Shanghai Master Cup
In case you didn’t know, one of my favorite hobbies is to play tennis, when I heard Federer, Nadal and Gang were coming down to Shanghai to play for the ATP Masters, there was no way I was going to miss a chance to see them!
Unfortunately ticket prices weren’t very cheap and the cheapest tickets were 260元 on round 3 and 1060元 for the finals.
I went for round 3, because quarter finals were a pricey 360元. This was a decision I regretted immediately because there was a huge difference in match quality. But THANKS TO MY AWESOME FRIEND SOFIA, I WAS ABLE TO SEE THE FINALS!!
(1) Friends with Connections Bitchezzzz! (2) POSE (3) COME ON!! (4) Tickets!
ZOMG!! THE FED, IN HIS FULL GLORIOUS AWESOMENESS IS BEFORE MY VERY EYES!!
Some Facts
- Matches are only 3 sets
- The Master Cup is the next biggest thing after Grand Slams and ATP World Tour Finals (WTF) the winner gaining 1000ATP ranking points (GS: 2000).
- Statues resembling the winners of the ATP Masters Cup were made: Djokovic, Hewitt, Federer, Davydenko, Nalbandian.
- Rolex is the biggest sponsor of the tournament.
- Center Court’s roof has 7 moving pieces that converge to form a roof like a magnolia flower; used when it rains
- Nadal Lost to Melzer in the 3rd Round!!
Buying Tickets
- First you got to get to the website
- Then you have two options:
- Buy the ticket over the internet using a credit card and getting them to deliver it to your house
- Call them, get a reservation number, then GO all the way to the Place to buy your ticket.
- There is no difference in price but it really sucks to go all the way there.
To get there, Idiot’s Guide
(1) At Night (2) Day (3) Entrance (4) Overview (5) Inside (6) Court 2 (7) Walkway to other courts (8) Roof that closes
The matches were played at Qi Zhong Tennis centre, at Minzhang. It’s a very suburban place and takes an hour and a half to get there from my place (wujiaochang 五角场).
- First take the south bound line 1 train, towards line 5
- Once you reach the end of line 1, there is an interchange to get to line 5, hop on it.
- Once you get there, get off at the 4th stop of line 5 and there will be a bunch of express buses heading towards that direction. You can use your public transport card or pay 2元
- You know you are heading towards the right direction when you see an odd 老外（laowai） here and there, or a bunch of people wearing tennis merchandise like RF caps.
Once you get there, you’ll run into a lot of dudes trying to sell you tickets to the grounds. Whether these tickets are for real, I honestly do not know, my best guess is that they are trying to selling ground passes to the matches outside center court. What strikes me as odd is how no one from the ticketing office is even bothered with these guys lurking just outside the grounds.
** Take note, if you have a ground pass you are free to watch matches that do not take place in center court and court 2, but if it rains, you are in for a long and boring wait as all play outside is suspended until the court dries. The lower seeds and doubles are the ones that usually battle it out in the outside courts(not as exciting as singles), but it gives you a chance to be up close to the action.
Outside center court: Doubles no. 1 Bryan Brothers in Action
Round 3
Matches start at 2pm and goes on until all the draws of the day are completed. For instance, if it rained outside, you could be watching all the way until 2am in the morning! Very good value for money if you grind it out!!
**Tip: Have a friend who only has a ground pass but no ticket to Center Court? First, get 2 tickets (3 of you in total) get into the stadium with the 2 tickets, then take those 2 tickets out and get that friend without a center court pass in!
**This worked like a charm during round 3 as it wasn’t jammed packed and there were huge queues of people waiting to get inside during the 1 minute breaks, leaving ticket-checkers with little time to check if everyone is holding a valid ticket. This is not advised for Finals though as they get quite strict with ticket seating.
FINALS ZOMG PURE FEDERER AWESOMENESS
The Single Final was between Andy Murray and Federer. Being a true Federer FanBoy, I was obviously rooting for The Fed. I even made a poster “You Just Got Fed” in hopes of appearing on TV for my intelligent and witty catchphrase (whether I did is a mystery). Unfortunately Federer got his ass beat by Murray that day as Murray’s defence coupled with Fed’s errors cost him the game (6-2 6-3).
(1) Finals fanfare (2) Party's over (3) YOU JUST GOT FED (4) NOOO.
I felt a little unsatisfied as the finals was extremely short as there are only 3 sets. I think ATP organizers should lengthen Finals to at least 5 sets to make one’s money worth. I would rather spend that 1060 on 3 quarterfinals then to watch 1 Final. Yea sure there is doubles, but doubles isn’t as interesting as singles since there is more variety and drama in singles.
**Random Rambling: Organizers should make racket smashing a regular ritual as there is nothing that riles the crowd more than someone taking it out on their racket!! (Best Example: Fernando Gonzales)
Getting Home
Biggest problem is getting home. Extremely complicated should you live in a faraway place like mine and even more so if you had decided to watch all draws for the day and end the day late.
Fortunately, there will be a bunch of guys waiting to make some money. These dudes will aggressively approach you and ask if you are interested in their services. Make sure you make the terms (multiple drop offs) and price clear before you get into their car to avoid any misunderstanding! When I went for Round 3, we left the stadium at 11pm and found a dude will to take 6 of us home for 200元 in his little Discovery Channel car (I think he is misusing the company car).
If you decide to leave before 11pm, you can catch the metro by taking the bus. There are special express buses that take you straight to the metro line for 2元. Though its abit of a walk to the buses, just walk a towards the metro, you’ll pass a set of traffic lights and you’ll see a bunch of buses standing ready.
Oh yes, you will also run into dudes selling Pictures of Federer and Federer Only in plastic foams. BEING A FEDERER FANBOI, I BOUGHT 1 for 10元.
Terms
好球 hao qiu GOOD BALL (You’ll hear this so many times, you’ll start thinking these Chinese have no imagination when expressing well played plays)
非常好 feichang hao EXTREMELY GOOD
漂亮 piao liang Beautiful
输 shu Lose
赢 ying Win
No comments:
Post a Comment