Of course, hearing that the matches were canceled was very disappointing and we were all a little deflated. Thanks to technology, I text messaged Dave to ask him when he would be playing his match. He told us that the match was not in fact canceled and to head down to center court. The problem was that all of the thousands of Chinese volunteers helping at the gates had not heard the message and would not let us through. Thanks to Shane, we eventually got through the security gate but then they would not let us through the ticket gate. We were able to get some support from inside the tennis center (coaches, managers, etc.) and they ended up letting us in because we were family. I guess they had decided earlier in the morning that the tennis would continue but they would not allow spectators. So Dave had his first Beiijing 2008 Paralympic match on center court with very few spectators.
This board is in the middle of the Tennis Center and lists the matches as well as who moves forward. You can see that Dave is ranked number one in the world!
These are the box seats we were able to sit in. It was awesome to be this close to the court. The passes also proved useful later in the day when they let us to the front of the line at the Olympic Center (the Tennis Center is in a different part than the Bird's Nest, Swimming Cube, etc.). 
This was my first time watching Dave play tennis and it was nervewracking for me. The match was close at times and I moved from the box seats we had up to the landing so I could pace.
Needless to say, things worked out and we are headed back to the Tennis Center for another match today (rock on, Dave).
2 comments:
Thanks for the blog. It gives me a much better idea of what you are seeing and how David is doing. Keep them coming.
This is great! Kristin - where is your USA shirt?! :) Thanks for blogging!
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