Saturday, October 14th
That’s what the Kremlin Cup is like at the end. Tomorrow is the finale, after which I leave for the beautiful country of Spain to perform at a tournament in Madrid. My managers take part in the organization of this tournament, and they make it very cool.
Every year on the eve of the tournament, they cast models around the world, and the best of them are invited to it as ... ball fights. It is not joke. They serve balls, bring us fresh towels and water during matches. Of course, it takes a lot of time to teach them all this - after all, beautiful women are not used to such roles. But for the fees that they are paid, they do it with pleasure. At the beginning of the competition, the girls are very focused on throwing the ball to us correctly, and at the end of the tournament they get so used that they begin to smile at the players. And it is always nice.
Some shadows come to the tournament just to meet one of these girls. And I know cases when players asked for phones of models directly during matches.
But something I ran ahead, because I still have the final in Moscow. Yesterday I finished training around 12:30 very hungry. I went to a restaurant of American and Greek cuisine, ordered shrimp and two servings of chicken wings. And he just started to eat, as he bit his tongue. He lost so much blood that he nearly died. The people who were around took care of me, and the operation was not required.
When I came back to Olimpiysky, I had to wait a long time for going to court. The girls who played first were obviously not ready for quick matches. I did not lose time. I ate, drank coffee, then fell asleep on the massage table. And it almost ended in tragedy. You know, people shudder in a dream. So, asleep, I shuddered so much that I almost fell off the table. I decided not to take any more risks and go eat some more. As a result, the stomach began to resemble an aquarium: a mixture of pasta, soup, pancakes, jam, tea, coffee, peach juice. And it’s easy to guess what began to bother me a couple of hours later.
Finally, they called to the court. It is always nice to play in decisive matches against a compatriot, especially when it is your friend. Today there was an almost full hall in that part of the "Olympic", which is reserved for the tournament. Thousand ten spectators, no less.
I recall one story. Once in Washington, he left the restaurant and heard someone calling with a Russian accent: “Marat!” He turned around, but he saw a dark-skinned guy. I was sure that it was not he who called me. And he speaks in pure Russian: “How are you?” I thought for a moment that this was a hallucination — the day was very hot. But it turned out that the guy is really a Russian emigrant. He was born nine months after the Moscow Olympics. Surprisingly, the world is arranged. You do not know in which corner of the world you will meet loved ones. I do not exclude that I have a couple of familiar penguins from the South Pole.
I won against Igor Kunitsyn very confidently. And then he gave out at least five million autographs. There are a lot of children here, and it's nice that they all recognize me and ask me to sign. And then somewhere in tournaments in Montreal or Cincinnati, when they come to me for an autograph with the question: “Who are you?”, I usually reply that my name is Federer, and I sign: “Your Roger”.
But now about the serious. Tomorrow I have, perhaps, the main match of the season. For the first time after an injury I play in the finals. And so it will be a shame to give in. When will there still be a chance to win the tournament at home?
Translation by Andrey IVANTSOV