A little Mahut anecdote

Years before Nicolas Mahut's marathon match against John Isner at Wimbledon 2010 I had a soft spot for the guy and felt for him. A friend had a little run in with Nicolas Mahut during the tournament in Indian Wells CA in 2007.

The first Friday night of the tournament, we had a few drinks before having dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was prime rib buffet night at the restaurant so we got right to eating. We were eating and talking and seeing what players were around also enjoying the bufffet. Most if not all the Frenchies were in the back area and there were a few other players and coaches spreckled around the place. N and L went to the buffet together, I saw them getting some salad and then they disappeared around a corner I couldn't see from the table. L comes back with an odd look on her face and walking kinda fast and shaking her head. Apparently Mahut was at the buffet at the same time as them and N started talking to him. Before N could get more than 2 words out L looked at Mahut, who already looked like a deer in headlights apparently, and said something like, "Walk away, just walk away it's ok." He didn't listen.

So what is the first things out of N's mouth to Mahut, "I'm old enough to be your grandmother."

That was when L left, it was at least 30 seconds before N finally came back to the table so who knows what else poor Mahut was subjected to. He really should have listened to L and walked away but he's just too nice of a guy.

Let's talk about what we know N said to Mahut. "I'm old enough to be your grandmother."

1. Who in their right mind (we knew WAY before this that N was not and has never been in her right mind, ESPECIALLY when she's had a drink or two) says that to a nice young man. Seriously what did she expect the response to be or where did she expect that to get her, it's just one of those things you don't say.

2. IT'S NOT EVEN TRUE! I didn't do the math but it's definitely not likely and would be quite a set of circumstances to make it happen, if it's even is possible. N's daughter is ten years YOUNGER than Mahut.

Our table was on the way out of the restaurant. I could see Mahut and the rest of the Frenchies walking towards our table on the way out. If I remember correctly Mahut was trying to hide behind some of the other guys and gave our table as wide a berth as he could because he saw that N was at the table. I think he even tried to use a side exit but wasn't successful.

From that night on I always felt bad for the guy and have a special soft spot for him. Who knows what else crazy N said to him. We haven't seen much of him since then especially at Indian Wells but boy did he make quite a jump into the spotlight this year. So that's my little Mahut anecdote hope you find it as funny as we do. There's a reason we keep crazy N around and a reason why we call her La Loca too, haha.