The Adventures of Lory and Z's Travels: Roland Garros 2014 (French Open)

Z found that we could get general admission tickets for either Monday afternoon or evening, but it meant that we had to be at a computer with internet access at 3pm Sunday. So we planned our Sunday around this. We decided we'd look at purchasing the evening ticket option because that gave us time still during the day to do some last touring around Paris. The general admission ticket would give us access to any of the games being played on the outside courts and also gave us the opportunity to upgrade to one of the 2 main inside courts for an additional cost. The general ticket was very reasonable at 12 Euro. We did have to arrive early so we could line up to get the upgrade. We arrived shortly after 3pm and the line wasn't too long yet. The gates wouldn't open until 5pm for us to try and get our tickets upgraded. At 5pm a disorganized dash to the security check point occurred, but we were pretty close to the front that it didn't really slow us down too much...a little maneuvering and perhaps cutting some people off got us to the front a little quicker. We had determined which inside court we wanted to try and get tickets for 2 reasons; 1) Andy Murray was playing on one court and that was at least a player I knew by name and 2) Monfils, a French player, was playing on the main inside court and so all the French fans would head towards that court making it harder to get tickets. Our decision turned out to be the right one because not only did we get tickets to the Murray/Verdasco match, it turned out to be an incredible match to watch. And the upgrade only cost an additional 30 Euro each. I originally thought Murray would squash Verdasco because Murray is ranked 7th while Verdasco is something like 24th, but it was an intense back and forth, very exciting match. I was amazed at the power these players have.....one of the serves clocked in at 206 km/h, and the pure accuracy of their volleys and returns was so exciting to get to see in person. Murray did end up winning the match 3-0 but the last set was won by a tie break.

We were supposed to see a second match on this same court, Kuznetsova vs. Safarova, but because the Murray/Verdasco match last almost three hours, this match got shifted to another court. After the first match ended we thought about leaving because there were no matches going on on the outside courts, but Z thought we should try to see if we could get in to see the women's match which got shifted to another court. I was skeptical that we could, but when we asked the ticket person directed us to another area of the stadium which wasn't too full and said we could get in there. This match was already well under way, but we got to see a couple games before it ended with Kuznetsova winning 2-0.

I've never watched a live tennis match before, so this was a whole new experience. I was in awe at the skill and talent these players have and their ability to play hard for such a length of time without showing too much fatigue. This was an absolutely thrilling experience. I always had watching Wimbledon or the US Open live on my bucket list, but this has certainly quenched this desire for now.