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.