AO Tennis

I love watching tennis. I credit Mary Jane, my sister-in-law for life, for introducing me to this obsession. It’s a good one!

I have the life goal of attending every grand slam tourament, and may add to this the goal of going to every ATP 1000 as well. So when I booked my SE Asia trip, I took the opportunity to add time in Melbourne for the Australian Open (AO) Couldn’t be on this side of the world and NOT go, right? I did not realize at the time that Thailand is 9 hours away. Oh well, still closer than NYC!

I’ve been to 2 days of the AO now, and have 3 more days booked before I fly to Thailand Monday night. It’s been awesome. I booked day sessions at Margaret Court Arena for the first 2 days. The matches have been terrific. Yesterday, both Daniil Medvedev and CoCo Gauff, the favorites, were challenged but prevailed, Medvedev in 5 sets, CoCo in 3. My seats were amazing - 4th row, behind the baseline.

The day before I saw Musetti beat Sonego in a battle of the Italians, and Anisimova beat Siniakova in a battle of the Ovas (not really). It was also terrific, with Musetti and Anisimova prevailing.

The AO is really an amazing experience. The venue is very much in town - about a 12 minute walk from my hotel (or most hotels in the central district). The walk is really pleasant, for me along the river. Just beautiful.

The grounds have some much going on. A huge family area with a water slide, lots of interactive games, and a kid disco, among other things. It’s another 10 minute walk from the entrance, through the attractions, but I’m not complaining - so much to look and laugh at!

There has been a lot of media focusing on the claim that the AO had gotten too crowded. There have been new attendance records set every day so far and photos of the extraordinarily long queues were almost enough to scare me off. But it has been a breeze to get in - much faster than the lines in Flushing. And while the grounds are crowded, with queues to enter the outer courts, getting into the main courts has been really easy. In fact, I accidentally sat in the Laver Arena for one changeover when I didn’t realize it was literally attached to Margaret Court.

In the arena itself, the atmosphere is so different from the U S Open. Pin drop silence for the serves. Not a lot of loud music or fan cams during breaks. Hi tech sun shades that come up over the players when they are on the bench, and retract when play resumes. The fans know their tennis and are fun to talk with. Tickets are easy to come by and not obscenely expensive. So I was able to get a close look at this guy, Medvedev - he really does look like a Russian Bond villain.

On the downside, the food and drink is not as good as at the US Open. Less variety, mostly burgers and fried things. Maybe the fact that I had a run in with a ketchup package that resulted in a huge mess on my white blouse is coloring my perspective. At least it gave me a reason to buy a t-shirt. And to spend a little time in an Australian laundromat this morning. The stains came out!

All in all, I’m thrilled to have the chance to be here and am really enjoying the “happy slam”. On to see Djokovic and Osaka tonight, with more action Sunday and Monday before I start the Asian leg of my journey.

Until next time!