The Davis Cup in Malaga is already underway. The interest of tennis from all over the planet is concentrated from this Tuesday until Sunday at the Martín Carpena, where Australia and the Netherlands have launched the 2022 Finals in, perhaps, the weakest tie of all those expected until Sunday In Malaga. But where there is orange, there is joy, and the boisterous ‘oranje’ fans made themselves felt throughout the evening of matches to which many Spanish fans also responded, completing a more than acceptable aspect of the stands of Carpena. Just setting foot in the fan area (by the way, open to all, whether they have a ticket for the matches or not) already gave an idea of which fans were going to be the most numerous in the stands this Tuesday, as planned by the organization , who estimated that the Dutch together with the Italians were going to be the most numerous foreign fans during this week of tennis on the Costa del Sol. For now, point for the organization.
From early afternoon the Dutch already gave color to the surroundings of the Palacio de Deportes. Before the start of the matches, clapping as their players leave to the rhythm of Opus’s ‘Life is life’ and celebrating each point of Tallon Griekspoor first and of Apothecary van de Zandschulp then with a shout difficult to match by the few Australians dotted by the stands of a pavilion that presented from the beginning of the day a pretty good aspect for the poster of this opening day. Only the boxes of authorities and ‘beautiful people’ were less busy at the beginning but they were filling up as the afternoon progressed and it is certain that they will receive familiar faces as the tournament progresses and, above all, after the semifinals on Friday.
It is inevitable to look, between point and point, at the Winners’ Salad Bowl, conveniently placed and illuminated in one of the four corners of the Carpena at the foot of the track, rivaling the latest model of the luxury car brand in the next corner. .. a tournament like this does not pay for itself, you know it well Gerard Piquéthe former Barcelona soccer player and owner of the Kosmos company, organizer of the Davis Cup for a few years now and who, as a good person in charge of the whole matter, was also present at the Carpena.
There were Spanish and Malaga fans, of course. Sublime ‘Come on Rafa!’ the one that was heard from the top of the Carpena when Thompson served in the seventh game of the first set against Griekspoor that caused more than one laugh among the public, including the Dutchman who did not stop cheering with his “Let’s go, Tallon, lets’s go! “Holland, Holland!” and the occasional song in a language for which they will excuse me but I have only learned to say one sentence on this first afternoon of tennis: Hoe mooi is tennis als het goed gespeeld wordt. I translate for you: How beautiful tennis is when it is played well… and this has only started.