Day 7, last day

It was sad walking through the empty grounds as I left Melbourne Park for the last time. Not sure if I will be back next year, would love to though it has been great fun. Today I got a ticket for Hisense Arena again. Much better today. There was 4 matches scheduled. First up a close encounter between Alona Bondarenko and Zheng, disappointed that Alona lost. It was close right through and just in the last moment Zheng wins, it was one of those matches. Then the Russians Petrova and Kuznetsova. You can tell they are friends, applauding one another a lot. I stayed for a bit then went outside to see some sixth sense juniors. When I got back it was the third set and very easy for Petrova. After this was the epic 4 h 30 something minute five setter between Delpo and Cilic. Again very close match and the crowd got louder and louder. My first time seeing a five setter live and perfect timing too. After this match was done I go to the tv and saw Justine had won the first set. She loses the second but wins the third. Elated, I go back inside Hisense hoping that Safina will put Kirilenko away. Unfortunately she retired with an injury. So play ends at 10pm. Pretty good day of tennis for $45. 

Day 6

Tomorrow is the last day of tennis for me. It's been just over 2 long weeks ever since Sydney qualifications. I can't believe the players have to do this week in, week out. I'm so exhausted. More and more players are bowing out of the tournament. The outside courts are pretty empty, a lot of doubles and the juniors have begun to descend. Today I had tickets to Hisense Arena. First up Vika. It was sprinkling for a bit so it delayed the start of the match but they finally decided to close the roof and play resumed. Vika was on fire today, a lot of winners. After the match Serena vs Suarez Navarro and another smashing. I watched only until 3-0 of the Djokovic match and decided to go to the outside courts. Stood outside of show court 3 of almost 20 minutes waiting to get into Dani v Li Na. I finally got in and it was so depressing watching Dani get thumped in the 3rd set lol. The timing was perfect with this match ending and the Vika/Kuz v ALG/King doubles match beginning. Watched the entire match. Vika was so funny, looking to her coach so much. Then I saw Delacqua in mixed doubles. Australians vs the Czechs. Was going for the Czechs just because everyone else wanted Casey haha.  

Day 5

I'm back at the hotel very early tonight. You can tell the tournament is getting down to the serious stages. There isn't much activity on the outside courts besides a lot of doubles. This morning I helped my friend make a sign because she was going to Henin's match. I went to see the entire Wickmayer v Errani and Monfils v Isner match. The French guys singing is still in my head lol. The atmosphere for that match was amazing. Really tired, was watching Clijsters on tv but then it stopped working :\ 

Just uploaded all my justine pics onto fb. It's so much faster than imagebaming! 

Stefanie Vögele :)

She's my new favourite player for the week! lol Won a lot of fans today. The crowd appreciated her temperament over angry Vika. Good effort today though. Fought hard. Hope she has a good season :)   

Pics from rd 1 vs Czink, practice on the same court as Vika today and rd 2 vs Vika

Day 4

Wow so motivated to post Voegele's pics i did that before writing for the first time ever lol. So this morning I get there just as gates opened and decided that I really couldn't be bothered walking all the way to the practice courts so I just went to the match courts. Decided to pop into show court 2 out of the blue and was very surprised to see 2 of my faves Stefanie and Vika on the same court! They had a match against each other later in the day so it was strange to see them both there. I watched it for a bit, Vika hitting really well. Alot of grunting, trying to intimidate Steffi i think haha. Stefanie hit with another girl, I didn't recognise. She left first, shook hands with the other girl, that girl's coach and then gave a fist pump to her own coach hehe. 

After she left I went around to see who else was around. Saw Lisicki, Coin among others. Then met a friend who just arrived in Melbourne yesterday. We went to Ivanovic/Dulko match. Stayed until 7-6 5 all and then it got tedious plus Petkovic started so we left. I stayed at Petkovic until she was getting badly thrashed 0-4 and thought I don't like her anymore.. So then I see that Davydenko bagels a third set so off to Vika v Stefanie we went. It was a good match for the first set. Took 58 minutes for the first set. The final scoreline was something like 6-4 6-0 doesn't show just how close Stefanie was. She made Vika work for the points. She had more winners but alot more unforced errors, hitting the ball very flat it went into the net so many times. The crowd was definitely behind Stephanie and applauded as she left the court. I think she impressed a lot of people today. 

After this I walked around outside for a bit, not really seeing anything interested. Saw a set of Haas/Tipsarevic, most of Vesnina/Zheng v Cornet/a Canadian girl. Vesnina and Zheng makes such a cute team haha. They had good chemistry. Cornet yelled out shit a couple times, she is so angry like Vika lol. After the match Zheng gets mobbed by so many Chinese fans. She is so polite and signs for everyone and takes pics, even did an interview with some guys with cameras and a mic. Poor Vesnina, no one wanted a piece of her and slowly walks away first. In between this match I went to see a bit of Kuz and Vika team up for doubles. I expected them to be awesome but the other team was pretty good. Then saw Verdasco's entire match. First men's match I watch from start to finish! It didn't last long. His opponent got thrashed but it was nice to see the crowd applauding him as he walked off the court and he acknowledged the support. Fer signed soooooo many autographs. All the way from the shorter rectangle corner side of the court! 

Some more random pics

Day 2

Ivanovic v Perry pics

For the Ana fans :)