The end

I am sorry for not getting around to posting this sooner! I arrived back in quiet Canberra on Tuesday night so I've had three days of work and getting back into the routine.

On my last day of the tennis it looked like it was going to rain in the morning. I had shorts on and a light jacket. Eventually the clouds went away and the sun came out. I didn't want to put sunscreen on since I was leaving in a few hours. My legs were red for the next two days but now it isn't too bad, just sunburnt and very tanned.

The last day of tennis for me was surprisingly enjoyable. I used the last day of my 5 day grounds pass. I watched a couple of juniors play.

Zverev played against a Japanese boy. I didn't like his attitude in the first set, making his opponent wait ages at the net before he went over for the coin toss. It was worse than how long Rafa/Serena would take.

A Korean guy called Kim was playing on the court on the other side so I could see his points. He had a group of fans supporting him which was nice.

After Zverev lost the first set I went to the show court to see the french guy Halys play an Aussie. He definitely looks more mature than the other boys in the tournament. Dominated the second set to win the match. I returned to Zverev's match and he won the second set. The third was close with some fantastic points and it eventually ended like 9-7 in the third or something.

Next I watched a little bit of Jana Fett against the fifth seeded Chinese girl, Xu. Fett practiced with Bencic the day before so that was the only reason I know of her. Xu was interesting to watch. She has a temper like Cornet. She was so pissed at her team and kept yellling at them. She was also going to cry. I actually left the match at like 5-4 for Fett on serve in the third.

(For the record - Zverev won the boys title and Fett was runner up in the girls.)

Meanwhile Ivanovic was playing Bouchard so I went to watch the end of the match on the big screen. It was disappointing that Ana lost after beating Serena. I did a quick last minute whip around the AO shop to see if there was anything I wanted. I bought stickers.

So that was it, another Sydney-Australian Open done and dusted for me. Sydney wasn't good, I hope it will be better next year. I always love to visit Melbourne, despite the heat wave.

Stan Wawrinka

hehe

Jil Belen Teichmann photos

Tried to email these but the file was too big so uploaded them instead. She's a Swiss junior. Lost to the second seed in round 2 of the girls tournament.

AO 2014: Days 7 and 8

On Day 7 I had RLA tickets. I arrived at half past ten and walked around the practice courts. Saw Halep practicing then stumbled across Zverev the top seed in the boys tournament. What court my attention was the shirt he wore being the same as Harrison’s colourful one from Brisbane/Sydney. I stayed for a little while before heading into RLA.

I found my seats and it was the closest I had ever been to the court in there. Fifth row and right near the centre of the court. It was so close I can actually hear what the players are saying when they talk to themselves. The first match was Penneta v Kerber. Flavia played amazingly well in the first set. Angie won the second and in the third Flavia was able to lift her game again and take out the German.

Next up was Ana against Serena. The coin toss kid is usually a child who has won an under 10 or 12 competition. This girl’s favourite player is Monica Seles, strangely enough and I could see Ana was so excited. She had a chat to the girl while they waited for Serena to come to the net. It had been a really long time since I watched Ana play. The forehand quickly reminded me of why I became her fan many years ago.

I left RLA for a little while, not sure/can’t remember what I did exactly but when I came back Djokovic had won the first set. I watched the rest of the match. The post match interview was fun because he was impersonating Boris Becker.

Day 8 marks the second week of the competition and the grounds are so empty. Plenty of seats inside MCA unlike the weekend were people had to queue for up to 40 minutes to get in.

I went to Jil Belen Teichmann’s practice, she was hitting with Hon. I then walked around, not keen on going into Hisense to watch the Bryan Bros. Eventually I went into MCA just as Lucie/Andrea had their on court interview. The interview inappropriately asked Lucie about how she hopes Tomas will do. That was so random but she is so nice and handled it professionally. I was in the front row so I sat there for 30 minutes waiting for Dimitrov’s match to begin. I watched just over two sets then left to see Teichmann’s match. Her opponent is the second seed from Serbia and was too good. I left after some photos and 5 games and went into Hisense.

Stayed in Hisense for a while watching Barty in mixed and then two sets of Murray. Headed to the practice courts and it was empty besides Muguruza sitting on a chair and there was her coach, Martina Hingis and her husband. There weren’t that many people there waiting for autographs but Garbine just left without heading over to the fans which was quite annoying of her, even though I didn’t want her autograph. Even the top players wouldn’t do that.

Today I have a grounds pass and the schedule isn’t exciting. A lot of juniors and doubles. I should have gone home yesterday actually but I don’t really want to go back to work. Anyways it’s been a fun month of tennis watching overdose on tv, in Sydney and Melbourne. I’m now more tanned and looking forward seeing who wins the tournament and to the rest of the season. I will check out of this hostel soon (covered in bug bites), check out the Uni Qlo pop-up store and then watch a bit of juniors/doubles before heading to the airport.  

AO 2014 - Day 6

On Day 6 I arrived shortly before play commenced. Immediately it was noticeable that there were a lot more people compared to the previous days.

I watched Bencic practice, surprised that she was still here as she isn’t playing juniors anymore. Her dad was speaking to her in a language I didn’t understand. He wasn’t happy with something she was doing with the serve and she yelled back at him after a while. On the other courts two Italian girls were practicing, when they were done Belinda’s dad came over and asked if one of them wanted to keep hitting with Belinda so the one who didn’t have a match that day went over. It felt like a big deal, imagine being asked to hit with Serena or something. Belinda had three men on her court during the practice while the Italians shared a coach who left.

Then I went to Stefi’s practice. It was just some light hitting and then serves and returns. Nothing like how the doubles specialists practice. Ivo told me Stefi couldn’t move during her match against Domi as her legs were feeling very heavy. He asked me if I talked to Svenja recently and I told him that she asked what happened and Stefi laughs and said everybody was asking that. He said it was his fault that she played in the second match because he only asked that she didn’t play first, rather than play third (which would have started at 6pm due to the suspension of play). In hindsight that is easily said but the past has happened and the result could have been the same. As he is always saying she needs to work hard to improve. It is sad that she is out of the tournament but I shouldn’t complain with seeing double the amount of her matches compared to last year. They’ve been in Australia for exactly a month so I’m sure they are looking forward to going back to freezing Switzerland.

Then I went inside Hisense to see Nara squander a set point and lose the match to JJ. I stayed there for all of the Aga/Pavs match. Pavs played so well winning the first set and had an early break in the second then she felt dizzy, and lost the match. Aga was lucky to get through without a fight.

I left to go and watch Stefi’s doubles match. It was pretty shocking how poorly she and Magda did. They got a break in the first game and it was all down hill from 2-0. A chance to break back at 3-5* in the second but they didn’t take it. Magda didn’t serve well. Stefi didn’t really either. She was too passive at the net while Raymond cleaned up any volley opportunities. Heaps of ufe. Dani was solid with the backhand rallies.

When the match ended I went back inside Hisense to see the third set of Murray against Lopez. That was over so quickly as Murray raced to a two break lead and didn’t drop his serve.

For the night session I met my friend from Sydney who I hadn’t seen in a while. Azarenka won against Meusburger in 60 minutes. I cannot imagine how Meusburger even made the third round with that awful serve. Why couldn’t it have been Stefi against Vika out there? Then Nadal was in beast mode against Monfils. There were some spectacular rallies but Nadal was ruthless taking that match in 1, 2, 3.  

Days 4 and 5, AO 2014

Very sorry for the lack of consistent blogging. The internet here is awful at night and even in the morning the connection still drops out. I'll continue the story..

Days 4 and 5

The heat wave continues over the past two days but now it is finally cooler. Thursday began on a low but ended well. In the morning I went to MCA to watch Cornet play against Giorgi. It was early in the second set when Erakovic lost to Diyas so I headed out to Court 13 to see Stefi play Cibulkova.

There weren’t many people at the match and most of them were Domi fans. I usually sit on the side opposite the chair so I can see the whole court but I didn’t want to face the sun so I sat with Ivo instead. He was coaching her from the side line I was surprised he didn’t get called out. Yelling out ‘return cross’ turning around and giving her instructions in German it was kind of hilarious. Throughout the whole match he was giving point by point commentary to Heinz.

The match didn’t go well at all. Domi was finishing all the short balls, making winners and winning the let cords. I have never seen Stefi lose this badly before.

It was a horrible feeling, I don’t know what is worse to lose a match playing poorly or lose a hard fought match.  I was gutted afterwards and didn’t even feel like watching any other matches.

Luckily the extreme heat ruling had been activated and new matches/sets wouldn’t commence for at least two hours so I took this opportunity to go back to the air conditioning in the hostel. 

The great thing about Melbourne Park is that it is so close to the city, just a 15 minute walk or a free tram ride. Everyone opted for the tram. Back at the hostel I was able to finish reading a book about an Australian women au-pairing in Paris. The ending was so disappointing. She just quit and that was it.

Anyways I went back outside at half past five. Had some food and went back to the tennis. I watched a bit of Dmitrov versus Lu and then Cornet’s doubles. There was so much lightning they suspended play. The Monfils match was moved to Hisense so I went there for most of that match. While inside we could hear the rain pouring outside. When the outside courts were finally dry it was 10.30pm and I watched a bit of Petko/Beck in doubles. Kyrgios versus Paire was about to begin.

The atmosphere was pretty cool. It was my first time seeing the Fanatics live.

I left at 1.45am and went to bed at 2.30am.

On Friday I arrived at Melbourne Park at 10.30am.

Instead of my original plan to watch Barthel I decided to see Janowicz play against Mayer. It was all about the serving.

A group of Canadians sat next to me. The Genie Army were annoying. As David calls them, her legion of horny fans hahaha. Davis didn’t play well against Bouchard.

Walked around, nothing to see on the practice courts so I went into a sponsor tent and some shops, saw the end of the Babos/Martic win over Cibulkova/Wickmayer.

MCA – Roger-Vasselin was playing well against Anderson. Saw two games of Monfils/Brown in doubles before Minella began. I was hoping she’d win because it would be fun to see her play against Stefi tomorrow but alas they lost.

AO Days 2 and 3

Firstly my apologies for the lack of blogging/pics. I've been so tired each night and to make things worse the wifi here is horrible at night I couldn't even get online. I've been updating Stefi's fb fan page with pics but will probably hold off on the others.

Day 2

It was so hot, it reached 43 degrees.

In the morning I went to watch Stefi and Mandy practice. It was more of a gentle hit and a few serves, nothing serious.

Hercog retired down 0-1 after two minutes. I was glad to be out of the sun but disappointed that I didn’t get to see Cornet play.

Halep played well for the first time this year.

Stefi won her singles match 7-5, 7-5 over Mladenovic. Kiki had a huge entourage of about 20 comprising of Mauresmo, Dechy, Feurstein and others. Unsurprisingly not many people watched the match due to the heat.

Day 3

41 degrees but cloudy so it wasn’t that hot. Quite humid though.

I bought Rod Laver tickets to see Belinda Bencic’s appearance on centre court in her first grand slam.

It cost $90 to see bagels and bread sticks but worth it since I had a good seat in the shade, got to see the possible champions (Serena and Novak).

I left during Novak’s match and got Stan’s autograph.

Then went over to see Stefi team up with Rybarikova to win the doubles over the Aussie pairing of Dokic and Sanders.

Watched Stan win in 4 sets over Falla inside MCA at night.

  

AO 2014 Day 1

I'm really exhausted so I'll make it quick. Day 1 of the Australian Open. I was told one of the gates opened at 8am and ended up waking up extremely early this morning (before 5am) so I got there for the 8am opening. It was an area with practice courts 24-28 and the national tennis centre which contained seven indoor courts. Pretty cool discovering this place as I didn't know about it before. The highlight of the morning was watching Tony Roche coach this girl called Sam on her volleys. 

The highlight in terms of the tennis was seeing Belinda Bencic winning her first match in a grand slam. The current number 1 junior had qualified into the MD and she defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm today in three sets. She seemed really nervous at the start making loads of errors but once she found her rhythm she was able to hold serve and break many times. She signed my hat :) I'm super excited to see her and Stefi take on France at the Fed Cup. Stan also won so the Swiss are 2/2 today. Tomorrow it's Stefi and Roger's turn. I'm going to be so nervous.

Then I hopped from court to court, saw a bunch of sets but nothing in full. I left at 7.30pm. Tomorrow I'll stay later and hopefully get to see Monfil's night match inside MCA. It is always a great atmosphere the sessions in there. They've build a roof that is very brown and I didn't go inside today. Also Cornet's match doesn't clash with Voegele so that's great but I need to check what time she will have practice. Priorities. 

Sydney struggles

It's such a struggle to think of a post title! Yesterday was my last day attending the Apia International. It is sad to see how empty the stands are. The event is struggling financially in stark contrast to Brisbane having Roger Federer and sell-outs for every session.

A lack of the big name players and the overcast weather may have been contributing factors. The decision to not sell grounds passes, the scheduling of matches and allocations of courts have been questionable. With the expensive tickets today it is no surprise that the stands look so empty, more so than previous years. Even a big tennis fan like myself aren't there for the rest of the week because it's not worth it compared to the value of the Australian Open. Now I'm at home watching Kooyong on tv. Sydney's biggest drawcard Del Potro is now playing in Sydney and they aren't even broadcasting his match entirely - switching between Kooyong and Sydney. I hope they bring back grounds passes and do other things in the next few years to rescue the tournament and get more people through the gates.

At the Kerber/Kanepi match on Court 6 the stands were completely full for the 11am start. Again, I have no idea why they didn't begin play on KRA until 12pm. What is the logic behind that? Well anyways after a point I see the umpire walk over to the other side of the court towards a old lady in the crowd who had slumped over in her seat. It was quite scary, my first thought was that she was dead. Some people looked away, including the players. I shocked but I watched as some people from the crowd laid her on the ground. Luckily the WTA trainer was at the match and she came over. I can't imagine what her husband was feeling. Some people were trying to squeeze past to leave which was extremely rude of them. After a few minutes the medics came and the lady was ok.

Then I left to go to the first set of Mahut v Harrison before going to centre court. Inside KRA saw the win from Mattek-Sands over Aga. A surprising upset but from the look of things it was not the same Aga. I think she was carrying an injury. Another pity for the tournament with the top seed and defending champion losing her first match. The match was followed by a comfortable win for Kvitova over McHale.

At the practice courts I watched Eugenie Bouchard practicing for a bit. Huber was coaching some kids. She was great at it, very cheery and gave them so good advice on basics. Then she was telling them they can do what they want to do and all they need is to work hard. 10,000 hours of practice. They can become professional tennis players or a ballerina haha! The clinic was sponsored by Usana so she told the 12 year olds to take Usana supplements.

Next was Lucie v Wozniacki on the Grandstand. A close contest with Lucie winning in straight sets. I went back inside KRA a little during the Tomic match. Surprisingly a lot of people were still around at that time. Then left for the Davis/Errani match was competitive in the first set. Two diminutive players having long rallies and making it to the drop shots. Errani won in straight sets.

I can't wait for the main draw to come out on Friday. I'm flying to Melbourne early Sunday morning, fingers crossed my sunburn would be healed by then! It is going to be hot there. Until then, ciao.

Photos of Day 3, 2014

Kerber

Kanepi

Mahut v Harrison

Keys v Tomljanovic

Radwanska

Mattek-Sands

McHale

Kvitova

Photo of 2013 AO Kids Day - I was there!

Towel toss

Bouchard

Adamczak

Huber and husband coaching kids

Görges' pink ipod shuffle

Safarova v Wozniacki

Tomic v Granollers

Errani v Davis