Felix Auger-Aliassime

Today's photo and blip write-up are by J: "Today I went to cheer on Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last major tennis tournament of 2022. The "Paris Masters 1000" at Accor Arena at Palais Omnisport Bercy is, at the same time, the absolute best and one of the very worst places to watch top level tennis.
This is an indoor tournament with only three courts. The centre court is in an arena that seats 20,000 people. All but the most remote seats sell out months in advance. That means that the early rounds of the tournament make extensive use of the two "annex courts." These annex courts are the very best places to watch the best tennis players in the world. There is no assigned seating and it is first come first seated. No seat is more than 8 rows back from the court. I sat four rows back on the Ad court side near the baseline.
I have always felt that side baseline seats provide the best views of the court. You don't need to swivel your head constantly to follow the play and you get excellent views of service and return form.
Felix was in for more than he expected in his Swedish opponent. He lost the first set in a tiebreaker and was down 4-1 in the second before things started to fall apart for Mikeal Ymer. It was clear that they were both getting tired - service speeds dropped a lot and suddenly double fault-itis hit both players. Felix remained cool while Mikeal started to argue with the chair umpire and to tap his racket against the ground in frustration. Felix took the second set 6-4.
The final set went to another tiebreaker after each player took two breaks against the other. The tiebreaker also went back and forth until, three and a half hours since the first serve of the match, Mikael returned Felix's serve long on match point and the crowd errupted.
After that I took my assigned seat in row 92 of the centre court arena. What a contrast! I could barely see the players, let alone the ball. I left after seeing the final game in the first set as Carlos Alcaraz cleaned up. There was no point in staying any longer."