As you may know, I'm Dutch, but I am living in Bulgaria. This week the ATP Sofia Tennis Open is being played in the Armeets Arena. I've been visiting the tournament a couple of times throughout the years that I'm living here. Last year I missed it, and this year I'm not yet planning to go, but it depends a little bit on who will be playing in the final on Sunday.

If Stefanos Tsitsipas will play against Karen Khachanov in the final I might actually go and buy a ticket, as it would be very interesting to see these two top talents perform live against each other. Two years ago I saw local hero Grigor Dimitrov win against David Goffin in the final. This was a great achievement, but above all the Bulgarian people loved it a lot. Last year I found it very weird to find out that Grigor decided not to play in his home nation. I mean, of course, it's not an obligation to do so, but it's the only important tournament in the country, you're from here, you've got tons of fans here, you can play elsewhere throughout the whole season. Be a Bulgarian and show your respect to your people is what I say about it. Honestly, perhaps he has a good reason not to be in Sofia these days, but to me, it doesn't make much sense at this moment.

Yesterday was an interesting one though, not just another day at the office. It was a special day at the office, as it was announced that the 16th ranked tennis player in the world Daniil Medvedev would come by in our office for a quick meet and greet. Now there wasn't a lot of time, but I consider this sort of thing special and interesting. It would be nice if another player will make it to our office later this week, but if not, then this was a nice experience.

You notice that I'm not mentioning the name of the company I work for. I do that on purpose of course, as I'm not sure whether this sort of information should be widely spread over the internet, and it doesn't really add any value to the article. We are a call center in the outsourcing business. Our company offers customer service in a lot of different projects, languages and, industries.

Medvedev is the 3rd seed during the Sofia Open behind the earlier mentioned Khachanov (1st seed) and Tsitsipas (2nd seed). All three of them received a "bye" in the first round of the tournament, which is one of the reasons why Medvedev could make some time to come to our office. In the second round, Medvedev will play against my fellow countryman Robin Haase. Haase won in the first round 6-2 6-4 against Dimitar Kuzmanov, a local player who received a wild card from the organization.

In contrast to Grigor Dimitrov, it seems that Robin Haase enjoys playing in Sofia. This year is the 3rd consecutive year he's been present here. Two years ago a friend an I saw him play live in a match he lost. When calling his name, he did come over to us for a selfie, which was a nice gesture of him. The picture is bad quality, and out of focus, but that's what you get when your mate is nervous and rushing.

You may have heard about Robin Haase's story. His former coach had been accused of killing a mutual friend of the two. The above photo was taken just a couple of months after that was announced. You can imagine how much emotions that would bring along. Tennis is, of course, a physical sport, but there's also a lot of emotion that comes with it. A whole lot of negative emotions is certainly not what you need in order to perform well.

Robin was then also not performing extremely well these days. It is good to see he has been actually doing much better in 2018, and also 2019 so far has not started too bad for him. Last week in the Davis Cup 2.0 Haase was a key factor in the Dutch team that won against the Czech Republic. Thanks to winning both his singles, as well as being part of the winning doubles side, The Netherlands qualified for the Davis Cup Tournament in Madrid later this year. Despite meeting Medvedev yesterday, I truly hope Haase can win the match against him.

I didn't speak at all with Medvedev yesterday, I didn't take a selfie with him, but I did shake his famous hand that holds the racket that produces all the magic that makes one the 16th ranked tennis player in the world. That alone made it already a special happening and of course I immediately realized this is something great to share on Scorum.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this personal touch to Scorum, as I'm planning to do this more often. It was already on the list to do, but the recent post by Jon Bonomo truly worked as a motivation to actually share something, and then this opportunity came along unexpected. The personal touch can add extra value to the articles and the platform in general. It could be a great way of standing out from the majority of the sports news sites out there.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also have two signed tennis balls by Medvedev.

Next week, some of these guys here in Sofia will play in my other hometown, the city I was born in, Rotterdam!

Thank you for reading and sharing your opinion.

See you around :)

Tennis / signature

Shaking Hands with Daniil Medvedev

Shaking Hands with Daniil Medvedev

Shaking Hands with Daniil Medvedev