So, we decided that we would go to Australian Open since Melbourne is a short flight away. And honestly, if we were ever going to see the Australian Open, it would be now while we're living in Sydney. I was excited since I had never been to a Grand Slam tournament. Although, it has also been years since I've watched tennis--so I barely know who the players are.
On Saturday afternoon, we flew to Melbourne. We really didn't do much but go straight to our motel and have dinner near our motel. Then, we turned on the TV and watched some tennis. This was the beginning of our tennis-watching marathon.
The next morning, we caught a tram to the Melbourne sports grounds. I still think it's really strange that the tram stops are in the middle of busy streets. And you're just standing there, waiting, trying not to get hit. Do you see the building in the background with a blue top? That's our motel.
The tram from the CBD to the sports grounds was packed full of people. Maybe it was because we were trying to catch it at 10:30 AM, and the matches started at 11:00 AM. Regardless, we decided the next time we would walk instead--since it's only about 25 minutes through a park back to our motel.
This is our first picture in HiSense Arena. The person behind us was nice enough to offer to take the picture. Sadly, it wasn't exposed right. But hey, we had awesome seats.
The first game we saw was Men's Doubles--Bryan/Bryan (USA) vs. Fleming/Hutchins (GBR). I downloaded this great app for the Australian Open, which gives us information about the players (which we really needed--since we didn't know so many of them). The Bryan/Bryan team are twin brothers--one is left-handed and one is right-handed. We joked that the twins didn't need to communicate verbally with each other (unlike the other team) because they have been together since the womb.
After the match, we took a little break to refill our water bottle. Even though we were in the shade, it was still incredibly hot in the arena. We needed to drink lots of water. I cannot imagine how the players must be feeling. Some of them really looked like they were melting.
The next match we watched was Women's Singles: Radwanska (POL) vs. Goeges (Ger). Even though the crowd seemed to be cheering for Goerges, she sadly lost. Otherwise, it was rather uneventful and Radwanska dominated.
The last match we watched was Men's Singles: Berdych (CZE) vs. Almagro (ESP). The game was an incredibly close match [4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(2)], and therefore a lot of fun to watch. However, there was also some controversy because Berdych refused to shake Almagro's hand at the end. So immature and unsportsmanlike--and the crowd booed him loudly. Berdych's reason (supposedly) is that Almagro was aiming for Berdych's head during one point, and hit his arm which caused him to fall. Although I sincerely doubt Almagro was aiming for Berdych's head--even if he was, you could be mature and acknowledge that it was an incredibly good game that Almagro played. This is professional tennis, not a playground.
Needless to say, we hate Berdych now--and we're really happy that Nadal beat him yesterday night. (See? We can be immature too.)
We didn't stay to watch the last match at HiSense--which was a Legend's Doubles match. We were too tired from all that sitting. So, we walked back to our hotel.
We ended up taking a very long way back to our motel--but at least we learned the shorter way for the next day. When we got back to our motel, we watched some more tennis on the TV. I think we surprised even ourselves how much we like watching tennis. Even after hours and hours of watching, we can keep watching more.
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