Roadtrip to JPMorgan Chase Open

Hey Everyone! Before I start telling you my roadtrip, I just want to update you in todays tennis results. Top seed Maria Sharapova beat (2) Nadia Petrova 7-5,6-2 to win the the Generali Ladies Open in Linz,Ausria. On the mens side , World no. 1 Roger Federer beat (3) seed Fernando Gonzalez 6-3,6-2,7-6(3) to win the title at Davidoff Swiss Indoor Open in Basel, Switzerland. It's was his first title in his hometown,sweet. In Lyon 4th seed Richard Gasquet beat fellow frenchmen Marc Cicquel 6-3,6-1 to win also his first title in France at the Lyon Tennis Grand Prix. Anyway after the Linz Finals I got to talked to Nadia Petrova on the phone. It was sweet of her to stay on the phone for about 20 minutes. I thought it was a short conversation but it turned out to be a little linger than I expected. She asked me if I heared what happened to Mary Pierce ? She knows I like Mary a lot, LOL. Besides they're friends. She and the players gave her flowers and stuffed toys. The tournament staff even went to the hospital to give her "get well soon" wishes. She was feeling her pain, She's hoping that Mary will recover very soon. Her thoughts and prayers are with her. Nadia decided not to play in Hasselt. She needed a rest. Her injury hasn't totally healed yet. Hopefully she'll be fully fit to play the Masters in Madrid. Good Luck Nadj! We talked about other things, besides tennis. Sorry guys but its between me and her :) . After that we said our goodbyes. So that sums my day. After watching the Acura Classic for the whole entire week ,I decided to go to JP Morgan Chase Open in Carson, California. It was actually a two hours drive from downtown San Diego, even less, depending on traffic. Anyway It was the 8th of August 2006, the day before I was scheduled to fly back to New York. I decided to see Nadia and Anna play, it wasn't really planned but I went for it. I woke up very early on that tuesday morning. Took a shower, gathered my stuff, and left the house about 6:30 am. On the way to L.A. , I went to get gas and grabbed a coffee at Starbucks. Traffic was building up already around Delmar, 20 minutes away from downtown San Diego. It was bumper to bumper for about 30 minutes. I get to be impatient when it comes to traffic, but "Thank God" I brought enough cd's to keep me company,lol. Whatever happened to my cds?lol, can't seemed to find them anymore. Well ,If you think everyhting went smoothly according to plan? Think again! I missed my exit and ended up going up north, thanks to quick thinking, I got off to the next exit, luckily, the exit I got off to led to the tournament site. I arrived in the HomeDepot Center around 9:20-9:30 a.m. There were not many cars in the parking lot. So I was lucky I parked close to the stadium. I went straight to the ticket booth and asked them where the players entrance was. By the way Nadia and Anna didn't know I was gonna se them, I figured I just wanna surprise them. I saw Jelena Jankovic and her mom at the side of the entrance, I came up to her and gave her a kiss. We talked for a while, she was told to come early because she had to do a segment on the Tennis Channel titled "Bag Check". The show is actually about what's inside the bag of a tennis player. She was excited. I got to watch her filmed the show. After she finished She went straight to the players lounge and locker room. It was underneath the stadium. I couldn't go with her because I was still waiting for Tom Iwanski, Nadia's ex-coach. I sent him an sms telling him I was on the site. And hoping Nadia could give me the credential. What do you know, I saw Tom walking towards the stadium. So I went up to him and surprised him. When he saw me he just smiled. He didn't expect I would drive to L.A. just to see Nadia play. I told him I might come , but wasn't sure. Then I came . I told him if Nadia can help me out with my credential. In less than 5 minutes I got my badge. Tom told me I shouldn't worry because Nadia told him that I can always count on her. Not unless if it's in NY. She can only accomodate me with tickets because her family's always with her, if not her friends. I told her don't worry, it's cool. Besides She has given me more than enough. Tom told me Nadia wasn't gonna come till 11 :00 a.m. She was scheduled to play 3rd match on the stadium court againt Vivi . ( Virginia Ruano Pascual) Who happened to be a friend too. Me and Tom waited for her in one of the outside courts. By the way , The outside courts were open to the public. Which was very strange actually. Anyone can just basically come up to them and attacked them. There weren't even security guards standing next to the gates. In other words it wasn't safe enough. I wonder why players didn't complain about it? Oh well, I guess some of them just didn't bother. After 10 minutes of waiting, Nadia finally arrived. She was so surprised to see me, she couldn't believe I would go to L.A just to support her. After giving her a hug and a kiss, I told her I wouldn't miss it for the whole world. Infact I was looking forward to it. And besides it's my first time in Carson too. While warming up, Nadia asked me if I can stay for dinner, I replied, I don't mind at all. She continued warming up, at that point, I wanted to scream on the top of my lungs for being so happy. Nadia Petrova, world no. 6 at that time, inviting me for dinner. Crazy! While watching her practicing ,I called my sister to bring her the news, I kid you not, You can hear her scream from the other line. She was very happy for me. I wanted to call my friends but chose not to. I saved my stories when I got back to New York. After her practice we went straight to the players lounge, Nadia went straight to the locker room to change and got ready for the match. While waiting for the second match to finish, I hang out most of the time in the computer checking my email and other stuff. I was sitting next to Lucie Safarova, whom I met in San Diego the week before. She was very nice and very shy. She just just surfed the Internet while listening to her Ipod. After I checked my mail I went to join Tom In the corner of the players lounge ,watching the second match on the television screen. It was Meghann Shaugnessy against Nathalie Dechy, The match was a marathon, Nat won the first and Meg won the second, it was 3-3 in the 3rd set. All I can was the match took forever to finished. It lasted more than 2 hours . Meghann ended up winning the match. It was past 3 when Nadia and Virginia began to play. It was so freaking' hot on the stadium. I sat next to Tom. I remembered putting all the sun block on my body, believe me I get a sun burn too even if I'm Filipino, lol. Nadia wasn't in the match, She played poorly. Losing to Vivi in straight sets. She really struggled during the US hard court season. She couldn't find her rhythm thru out the season. I kept my distance and gave her space after she lost. I stayed in the players Lounge and waited for her to finished the interview. While waiting I got to talk to Jelena and Jelena's mom. They were both so nice. Jelena's mom even gave me 2 tickets for lunch and dinner buffet. I kept the other ticket for remembrance and used the other one for food. Nadia didn't finished for a while , So I decided to grab something and didn't wanna put the ticket Jelena's mom gave me. I had 2 bottles of powerade, 2 bottles of water and a can of diet coke and stuffed it in my bag. I wanted to bring it with me when I go back to San Diego. I had fruits and 2 pieces of brownies. The waiter forgot to take my ticket, sos on my way out I hand it to a complete stranger, I told him to just show the ticket and he'll be able to get in. Btw I left the waiter , who was originally from El Salvador, 5 dollar tip. He just gave me a juice. I can't complain besides I had free food, it the least I can do. And He was nice too. I went to the Players Lounge . Nadia finally got out of the media room andwent straight to the locker room and changed. I didn't like the players lounge really, it was so small and to crowded at times. There were hardly enough room to walk around. You can hear anyone on that room talking. Nadia finally emerged from the locker room she went straight to the players lounge talked to me while Tom was away. I told her we can cancel dinner and have it next time, besides I have to go back to San Diego soon, it was getting late anyway. She wanted to checked with Tom, because she would really like to have dinner with me. I just told her there's always next time , besides I ate in the VIP lounge already. She didn't wanna disappoint me but , I truly understood her, she just lost a match. Eating snacks with her in the players lounge was like having dinner with her already. And We had lunch together in Sab Diego too. So I can't really complain. After cancelling our plans , we had a picture taken together in the players lounge. And I took a picture of her and Tom Iwanski. She gave me her wristband and a signed postcard. I told her I'll see her in New York and Wished her Good Luck. I hugged her and gave her a kiss and said goodbye. It was exactly 6 P.M when I left Carson and drove back to San Diego. I got home around 9 PM. I had to stopped by Santana's and grabbed 3 beef burritos to take home with me to New York, lol. I love Santana's! S o that was my roadtrip to Carson. There was actually more to the story but I'll tell you next time! It's getting late actually.Thanks Everyone for reading! Hopefully I'll get to do more roadtrip in the future, so that I can share it with you again. Peace!