Vera's Moscow Blog 10/21/09 - 俄網 Tennis

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Well I didn't get to bed until about 2am last night and I was hoping to sleep
in, but that didn't really happen! I guess I'm just used to waking up early
and I got up around 8/830am today... but it was okay, I had a nice breakfast
at the hotel, read a few newspapers again... actually I took some pictures
from breakfast, I ate at the restaurant on the top floor of the hotel and
there's a great view of the Kremlin. I've put the picture above. It's a bit
cold outside, like 4 or 5 Celsius, but it was sunny today even though the
forecast was rain. It's chilly but nice :)

When I got on site I did some exercises and warmed up, then had a very good
practice session with Vera Dushevina. I did a few more things in the gym,
popped into the training room for some treatment then grabbed some dinner.
The food is pretty good at the Kremlin Cup - they have a buffet for us with
anything we would want. You can't see Center Court from there but I was
watching Davydenko and Safin's match on TV. The crowd was cheering for Marat
mostly, because it's his last Kremlin Cup. He's planning to retire at the end
of the season and he has never won here, so I think they really want to
support him. Anyway, Davydenko won the first set but Safin won in three!

Marat is a great champion and is very popular in Russia. I'd even say he's
the most popular tennis player in Russia, so a lot of people are coming to
watch him this week. He wants to finish on a good note - and it would
definitely be a good finish to win here! When the match was over I left. The
schedule for tomorrow isn't out yet but I'm playing my second round. Another
tough one!

So I finally finished the movie last night... there were only about 20
minutes left. I've seen better comedies before, but it was still funny. I
enjoyed it.

Well, not much else to say about today... I'm just going to take it easy and
hope to do my best tomorrow. I'll talk to you all again afterwards!

Goodnight,

Vera

What's your favorite movie? Jessica, Venezuela
My favorite one is an old, old Russian movie, in English it would be
"Everything's Gonna Be All Right". Other than that I love the Bourne movies
with Matt Damon, I love all of his movies. I like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, too.
The Bodyguard... I love the movie. The soundtrack is famous too and I think
the songs match well with the movie, but I don't think I'd listen to them on
their own :)

Are you still doing school on the side? Mark, USA
I am. I'm a little bit behind with my school though. I had to put it on the
side a bit because over the last little while I've had so much treatment, so
it was tough to combine my schedules. But I'm trying my best and doing exams
whenever I can, I have a few to catch up on. Hopefully I can do that in the
off-season!

Who was your favorite player growing up? Bobby
Yevgeny Kafelnikov. I loved watching him play. He's one of the most famous
tennis players ever in Russia. He was amazing. He even gave me his autograph,
when I was a ballgirl at this tournament, I had a Russian flag with me and
asked him for his autograph, and he signed it. I think he was my idol!

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