THE WORLD OF MARA: EPISODE TWO

From sushi to sumo: the Japan of a thousand faces. And now to play at Pattaya where the sea is incredible

2007-02-05 to 2008-04-30

Pouring rain greeted us as we disembarked at Tokyo airport. It looked like a scene from the film "Black Rain" with Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia.

As it was so late we had to take the bus, which got us to our hotel in about an hour. We were starving after the long journey, during which we weren’t able to eat anything, so we went out in search if a restaurant, or at any rate something to get our teeth into. Everything was closed. We were already resigned to going to bed hungry when salvation was at hand!

A hot-food bar open all night. We all looked each other in the eyes and charged in without a further word. Disaster! The staff didn’t speak English. Luckily there was a sort of automatic vending-machine with pictures. We ordered the dish and the waiter brought it to us at the table.

The next day all the female players were invited to the reception and welcoming party. It was very elegant and formal and was followed by refreshments that were exceptional both as to quality and quantity. Here I tasted some fabulous sushi and sashimi. For those who don’t know, sushi is a portion of fish inside a portion of rice which is then flattened to have more or less the shape of a small slice of roast meat, while sashimi is fresh uncooked fish.

The Japanese love to dip them in soya sauce or to take them with the typical local spicy ginger, but as you may know, I don’t like spicy foods much and prefer them natural. There were crowds of people in front of the hotel waiting for the players, to get an autograph and to have a photo taken with their favourites.

There were even a few fans who spoke to me in Italian, using an automatic translator in their mobile phones. Stuff straight out of Star Trek!

The draw for the first round put me up against one of the local favourites, Aiko Nakamura. I fought a good match, beating her by 7-5 6-0. The first set was very well-balanced and I managed to turn it to my advantage only thanks to a break which I had to struggle for. The second set was a downhill ride, since I could exploit the demoralization of my opponent.

In the doubles, together with the veteran Australian player, and a great friend of mine, Nicole Pratt, we lost to the world’s number one couple, Raymond-Stosur.

A lot of the players were invited to watch the sumo (traditional Japanese wrestling) champions training. All the ritual before the match is something that goes back to atavistic traditions and the athletes experience it as a sort of purification from evil.

The super-technological Japan in contrast with a Japan still in the middle ages and with ancient traditions.

My match with Ana Ivanovic was really tough. After a first set fought to the death, profiting from the Serb’s few errors, I had a lapse of concentration in the second. Alas, at the highest levels every tiniest imperfection goes punished. I tried to fight back in the third set, but Ana had the keys to the match in her hand and didn’t miss the opportunity to close with a score of 6-2.

That was the end of my visit to Japan. I’m leaving for wonderful Pattaya and I can’t wait to take a few turns on an aqua-cycle followed by a relaxing massage. But I also hope to be luckier in the draws!

A kiss from your favourite globetrotter. Mara. www.marasantangelo.com