

JCF appeared rather early and said "Hola!" ^^ I gave him the calendar and he made his way to the practice court. I'm surprised that a few Brisbane ppl recognised him and he did a couple of autograph stops along the way. As the previous person hadn't finished he sat on the grass area (Heineken Hill as it's known!) next to the court to wait. There he proceeded to open that calendar...........and my card. X_X I don't remember what I wrote!!!!!


Showing it to his coach / reading my ramblings @@ / flipping it himself!

I think that was when I lost it (Christina and Via saw how I fangirled at that moment.... I didn't think I had it in me anymore! loooool) and don't remember much else. But I'm sure I repeated a few times that I am not a fan of his current hairstyle. Surely it's his natural colour????



After he finished he signed a few autographs again, took photos and headed back. We didn't say anything to him, but as he left he waved goodbye ^_^

I would be pretty content to head home at that moment, but Christina had heard that Mario might be practicising at 5pm. Although the source was not very reliable, since I made it all the way out here I might as well stay. So we waited for Robin Soderling's match (against Sam Querrey) to start at court 10. Court 10 is a crappy little court right next to "Heineken Hill". We sat and talked about Swedes, and she put evil ideas in my head that I should go to Adelaide to see PimPim. LOOOOL. Oh YES it's tempting. I'm hoping that if PimPim flew all the way here he must maake a stop at Melbourne??? Please?

The previous match on court 10 was taking a while to finish so we thought we'd go to the centre court area to make sure Robin's match haven't been moved. And surprise surprise I was moved to centre court! We didn't have centre courts tickets but some nice people gave us theirs :) I watched about 7 games before heading off to see if Mario is there.



Instead of Mario I saw Jarkko coming out. Since there're no sightings of the Croatian I did stop to watch Jarkko for a little. He's playing Marcos tomorrow. It does look like Marcos is rather popular here but I'm hoping Jarkko will win! He was hitting quite well, so hopefully that'll help.



I was thinking about leaving but just then, I saw Mario's coach walking past. I did read on MTF his brother Ivica is his coach now and I do see *a little* resemblence but I didn't want to assume! So I had to confirm whether he's really coaching Mario and asked when he was practicising. He told me 7pm................ X_X He obviously likes a late dinner. I was debating whether to stay and since Tsonga was practicising I took a few photos.



After more debating I went to get some water and on the way I er.... bumped into JCF. He has a habit of surprising me. Although I'm sure he was just as surprised as I was lol. He said he was going to practice so yes, I stayed.

He waited at one of the courts because they didn't know where he was actually booked. He spoke! In coherent sentences! I understood what he asked! He understood what I said! I consider that a miracle! JCF has changed quite a lot over the years, he was always polite but now he's actually friendly. Poor thing was jetlagged though, he was yawning a lot! He only arrived last night so he doesn't have any comments on Brisbane as yet, although he did mention the tournament ppl are treating him well. He asked why they built roofs over the show courts.... er.... and I explained how stupid it was yesterday when it was raining and they couldn't play, even with the roofs. So I don't know! Anyway, during this his coach had to go back and find out what the court bookings were, so it was just me, and him. One word - Awkward. ARGH. He was speaking briefly to someone on the practice court though, it was in Spanish and the only two words I made out of that conversation was.... Prison Break. LOL.

So important thing - he's feeling jetlagged but physically ok. His wrist was strapped though but I didn't ask.

After god knows how long his coach finally came back with a court number. Fate has it he's practicising with Verdasco on the court next to Mario / Tsonga. At the same time. =.=

A time to test where my alliances lie. Since I saw JCF already today I watched Mario for a bit. I have to say I miss 'husband' though! (That's his previous coach, Fiddie Rosengren) I thought the "Swedishness" was a good influence... oh well.



Tsonga was serving well but Mario wasn't bad. I don't think he's at his best yet, but things aren't that grim.

As Mario finished up earlier.... I watched the end of JCF/Verdasco.



We said goodbyes and finally, I can call it a day. I guess I should embrace the long days while they last, since it's Monday tomorrow!

I'm rostered on tomorrow so not much fangirling can be done. :)