Shanghai Rolex Masters 2010

After Yuyuan, they met up with their friends in a Chinese restaurant in Pudong Jinmao Center for lunch then they headed for the main event of their trip, the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2010 Tennis Tournament. The competition featured an unbeatable line up of men singles player, but unfortunately World Number 1 Rafael Nadal was knocked out early on in the competition. But still number 2, 3 and 4 (Djokovic, Federer and Murray respectively) were still in the semi-finals.

The cab-ride felt like an eternity. Dad struggled to stay awake during the latter part of the journey. His brain kept telling him the stadium would be just around the next corner. But one could tell when the cab was near the stadium. There were people waving tickets along the road. As soon as they got off the taxi, there were ticket-touts offering tickets at RMB100 (official price was more than10 times that). Not sure if the term ticket-tout really fitted.

The stadium was an impressive fair. If you are a tennis fan, you probably know all the results now. But if you don't, you can check here. The thing which left a deep impression was the mad rush to the taxi queue as soon as the second semi-final was won by Roger Federer. Suddenly, everyone inside the stadium was running out of the stadium into a dimly lit patch of land where a temporary taxi queue was hastily put up. Mum and dad were lucky since their friends managed to get to the front part of the queue and they got on a taxi without much wait. Half-way into their journey back, their taxi driver told them that the stadium has run out of taxi and people might need to wait a while for the next batch of taxis!!

Update
Now some action on youtube!!