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French Open, May 29: Michael's second round match
(by Yuan-Kwan Chan)
Hi everyone, I am at the French Open right now! The weather is absolutely gorgeous today, a stark contrast to yesterday's on/off showers. As you probably know, Michael's match was cancelled and moved to today. What a treat this match was; even though he was cheated somewhat by being scheduled on a side court (Court 2), this might very well be the only chance for me to see him here. By the time I had bought my ticket and waited in a very long line to see him play, Michael had already won the first set 7 to 5 after coming back from 3-5 down. Luckily I was able to get a front row seat right behind Michael next to a Californian guy. (There are TONS of Americans here, everywhere I turn I seem to bump into them) When I made my way down, I heard Michael speak *in French* to a ballboy. The only sentence that I really caught was "Il est là," which means "He is there," pointing over to Carl sitting in the box area near some photographers. I think he wanted to give some equipment to Carl. Anyway, Michael's French seems to be pretty up to snuff, even though he was grinning self-consciously at having to use his French. :o) Michael looked pretty razor-sharp during this match. At one point, van Lottum took an injury timeout, so Michael bided the time by jogging up and down the lines, doing stretches and lunges, and windmilling his arms to loosen up. Eventually Michael won the match after Van Lottum withdrew due to injury, the score being 7-5 6-2 3-0. Afterwards, Carl walked onto the court to give Michael some H2O, I believe, to "refresh his system." Michael signed my copy of A. Magazine and I asked him how his wrist was. "It's getting better, thanks." He then signed autographs not only in the area behind his chair but also in THREE other places around the court, including further down our side, all the way across on the side opposite where we were, and near the door where he exited. Very gracious of him to do that because a lot of other players seem to be less accomodating here. After he left, a gaggle of French schoolgirls was practically squealing at the top of their lungs because they had Michael's autographs in their hands. They also freaked out when they saw the word "love" in the "Jesus Loves You!" phrase (anyone who has seen Michael's signature knows about his unique penmanship). One of the girls, who was Asian, didn't manage to get Michael's autograph and started whining to her friends. I don't think I've seen girls go this ga-ga before over him in my life! :)
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