Bon match, Allez Suisse!

Last week we went to Davis Cup tennis. We watched a doubles match and a singles match between Switzerland and Czech Republic. As the event was held in a convention center, I had wondered what the atmosphere would be like. When we walked in, we were immediately impressed with the patriotic show of display exhibited by the Swiss fans. We were expecting people to wear red or some kind of Swiss gear, but people went far beyond that!

There were definitely a few memorable fans, such as the lady adorned in flags, cowbells, fringes, ribbons, flowers, pom poms, and cows, the men in their Swiss flag jackets, and the younger guys dressed up as cows:

At the front, you could choose to have a raclette plate or pasta dish, plus tarts and sandwiches. And of course wine or beer too. We tried the raclette plate, which was a great snack that actually didn't break the bank!

I could go on about the food and drink, but back to the tennis.

All of a sudden, we heard a group of people come in, singing, blowing horns and banging a drum: the Czech fans had arrived. There were not many of them, but they made up for it in noise! They really caused quite a scene coming in. When we took our seats, we found out that we were behind the Czech fans. I think the group's noise actually drove the Swiss fans to increase their noise level as well during the matches.

The Czech group

The tennis teams entered onto the court, to many cheers and much applause. The first match we sawa was the doubles match between Wawrinka and Chuidinelli of Switzerland versus Berdych and Rosol of Czech Republic.

Switzerland on the left; Czech Republic on the right

Now the fun began! I can only imagine how loud it would have been if Federer had played - as it was, the Swiss fans really showed true vocal support of their team.

It was apparent in the first set that these teams were pretty evenly matched. It was hard for each team to break each other's serve, so the match was pretty exciting from the start. The first four sets were 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7. But that was nothing compared to the fifth set! As we later found out, this turned out to be the longest Davis cup match ever played, clocking in at just over seven hours (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-02/sports/sns-rt-us-tennis-davis-recordbre9110dn-20130202_1_doubles-rubber-czechs-world-group) with Czech Republic finally winning the match with 24 games to 22 in the fifth set. 

The next day, Wawrinka and Berdych played a singles match, and they must have been pretty tired to say the least! We saw a lot of the same fans we'd seen the day before, including the Czech contingent (who were warned a lot by the umpire for drum banging, horn waving, flag waving etc. during the games).

Wawrinka in action

Berdych's toss is really high

This match was not as evenly matched as the previous day's, as Berdych was in pretty good form. But Wawrinka did a good job, and seemed to enjoy home country support that day!
The match was won by Berdych in 4 sets, to the dismay of the predominantly Swiss crowd, but they respectfully applauded at the end. And the Czech fans brought out the biggest flag I think I've ever seen!

Big Czech flag for Berdych's win!