Australian Open

Melbourne, Australia -- January 16-17 -- Day 2-3

Hello all, Meg here. Something you may not know about me is that I’ve been a tennis fan for quite a long time.  I recall watching Wimbledon and the US Open with my mom, sisters and me rooting for calm, cool headed (cute) Bjorn Borg while Dad and my brother’s would route for complainer John McEnroe or whiny Jimmy Connors. Tennis was summer’s response to football.  So when Dean and I decided to go to Australia in January, my first thought was the Australian Open.  Much to my thrill, we were arriving exactly at the start of the Open, so instead of flying into Sydney, we flew into Melbourne.

One thing that impressed me about being in Australia prior to the Open was how well advertised it was.  It is a BIG deal for Melbourne and the city delivers.  It is a festival with tennis as the main event.  There were billboards everywhere, on everything, with pictures of the big name players – Novak Djokovich, Andy Murray, Serena Williams and two of my favorites, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. I had used our credit card “reward points” to book an apartment in the downtown area so we were near the action.  Another way the city embraces the Open is that it offers free tram service for the downtown area – so once we got to our place, we never had to pay for a ride to the grounds – or anywhere else we wanted to get to. Very handy.

As we had gotten into Melbourne on Sunday, I was able to tear off the Monday court schedules from one of the many newspapers that offered the information.  We also downloaded the AO app that proved very handy once the festival was underway, providing information like who was playing on what court, current scores of all the matches being played, and who would be playing next.  Our Sunday event was picking up our Will Call tickets at the entry gates and again marveling at how much hoopla was involved with the event.  We determined that two days of ground passes would allow us to see all 20 of the side courts, plus the Hisense Arena, which is a lot of tennis on a traveling budget.  While it would be fun to see Federer or Nadal, there was no guarantee of what match we’d see when purchasing the big court tickets. 

In front of Flinder’s Station, the tram stop for the Open, there was a huge screen that showed what was going on in the square, which happened to have a big, inflatable waterslide that had many kids geared up to ride it.  Had it not been for our recent visit to the waterpark in Bali, I’m sure we would have had a harder time walking past it, with many pleas to try it out.  Luckily, it looked rather tame to the kids, with a long line to boot, so we were all happy to be onlookers.  After leaving behind the square and the slide, we came across an ANZ Bank promotion that had some kids activities set up along the River-walk that inspired people to “Keep Moving”.  By the time we found the entrance to the Open and picked up our Will Call tickets, I was even more amped up for the next day! 

Flinder's Station, across from Liberation Square.

In reviewing the schedule for Monday’s games, we decided that we’d like to see Sam Query (US) play in the morning, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (French) play in the afternoon.  Monday was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day.  It was warm, but not overly hot.  The Hoornaert’s did their best to get out of the apartment by 11a.m., which meant by noon we were making our way to the Open.  Our timing strategically had us missing any of the early rush so we walked right up to the gates and we were officially at the Australian Open!  Entering the tennis grounds was quite an experience.  There were courts everywhere and loads of people.  We saw the ESPN studio and other TV cameras on the grounds, as well as a number of big screen TV’s showing what was happening on the bigger courts.  We found Court 7 easily for the Query match.  It was cool to be so close to the court and near the action.  Those guys are smashing the ball, sprinting across the court, and killing it on the serves.  The average serve speed was over 200 kph!  We appreciated the shade offered and had a great time as Query handily defeated Quentin Halys of France.  The kids were troopers for the first few games and then, once they realized this was what I was hoping to do for the next two days, started looking for something else to do.  Luckily, they did have a kids area that they checked out while Dean and I finished watching the match.   

US's Sam Query. First match of the Open

Shady and close, with a few obstructions....

My favorite female tennis fan

Afterwards, we all enjoyed lunch, taking advantage of the many food vendors that were on hand.  We ate near the open stage that had a band playing – not that there were a lot of people attending the concert – they could all be found courtside.  Apparently, there are some decent bands that play after 6 p.m. when the action on the side courts dwindles.  There were loads of port-o-potties, drinking fountains, and of course food and beverage options, including beer and wine.

We appreciated the Tsonga match, which was held on a bigger show court.  While there was no shade, it also meant that there were no obstructions to viewing the court.  It was fun to have Dex and Kylie cheer along with us for this round.  Tsonga won the match in 3 quick sets.  A slight downside to getting tickets so early in the tournament, is that games tend to be lopsided with the upper ranked players dispatching their opponents rather quickly.  On our way back home we went through Flinder’s Square and there, on the big screen, was the game from Rod Laver Arena.  What a great way to spend a beautiful evening! I respect that the city allows its residences to see what is going on despite not having sold out the event.   We certainly can’t say the same for our major sporting events.

Show Court 3

Tsonga serving up an ace.

Bigger court, bigger crowds.

Brazilian Thiago Monteiro met his match.

Tuesday was warmer than Monday, so Dean and I decided to hideout in the Hisense Arena, which is a big covered stadium.  The kids again went off to play in the Kids Zone where they were able to build Lego projects and play with Nerf gun’s that could hold up to 25 Nerf darts (!).  It is no wonder we didn’t see them for nearly 3 hours.

Even in the shade of Hisense, it was a very warm day.  The players were dripping in sweat in no time.  The final game of the afternoon was David Ferrer taking on Omar Jasika of Australia.  Ferrer is another hard-hitting Spaniard, like his buddy Nadal, and it was incredible to watch him chase down all the balls and hit them with such ferocity that it was no wonder he grunted with every hit.  There were some great die-hard Aussie fans for Omar, he had a number of super volley’s but in the end, it was Ferrer who won in 3 sets.  

Denisa Allertova of Czechloslovakia

Spaniard David Ferrer keeping the energy up.

When we were leaving the tournament, the weather was considerably better – a breeze was blowing and the temp must have dropped by 10 degrees.  It was a fantastic couple of days and I was sorry that we couldn’t spend more time at the Australian Open. Now, my bucket list includes the US Open, as well as another chance at seeing the Australian Open.  Tennis anyone?  

Our Australian Open swag.