I've always loved tennis, from playing as a young kid in primary school to the first tennis team at Geelong Grammar and later for my local club - tennis has been challenging and tormenting, but ultimately enjoyable and rewarding with good times and good friends. Unfortunately as life has moved on and become busier, tennis has slipped from my list of recreation...so that when passing a tennis court I have a lingering look at whoever is playing, and sometimes stopping to be mesmerised by the skill and athleticism of even just suburban tennis competition. I've always thought that if I could be professional in any sport, it would be tennis - the skill, athleticism, combat, money, glamour, and more!!
One great friend who shares my enjoyment for tennis is Darren, with whom I used to share many closely fought 'social' matches, fighting tooth and nail for the upper hand while pretending it was all just in fun. Haha. As if!!! We've also shared an annual pilgimage to the home of tennis that is Melbourne Park for over 10 years now, booking our tickets months before and waiting for our time to rendezvous in the stadium...always hoping for good seats and great matches, but only occasionally getting either. Nonetheless, we love the occasion and reminisce about years and matches in the past, including our grand adventure to the US Open in New York in 1999.
The middle weekend of the Open is when we usually go, this year with tickets for Friday night and all-day Sunday. For the first time we gave up on trying for Rod Laver Arena seats for either session through continued frustration about poor - and expensive - seats and went for HiSense Arena where we've had good seats in the past. Our faith was rewarded on Friday with great seats only 15-20 rows back behind the court - fantastic!!! And with the scheduled matches looking good on paper, we were pumped for a good night. Sadly it was a bit of a fizzer...
First up was Kim Clijsters vs. Nadia Petrova. Kim is a Australian crowd favourite...even after she dumped her Aussie boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt years ago. Now she has even greater 'court cred' as a mum who won the US Open last year in a return from retirement. She's a little like Nicole Kidman who went on to greater things after splitting from a famous partner (Tom Cruise). Nadia Petrova is somewhat of a Russian 'journeyman' of womens tennis, with legs up to her armpits and shoulders like a swimmer. To cut a short story shorter, poor Kim was wiped from the court 6-0 6-1 and couldn't get a shot in. So a flat start to the night of tennis. The second match between two Croatian players was quite dull and dour, with Ivo Karlovic moving with the speed of galcier but serving like the giant he is, at something 6 feet 13 inches tall (ie, long and gangly!!). We left after a couple of sets with a sore bum from hard seats.
Sunday's schedule looked good, with two womens matches and mens match. But the story of the day for us was the sun - our courside seats were in it, and remain so for the whole day. Oh no. We've never had this before, even though the angle we were watching from was great...almost at court level, right on the baseline. From here you could really see the speed and angle of the shots, and just how athletic the players are. This where live action is so much better than on TV.
Some people grumble about womens tennis as being boring, and yes, there are boring matches just as with the men (like we saw on Friday night). But the women have it all over the men in the looks and fashion stakes - especially the European women - case in point being the first match we saw on Sunday morning. As I sat down I commented to Darren how good the seats were (apart from the sun), and he replied saying "Yes, especially when the pink dress is down this end." Need I say any more?? She also played pretty good tennis, Alona Bondarenko, but not enough to win her match, dammit!! So while the winner waltzes into the next round, the loser pick up their prizemoney and slide out of town to the next tournament - it doen't seem quite right after the glamour and hype that accompany them in the lead-up. As a spectator, I'd be interested to hear from the loser also...after all, there's often more to learn from failing than succeeding.
The next womens match proceeded without us in our seats as we left to cool off outside in the beer garden, still in the sun, but at least on grass, with some breeze and not having to stay quiet all the time!!! The Open has a great outdoor space with big screens, deck chairs, tables, catering and more...just perfect for relaxing and socialising. We didn't miss a thing on court courtesy of the big screen, and while it was a good match, there was no pink dress in play...alas...
The final match, a mens match, was a classic. Nbr 4 seed vs nbr 13 seed. Argentina vs Croatia (we saw a lof of Croatian players!!). The play was high standard, the intensity was hot, the crowd was vocal...and the sun was still burning our seats. Just as it moved behind the roof a little...the wound the roof back further to keep the court - and our seats - in sunshine.
It was ding-dong match, trading shots and sets until I was sick of the sweat and sunburn and sore bum, and left...catching some more on TV when I got home. It seemed a shame to leave what turned into an epic 5 set match, but you can only take so much of a good thing. There's still another week to go, with the very best in the world still to face each other. I've got my favourite couch TV watching position worked out ready to watch and appreciate the best on the planet. Next year we'll be back again...it's an annual institution not to miss.
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