aus open adventures - day 1

Another year, another Australian Open. After a number of complications which saw Justin pull out of the trip (as far as I know, he didn't actually confirm if he could or couldn't go) and James and Candy delay their departure until Saturday, I arrived as planned last night here in Melbourne on the plane that you see to your right.




First thing this morning i met up with Andrew at Maccas on Swanston St and then made the short tram trip to Melbourne Park for the tennis. We were all set to see the pride of Chinese women's doubles (The Sun sisters) when the rain came and prevented their Russian opponents from being (solar) eclipsed. Ahem, yes, just an example of what spending a day with Andrew results in........ The picture shows us braving the crowds, and obviously before said rain fell.

We decided to go and get some lunch and snacks in the city as it would be much cheaper than at the open. It was a great decision since the rain was coming down and we weren't able to see much tennis anyway. More importantly, we had ramen which was pretty good. gigi noodle place or something. When we arrived back at the courts, it appeared that the animals were let loose. Or rather, Optus had brought their usual zoo with them. I'll let this picture explain it.. :)




Due to the wet, we decided that we should try our luck with getting into Vodafone Arena, which is the only covered court available on a ground pass. We were confronted with a pretty large queue which we patiently sat in for 1.5 hours.




As you can see I was absolutely thrilled to be there..












As was Andrew.. hehehe







We did finally make it into the place, where we saw Mauresmo polish off her opponent and Dementieva destroy hers. Its odd how the womens draw seems to be so completely one sided.. It must be because its out of 3 sets.. Anyways, we decided to check out the Wayne Arthurs farewell match since Gasquet vs Monfils wasn't for 45 mins or so. We were rather stunned to witness Arthurs sort of fall apart on court right in front of us! We couldn't get in, but we did see it from the entrance. Sad to see him go out like that.











We went back to Vodafone Arena and managed to get great seats for the Gasquet vs Monfils match. I was pleased with this achievement. The match was what I was waiting for since I saw the schedule this morning and it promised to be a cracker of a match.













It didn't disappoint (much) as there was some completely awesome shots played by both players. Gasquet was dominant in the first set as he smashed Monfils, while Monfils came back in the 2nd. I wanted Monfils to win but he was just too inconsistent, and keep up with Gasquet.


I ended my day at the Open by watching some of the Roddick vs Safin match on the big screen near the entrance to the complex. I was planning to watch it all and then meet up with Andrew, Marty and Lou but I was too buggered and decided to just head back and watch it on tv. Tomorrow is another busy day with James and Candy arriving so I should probably sleep now!


-d

P.S. I apologise if the pictures and text look all out of whack on your browser.. It works fine in IE i think, but in Firefox its a bit stuffed.. I'll be a bit more straight forward on the next one