Red dirt plus rain equals red mud

Our third day at Roland Garros started off well. After previous visits we knew when to arrive and where to go to be well situated to see some world class tennis. We settled on Court 2 where we were scheduled to see Elena Dementieva, David Ferraro, and Lleyton Hewitt, all without leaving our covered seats in the small grandstand. It was cloudy but dry when we arrived. We stopped in front of the statue of Rene Lacoste, one of the better known of the Three Musketeers of French tennis. A photo of the bicyclist is below with the great French tennis player.

We went to the court and staked out our claim with at least a half hour to spare before the 11 o'clock start time. At 10:50 it began to rain and they covered the court with a green tarp, shown below as it puddled up.



Until after 3:30, all we saw was rain and the spectators across the court holding up umbrellas. Very few spectators left the grandstand, because, at the French Open, if you leave the stadium you lose your seat and must join a massive queue to be readmitted. They seem to count on people moving from court to court to allow all the spectators a chance to view the beat tennis players in the world. There were six young guys amongst the crowd, umbrella-less, all wearing "I [heart] Paris" tee shirts and berets, who got drenched to the bone, but stayed for the tennis throughout.


From our seats we could see part of the Philippe Chartrier court - the show court - and the flags above it. The four central flags of USA, UK, France, and Australia represent the countries where the four Grand Slams of tennis are played each year.


Finally at 3:40 the ground crew took off the tarp and readied the court for action again. Then for an hour and a half we saw a great women's singles match between Russian Elena Dementieva and Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues. Dementieva is pictured below during warm ups.


Anabel is shown during play, I think in the first set. It was a pretty good battle with the Russian winning finally 6-2, 7-6. They are both hard hitting, very athletic players. Neither has won a grand slam event, although Dementieva was singles runner up in the US Open in about 2004.


It was a good view of top tennis, probably not enough of it, but all that Mother Nature was allowing this rainy day in Paris.

We came home from the courts on a city bus through Paris and stopped and bought some takeout French pizza for leisurely eating at our home away from home.