Tuesday at Lisbon and the Estoril Open

My day started with a lot of stress as I almost missed my flight because I overslept ! I waked up 1h before the departure of the flight but arrive at the airport 40min before thanks to a great taxi driver !!! I made a nice flight and I was in the hotel at 11. Just enough time to settle down and took the special bus at noon at Cais do Sodre. The weather was perfect as it was sunny and more than 20°C.

I was at the Estadio Nacional for the Estoril Open about 40 min later on, I had the time to walk through the alley of the tournaments, had a couple a pizza slices and went into the Central Court waiting the 1st round match between Roger Federer and Olivier Rochus of Belgium.

Prior to this match there was a ladies match between Sanda Mamic from Croatia and local hope Michelle Larcher de Brito. It wasn't very interesting as there was a lot of mistake and in the end the Croatian won in 3 sets.

Then it was a match between the N°3 seed Ivo Karlovic and another local hope Rui Machado. The match was even less interesting than the first match as Karlovic was injured at his right leg and retired after losing the first set 6-1.

Then we had to wait for about 1h before Federer and Rochus enters on the court, so I went into the Fun Centre tried to beat the fastest serve record (120 mph, about 200kmh) and I did 75 mph (about 120kmh) !! I had another snack, and took a hot dog this time before Federer enters the Central Court with a lot of people watching him walking in the alley with over 5 bodyguards.


The match was the 6th meeting between both players with Federer wining all of the previous encounters, but some with trouble. It was also the first clay-court match of Federer since last year Roland-Garros final where he lost to Nadal in 4 sets. We could see clearly that he needed some time to adjust his game to this surface. That's why he took a new coach, Jose Higueras. He was the former coach of Jim Courier when he won his two Roland Garros title.

The match started well for Federer having few break point opportunities in the second and fourth game of the match and then on a bad game an a couple of very good return of serve from Rochus, Federer was broken and lost the first set 6-4. We could after this first set loss ha was ready to play more aggressive and didn't let his opponent take control of the points as he won the last 2 sets with ease 6-3 6-2.


After his win he stayed on the court for a race with small cars, it was very funny and he seemed to enjoy it. Of course he won the race !

I was very happy to see that this match lasted 3 sets as it permitted to see more Federer in the very nice sunshine. It was the last match I've saw on this day. After that I took the train which is on the coast. And I stopped in Belem, which is a must see place for any tourist and where there is the most famous pasteleria of Lisbon where they make this little pasteis and it is delicious.

Then I came back at the hotel very tired, had a nice dinner and went straight to bed.