Roland Garros 2011 Day 5: Azarenka v Parmentier

By now it was freezing in the stands, and most of the crowd had emptied out as it was getting late. We decided to ask if we could sit closer to the exit as my mother was struggling with the steep steps, although it did seem colder further down!

As Vika walked out plugged into her iPod I had to stifle a chuckle that she might be psyching herself up with the patriotic Belarusian Eurovision entry (I Love Belarus)...

From the outset the crowd that were left were chuckling at Vika's prolonged howl and imitating it. I noticed there was a wry tweet after the match where she acknowledged the crowd who'd stayed behind for the match, "even if they were not for me".

Parmentier was no doubt trying hard but was slow getting into her stride in the first game, being broken immediately.



She found her range a bit in the second and put Azarenka under a little pressure on her serve, but some errant shots gave Azarenka the hold, to consolidate the break.

Pigeons (wood pigeons, to be precise, as I was reliably informed by my friend) seemed to be circling around Lenglen, which led to a totally random conversation about their cooing, and whether they were circling, because they had found a kindred spirit in Vika's howling!

We left as Vika took the 3rd game - by now it was extremely cold and we still had a good hour or so before we were back at the hotel.

Mind you, by the time we got back to the hotel we saw that Vika had won for the loss of just one game.

For the Friday I had a single ticket to Chatrier from the Bercy package, and tickets to Lenglen for two.

There was a lot of tennis on offer, if the weather was likely to hold.