We moved to Australia mid-year 2017. After a trip to Canada at Christmas that year, we both came home sick and ended up hanging out in front of the television for hours rather than spending our time in the pool. It just happened to be right as the Australian Open was kicking off and we were hooked.
Prior to moving here, we couldn’t watch tennis because you needed to have cable television plus an additional sports package – we had neither. However, in Australia, tennis is available on aerial television for the entire month of January. It is actually on two channels so you can even choose which game you want to watch. It feels like such a privilege to watch it for free after not having access in Canada and we take full advantage of the opportunity!
January is referred to as Summer of Tennis here with smaller tournaments around the country during the first two weeks and then the Australian Open for the last two weeks in Melbourne. Last year, we headed down to Brisbane for the Brisbane International to see if we would enjoy tennis as much live as we do on television. We had a blast! So about six months ago, Rob got online and organised a trip to Melbourne for the Australian Open.
The grounds of the AO are super impressive! It is located right along the Yarra river and includes six different arenas, ranging in capacity from 3000 people to nearly 15000 people each. The tickets we purchased gave us assigned seats in Rod Laver, the largest arena, but also general ground passes so we could go in and out of the other arenas to catch other games going on. There are also a number of practice courts that you can wander through. Lots of people purchase ground passes so they can go into the different smaller arenas, the practice courts, and also enjoy the major games on the various big screens and lounging areas set up around the grounds. It’s a really cool vibe overall!
When you first enter the grounds, there are a number of different fun activities people can get involved in including testing how fast you can hit a ball, fun matches, lessons for kids, and even a mini waterpark. As we entered the grounds on our first day, they had a stage set up with the trophies .which was pretty cool. They also had staff there to take photos for folks. There was almost no one waiting in line so we decided to have a look at take advantage of the photo opportunity. We never saw the trophies on display again so it was great to took the opportunity when we did.
Just a little further down, they had a wall with some of our Australian tennis players showing how tall they are. Alex de Minaur is one of our favourite Aussies. He is the quintessential underdog who plays his heart out every time he steps on the court. He always looks so short next to his opponents but the picture below shows he actually isn’t that small…his opponents are just very tall! Sadly, Alex lost out at the quarterfinals the day before we arrived at the AO so we didn’t get to see him play live.
We arrived in Melbourne for the last of the quarter finals, and had either day or night tickets for the remainder of the tournament. Here’s a snap of the men’s and women’s brackets. The blue check marks show the different games we attended.
Before every game in Rod Laver, they would run a light show with the roof closed and lights off. At the conclusion of the light show, they would introduce the players and then they would open the roof back up for the game while the players were warming up. Our first game was the quarter final between Sabalanka and Jovic and we had great tickets – right in the middle and close to the courts. But when they opened the roof back up, we realised our seats were in the blazing sun and wow, was it hot!! It was actually distractingly so, but each time I thought of complaining, I reminded myself I was sitting, doing nothing while Sabalanka and Jovic were jumping and running all over the court.
As soon as the women’s game finished, they closed the roof. The temperatures had surpassed the 38 degree maximum they allow and were still rising. It ended up reaching 46 degrees that day!! Insane! Shortly after the roof closed, the men’s quarter between Zverev and Tien got underway. We were definitely relieved to be watching this one with the roof closed, but it did seem a bit bizarre that they required the women to play in that heat but not the men! It has been all over the news that Melbourne was going to have record breaking temps that day.
The weather cooled down the next day which was great. We had daytime tickets again and watched more quarter-final games – Rybakina versus Swiatek, Pegula versus Anisimova, and Musetti versus Djokovic. Rob and I are not fans of Swiatek so we were super happy to see Rybakina win and of course we were cheering for Pegula given her Buffalo roots. For the men’s game, Musetti got off to a great start and it looked like he was going to take home the win, but sadly, he ended up injured and had to concede part way through the third set. It’s always tough to watch players get injured and especially when they are playing so well so deep into a tournament. Here are some shots Rob managed to capture during those games.
On Day 3, we had evening tickets so we spent the day wandering the city and doing some shopping. We like to take advantage of having access to shops when we travel to major cities. It was a lot cooler as well so it made wandering around much more pleasant than it would have been on pervious days. It was cool to see how much the city of Melbourne seems to embrace the AO – there were tennis-themed exhibits everywhere (but of course we didn’t think to take pictures of any of it!)
Our evening tickets on that that day included both women’s semi-final matches – Sabalanka versus Svitolina and Pegula versus Rybakina. Svitolina has been trying to make a comeback since having a baby about two years ago and she is also Ukrainian so I was rooting for her. She played well but Sabalanka still came out on top. It is always a bit uncomfortable to watch games between Russian/Belarusian and Ukrainian players because they don’t do the joint photo at the start and they don’t shake hands at the end. AO posted an announcement before the game started to remind people and try to avoid any booing and it seemed to work for the most part. It’s a challenging situation and one that Rob and I view differently in terms of what is/isn’t appropriate. I actually don’t think there is a good answer here and just try to remain sensitive to all people involved.
Day 4 was the men’s semifinals, both of which turned out to be epic games. We had tickets to the afternoon game between Zverev and Alcaraz. Rob and I like both players so didn’t really have one we were cheering for more than the other. I noticed that when someone started a cheer for one player, another section of the crowd would then start a cheer for the other so it seemed to keep the support equal (this happened in most games we were at). This all changed though in set 3. Alcaraz was up two sets at that point and it looked like he was going to take the third to win but then he seemed to experience an injury and took a medical timeout. We found out later that it was likely a cramp versus an injury but that wasn’t obvious when watching it live. Alcaraz was barely walking but just kept playing which put the crowd 100% behind him. He lost the third and fourth sets in tie break so the fifth set started with each player having won 2 sets. The tension and excitement in the stadium was unreal. The crowd would absolutely erupt every time Alcaraz won a point. I tried to capture the noise on video and you can hear it a bit, but the video really only captured what was directly around us versus the volume in the arena as a whole. It was wild!! I wanted to just take it in so had put my camera away for the final points of the game. After 5 hours and 27 minutes, Alcaraz won the final set 7-5.
Since we had afternoon tickets, we figured we would head out to a nice restaurant for dinner, but the game went so late, we found ourselves hunting around for a restaurant at 9pm. We ended finding a little Mexican place near our AirBnB. It was a bit dodgy looking but the food was great and they even had sangria 😊
On Saturday, I decided to head over to Lune to grab us some croissants and coffees for breakfast. Lune was created by Kate Reid who left a stressful career in engineering to pursue baking. Her croissants have become super famous and the New York Times actually featured them and described them as the world’s best croissant. The bakery was only around the corner from where we were staying so it was a great chance to enjoy some of these famous pastries. Lune is known for having a line-up every day, no matter what time of day you go. Crazy!! My experience was no different but the line moves pretty quick. Rob wasn’t all that impressed in the end but I thought the almond croissant was to die for!
After breakfast, we headed down to the AO grounds for the women’s finals. We decided to go a bit early so we could wander the grounds and take in some of the other events going on including wheelchair tennis and a bit of Pickleball. Wheelchair tennis just amazes me! The men serve at speeds around 150km and the women at about 100-110km – from a sitting position. I don’t think I could even get an overhead serve over the net! The woman serving in the middle picture below ended up winning the women’s tournament so it was cool we had the chance to watch. I wish more people would take the opportunity to watch it.
The Pickleball also wasn’t well attended. You could hear it before even entering the arena though so we decided to go in and have a peek. Funny enough, the referee of one of the games we watched used to live in Yeppoon and is someone we’ve met at different local events.
When we got into Rod Laver before the women’s final, they had a little exhibition going on with a bunch of kids from Hot Shots Tennis. These are the kids that do the coin flips at the start of all the matches. It’s so great they get a chance to experience the tournament up close and for some of them to get to meet their idols. Whenever we watch on television, it makes me so happy to see their smiles as they pose with the players before the matches.
The women’s final went three sets and I think was one of the few 3-set matches across the tournament. I used to tell Rob I found Rybakina boring to watch but I acquired a new respect for her ‘cool as a cucumber’ demeanour watching her at this tournament. In set 3, she went from being down 3-0 to winning 6-4. There is talk of having the women’s games at grand slams move to best 3 of 5 to match the men’s and I would love to see that! Not only because I think it could really change the outcomes of games but because of the ongoing discussions about equal pay for men and women in tennis. The majority of tournaments are best 2 of 3 for all players so equal pay makes absolute sense, but for the four grand slams, women are paid the same as men even though they continue to play best 2 of 3 while the men play best 3 of 5 (which can be hours more of tennis across the tournament) so paying women the same in those tournaments doesn’t seem right to me. I hear the US Open might be trialling 3 of 5 for the women this year so I’ll be keen to see if goes ahead.
The men’s final on Sunday was between Alcaraz and Djokovic. Both were going for records – for Alcaraz, winning would make him the youngest play to win all four grand slams and for Djokovic it would make him the oldest male to win a grand slam title. This meant that no matter who won, history would be made. In the end, Alcaraz took home the trophy after 4 sets.
We are now back home and experiencing a bit of tennis withdrawal after watching tennis pretty much the whole of January. Having the opportunity to experience the AO in person will make next year’s television viewing even more fun!