At the age of 8 I started playing tennis. My dream was to become a professional tennisplayer and because clay is the main surface to play in the Netherlands, Roland Garros is the tournament to compete in. Unfortunately a professional tenniscareer was at least one bridge too far but a visit to this grandslam was possible ofcourse.
After a couple of years practising I started to play tennis a bit more seriously and I joined the local talents. One of them was Martin Verkerk, he was even from my hometown. He wasn’t the most talented player when he was twelve years of age but when he got older he became a more serious competitor. In the age category till 12 he was just in the top 10 but till 18 he was the best. He had a good chance of becoming a professional. Because he was from the same town as myself, I followed his progression closely. A couple of years later he started competing in futures and challengers. In the beginning of 2003 he had his breakthrough by performing very well in challengers and getting into the top 100 of the world. He started to play on the atptour and did well. He won an atp tournament in Milan and made it to the quarters in Rome and the finals in Sankt Poelten. As a result he qualified for Roland Garros and me and my friend ArJan jumped in the train to Paris…
The Thalys brings you to Gare du Nord comfortably. We made some t-shirts promoting the website we just developed, a fansite of our former friend. We took the subway to Bois de Boulogne where Roland Garros is located. We went straight to the small court where Martin was playing his match against Zeljko Krajan. We were actually just in time because the match turned out to be one-sided. Luckily for us it was Martin who dominated the game, 6-3 6-4 6-4. We watched some matches afterwards on the other courts. One of them involved a young Russian female talent who became one of the most famous tennisplayers of all time. Her name: Maria Sharapova. We didn’t have a clue then…
Back home we followed the tournament as it progressed. Martin survived matchpoints in the second round and easily defeated Vince Spadea in the third. The man we used to practise with from our hometown was in the fourth round of a grandslam, impressive. Could he make it to the second week? Yes, he defeated Rainer Schuettler in order to face Carlos Moya in the quarters. It was about to become a big hype in the Netherlands. At the tennisclub, both me my friend and Maritn were members of, they put a big screen in the clubhouse and we watched the match all together with hundreds of people. Even the national television was there!
He was in good form and dominated the first two sets before the Spaniard came back winning set three and four. A decider was needed to determine the winner. After a real thriller of a fifth set, Martin came out on top and was through to the semis. We had to go back to Paris to see this live! Early Fridaymorning, around 4 am, I hopped in the car with a friend and we drove the 500 km to the French capital.
The last hurdle to reach the final was Guillermo Coria, the favourite to win the title. He was the man to beat as he dominated the claycourt season so far. The match was played at center court, Philippe Chatrier. We bought our tickets through Martin’s brother and when we entered the stadium it turned out more people had done that. Surrounding our seats were about 100 people from our hometown or neighbouring villages. We were all supporting Martin. He played the best match I have ever seen him play. He beat the Argentine 7-6 6-4 7-6.
Martin’s girlfriend was close friends with Paul Haarhuis’ wife. The Dutchman made it to the doubles final with Kafelnikov which resulted in prime seats on Saturday. In a nice sunshine we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon watching a final of a grandslam. Unfortunately Haarhuis was slightly injured and they lost the final to the Bryan brothers.
In the remaining afternoon and evening people from back home were calling constantly trying to get tickets for the final on Sunday. My parents and even my sister and her husband, who never visit sporting events, came over. Tension was rising the next morning and everybody was excited to see the match. It rained the night before which was not a good sign. Dry clay is faster which benefits Martin’s game. A slow court is in Ferrero’s favour. Juan Carlos Ferrero, nicknamed the mosquito, is one of the best claycourt players. He is light and quick and has a great fitness whereas Verkerk is a tall player with a great serve and good groundstrokes but definitely not fitter than Ferrero. Together with the nerves of playing his first grandslam final he was definitely the underdog. Ferrero lost the final the previous year so he had passed that station. It turned out to be a one-sided final. Ferrero won easily 6-1 6-3 6-2.
Regardless of his loss in the final it was a great experience to see someone you know play at the highest level. We enjoyed parties downtown Paris with his manager we wouldn’t experience otherwise. The boy we used to play tennis with when we were young was now named “Le Roi Martin (King Martin)”.
Be First to Comment