Field Notes from the Australian Open
Melbourne
Friday January 19
Arrived at 5 am. Not so bad for a 16 hour flight from Dallas, despite our seatmate who drank at least 4 “Jack and DietCoke”, lost his passport, kept getting up from the window seat to go to the head, and later spilled water on me. Played tennis at Bradley and lives in Peoria.
Uber-ed into Melbourne center city to the Doubletree Hilton across from Flinders station. I set off to the Royal Botanical Gardens after a shower. The River Yarra was filled with rowers and palm trees dotted the gardens alongside. A profusion of Agapanthus celebrated the Mediterranean clime.
Common myna birds and silver gulls were the most numerous ,but the Royal Botanical Gardens revealed more than 20 species new to me.
I headed over to the John Cain arena. for our AO Day Six with a grounds pass. The arena holds 11,000 people and is about the same size as The Grandstand at the US Open. It, and the Kia Arena, are open to all grounds pass holders while Rod Laver and Margaret Court require tickets.
Amanda Anisimova defeated Paula Badosa and Taylor Fritz defeated Fabiano Marozsan , both good third round matches. Now Alex DeMinaur vs Flavio Cobolli. Cries of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi. Fun to witness the Aussies root for their own.
Observed; girls wearing tennis outfits; girls with the same hairstyles and earrings, Canadian Club in cans, squirts of Bondi sunscreen.
The. tv screens are too small and the sound system not up to the task at John Cain. Josh headed over to 5000 seat Kia Arena to see the fifth set of the Mannarino/Shelton match but I headed home.
Saturday, Jan 20
Vegemite, Timtam, Flat white: An Aussie breakfast. Back to the gardens, this time with my camera.
At Rod Laver Arena, we watched more third round matches: Zheng beat Wang in a 10 point tie breaker; Alcaraz beat Shang, who retired. Watched Iga Swiatek warm up, then headed to doubles at 1573. Rod Laver arena holds 14,280 , just about the same size as the Louis Armstrong Stadium at the US Open(14053).
AO seems to have a tighter relationship with its sponsors than the US Open, even naming arenas (Kia, 1573) after them. There are sponsor ads broadcast in the arenas during breaks, instead of pop music to boost fan energy. Large. pavilions. are devoted to them. But…. The wireless network doesn’t work at 1573 arena, which used to be known as Court 2.
At 1573, watched a fun second round doubles match with Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova vs. Destanee Avia and Maddison Inglis. Love from the fans of Storm Hunter..viva cheering sections! It’s a nice size at 3000.
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
Drizzly, but fun to be with so many people…lots of energy. Merch a must: Bucket hats and AO caps and a beach towel. I don’t really care about the stuff, but I guess it becomes a symbol of the experience, both to myself and others.
Seen at the AO: Women tennis groups in clown hats, people dressed in tennis balls, the banana people with an inflatable kangaroo rooting for Aussies. Also Noisy miners, welcome swallows and silver gulls , here for the tennis food.
Today started with Legends doubles at the Margaret Court Arena: Casey Dellaqua and Alicia Molik vs Daniela Hantuchova and Li Na. Slower moving than the doubs in the main tournament. Chinese fans cheering for Li Na, like they were in the Zheng /Wang match yesterday.
Margaret Court holds 7500. The Grandstand at the US Open is about the same size at 8125.
Despite its drawbacks in terms of. wireless and AV, the AO has good food. I particularly enjoyed the Persian. felafel, Mr. Miwagami’s soba noodles and the peach ice cream. Cocktails are in cans ( Canadian Club seems popular) except for the ubiquitous Aperol Spritzes.
3.2% of the Australian population are aboriginal, compared to 2.9% of US population Native American. Aboriginal welcome “Wominjeka” and references to aboriginal lands abound.
Sabalenka’s grunting dominated her winning Fourth round match versus Anisimova at Margaret Court arena. A welcome swallow was caught in the arena after the roof closed, and caused a brief delay of game.
Josh watched the Tsitsipas/Taylor Fritz match over at Cain, where the fans were 90% for Tsitsipas!
Just like other athletic events, fans wear their merch to the game, but unlike baseball or basketball, the goods don’t sport a players name.
We’ve had l weather in the 60s and 70s and. I’m thankful for that. The Melburnians call it “bad weather.”
This tourney doesn’t use music to build excitement. Mostly, the music between points is an ad for one of the sponsors, instead of pump-it-up jams. The fans need to make up for it.
Fun to watch a great Italian doubles team dressed to win: Bolelli/Vavassori vs. Cacic/Molchanov. They were followed by a female Italian doubles team, Errani/Paolini trying to unseat Second seed Mertens/Hsieh. Took them to 3 sets, but lost.
We watched Sinner take down Kachanov in 3 at Margaret Court in his fourth round match.
Peak tennis-watching: night match at Laver of DeMinaur vs Rublev. A 5-setter! We chatted it up with a local mate and two girls. He bought us beers, and the red-headed girl aided and abetted Josh’s pursuit of Rod Laver himself.
Monday, January 22
Exploring Melbourne a bit before departure. Love the mix of ultra modern buildings and Victorian landmarks like Flinders Street Railway station, the Treasury or old trade houses on the Yarra riverbanks. Cranes and construction are everywhere, indicating how fast this city is changing. Ugg reminds shoppers that it is an Australian -must-have. I partook of iced green tea with orange juice — more tea offerings abound. I love the green spaces and all the fountains and water interests in this growing city.
