Melbourne and the Australian Open (Tennis)...

Well, first the tennis.  I hope to get a plethora ("Would you say I have a 'plethora' of presents?") of posts up in the next week before we head home for a "break" and come back to Aus for the rest of 2009.

The 3rd week of January saw us finally hitting Melbourne for an event that Clarice had marked out since they day we agreed to come to Australia -> the Australian Tennis Open.  We made a long weekend of it, planning on spending all day Saturday at the tennis, Sunday and Monday morning exploring Melbourne before we went back to Sydney.  Looking back, we could have happily spent more time at the tennis.  Not that Melbourne was bad, the tennis was just that good of an experience.

Neither of us had ever been to a professional tennis event, so we thought we would take it easy in the morning with ground passes that let you into every court but the 2 main ones, and then got night passes to the big stage - Rod Laver Arena.  Still, because it was 1/2 way through the tournament, we had no idea who we would be seeing until the day before.  When we got to the grounds, saw that James Blake was playing in HiSense (the #2 court) in the morning, we decided to upgrade our ground passes to HiSense and cheer for an AMERICAN!

Blake was the 3rd match on HiSense so we decided to catch some doubles first (after hitting the souvenir stands, natch).  We got good seats (at the smaller courts there are no "bad" seats) to see 2 Aussies, Paul Hanley and Jason Kerr, take on a seeded team.  Not having watched much doubles on TV, I kept forgetting that the alleys were "good", but the action is so much faster paced than singles.  I'd definitely hit more doubles next time.  The other great part of the match was this group of teenagers calling themselves "The Bogan Army".  At first I was afraid they would be rowdy and eventually be asked to leave, but I was VERY impressed.  They knew when to cheer and when not to cheer, were loud and together, brought cheer/song sheets so everyone knew the words, NEVER repeated a cheer in the 90 minutes the match lasted, got other parts of the crowd into the cheering, and generally made the entire experience more memorable.  Good on ya' Bogan Army!

 

Hanley/Kerr easily beat the seeded pair with the outstanding support of "The Bogan Army"

 

"The Bogan Army"

Clarice after getting Hanley and Kerr to sign her program

After Hanley and Kerr won easily, we worked our way over to HiSense not wanting to miss Blake, but knowing he hadn't started yet.  We saw the scoreboard for Lisa Fernandez's women's doubles match and stopped by to cheer on another AMERICAN before getting into HiSense.

Being the #2 court, and having a retractable roof, HiSense is a multi-purpose facility that also hosts concerts as well as sports outside of tennis.  Lot of seats with almost everyone in the shade, HiSense is a nice, modern arena.  We got inside just as the first set of women's singles between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alona Bondarenko (a Russian and a Ukrainian, respectively).  Both were seeded and I knew about Kuznetsova since she was a top ten player at one point (currently #8).  Let me say this about the ladies:  A couple of BRATS!  Especially Bondarenko.  They complained the entire match, used up all of their challenges, took forever to serve, played crappy tennis... and then Bondarenko lost the third set tie-break by double faulting and then storming off the court in a huff.  Prima Donnas.  Nice to look at, but HIGH MAINTENANCE.

 

 

I was more impressed by my telephoto lens than I was by the quality of play...

Then it was time for the boys to take over.  James Blake v. Igor Andreev (insert "yes, master!" joke here).  Both guys played well, but James was definitely on his game and won in straight sets.  Clarice managed to worm her way through what seemed like hundreds of people to get an autograph.  Blake stayed and signed for quite a long time - good on him for that!

 

 

I got a kick out of watching the ball persons (gotta be PC) line up and walk on and off the court when they changed.  Just made me laugh for some reason - probably the hats.

We found some dinner in the hour between the morning and evening sessions, and with Clarice this can sometimes be an adventure.  Unlike the majority of sporting events I've been to (and I've been to quite a few) there was not food stands everywhere you turned.  They were all centered around the main square (which was really a circle), so we ended up walking around for 20 minutes just finding food.  Ah well, what else do you want to do in the heat and sun?

Rod Laver Arena, the main court, obviously has the biggest names and is always sold out.  We got our tickets months in advance not knowing who we would be watching.  Turns out we were in luck - #1 in the world, Rafael Nadal.  First we had to get through a women's singles match that pitted #4 in the world Elena Dementieva against Aussie Girl of the moment Samantha Stoser.  There was a trio of women next to us who lived and died with every point, even making noises of angst if Stoser faulted on her first serve.  Though she really played well, and looks to have a bright future, Dementieva played out of here mind and was just too experienced.  Straight Sets.

 

Until Dementieva took off her white jacket to reveal an orange dress, I was worried I was only going to be able to tell them apart by their visors.

 

And can someone tell them it is night?  What's with the visors?  The lights were all from the sides so don't blame them!

 

Obligatory shot of the lovely couple.  I only had my Socceroos jersey, but I wanted to show I was supporting Sam.  I wore my USA jersey during Blake's match!

Last was Rafael Nadal v Tommy Haas.  Haas is old and washed up, Nadal is in his prime and #1 in the world.  STILL, the German fellow behind us, well into his cups, was convinced that "Tommy can do it!"  Err... not so much.  Every point we heard, "You can do it, Tommy!"  When someone cheered Rafa, he would reply, "Tommy!"  It was actually kind of funny.  Nadal is a horse (look at him!) and won easily in straight sets.

 

 

We had a great time and would be going back if we were here next January.  We've decided that we must get to Wimbledon, Flushing Meadows and Paris for the other majors.  We don't really follow tennis, but the majors (and good players) make it a lot of fun to watch in person.