Day 16 – Rod Laver.

Day 2 of the tennis and as soon as I woke up I didn’t want the day to end. Unfortunately Murray was playing on Hisense today… if only my tickets were the other way around! I can’t be too annoyed though as I have seen him before and I get to see Nadal who I haven’t.

MATCH 1 - Cibulkova V Sharapova

I can’t quite remember if this is the same pairing my dad and I saw a few years ago at Wimbledon, either way it was quite an interesting game. Obviously I was routing for the underdog Cibulkova who is seeded 20^th compared to Sharapova who is seeded 3^rd. My luck paid off and Cibulkova won!

MATCH 2 - Stephens V Azarenka

Azarenka pretty much thrashed Stephens in a pretty dull match where I found my kindle slightly more interesting. Talking of books, I finished the first Hunger Games book today (I know I’m late to the party) and thoroughly enjoyed it which I didn’t think I would, onto the next!

MATCH 3 - Nadal V Nishikori

This match I wasn’t really routing for either, in a way I was thinking Nishikori because it might be easier for Murray, also like earlier I enjoy seeing the underdog win and what a good fight he put up! He did not make it an easy and clean fight for Rafael Nadal to win!

Two sets were tie breaks and the other was 7-5, at one point Rafa fell over and snapped his shoe laces, they both had medical treatment and it lasted for just over 3 hours with Nishikori looking like he might steal a set with quite a few break points.

Day 15 – Hisense Arena.

Today was the day! My first day and my first Grand Slam tournament of the year! I think I bought my tickets back in August, so I’ve been excited for quite a while. To spread my tennis experience out I bought tickets for Hisense arena today and for Rod Laver tomorrow. I got to see 4 different matches today and first up was mens doubles.

MATCH 1 - Bahrami/Pioline V Cash/Wilander

Putting it straight out there as the best doubles match I have ever seen. I guess it was more like watching a pantomime or something like that but they pleased the crowd, had fun but still played some damn good tennis. Pat Cash is Australian so there were a lot of people in the crowd for him but as well as that he won Wimbledon back in 1987 and held 5 other titles.

At one point Cash gave up and handed his racket to a ball boy, so they traded places. After winning a point Wilander then did this as well so it was 2 ball boys vs Bahrami and Pioline.

MATCH 2 - Li V Makarova

Li Na or Na Li? My dad and I prefer to call her Na Li as ‘she’s radical duuuuude!’ (also quite fitting as I’m in Australia and they love surfing and stuff…)

MATCH 3 - Mayer V Ferrer

Mayer won the first set which I was quite surprised by but he was playing the better tennis. Ferrer then won the next one so I decided as the sun was now directly on me to watch the next set inside on a screen to recover from the sun and fill up my water as this set wasn’t going to change anything. I’ve seen Ferrer before and part of me wanted Mayer to win because I think it’ll be easier for Murray but you never know these days. In the end Ferrer won and we shall see what happens!

MATCH 4 - Errani/Vinci V Adamczak/Rogowska

Not a lot to say really, I stayed and watched the first set and a half but that was enough sun for one day and they weren’t exactly thrilling to watch!

I soon left the grounds and made my way to Federation Square to wait for Shurani to finish work, she is a friend of Hannah’s who is working at the open so she exchanged our details. We made our way to Chinatown and went to the Little Dragon for dinner. We ate some chilli prawns and rice which was delicious and exactly what I wanted after such a long day.

I’ve just sorted myself out and shall head to bed ready for another exciting day at the tennis tomorrow, COME ON ANDY!