Bit belated this but I was asked to write this for another message board and thought some people on here might be interested as well.

Qualifying - Day 2/3

I actually arrived in Melbourne on the Friday before the Open started and my mate and I decided to check out the qualifying competition since entry was free. We ended up spending some time there on both the second and last day of qualifying mainly to have a look at the British players who, with the exception of Alan Mackin weren't up to much. We saw Keothavong go out tamely to Alize Cornet, and there was nothing in her play to suggest she is ever going to make the top 100 let alone anything else! Katie O'Brien put up a bit more of a fight but also lost in straight sets. Really the most obvious thing about the qualifying competition was the sheer gulf in class between them and the top 50 players who i'm used to watching.

On the last day we did see Alan Mackin win through the final round and he played well though against an opponent who's serve & weight of shot wouldn't have troubled the top women! The British tennis establishment was out in full however with John Lloyd, David Felgate, Martin Lee & others all watching.

The more interesting thing about going along was watching the last minute preparations - signs were still being put up and last minute building work done and also wandering around watching the players training on the outside courts. Most of the top players were on the show courts where there was no access but we did see Vaidisova, Gonzalez, Hrbaty, Dulko and others and you could get really close up without any of the crowds who gather around when they practice during the Open itself.

AO - Day 1

I didn't actually go to the Open on the first Monday but did see the large groups of Croatian's and Serbs that caused all the problems - both before and after they had been chucked out. The Serb's matched through Federation Sq afterwards and shouted at a small group of Croatian kids sitting there minding their own business. The whole event was the biggest news in Melbourne that day. In fact one of the nice things about being at the AO is that it basically takes over the city - it's usually the biggest story in the local paper & leads the news, pretty much all cafe's & resturants show it on TV screens & it is on the big screen all day in Federation Sq in the centre of the city. For once though the first week was dominated by bad news - the violence on the Monday, a 5 yr old boy being sexually assulted in one of the toilets in Melbourne Park, disputes over Hawkeye and the extreme heat policy. Thankfully it all settled down by the end of the week but it wasn't a great start for the organisers.

Day 2 -

Oh my god it was hot! I have been in brutal heat before but this was just unbearable. We had ground passes but thankfully they give you access to a (very large) area of unreserved seating so we headed there to watch Ana Ivanovic demolish Vania King. It wasn't a great match but we were in the shade so that's all that mattered! Ana was lucky she finished her match before the heat got too bad - they closed the roof after her match and we decided to take a break and wandered outside where we discovered the extreme heat policy had taken effect (all in all the organisers weren't great at informing people what was going on when it came to heat & rain breaks) and most matches were now more about survival of the fittest. I have to agree with the players that complained about the policy of finishing matches off - walking around the grounds was a struggle let alone having to play such a physically demanding sport as tennis. We quickly sheltered in the air conditioned Rod Laver Arena and watched on the TV screens in stunned amazment as Sharapova nearly let a 5-0 final set lead slip away to Camille Pin (of all people!). I'm no fan of Maria but even I felt sympathy as she kept going despite looking half dead.

After that we headed back to Vodaphone and watched Rochus struggle to cope with Guccione's serve. The arena itself was packed but there are loads of screens to watch in the air conditioned food and drink areas, I think I risked death by being the only one there supporting Rochus as the Australians were all solidly behind there man (I realised just how overly patriotic the Aussies are about there sports stars on this trip - the Melbourne Age even talked Stosur up as a contender for the title! She & Molik got more coverage than any other female player early on!).

After the arena emptied out we went in and settled down to watch the next few matches.

Hingis v Dechy was dull - just too easy for Martina, Dechy's form seems to have deserter her and apart from a brief period early in the second set Hingis was on cruise control.

Blake v Moya didn't live up to the hype after the Sydney final. Blake always looked the likely winner and though there were moments of brilliance (some of the hitting was brutal & with so much speed) it never really got going.

After that we had a bit of a bonus with the Murray v Martin match moved to Vodaphone. Murray had a lot of support in the relatively sparse crowd & looked impressive - never looking particularly troubled throughout the match. A lot of the crowd had been drinking all day and there was one very boorish American, in love with the sound of his voice, who thought yelling something out after every point was amusing - by the end even his friends had had enough of him.

After that we wandered round the outside courts since play was restarted around 8:30pm and it was nice to wander round all the floodlit courts & watch a few matches. Most of the crowds had gone so it was only the real die hard national fans that stayed including a big German contingent supporting Alexander Waske! Actually there was quite a funny moment in that match. Waske turned up well before his opponent Tursanov and was walking to his chair when a Australian girl sitting in the stands right by his chair (the outside courts only have very small fences between the seating and the courts) drunkenly yelled out hi - Waske looked startled then said hi back before going red and looking embarrassed! It was actually a really nice way to watch tennis that night as it was a really warm evening but such a relaxed atmosphere - we left around 10:30-11pm and there were still matches being started - I think the latest didn't finish until after 3am which again caused a few arguments.

Day 3 -

Though they were worried it was going to be as hot as the previous day it ended up being quite overcast so they managed to catch up on their schedule.

We started out on Margaret Court to watch Jankovic v Ruano Pascual in a highly entertaining match which was closer than the scoreline suggested though at the same time Jankovic rarely looked troubled. Djokovic was on court at the same time so the more vocal Serbian support was absent thankfully. The only problem with this match was for a time we were stuck in front of the most annoying people in the world - they took half an hour (i'm not kidding) to figure out which player was which and then took to discussing their gym schedule & holiday plans. One of them had the whiniest Australian accent i've ever heard - it was like being stuck in an episode of Kath & Kim!

Next we moved to Vodaphone for Petrova v Dulko which I thought could possibly be good but Dulko was wretched!

Then we watched Serena v Kremer, which was fun at least in the first set when Kremer was 4-2 up at one point and was generally giving Serena many problems as she wasn't making many errors and ran down everything getting the ball back all the time (and usually deep so Serena rarely had any short balls to pounce on).

We figured Safin would run away with the next match (how little we knew!) so took a break to get some food and catch some sun. We ended up joining a large Japanese contingent in supporting Sugiyama in her epic 3rd set against Yakimova which sadly Ai lost 10-8!

That was pretty much it for the day as most of the schedule was finished though we did catch a bit of James Auckland's doubles match but we decided against queing up to get back in to Vodaphone as for once we wanted to have a proper dinner and night on in Melbourne!

Day 4 -
We actually didn't have tickets for the Thursday but decided to pop in on an after 5pm ground pass just to catch some of the action. Managed to squeeze onto Vodaphone to catch the end of the Murray match. The place was more packed out than i'd ever seen it and Murray had a huge level of support. After that we stayed to watch the Sharapova match unfortunately as it was the worst tennis match i've ever seen. Maria did nothing special but then she didn't have to as Rodionova was just dreadful!

We then went to Show Court 2 to catch the exciting end of Grosjean v Rochus - both players had very vocal support and it looked to have been a very good match. Rochus looked exhausted at the end though. We then stayed to watch the Schnyder v Peng match though most of the crowd emptied out after the previous epic. The match itself never really caught light though watching it was quite surreal. First about 50 seagulls descended onto the stands in order to pick through the food people had left behind - they ended up regularly flying across the court and disrupting play. Plus a whole group of Aussies dressed up in Swiss T-Shirts continually chanted support for Schnyder including a chant that started Knick Knack Patty Whack! But most bizzare was a very elderly gentleman behind us who rang a cow bell every time Patty won a game! Anyway that was us for the evening - pretty good value at only 20 oz dollars.

Day 5 -

Our first day on Rod Laver! And what a first match - Petrova v Serena. This was the first real test for Serena and when she was pretty quickly down 6-1, 5-3 you pretty much assumed it was all over for her. Of course we all know what happened next and once you give Serena a second chance you might as well just walk off court. Good match all in all though the crowd never really got into it.

Kuznetsova v Kirilenko was average. Svetlana was impressive but apart from a brief period in the second set Maria never looked likely to threaten.

Next up was Federer v Youzhny which was a pretty average performance by Fed. The most interesting thing was how the crowd seemed to have been primed to be ready for greatness. Impressive shots that Federer pulled off which were good but no better than what others had managed earlier got way more appreciation. Of course Federer is incredible but maybe we've been told he is so many times that he gets greater credit for the fancy shots than others do?

That was the end of the daytime programme on Rod Laver so we wandered over to watch the Golovin v Peer match. We caught the very tight 7-5 final set. Golovin should really have won this but she allowed herself to be put off by the very agressively loud Israeli supporters in the stands and faltered despite holding match points. A shame as without Mary Pierce around Golovin is my stand in French diva & she certainly is that!

Anyway i'm off to enjoy the sun and get ready to enjoy the last two matches of the tournament!

Day 7 - Didn't go on the Saturday and today we had tickets for Vodaphone.

Wasn't that interested in the Haas v Mayer match & it was a lovely sunny day so we started out sitting in the sun watching the Mauresmo match on the big screen. Once she leaped into a 4-1 lead it looked like the usual 4th round rout but then Safarova cut down on her errors and Amelie . . . . did nothing. I mean we know why she freezes at RG but this was bizzare. She just seemed content to hit the ball back - not until the very end did she start trying to be aggressive and by then it was way too late. Although I like Amelie I was glad she lost this as Safarova was playing the more dynamic exciting tennis.

Then we popped in to watch Harkleroad close out against Hantuchova only to watch her choke big time!

Next match on Vodaphone after Tommy was Kuznetsova v Peer in which Svetlana got off to a great start - her forehand was really firing and then nothing. Ok Peer played well but at times it was like Kuzy wasn't even on court. Very very strange all in all.

Another upset in the next match but I always expected Vaidisova to beat Dementieva and Elena never really looked like she was involved in this match. Nicole always had it well under control.

Last match on was Gasquet v Robredo. Highly entertaining match with plenty of great shots but Gasquet always looked a little underpowered compared to Tommy. Really he was lucky to win a set and that was more to do with Tommy having one sloppy service game than anything else. The crowd really appreciated the match however.

Day 8 -

Last day at the open and Rod Laver again. For a set and a half in the first match it looked like another upset was on the cards as Li Na had Hingis on the ropes with some great play but then Martina cut down on her errors & Na imploded and the match limped to a sorry conclusion.

Clijsters was on fire in the first set and a half against Hantuchova (where was this against Sharapova!) and really looked like she was destined to win the event. She wobbled a bit towards the end of the set and almost let Daniella back in but steadied the ship in time.

Everyone was happy with those two results since it meant a Martina v Kim match. Be careful what you wish for obviously!

Last match was very enjoyable but much less of a contest than we thought it would be. After a tight first set Blake was made to look distinctly average by Gonzalez who should have won it even easier were it not for the wobble at the end of the third. Fun match though.

Anyway that was it for watching the Open live - all in all a fun week or so.

Watching on TV was fun too - Australian news was obsessed with Nadal's arse - multiple slow motions replays of him adjusting his underwear! They even asked various Australian sportsmen what underwear he should wear to avoid the problem in future!

Also the new season of programming starts this week (mainly American stuff as the Aussies don't make much local programming) and it was constantly trailed during the tennis. That meant the commentators had to react to the trails so we had Todd Woodbridge & others talking about Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives etc which was very strange. The weirdest moment was hearing John Barrett talking about the exciting goings on in Wisteria Lane!! You don't get that at Wimbledon (thank god for that - could you imagine the number of 'funny comments' Andrew Castle would try to make!)

Thanks GS2 :) Its always nice to have a birds eye view of an event rather than what you see on the TV :)

thanks for posting this here too GS - it makes for an interesting read :)

sounds like you had a fab time, though the heat stuff sounded quite bad, but loved the amount of odd people you seemed to end up next too - especially the one with a cowbell :blink:

Thanks for posting this GS2, really enjoyed reading it! :clap: It gives a really nice taste of being at a major tournament and all of the other stuff that goes on that doesn't make the papers/ TV.. :)

Thanks for that!

Would you reccomend going? Me and my mates want to go when we are older?

:ok: :ok:

wow, that was a mammoth read. sounds pretty sweet. i'm glad you enjoyed :D