FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

ROLAND GARROS 2015

A PHOTO ESSAY

By

Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFAsuleaos@gmail.com

http://www.scribd.com/Alatenumo/documents

TABLE OF CONTENT

Preface

Chapter 1 : The Event

Chapter 2: Queen Serena’s Moment

Chapter 3: Psyching Out The Opposition

Epilogue

With Queen Serena through to the semi-final of the 2015 French Open, I eagerly looked forward to my visit to Paris for the last fourdays of the championship. As I packed my bag, I took my four Serena Williams inspired T- shirts, which I planned to wear during themen and ladies semi final and the men and ladies final.

It was an exciting four days at Roland Garros as I got to watch six keenly contested single matches and a number of doublesmatches. After getting to Roland Garros, I met up with two members of the Serena Williams fan club (known as the Renas Army).We discussed Queen Serena's chances of winning her third French Open title and we were confident that she would prevail. At 12noon, I went to Court 4 to see the Queen train. When she stepped into the court, it was obvious something was wrong. The Queenkept on coughing and she was not hitting her shots accurately. Every couple of minutes, her coach Patrick Mouratoglou gave her atowel and the Queen coughed into it. Several times during the training session, she bent down in agony as the crowd looked on.Ten minutes later, the Queen held her chest, walked towards her chair, took her bag and cut short her training session. I wasconcerned for her health, especially as I remembered her health scare during her doubles match at Wimbledon last year.

In the first ladies semi final, Anna Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion took on Lucie Safarova who had earlier eliminated anumber of formidable players like Muguruza and Sharapova. At the conclusion of the match, Safarova had taken another scalp asshe beat Ivanovic in two straight sets. The second semi featured Queen Serena against Timea Bacsinszky. Surely, this will be awalkover for the Queen. Not at all. The Queen showed the same traits she displayed during her training. She was coughing and notrunning for the balls. During the changeover, she walked at an extremely slow pace. The Queen was operating on gear 1 and shelost the first set 6-4. So for the fourth time in four matches the Queen needed to overcome a set deficit to qualify for the next round.

Was I concerned? Yes and No. I knew she was really in a bad state, but I believed she could play better. I also remembered thefirst time I ever saw the Queen play, when she injured her calf muscle and was still able to defeat Hantuchova at Wimbledon. Ithought to myself that if the Queen could win a match playing with practically one leg, surely the flu should not be able to stop herfrom winning. I was right as the Queen switched to gear 7 midway into the second set and won ten consecutive games to win thematch. So the Queen was through to the final to face Lucie Safarova.

The following day was the men's semi final featuring Wawrinka vs. Tsonga and Murray vs. Djokovic (Djoker). In the first semi-final,Tsonga could not take advantage of the support from the crowd, as he found no answer to Wawrinka's ferocious backhand; he lostby three sets to one. The next match between Murray and Djokovic looked to be a one sided affair as Djoker won the first two sets.But Murray woke up and won the third set. At three all in the fourth set, play was suspended due to a coming storm. The following

day, play resumed and Murray continued where he stopped as he took the fourth set to force the match into a deciding fifth set.Early in the fifth set, the pendulum shifted back to Djoker’s who won it 6-1.

Prior to the ladies final, there were speculation among journalists and in social media as to whether the Queen will be fit enough todefeat Safarova in the final. Others suggested that the Queen was faking her illness to unsettle her opponents. However, theQueen ignored these distractions. She had her training session in the afternoon and she looked much better, so I was optimisticthat the Queen would get the job done. At 3.15pm the match started and the Queen took the first set 6-3. As I usually do, I came tothe stadium to make my voice heard especially when the crowd supports the opposition. I wore my T shirt which had the inscription“Nothing Stops Serena”. To the annoyance and amusement of the people around me, I cheered the Queen on with words like:"Come on Serena"; "Lets do it"; Allez Serena"; "Yessssss"; "Wow"; "You are the best"; “Merci”. I also jumped up after every criticalwinner. The second set was keenly contested, but the Queen dropped several gears as she lost the set in the tie breaker. So on tothe third set. The Queen overcame a two game deficit to win six consecutive games thereby taking the set, the match and theChampionship. With this victory, the Queen has won her 20th Grand Slam title and becomes the oldest French Open winner. Moreon the Queen later.

Sunday the 7th of June was the Men's final featuring Djokovic vs. Wawrinka. Wawrinka won the first set and Djoker took the secondset. Wawrinka shocked the bookmakers, the pundits and the crowd as he won the next two sets to win his second Grand Slam titleand first French Open crown. In the ladies doubles, Safarova left Roland Garros with a smile on her face as she partnered withAmerica's Mattek-Sands to win the doubles, while the Bryan brothers lost in the men's double finals to Dodig and Melo.

Now back to the Queen. With this victory, Sister Serena has once again silenced the naysayers and haters who thought that shewill not overcome her illness. Her place in history is assured. She has also provided sufficient justification to be considered as theGOAT (Greatest of All Times) and TBE (The Best Ever). She is also three quarters of the way through to achieving a secondSerena Slam and two slams away from a potential Calendar Grand Slam. Sister Serena has resumed training and the next stop forher is the aptly named Williamdon Wimbledon Championships, which takes place at the aptly named SW20 SW19

The pictures that follow are what I took during my four days at Roland Garros. I hope you enjoy them.

Viva Serena.Au Revoir.Ahmed Sule, CFAJune 2015.

Chapter 1

(The Event)

Chapter 2

(Queen Serena’s Moment)

Chapter 3

(Psyching Out The Opposition)

The Queen enters the arena

The Queen puts her bag down

The Queen takes off her headphones

And puts it in the bag

She then asks the ball boy to remove the nylon wrapping from her racket

The Queen keeps her opponent and the umpire waiting at the net as she fiddles with her racket.

The Queen swings her racket over the head of her opponent continuously

The Queen stays inside the baseline as she receives her opponent’s serve

After doing this, the battle is won

EPILOGUE

(Celebrating @ work)

CONGRATULATIONSSISTER SERENA

YOU ROCK.