RELATED: CoCo Vandeweghe DiaryDiary Entry #8
Well, now that departure time from Russia is tomorrow, I have some mixed feelings. I am excited to go home to see my family, and I am also excited because I will be able to watch ESPN again!
Being from Pittsburgh I definitely love my sports! I have had withdrawal from my daily updates of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I saw that they beat the New York Rangers, though, so maybe I am bad luck when I am in the States!
My favorite athlete, (non-tennis athlete), is Sidney Crosby, who plays forward for the Penguins. If anyone has his number, I will gladly accept it and give him a call! Number eighty-seven is the new number one!
On a serious note I am very sad to be leaving Russia. I have had the experience of a lifetime and I have loved every minute here. I would like to thank Jean, Lori, Zina, Wade, and Mary Joe for all of their on court help. Also to Rita, Jeff, Anne Marie, Erin, Amber, Becky, and everyone that played a part in making this trip awesome!
And of course, to the players, Liezel, Vania, Ahsha, and Maddy, for hitting with me and teaching me a lot this week! Finally to CoCo for being an awesome roommate! I will miss everyone, but I will always remember my time spent in Moscow.
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| The U.S. Fed Cup team bench roots on their players. (Photo: Andrei Golovanov) |
Diary Entry #7
Unfortunately the United States is at a 2-0 deficit after day one of competition. However, the tie is not over and we still have tomorrow to compete. You never know what is in store if you just believe in yourself; and that is exactly the mentality we will have tomorrow!
Today Vania went up first against Anna Chakvetadze. Vania played like a champ and had so many opportunities. She ended up losing 6-4, 7-5, but the score truly signifies just how close she came to giving the world’s number seven player an upset. All credit to Vania for staying with Anna throughout the whole match and showing Russia true U.S. spirit!
After Vania’s match I was hoping that I would be able to scream half as loud for Ahsha’s match as I had for Vania’s. There was definitely some intense cheering going on from the sidelines. We truly represented the United States, and we gave the horn-blowing, flag waving, loud chanting Russian audience a run for their money! I was having dreams of the word, “Russ-see-ah,” because that was all I heard during the matches.
Once Ahsha took the court against Svetlana Kuznetsova, I got myself together and prepared my vocals for another match. Svetlana was pretty impressive to watch, if I do say so myself. She had an answer for everything and made things look like a piece of cake. Ahsha played some great tennis, too. However, she fell short with a score of 6-2, 6-1.
I learned a lot today from watching some of the best players in the world compete. It is something that I will never forget. After the matches, we indulged in a dinner at the hotel. I have loved the meals here in Russia. I think I have eaten about three whole pineapples when I think about how much pineapple I have ate on this trip. Maddy heard it is really good for you… probably not when you eat a pound of it a day, though.
I also found out that Maddy speaks Yiddish and the language that they speak in Star Wars. She gave us a demo and I was cracking up. I like Spanish myself, but for some odd reason I have never learned the Star Wars language. I must be weird or something.
Maddy has definitely been the entertainment here is Moscow. I love having her around. After dinner, CoCo and I had a freak out moment. We have been leaving the lights on in our room on every day and we also left our television on today. Well, when we opened our door, it was pitched black with the television off.
CoCo and I took one look at each other and sprinted down the hallway as fast as we could. We had never seen each other run so fast. It was about eleven o’clock so we did not want to wake anyone up. We asked the front desk for a security guy to check our room for us.
In the meantime, I was in the lobby and I happened to see Wade come out of the elevator. He definitely receives MVP for day seven in Moscow. The weirdest part about it was that in those ten minutes, we came back and a light was back on in the room and the window was open. CoCo and I had to do a bit of rationalizing before we could turn the lights out. We talked for a bit and had a laughing attack before we went to bed.
CoCo and I are having a great time together. It has been amazing here in Russia and I cannot believe that I will be leaving in just two days! Keep fighting, USA! Here we go!
Diary Entry #6
Today I had the morning off, so I got to sleep in a bit. It was a beautiful thing! I got up and had a delicious breakfast. Next, we all took an infamous car ride over to the stadium. The rides are becoming infamous because driving in America is quite different than driving in Russia. There are three passengers that must ride backwards, so they are able to witness everything going on behind the car. All that a passenger riding forward has to do is to look at the passenger riding backwards and they know that a conflict is “a-brewing” behind them! It is hilarious because it seems as if we have avoided multiple car crashes. I was riding back to the hotel today and our driver was actually riding in the on-coming traffic lane. I was concerned!
When we actually arrived it was the official draw ceremony day! It was really interesting to me to watch everything that went down in order to have such a perfect process.
I really enjoyed meeting Jane Brown Grimes, who is the president of the USTA. She is from Middle States, which makes me feel that Middle States is well represented since Maddy and I are also from Middle States!
I am SO excited for the tie to begin tomorrow; I do not think anyone knows how excited I am! I will be donning red, white and blue with so much pride!
I had the chance to play doubles again with Liezel, Maddy, and CoCo today. I absolutely love doubles! When practice was over I went to see one of my saviors on this trip; Amber, the trainer! She has helped me with a few things, but especially the blister that was on my foot today. I could not walk correctly with it on the bottom of my big toe!
I then headed to dinner with the team and we watched an inspirational video clip on the Davis Cup winning last year. A few tears came to my eyes! I am going to enjoy a good night’s sleep tonight! I can feel victory in the air. GO USA!
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| US Fed Cup Team |
Diary Entry #5
I had two practices today – one with Madison and the other with Vania. I love the chance of playing with these girls each day. At the second practice I had a little heart to heart with Vania, who is very encouraging. I really like her attitude – it was definitely nice to speak to her and also to Jean Nachand.
Once I finished, I came back to the hotel and showered and got ready for the official dinner that was being held at the Riviera. CoCo and I had our makeup and makeup done by this fabulous stylist, whom you may have heard of before. Her name is Madison Brengle! She did an amazing job, I must admit. CoCo was admiring her hair all night and when I told her I liked her new look she replied, “I know!”
Once we got to the hotel, we snapped a few photographs in the street in front of the restaurant, and then we all headed inside. After two hours there was still no sign of our main course! I was stocking up on the finger food, however, so I was doing great! We eventually got our food and left.
During the dinner I had the chance of seeing a photograph of Mary Joe’s two children. They are adorable! When I got back to the hotel, I went to Maddy’s room to help with an issue. Let’s just say that we were in the mood to watch the movie, “The Notebook!”
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| Coco Vandeweghe and Alison Riske with coach Mary Jose Fernandez at the official dinner on Thursday, April 24, 2008. (Photo: Andrei Golovanov) |
Diary Entry #4
Today we had the opportunity of touring the Kremlin. I extremely enjoyed the whole tour, despite the fact that it lasted three hours! I loved everything that I got to see on the tour, however, one of my favorites was a church that we got to go inside of that had so many beautiful gold objects. I took so many pictures throughout the entire tour, but unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures inside of the church.
After the awesome tour, we came to the hotel to have lunch and then we headed back to the stadium for a little doubles action. I was so excited because I got to play doubles with a half of the number one doubles team in the world - Liezel Huber!
She obviously knows her stuff, so I soaked up all of the advice that she had to give. I love playing doubles, so I like to learn everything I can that can benefit my play. CoCo and I eventually swapped partners, so she had the chance of playing with Liezel and I played with Wade McGuire. I have to admit that we were playing pretty finely! But, it was a lot of fun, regardless. Maddy, CoCo, and I did our traditional meal in the lobby and called it a night.
Diary Entry #3
I had great hits today with a variety of the players. Today was the day that Liezel Huber arrived, along with Mary Joe Fernandez.
It is amazing to be in the presence of champions and such nice people. After our day of practice the whole team went to a hibachi style dinner where they cook right in front of you.
I got the privilege of sitting next to Ahsha who had me laughing the entire dinner. I tend to laugh at everything because I genuinely find everything humorous, but Ahsha was definitely hilarious.
She was commenting on so many things, but one of my favorite lines of the night was when we were served bean sprouts with rice and then another type of bean, and Ahsha said, “Enough with the beans! I want meat!” After dinner, CoCo and I crashed.
Diary Entry #2
Today I had the chance of playing on a red clay court for the first time. I really liked the courts, but I especially loved playing in the stadium on center court. All of the seats in the stadium are multicolored, which makes it appear pretty festive!
It was really great to get input from Lori McNeil, Captain Zina Garrison, Wade McGuire, and Jean Nachand. I am lucky to have an assortment of advice from so many coaches.
I definitely felt a tad misplaced when I was the only one who plodded around the court like an elephant and could not slide to save my life.
However, I received some advice from each of the coaches and I hope to be sliding like Rafael Nadal by the end of the week!
After our first practice CoCo, Madison, and I went to our room to relax. Maddy asked why the maid left a dirty rag next to my pillow and I told her that that, “dirty rag,” was my seventeen year old blanket! She felt so bad, but I thought it was hilarious. It gets referred to as a “rag” quite a bit.
We went out for a second practice and we had another good practice, despite having to do sprints for every unforced error you made. We did not finish until 8:00 pm, but Maddy, CoCo, and I went to dinner in the hotel lobby when we returned.
Diary Entry #1
Hello, my name is Alison Riske and I am seventeen years old.
I am so excited to receive the opportunity of accompanying the U.S. Fed Cup team to Moscow, Russia. I am so honored to be chosen and I cannot wait for the week to begin.
My whole adventure to Russia began with a flight from Savannah, Georgia (I have been training in Hilton Head Island), to Atlanta.
To say the least, I met some interesting people on that 40-minute flight. I met a grandma that wanted me to send her grandson who just became a marine a postcard from Russia. I think it may be a little random for him to get the postcard, but I may just thank him for his service!
I next met up with CoCo Vandeweghe, Madison Brengle, and Lori McNeil in Atlanta. CoCo and I were able to sit in the same row together on the plane and we kept praying that another passenger would not occupy the third seat in our row; therefore we could use it to sleep on.
It was definitely our lucky day because we got the empty seat between us, which was perfect. However, I think I tried about twenty different positions, all of which were so uncomfortable. Out of the eleven hour plane ride I believe I slept about two hours. It was funny to look over and see CoCo with her red face mask on during the flight.
Finally upon arrival we checked into our hotel. It’s really cool because some of the past people that have stayed in the hotel are Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Claudia Schiffer, just to name a few!
Once we got in the room, CoCo went to bed…and slept for fifteen hours straight. I was left to read in the bathroom and navigate through the room in complete darkness since she was sleeping. I tried to stay to stay up until 10:00 pm so that I could adjust to the time difference! It was definitely nice to be in Russia and have the flight over.