Tennis and friends

Merry Christmas tennis friends! I hope you all had a great day with your loved ones.

To revive my tennis blog just before the 2014 season kicks off I thought I'd share some of my personal experiences of the friends I've met through tennis.

People who know me would know that I'm a sports nut, I would watch just about any sport there is. I also like to play quite a few different sports as well - just look under my bed and you'll find: two football boots, shin pads, tennis shoes, tennis racquet, tennis balls, basketball, two frisbees, boxing gloves, etc. They'd also know that tennis is my absolutely favourite. It's the time of the year when I am so excited for the New Year so that the new tennis season begins. My work colleagues always ask what I'm doing over the holidays and I tell them that I'll be going to Melbourne for the tennis.

Over the years I've had favourite players come and go but regardless of whether they are here or not I still like to follow tennis and have remained in contact with a lot of people I've met through tennis websites or at tournaments.

Tennis fans are a crazy bunch. We can be so friendly, fanatical, disinterested or cruel (e.g. on tennisforum.com haha). I've also met so many nice people from around the world through it though. They've helped me when I learnt Portuguese and German at uni. Distinctions, yeah! Proofread my awful German writing attempts. Sent postcards from vacations in Europe and even Argentina. When I went to Germany last year I visited four in Germany which was really great. Also, with the assistance of some tweeps, we've created and run Stefi's facebook fan page (and have all the time zones covered)!

For a number of years a few of us become really close on Ana Ivanovic's forum. It was created at the start of 2007 (I believe) and to this day I'm still in touch with some of them. Being a 'moderator' involved so much drama. It was hilarious, we were a huge dysfunctional family. I even mentioned this experience as an example in my last job interview and got the job - which has nothing to do with sport or forums. Other activities included delivering Ana's 'pink envelope' to Sven in Melbourne on my faulty printing and the massive world-wide scaled projects for her birthday surprise.

Going to the Sydney tournament every year I've made a few friends with people that I only see that time of the year. They have been following tennis for years and tell stories about players I had never heard of doing something many moons ago. We also exchange tickets, let each other know who is practicing to save fruitless exercise to the other side of the preccinct and such. In Melbourne, a friend who I had only ever spoken to on Twitter even let me borrow her Rod Laver Arena ticket to watch Justine's match in what would be Justine's last Australian Open.

Every January hearing French tennis players talks makes me motivated to learn French. I picked up a few words from a French guy on Ana's forum over msn, and some text from Alizé's forum. (E.g. mdr = lol, moi aussi = me too). Last year I took the plunge and signed up for a beginners French course. After 20 hours I learnt that French is way too hard for me, especially pronunciation. For the past few years Alizé's friend (who I met through her forum) and I have been giving her a birthday message at the AO but this year she is coming to Australia and I'm really looking forward to finally meeting her.

There are still many tennis friends who I haven't met yet but hopefully one day we will get the chance. In the end we all share the common love of tennis. Only a few more sleeps until tennis appears on the tv and I can work on my tan over the next few weeks.

AO trophies!

Today was a pretty exciting day in my life. I went to the AO Blitz and saw the trophies. (There was also tennis but that wasn't the highlight.) I arrived just as the men were unboxing the prized possessions. 

I was so excited that the man let me take a photo with them first even though the family was also excited and they were there before me. I had to wear cotton gloves. The women's trophy was pretty heavy. The detail on the men's one was so nice.

Then it was the family's turn to take photos. They must have taken about 25 photos with the trophies in different permutations. I was standing around creepily taking photos of them with the trophies too. 

One of the trophy keeper men said that these are replicas and the players who win the tournament in 2014 get to keep these ones. I always thought they the replica trophies weren't the actual size?

Later I watched a bit of tennis of the ACT Velocity against the UTS Lizards. Kyrgios was the main attraction and there were some women's players I recognised: Bai (WTA rankings in the 400s) and Calderwood (I have her autograph during the SYD tourney from many moons ago). 

Australian Open 2013

I didn't blog during the tournament so I thought I'd jot down a few things to remember this year's visit to the Australian Open. Overall I spent 10 nights in Melbourne. Eating out every morning, lunch and dinner was a bit annoying. I spent a lot of money on food and drank mostly tap water from Melbourne Park. The accommodation was nice and central. It was about a 15 minute walk to the tennis but most mornings and nights I caught the free trams. I didn't spend much on tickets to the tennis. First three days was free (qualies), Days 1-5 was a $125 5 day grounds pass and Hisense on the weekend for $60 a day.

For once I went to Melbourne early and attended the qualification matches. It's more crowded than Sydney, even on some main draw days. Nothing too exciting happened. Larriere lost her first match. I got to see Irina and Maryna from Justine's academy. I also went to some of Malek's matches but I've really lost interest in her now. It was disappointing that we couldn't walk around the practice courts. They had the viewing deck available but not all the courts are visible from up there.

On the final day of qualies, they had Kids Day.  I went to the exhibition which featured Fed, Tsonga and Vika in Team Spongebob against Ana, Nole and Serena in Team Dora. I know Gangnam Style is done to death but it was interesting to see Ana, Jo and Rog as bystanders. The balls kids almost got Roger to do it!

Alizé Cornet has had a memorable Melbourne trip, I think. She won her first match against Erakovic 10-8 in the third set. Basically the whole of New Zealand was cheering against her. The crowd was unhappy with her temper when she went off at the linesman. It must have been so awkward for Mona Barthel during the doubles when Alizé got angry at the officials. I felt like I could be friends with Mona. Well, in her second round match Alizé played Venus at a night match in RLA. I didn't want to spend money on a night session ticket so I watched it outside on the big screen which was ok.

Stefanie Voegele lost her first round match to Paszek 7-5 in the third. It was a disappointing end. Such a close match and she had the upper hand for most of the match, fought back to 4 all and was up 5-4. I think the crowd was supporting her but they weren't against Paszek either. As for doubles, she partnered Camila Giorgi and they drew the Williams sisters. It was definitely evident that they have never played together before. There was no chemistry and both played a very individualistic game. Stefi didn't want to play at the net and Camila was hitting balls that wasn't hers to hit. She was the more aggressive one with some great points at the net but also a lot of balls into the net too. Stefi's last service game was just woeful. The first set was competitive though, sort of.

There were so many other matches I went to but I won't bore you with the details. I really enjoyed my stay in Melbourne. The practice schedules are published now which makes our lives so much easier. A lot of drinking fountains. Easier access to the practice courts. I'm so motivated to follow more tennis throughout the rest of the year. I've been horrible with staying up late to watch the other slams. RG and Wimbledon are ok but I will try to watch more tennis this year.

A yellow Australian Open

I have too many pics so instead here are the yellow ones for you guys!

Bye :)

I had a grounds pass again today. The temperature was much cooler in the morning but soon the sun came out and it quickly became very hot. I watched only two full matches: Verdasco losing to Istomin and Cibulkova defeating Errani. Despite the scoreline I thought both matches were good, apart from Verdasco's meltdown. A lot of winners. Cibulkova was on fire. The withdrawals of Stepanek and Simon lead to the Isner/Harrison match being moved to centre court.  I then watched a bit of the Bryan bros. Wozniacki and Makarova were (separately) practicing. Nothing else good so I left.

It's been an okay week overall. Disappointing that all these top players either lost early or withdrew but I'm super excited to see my real faves in Melbourne. Larriere will play in qualies tomorrow. Voegele is in the main draw. If anyone is keen to follow her, here is the fan page - definitely appreciate more 'likes'!

I have to leave home at 4.30 am for an early flight tomorrow so I better finish packing. I probably won't be blogging during Melbourne. It's been very time consuming this week and I don't really have the time or internet to do so. Thanks for reading this week. Enjoy the tennis and I hope your faves do well, unless it's against my faves ofc.

Bye :)

43 degrees

So the talk of the day was about how hot it was today. It was understandably a lot emptier. The stands were maybe only 25 per cent full. It's so rigged that they put Tomic/Matosevic on after 6pm.

I arrived at the tennis centre after the first set between Errani and Kirilenko and by then it was already so hot. Errani won easily. It didn't look like the heat was affecting her at all. I then went to see a bit of Lopez/Chardy whilst waiting for the Cibulkova/Makarova match. Stayed for the first set of that. I tried so many things: jacket over my legs, umbrella, jacket over my head. It was just streaming hot and I needed to get out of the sun. I managed a few minutes in the shade before it was time for Kerber to play Voskoboeva.

Despite the heat, it wasn't that humid. The awful thing about the weather was the strong winds. It was blowing this warm air on and off. Voskoboeva had to call the medic who measured her blood pressure then she laid on the ground while her legs were getting iced. It's a credit to Kerber for having to sit through all the times her opponent was getting treatment. There were some terrible line calls against Kerber. She was getting so frustrated but as the match was within reach she started saying Komm jetzt and Come on :) Ultimately after saving a set point she was able to win the match, winning all five games since the medical time out.

I didn't want to stay for much longer and by then it was already past 4pm. The practice courts weren't full but I saw Parmentier, Harrison and Hantuchova there. After a bit more shade I went to see Bedene (he has the same agent as Babos, who was there but I wasn't sure who he was). Then I left.

It feels good to be home early for once. All I've been doing since Friday has been: waking up, eating, going to the tennis, coming home, eating, blogging, sleeping and repeat. My arms are so tanned now, it's a totally different skin colour compared to my stomach! There is one more day of Sydney for me. I can't wait to go to Melbourne and see different players to be honest. Apparently it'll be 41 degrees there on Friday?

Pics from Day 2 (Kids Day) - reverse chronological order