Our trip to Berlin was primarily for the Ladies German Tennis Open. Originally I had hoped to see Justine Henin, but she pulled out before the tournament due to a virus. Then during the week Kim Clijsters retired from a wrist injury.
So there was only a few top names to look forward to. We had tickets to the semi-finals, and finals.
We arrived in Berlin early Saturday morning, found our hotel then went straight out to the tennis. After a bit of a walk through the forest we found someone who knew the right way and pointed us in the direction of the stadium.
There was lots going on around the corporate area, including a great 8 year old showing off her considerable skills. We had lunch and wine and then watched a few players warming up.
The first semi was Amelie Mauresmo (world number 3) against Jennifer Capriati (world number 8 ). I was looking forward to this as these are two top ten players of a similar style, unfortunately Capriati doesn’t always have her head in the right place and the game was over very quickly, 6-2, 6-0, with Jennifer basically giving up.
The second semi was an unknown Karolina Sprem against Venus Williams. Most people were expecting a repeat of the first semi, but surprising everyone including herself, Karolina got out to a 3-0 lead before Venus even blinked. She seemed to have no answer as Sprem hit winner after winner down the line. The first set was won by Sprem 6-2. Venus found her stride and won the second set 6-3. With a decider Venus took a medical break for her thigh, and came back more focused. Sprem fought hard and after a very long rally at 4 all Venus rolled an ankle. Sprem had nothing left to close out the game so Venus bad ankle and all managed to take the set 6-4. Still a very exciting game.
We had an uneventful evening eating close by our hotel on the Kurfurstendamm – a famous Berlin shopping street.