Thailand Open 2013 review
Having been to watch the final of the Malaysian open in Kuala Lumpur in 2011, I chose this year to go to Thailand instead and take a weekend away from Singapore to watch both the semi-finals and finals of the Thailand Open 2013.
The Thailand Open is set not in Bangkok itself but in Muang Thong Thani at the Impact Arena. If you decide to book a hotel in the center of Bangkok like I did, you will need to set off from the hotel about 45 minutes to an hour before the matches start if you want to make it on time. The taxi will take about 250 THB to get there and another 250THB back into Bangkok. There are also a couple of free shuttle bus services that will take you there from various locations across Bangkok but I haven’t been adventurous enough to try these.
The Impact Arena is a multipurpose venue that seats about 6000 when configured for tennis. I must say that I haven’t been impressed by the organization: getting my pre-ordered tickets was a bit frustrating as I have had to queue 3 times to finally get to the right counter where it took a good 5 minutes for the staff to find them. Your ticket will then be identified by a level number, zone, row and seat number. If finding the level you are on will prove to be easy, finding your zone, row and seat will be a bit more tricky as you will need to find the gate number from which it is to be accessed. The final trick is that one gate can give access to two zones so you might end up seating in the right row, at the correct seat but in the wrong zone. This ended up in more frustration as I was sitting in the VIP Premium section for the first semi-final before being shown the non-VIP section, where I should have actually been, for the second. Both set you pretty close to the court but the non-VIP ones are in the corner (not a bad choice in itself) but on the same side as the chair umpire. Not that I don’t like the sight of Eva Asderaki but I’d rather have it not obstructing the baseline. I ended up upgrading VIP premium tickets. As always I recommend you to get your seats behind the baseline, these don’t need to be the most expensive ones.
As for the matches: I was lucky enough to have the top 4 seeds all in the semis, going Berdych – Simon and Raonic – Gasquet. Berdych – Simon was a great match to watch and went for almost 3 hours. These two have obviously very different styles and it shows even more when you are watching them on court. While Simon likes to run and is definitely set in a counter-puncher type of play that is quite difficult to imitate, watching Berdych was a great source of learning what footwork means: perfect timing, very classic closed stance and a sense of power and precision. Raonic – Gasquet wasn’t as exciting with Raonic going big on every shot to eventually make a lot of unforced errors but covering them up with his serves (24 aces over 3 sets). Everything has been said and written about Gasquet’s backhand and seeing it for real makes sense and while Raonic can hit aces at 220+kmh, Gasquet could find winning serves going 154kmh. There is something to be learned for every recreational player here.
The final between Berdych and Raonic was a great and very contested display going 7-6 6-3 in favor of Raonic who fired 18 aces not counting winning serves. The match eventually got decided in the tie-break of the first set and carrying on with his momentum, Raonic showed and excellent first 3 games in the second, going to the extent of serve and volley and beiing much more efficient than the day before on its ground strokes.
The doubles were also great to watch and the new match format (2 sets + deciding tie-break) definitely adds to the excitement. Murray and Peers took it to Brunstrom and Bednarek. I would definitely recommend you to go and watch the doubles even if you are usually more of a singles player: there are always some great rallies, volleys and smashes being played there.
As for next year: I don’t know yet if I will go again. I might save up for the ATP500 that are played in Beijing and Tokyo the week after or even for the Masters in Shanghai.
Guillaume./.
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