A couple of nights before leaving Hobart I realised I hadn’t had an email from Jetstar reminding me about my return flight, as I’d had one for my flight from Melbourne. I also wanted to check in online. A search of Jetstar showed I hadn’t got any more bookings with them which was rather worrying. However, I didn’t panic as thought I’d be able to book a flight back anyway and searched my credit card statements to discover I had booked the return with Tigerair, the other cheap airline! Must remember to write these things in my diary!
Whilst waiting at the gate in Hobart Airport for my plane back to Melbourne (Tuesday 14th) I got talking to a man and his son who seemed to have a really lovely relationship. It turned out I was sitting with them on the plane and it was nice to see them put their arm around each other and be affectionate towards and respectful of each other in a way that I think is uncommon to witness between a father and son. The son told me he was 14 and I believe his parents were separated. He was very bright and they both loved reading. As we arrived at Melbourne I told them how lovely it was to see such a bond between them and that I hoped they never lost it.
I got on the Skybus to Southern Cross Railway Station and again the air was hazy, so much so that the high rises could hardly be made out. I later heard on the news that Melbourne that day had the worst air quality in the world as a result of the terrible bushfires. At the railway station I got on a bus to near my hotel. I’d originally booked an Airbnb which was a small apartment, but when I checked again how far it was to Melbourne Park for the Oz Open it looked too far so I cancelled it (just losing the service charge and refunded the rest in full) and booked the Miami Hotel because it had excellent reviews on booking.com, the rooms looked nice, there was a kitchen that could be used and laundry plus I’d been rather spoilt by staying in the upgraded room at the Great Southern Hotel earlier.
When I saw my room I was rather disappointed. The bed is huge and completely dominates the small room leaving nowhere to put my case so it’s balanced on the very worn chair. While there’s a very narrow wardrobe there are no drawers, just some metal trays, and nowhere to hang anything. However, I’ll get used to it. I was told all the rooms were the same size apart from the family rooms. The location is quite good as just around the corner is tram stop 57 which goes straight to Flinders Street from where Melbourne Park is a nice walk along the river, or another tram ride on no. 70. All I did that night was pop to a supermarket nearby to get some supplies, didn’t fancy eating dinner out or cooking so just ate rice crackers and drank some white wine!!
The qualifying matches for the Australian Open are free to attend, as I’d discovered back in 2012, and had started on the 14th. Gates were opening at 9.30am on Wednesday 15th and I decided to walk there from the hotel, giving myself an hour. The first matches were scheduled to start at 10am. It was an exceptionally hot day and when I got to the tennis centre discovered play wasn’t to start until 11.30, then it changed to 12 and finally 1pm. I had no idea why but later discovered it was because of the air quality (the day before a female player had almost collapsed with a coughing fit put down to the smoky air) which was due to improve as time went on. It gave me a chance to try and orientate my way around (I wished I had Annie with me as she has always found her way around Wimbledon better than me). It was too hot to wander outside so I sat in the foyer of the Margaret Court Arena, where lots of other spectators were, enjoying the air conditioning.
At 1pm I picked a match on court 15 between Brayden Schnur of Canada and Sebastian Ofner of Austria. It seems that the men play the best of 3 sets as well as the women in the qualifying rounds, of which there are 3. As the match, which was good, went on the Canadian got quite prima donnaish (or the male equivalent) and I felt was rather rude to the ball girl who had his towel. He pointed at her for the towel, then threw it behind his back when he’d finished, with it often landing on the court. He then had a very long toilet break, and later called for the trainer for something to do with his hand which took some time. As a result of his attitude and apparent gamesmanship I wanted the Austrian to win, but sadly the Canadian won 2:1. Hopefully he’ll lose his next match and fail to qualify. (I later discovered he lost in his 3rd qualifying match – good!).
I then watched a women’s first round qualifying match between Patricia Maria Tig of Roumania and Leylah Fernandez of Canada. It was an excellent match of which Leylah won the first set but at a crucial point in the second set had to be stopped because rain stopped play at 4.40pm. I’d been expecting this as the forecast had said there’d be an 80% chance of rain with thunderstorms. The rain soon became torrential with thunder and lightning. I and the other spectators remained in our seats which were under cover for some time but it didn’t look as if it would stop. When it rains they don’t cover the courts nor take the net down but apparently get on their hands and knees and dry the court with towels when it stops. No way was it going to stop so after 40 minutes I decided to go back to the hotel as was feeling pretty tired, no doubt because of the earlier heat.
On the walk back to the city centre, having given up on a tram because there were so many people, there were lots of people walking towards the tennis. I wondered why as play had stopped and was unlikely to resume. Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I asked someone where they were going. It seemed there was a last minute celebrity match in aid of the bushfires and possibly Federer would be one of the players. I was told if I hurried I might be able to get a ticket at the booth in Federation Square. I was surprised that an announcement hadn’t been made while I was at the tennis but decided to carry on back to the hotel. It was apparently a big success and huge fun.
Two British girls were due to play on Thursday 16th, Samantha Murray Sharan at 10am and Harriet Dart at 3.30pm. On arrival I saw some of the ballboys and girls going through a warm up session. Just like their Wimbledon equivalents they do an excellent job. I asked a ball girl if they got paid but was told no, although they get their uniform free (well I should hope so although can’t imagine they’d wear it anywhere else) and get fed. Some of them look quite young and I was told by one of the more experienced ballboys in Hobart that the minimum age there was 8. At the Oz Open they can be ball boy/girl for a maximum of 3 years.
I got to Court 14 just as Samantha was finishing her warm up against her opponent, Yue Yuan of China. I spotted the same coach and trainer there who I’d seen in Hobart supporting Heather Watson and said hello. Despite winning the first set Samantha lost the next two which was disappointing. Her parents and sister were there. While that match was on I could also see the adjoining men’s match which was terrific, between Lorenzo Giustini of Italy and Yan Bai of China. Lorenzo won in 2 sets.
Towards the end of Samantha’s match an English woman of around my age sat nearby and we got talking. Her name was Sue and she was visiting her daughter, Helen, who lives and works in Melbourne although hasn’t yet got her residency as they keep changing the goalposts. Sue had been visiting her daughter since before Christmas and goes back home at the end of January. We spent the rest of the day together at the tennis and watched men’s match between Lorenzo Musetti (Italy) and Amir Weintraub (Israel); men’s match between Nikola Milojevik (Serbia) and Taro Daniel (Japan) which was won by the former; some of the match between Jessica Ponchet (France) and Mandy Minella (Luxembourg); then a terrific match between Emil Ruusuvuori (Finland) who looked about 19 and reminded me a little of a young Boris Becker, and Facundo Mona of Argentina. There was a mature couple with a Finnish flag who I assumed were the Emil’s parents but when I spoke to them they were just fans travelling in Oz, and told me Emil was 20. I’m sure he’ll be going places. Finally we watched the end of a match which we’d heard loud cheering from, between Eugenia Bouchard of Canada (apparently very popular in Oz) and Maddison Inglis of Australia. The crowd surprisingly seemed to be more behind Bouchard who won in 2 sets and acknowledged the crowd with a wave. This match was on court 3, the biggest of the outside courts. At the end of the match a crowd waited for her to get autographs.
Although Sue and I had hoped to support Harriet Dart in her match, the time kept getting put back until it was listed as 7.30pm, so decided not to bother as by the end of the Bouchard match it was 5.30pm, so I walked back to Flinders Street with Sue, exchanged email addresses and went out separate ways.
Glenys had let me know that she was coming into Melbourne for the day on Friday 17th to go to the Keith Haring & Jean-Michel Basquait exhibition at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) that we hadn’t attended when we went round most of the gallery before. I hadn’t fancied it much then but decided to join her and have a day off tennis as I’ll be seeing plenty next week.
On the way to meeting her I took a few pictures of buildings and skylines. There are quite a few older buildings in the area where I’m staying and I always love the mix of old with new. I went through the Queen Victoria Market, which is a must see. It’s open late night on Wednesdays and I’d planned to go there after the tennis but it was so wet that evening and I just wanted to get back to the hotel. The Queen Victoria Market officially opened on 20 March 1878.
Bottom left: Flinders Street Station, right: Street view, old and new
I met Glenys inside the Gallery and we had a quick cuppa and snack before going into the exhibition called ‘Crossing Lines’. It wasn’t really my thing but I enjoyed it nonetheless and decided Glenys is a bit of a hippy, which she acknowledged. She is so knowledgeable about art and artists, I’d never heard of these two but she had. However they were highly significant American artists of the late 20th Century, this being the first major exhibition to bring together their work. They were friends and contemporaries and both died young, Basquait aged 28 and Haring aged 32. They both started by drawing graffiti, attended art school and were influenced by Andy Warhol. Their works make social comment by using symbolism about exploitation, discrimination, consumer society, repression, racism and genocide. They changed the art world and cultural production in the 1980s, first in New York and Europe, then Japan and the rest of the world.
The NGV 
Keith Haring’s ‘Waterwall’ 
‘Masque’ by Basquait 
Marilyn & Elvis by Haring 
Grace Jones wearing Haring 
A large piece by Keith Haring, Glenys on the right
The exhibition was quite big and well worth the entrance fee. Glenys said it was a lot better than she’d expected and preferred Baquait’s art over Haring’s.
We then went off to a little restaurant, ‘The Quarter’ in one of the lanes off Flinders Street and sat outside enjoying a lager and snack. It was quite busy and had a great atmosphere:
We found another lane with some graffiti which was interesting:
Then we went to see the film ‘1917’ which was playing on an ‘extreme screen’ in Hoyt’s Cinema located in Melbourne Central shopping centre built around an old shot and lead tower which was the tallest building in Melbourne’s CBD until the 1940s. There is a huge glass dome right at the top. Unfortunately Glenys had to leave the film just before it ended in order to catch the 8.30pm bus back to Warragul. It had been another nice day with her and I now probably won’t see her again until I’m back in the UK.
I planned to go to the final qualifying matches on Saturday 18th but didn’t rush around too much to get there, noticing they’d put the start of matches back again to 11am. I decided to walk but as I got to the river noticed there was a huge event going on for children – it’s ‘kids day’ with all sorts of events going on for them alongside the river and on some of the courts not used for the qualifying matches including the Rod Laver Arena. I assumed it was still free to enter for the qualifying matches but when I neared the entrance there was a huge queue and it turned out that entrance was $10, which I’d have been happy to pay but the queue for tickets was moving very slowly and, meanwhile, people with tickets were going through the gate. I tried to get online to book a ticket but it was impossible so, in the end, decided I’d had two good days of free tennis and had 7 days coming up so could forego today.
So I decided to go to The Ian Potter Centre, which is part of the NGV but based in Federation Square. This was where they had the more traditional artwork which is more appealing to me, and Glenys and I were going to go there but hadn’t made it. I got there just before 12 when an announcement was made that there was a guided tour. I ended up having a personal guided tour with a woman volunteer, who didn’t introduce herself, but gave me loads of information and was extremely articulate and informative. So much information in fact that I found it difficult to get a word in to ask a question.
After the tour, which went on for over an hour, I started off on the top floor with the Indigenous Art which recognised the special place Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have as the Original Peoples of Australia. Some examples:
Some more modern aboriginal art I appreciated was by Gordon Hookey from the Waanti people born in 1961. It’s a satirical triptych functioning as “a sociopolitical map of unpalatable truths”:
There were three rooms dedicated to Roger Kemp’s work (1908-1987) a key figure in 20th Century Australian art and one of Australia’s great abstractionists. Some of Kemp’s later works which reminded me a little of Kandinsky:
Next up were rooms dedicated to Petra Papapetrou (1960-2018) who was “a singular Australian artist, known for her compelling photographs that show childhood as a complex realm of imagination and storytelling”. Early on she used her daughter Olympia in her work. I really liked her work which was very different to anything I’d seen before. She created 2 influential bodies of work, ‘Dreamchild’ and ‘Wonderland’ that explores the writing and photography of Lewis Carroll. As Petra’s children grew up she photographed herself. Sadly she died of terminal cancer.
There were some rooms dedicated to another photographer, Petrina Hicks, children, animals and women being recurring subjects in her somewhat surreal photographs. She often returns to the same models including Lauren, “an ethereally beautiful woman with albinism” who she’s photographed for over 15 years. An example, although not of Lauren:
I liked this sculpture, carved from a single piece of marble, ‘Shutdown’ by Robert Hague who was born in New Zealand in 1967 but has lived in Australia since 1985:
There were some works by English artists who had moved to Australia during early colonial times including Augustus Earle, W.B.Gould, William Dexter, Robert Dowling, Henry Gitten, Marshall Clapton, William Strutt and John Glover. John Lewin was the first professional artist to settle in the colony as a free man in 1800 and came specifically to document Australia’s natural history producing the country’s earliest illustrative prints of native insects and birds. Lewin’s book ‘A natural history of the birds of New South Wales’ features 26 handcoloured plates depicting birds he’d observed around Sydney and Newcastle:
I liked a picture by Henry Burn, ‘Swanston Street from the Bridge’, 1861 Melbourne as the only building still standing now is the pub on the left of the left picture and as it is today on the right:
Other English artists who moved to Australia were H.J. Johnstone and Tom Roberts:
I liked Frederick McCubbin’s ‘Lost’ painted in 1886. McCubbin was an Australian (1855-1917) and this was the first of his ‘national’ pictures – paintings of Australian subjects, depicting a young child lost in the Australian bush. ‘This poignant theme had a long literary and artistic tradition in Australia’ and may have been inspired by contemporary events in 1885 when it was reported a young girl had been lost in the bush, found alive 3 weeks later:
Another nationalistic painting:
Others I liked:
An interesting style of painting of the Sydney Harbour Bridge by Grace Cossington Smith (1892-1984) today recognised as one of the greatest Australian artists of the first half of the 20th Cenury although her work at the time of painting was marginalised and unacknowledged like many female artists:
A painting by Russell Drysdale who was influenced by Surrealism and reminds me strongly of Dali:
John Brack’s paintings were humourous. Born in Australia (1920-1999) he adopted urban Melbourne as his subject recording the shops, bars and workplaces with an ironic edge:
Colin Lanceley (born NZ 1938, in Oz from 1940 & England from 1965-81) found some wooden machinery parts at an abandoned engineering works in Sydney and ‘constructed several 3-dimensional assemblages incorporating, and influenced by, its mechanical forms’. They soon grew in scale, including dismantled objects such as pianos and poker machines:
There was a large collection of art, by many of the artists in the gallery and covering the different periods, donated in May 2004 by Dr Joseph Brown who was born in Poland in 1918 and migrated to Australia in 1933 settling in Melbourne. Two from the collection:
Lastly, weird but fascinating, were photographs and films by Lucy McRae, in a collection entitled : ‘Body Architect’:
I’d spent 5 hours at the gallery and really enjoyed it, reluctantly leaving when it closed.
Conscious that Sunday 19th was my last day before 7 days at the Australian Open I thought I should go somewhere, although a part of me just wanted to read my book. Glenys had highly recommended I see ‘Cooks Cottage’ so I decided to walk there. It is located in Fitzroy Gardens, just along from the Old Treasury building which we’d visited. The interesting thing about this cottage is that it was originally located in Great Ayton, Yorkshire and built in 1755 by James Cook, Captain Cook’s father. It was put up for sale in 1934 and bought by Sir Russell Grimwade as part of the Melbourne Centenary, celebrating 100 years since the founding of the city of Melbourne. The cottage was taken apart in Yorkshire brick by brick, each brick being numbered and clear drawings accompanying them to show how it should be reconstructed and was shipped to Australia in several hundred crates. Captain James Cook never lived in the house but it serves to show how people lived in those days:
I enjoyed wandering around the rest of the gardens (a park really) and came upon a group of mainly Chinese people practising Fulan Dafa, a Chinese religious practice that combines meditation and qigong exercises:
‘The Faeries Tree’, which was carved by Ola Cohn as a gift to the children of Melbourne in May 1932:
Also a model Tudor village which was presented to the city of Melbourne by the citizens of Lambeth, England in appreciation of gifts of food dispatched from Victoria to England during food shortages following World War II 1939-45:
I then walked back, taking a few pictures en route:
Monday 20th January and the first day of the Australian Open. I’d bought a Ground Pass ticket for 5 days which I planned to use from 20th -25th. This also gives access to a large court with sliding roof, the Melbourne Arena which has as many seats as the Rod Laver arena, so given the weather forecast (100% chance of rain) planned to get a seat in there and stay all day.
I decided to get to the gate early and take the trams rather than walk. At the tram stop was a man who I assumed was an Australian commuter but it turned out he was Swiss, had just flown in, dropped his bags at the same hotel as me and was going to check out where the tennis centre was. His name was Tomas and I suggested he travel with me so I could show him. When we got to the Melbourne Arena gate, some time after 8am (the gates were due to open at 10am) there was hardly anyone there. I got talking to a local man called Jamie who was at the front and was keen to go and see Wozniacki practicing on a court and showed me several photos he had of himself with various other female players. He knew all the tennis players and also was a member of Melbourne Cricket which you apparently have to go on a waiting list for virtually from the moment you’re born.
Tomas decided he’d go in search of a ticket office and check out his options while I saved his place in the queue. He came back having bought a ground pass for the day. Personally I’d have been pretty tired from the long flight but he said he felt ok. As soon as the gate opened we headed for Melbourne Arena and got great seats for the first match between Italian Matteo Berrettini, seeded 8 and Australian Andrew Harris. Matteo won 6:3, 6:1, 6:3
I noticed that Brit, Kyle Edmund was playing on court 15 around 1.15pm but saw that the preceding match was still on so started watching the next match in the Arena: Dane Caroline Wozniacki vs American Kristie Ahn. Caroline dominated from the start and it looked boring (she won in 2 easy sets) so went off to court 15 while Tomas had gone off in search of food and said he might see me on court 15 after he’d watched Federer on the big screen (which isn’t as big as the screen at Henman Hill). I got a seat on court 15 and while waiting another Brit, Dan Evans seeded 30, was having a good match on the adjoining court vs American Mackenzie McDonald, which was crowded and great cheers were to be heard. Dan won in 5 sets having lost the first two so it must have been brilliant. As it hadn’t rained up until then I wished I’d gone to support him instead. Difficult choices.
Kyle Edmund was playing a Serb, Dusan Lajovic (seeded 24) who had a fair few Serbian supporters who sang a song and chanted. There were a few Brits dotted about cheering on Kyle too. Kyle was winning 5:2 in the first set (which shut the Serbs up) when the expected rain began around 2.30pm. They waited a while but in the end play had to be suspended. It looked like it had stopped after 30 minutes and two young girls came on with contraptions to push the water across the court (they don’t cover the courts) after which they would have got on their hands and knees with towels, but they hadn’t got very far when the rain started again and became pretty heavy. I went to see if I could get back into Melbourne Arena but, as I thought would happen, everyone else had headed there and it was a queuing system which looked as if it would take a while so I decided to head ‘home’ having enjoyed my first day of seven.
Apparently there was 44mm of rain in Melbourne yesterday. On Tuesday 21st I felt I should support the Brits and got a nice seat on the 1573 arena. Play was starting at 10.30am today because of all the matches that had to be continued that were suspended yesterday owing to the rain. Johanna Konta, seeded 12, played Ons Jabeur of Tunisia (I’d seen the latter play at Hobart). Konta played very inconsistently and lost 4:6, 2:6 so I was pretty disappointed. I sat with a group of mature ladies from Hervey Bay Tennis Club wearing yellow club t shirts and had a running commentary throughout the match with Pauline, who sat next to me. We marvelled at covers for the players to shade them from the sun which came up over them when they sat down, activated by remote control by two youngsters behind them. Yesterday I’d also noticed that the Umpire’s chair was raised and lowered electronically.
I then went to court 15 where Kyle Edmund was to resume his match vs the Serb, Dusan Lajovic which was suspended yesterday owing to rain at 5:2 in Kyle’s favour. The Serb, who had a lot of supporters singing and chanting again, won that set which went to a tie break, lost the second 3:6 and the third in a tie break. It was a great match and I was impressed with Kyle’s play, just disappointed at the outcome. It must be difficult when a match has been stopped to restart a day later. While there were a few of us Brits in the crowd calling out our support we were, as usual, a bit more reserved than the Serbian lot!
It seemed a lot busier than yesterday and took a while to walk through the crowd. I saw that Tsonga was playing an Australian, Popyrin, not before 4pm, on the Melbourne Arena court and Kyrgios after that match. I thought I’d see what the situation was and try to get a seat, thinking it might not be as busy as yesterday as today was very warm. Well, every door had queues so no doubt everyone thought the same as me. I joined a queue at one of the doors but after waiting an hour decided to leave as there was only a possibility of getting in if people left as if they were just going to the loo or the bar they would be given a ticket to return within 30 minutes. I’d been at the tennis centre for 7 hours. So maybe tomorrow I’ll head for Melbourne Arena first thing and stay there all day.
While watching the tennis in my room later Tsonga had to retire injured in the third set having lost the first two.
Day 3 of the Oz Open and I decided that I wouldn’t watch any of the Brits’ matches but go straight to the Melbourne Arena and stay there all day. I must say I feel like I’m commuting this week as get a tram first thing with the workers to Flinders Street Station and change there onto a tram to Melbourne Arena, one stop after the Rod Laver Arena, with mainly Oz Open staff and other tennis fans. I got there at 0830 with just a few others already there. In front of me was a NZ woman called Leigh whose husband was in the adjoining queue talking to two men who they know from coming every year. We had a long chat, mainly about her children, grandchildren and various jobs they did.
People were running into the Arena but there was no need to as there were thousands of seats. I got a seat at the end of an aisle towards one service end just a few rows back. They were charging extra for the seats behind each service line so you could upgrade from ground pass to one of those seats but there really was no need. I had tried to upgrade yesterday to ensure getting a seat for the Kyrgios match but was told I couldn’t as had a 5 day pass, you could only upgrade if you had a one day pass or just buy a new ticket. This seemed ridiculous to me but I was glad I couldn’t upgrade in the end as the match started late and went on. Also glad that I hadn’t stayed longer than an hour in the queue yesterday as it was reported people were queuing for three hours. I had thought there would be a similar queueing issue today if I went later to the Arena as young Coco Gauff, age 15 (who put out Venus Williams at Wimbledon and beat her here again on Monday) was playing. Three young women sat next to me and I learnt they’d gone to school together and all taken the day off work to come to the tennis. Two of them chatted quietly throughout the matches about nothing to do with tennis, which was rather annoying but I managed to say nothing. Fortunately the one next to me appeared to be far more interested in the matches and was probably annoyed with their nattering too.
The first match started at 11am and was a very underwhelming, boring women’s singles 2nd round match between Julia Goerges of Germany and Petra Martic of Croatia, won by Goerges 2:1 but really unmemorable. However this was followed by Coco’s match against Sorana Cirstea of Romania. This was in a totally different league and was terrific. It could easily have been won by Cirstea in the third set but Coco won in the end. Her mum and dad were watching, they must be so proud. When Coco was interviewed on court straight after she spoke very maturely and confidently.
The next match was a men’s singles second round match with Raonic vs Christian Garin from Chile. It was pretty one sided and Raonic won in 3 straight sets. Then I was interested to watch Australian John Millman’s match vs Hubert Hurkacz of Poland. Needless to say Millman had huge support and won in 3 straight sets.
Despite the weather forecast looking good for Thursday, day 4 of the Open, it was raining as I left the hotel. I’d decided to see some doubles matches on the outside courts for a change but, given the weather, went straight into the Melbourne Arena again. So glad I did as it was quite a day and every match was great. First off was a women’s 2nd round singles match between Donna Vekic of Croatia (a very pretty girl and popular with the men around me) seeded 19, and Alize Cornet of France. At one point in the match a lineswoman went up to the Umpire and spoke to her after which Cornet was given a warning for “audible obscenity”. I didn’t hear her but could understand how you would swear if you played a bad shot and thought it a bit mean of the lineswoman. Vekic was wearing a lovely outfit:
Then it was a women’s doubles match played between two Australians, Jessica Moore and Astra Sharma and, the darling of Australia, Ash(leigh) Barty and her partner Julia Goerges who’d played in the boring singles match yesterday. She seemed a better doubles player and she and Ash won it in two sets.
This was followed by a superb men’s 2nd round singles match between Alex Bolt (Australian) and Dominic Thiem. The crowd went wild for Bolt with chanting “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, oi, oi” throughout and “If you‘re Aussie and you know it clap your hands” etc. At one point a woman started off calling this then forgot herself by calling “if you’re happy and you know it” which made us all laugh. At times it felt more like being amongst football supporters but the cheers of encouragement no doubt helped Alex, although he lost in the end to Thiem (seeded 5) 2:3. Despite sitting next to a very nice Australian young man who I chatted to and an Australian woman next to him wearing a hat with Australia all over it, they were both supporting Thiem which surprised me. I thought back to how once I‘d once supported Djokovic when he was playing Murray so could kind of relate, although I was then watching the match on TV and not in the middle of a home crowd. Bolt did well considering Thiem was seeded 5 in the tournament.
Nick Kyrgios was posted as playing ‘not before 6.45pm’, no idea why. However, the previous match finished just before 6pm so there wasn’t long to wait and gave me time to get a drink and crisps to sustain me as I wasn’t likely to get dinner. Again the crowd went wild when Kyrgios came on preceded by his opponent, Frenchman Gilles Simon. Kyrgios has been a bad boy in the past but was impeccably behaved during his match on Monday, some of which I saw on TV in my hotel room. I learnt that he has set up the Nick Kyrgios foundation, ploughing half his earnings into that and started off the ‘Aces for bushfire relief’ donating $200 for every ace he serves during the tournament to the bushfire relief appeal. Others have followed suit and the Australian Open is also donating $100 for every ace served by all players throughout the tournament. It’s a cause that is very close to everyone’s heart. (By Sunday 26th the amount raised by the Australian Open was well over $5 million. John McEnroe interviewed Kyrgios at one point and announced he would donate $1000 for every set Kyrgios won.
I watched the first two sets which Kyrgios won. What was lovely was that he acknowledged his opponent’s shots and also seemed to be enjoying himself. In the second set I thought he lost some focus, messing about with some shots, and when I got to my hotel was unsurprised to see he’d lost the 3rd set. However he won the 4th so all was well. I’d decided to leave before the end of the match as didn’t want to end up with hundreds of others trying to get onto a tram, although I probably would have walked instead.
Friday 24th was my final day with the ground pass ticket and what super value and fun it’s been. I’m almost wishing I hadn’t bothered buying Rod Laver tickets for the weekend as I’ve watched so many brilliant matches in the Melbourne Arena where every match is an event. Music is played when the players have their breaks and the crowd joins in, and there’s a ‘twist cam’ where if people are caught on the roving camera and shown on the big screens they’re encouraged to dance the twist. Flashing ads about tennis and highlights of matches run round the stadium. When there’s a change of balls there’s a clever video and an Emirates hostess announces that the players are about to come on, then there’s a count down. It really is so exciting and a fantastic atmosphere to be part of.
Today’s matches were first off a men’s doubles match which I looked forward to as it was Lleyton Hewitt (who I saw play in the Rod Laver Arena back in 2012) with his partner fellow Aussie Jordan Thompson vs a Korean pair. The Koreans won in two sets and it wasn’t as exciting as I’d been hoping for. Then a 3rd round women’s singles match with Caroline Wozniacki (very popular with the Australians) vs Ons Jabeur, who’d beaten Johanna Konta in the first round. Wozniacki had announced this would be her last tournament and she was outclassed by Jabeur on the day, who beat her 2:1. There was then a presentation for Wozniacki during which she became quite emotional as they showed a film of other female tennis players’ thoughts about her, and she was given a large koala bear and bouquet of flowers after a walk around the court waving at us all to the tune of ‘Sweet Caroline’. I wondered whether they had a bouquet ready at the other two matches she’d previously played in case she lost one.
That match was followed by a nail biter of a match between Marin Cilic (who had a lot of Croatian supporters in) and Spaniard, Roberto Bautista Agut. Cilic won 3:2 and it was fabulous. By then it was after 7pm and there was another men’s match to follow but I had had enough. This was my last day with the ground pass.
On Saturday morning I thought I’d take it easy and tried out the cafe on site for breakfast. I’d been doing my own breakfast but had been given some vouchers to use in the cafe (when I complained about the room) so thought I’d give it a go. Then I sat in the ‘lounge’ for the first time editing my blog and Tomas came in to use the computer. I hadn’t seen him since Monday so it was good to catch up. He had a ticket for tonight’s Rod Laver Arena but wanted to try to sell it as he didn’t fancy the matches much and neither did I. He’d like to see Federer play if he can, being Swiss. He also saw that Stan Wawrinka, the other Swiss player, was playing his match on Court 3 so wanted to go to that. I later found out he didn’t sell his ticket, got into the Stan Wawrinka match whose opponent retired injured soon after then went into the Rod Laver Arena.
Anyway, I’d arranged to meet up with Kim, the Dutch girl who I’d met on the White Island trip. I’d been posting her updates about our guide, Jack, who’d been badly burnt and she was pleased that I sent a message directly from him (not to us but everyone interested in his welfare) to say he was out of ICU and had been transferred to the National Burns Unit. On the way I noticed some nice statues in Bourke Street with a man videoing them. I asked him why he was videoing the statues and he told me it was on a time lapse (I presume interested in the people looking at them) and was for a documentary about the artist who’d made them, David Bromley. I then went through a few interesting lanes en route to meeting Kim. I’d expected her to bring her boyfriend to meet me but she came alone having split up with him, which she was ok about. We went for a late lunch in a vegetarian/vegan place I’d spotted (all you can eat for $8.95) in one of the lanes in the centre that I’d stumbled upon earlier. There are lots of lanes and arcades in the centre, some a bit Burlington Arcadeish! The cafe turned out to be Buddhist and the meal was rice with a mild curry with a mini sponge pudding desert and custard! After that we had a drink. It was good to see Kim again who will be going back home to Rotterdam in March and she’s looking forward to going back to work again, her job (working with an Uncle) has been kept open for her.
I then went to the tennis and my ticket stated I couldn’t enter the centre until 5pm. When I got in I sat and watched the end of a men’s doubles match, then briefly watched a boys’ match which looked brilliant before making my way to the Rod Laver Arena. My seat was the second to last row at the top but still gave a clear view of the court. Again, a bit of a spectacle before the first match started with lights and graphics and promoting tennis to all. Behind me in the very back row was a group of 3 men and their wives who I had a chat to. I was wearing my Hay Festival t-shirt and it turned out one of the wives was born and brought up in Hay, Australia – nothing like Hay in Wales. Maybe I should try to get there?!
The first match was a women’s singles match, and fairly one sided, between Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine and Spaniard, Garbine Muguruza who won in 2 sets. This was followed by a men’s last 16 match between Daniel Medvedev of Russia (seeded 4) and Alexei Popyrin of Australia for whom the crowd went wild. I watched the first two sets won by Medvedev quite easily although Popyrin (who people in the crowd were calling ‘Poppy’) had the occasional brilliant shot, but made a lot of unforced errors. It was clear who was going to win so I left before the crowd.
Sunday 26th was Australia Day and there was a parade in the town clashing with my day session in the Rod Laver Arena. A bit of a shame to miss that as I may not get another opportunity. I decided to walk to the tennis. My seat was much better than last night’s (row DD instead of row OO) and, funnily enough the same people who were behind me last night were immediately in front of me today.
The first match was, I think, purely for fun and listed as ‘Men’s Legends‘ Round Robin’ – between John and Pat McEnroe vs Tom Muster and Mats Vilander. It was very light hearted and at one point Tom Muster gave his racket to one of the ball boys to play, which must have been a great moment for him. It was best of 3 sets with each set going to 4 games, not 6, and at deuce playing just one point for a winner. The McEnroes won in 2 sets. Many of the seats were empty for that and didn’t fill much more for the following women’s singles match, which was a super match between Petra Kvitova (7th seed) and Maria Sakkari of Greece. There were two groups of Greek young men in different parts of the arena chanting in Greek for Sakkari at each other. Kvitova eventually won 2:1 but not without a struggle in the second set.
The final match was Djokovic vs Diego Schwartzman (seeded 14) of Argentina, who I hadn’t heard of but he was quite brilliant and there were some super rallies and shots but Djokovic was the better player and had won the first two sets when I decided to leave, again before the crowd, as had washing to do and my case to pack. Djokovic went on to win the third set. I felt absolutely exhausted after a full week of watching tennis for hours and hours but how lucky was I to have such an opportunity?
Tomas knocked on my door as I was getting ready and half watching the tennis, to thank me for some vouchers I’d been given to use at the cafe but had left over. I said goodbye to him and was sorry we hadn’t gone to the tennis another time. He will be staying in Melbourne as long as Federer keeps playing.
NeverSayNeverNomad 