Queen's (Stella Artois championship) London June 10th - 12th
Centre Court, quarter-finals day
I went to the Stella Artois in
Queen's, the traditional
warm-up tournament for
men before Wimbledon.
Some of the big stars were
there, including Roddick,
Hewitt, Henman, Grosjean
and Srichapan.
I stayed in the De Vere
Cavendish on Jermyn Street,
downtown.
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Queen's is probably the most exclusive club in
London (moreso than Wimbledon), due to its
ultra-posh location, by Kensington and
Knightsbridge
Me, mugging it after Lleyton Hewitt dispatched
the awesome Russian, Andreev
Bumped into Boris Becker
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This happened in one of the club's restaurants. He was
schmoozing some corporate guests. I stopped him and
asked him whether he felt sorry for Ivan Lendl, who never
won at Wimbledon (Becker won three times, including twice
as a teenager). He said he didn't.
Hung around the practice courts
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The practice courts are the best places to watch how the top players actually hit the
ball. I found Guillermo Coria, the French Open finalist, world number four and
Wimbledon third seed, practising with one of his mates on one such court
And finally watched a few matches
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v
Igor Andreev, 20 year old Russian with fastest
ground strokes I've ever seen
Lleyton Hewitt,
Wimbledon
champion 2002
And saw A-Rod break the world serve record
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Andy Roddick, the 21 year old world number one from
Omaha, Nebraska, broke his own world serve record by
hitting a 153mph rocket in this game against
Paradorn Srichapan. Most players barely make it past
120mph
More A-Rod...
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