My life as an Expat: Return of the Greats

As you may remember, last year in late February, my company was the "medical help" of the ATP Dubai Tennis Open. I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed and star struck to be in the same vicinity as world famous tennis players and was more about the stalking of the tennis players than taking the work more seriously.

So this year, we weren't certain we would be the medical help until a couple of weeks before, and alas, we were in!!! This year, and I don't know if this sounds spoiled, but I was more comfortable seeing and being in the same room as great tennis players like Novak Djokovic and Federer and actually was more excited about learning some techniques from the ATP physios. ATP has 10 physios that rotate, and last year we had this really great guy Chris, and this year we had 2, Hugo (Hugo Boss, they call him) and Timo - both were aaaaaamazing. It was fascinating watching them work and my colleague in between (or during) their work with the players, were teaching us what they could. They are the main physios and we are more or less the back up. Last year I admit we were both a bit un-confident and uncertain about what to do... many of the players rightfully so, are particular with their treatment and ONLY want to see the ATP physios. Others didn't care, so it was a good mix. This year we were all much more at ease and the players recognized us, which was cool. The best part of being in the physio room is that it is small and I got to be there for "locker room talk," pretty much them B.S.'ing and chatting amongst themselves (and me obviously eavesdropping). I didn't realize the politics involved in the ATP tennis, but I guess it doesn't surprise me. A part of me sees how spoiled they are, and even the physios were saying how they live in a little bubble and still want more (but what else is new in professional sports) and the other part sees how much work it is travel so much and to play top tennis.

Here are some pics that I saw in matches I randomly popped in as well as having the closed-off practice area open to us, hehe:

A funny moment happened when I had a loooooooooooooooong day of clinic work and my colleague was at Tennis. I was tired and called him asking him if I should bother coming and he said it was somewhat busy and to stop by. I hardly had the energy to go, but once again, just having VIP access to everything is a treat enough in itself and I'm not sure if that would happen again. So I go walk in the treatment room... and there is Novak on the table getting treated, his brother and his trainer right next to him. Whoa! Last year I didn't see Novak AT ALL, so this was quite a surprise! OMG! I was all professional and pretended to be busy and look serious. Well, the air condition wasn't working and then they went to me (I obviously wasn't busy because I wasn't working) and asked about it... then I replied in Serbian that we couldn't find the remote. They all were like "whhoooooaaaa! You know Serbian?" THEN we ALL had this conversation about languages! Novak was in/out of the conversation (he was in fact getting treated), but the brother and the trainer was all impressed how "well" I knew Serbian considering that I grew up in the States. Hahahh! Then he said that Novak knew German, and one of the physios tested him and... well, he really didn't know that much. Hahah! It was sooo soooo cool! It was a regular conversation but with the WORLD'S NUMBER ONE TENNIS PLAYER!!!! Afterwards I was sooo giggly and "OMG! I can't believe I JUST HAD A CONVERSATION WITH NOVAK and his people" that my crankiness vanished. hahahahahhahahahah! Novak is very goofy and friendly. Federer popped in a few times through the week, but he wasn't too social. Del Potro... I don't know if he doesn't know English too well, but he was also fairly quiet. I was going to whip out my Spanish on him (his trainer seemed pretty nice), but then he seemed kind of anti-social and a bit unfriendly.

Anyway, I invited myself using my VIP access card to the "players dinner," which I have to say, it was hard to get close to these Greats! Here are some pics from that...

UNFORTUNATELY, unlike last time where I have a PICTURE with Novak, I couldn't get any pictures WITH the players, booooo. It sucks to be in a professional setting and I would typically see them right before the match and felt uncomfortable crossing professional boundaries, obviously so. Sigh. BUT I have fond memories of seeing GREAT tennis players pretty much 1/2 naked and that is good enough for me, but darn it, I have no "proof" of how close I was to these professionals! Oh well...

Other than that, I learned some new techniques and got to work on plenty of players. It is still so amazing because it is SUCH a different experience than regular clinic setting. It is a bit nerve-racking because if you make them sore or something, they will NOT be happy, so it was a fine line between working on them and not being too aggressive.

I also spectated some of the women's WTP, and.... well, no offence to the woman, but it is like 1/12928304239 as exciting as the men's. Sorry WTP!!!!! Here are a few snaps I took: