About Rose: I grew up in Singapore, lived in Melbourne but currently call London home. I love gastronomic adventures, especially while travelling. I stated writing at 17 to remember how it all began.
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21 January 2007
sunday; 11.53am
24 hours ago, i was sitting just one row away from the court on vodafone arena catching the first set between david nalbandian and sebastien grosjean. The argentinean fans were roaring and waving their flags valianlty while the french supporters with painted faces of blue, white and red were roaring cheers of "allez, allez!".
crowd in vodafone arena
it's amazing how your focus intensifies when you're so close to the players. I doubt i can get such great seats ever again but it was an amazing and intimate experience i throughly enjoyed. You begin to notice things that you couldn't if you were any further. Grosjean has a habit of touching the ball on the racket before every serve and then bounces the ball twice, exactly, before he tosses it in the air. And as the players turn their backs from their opponents after each point played, you see the look of disappointment or exhaustion that register on their faces.. but one that they're quick to mask as soon as they face their nemesis once more.
coin toss between juan ignacio chela and andy murray
I was seated next to an englishman and when i asked him how long he'd been watching tennis he said, "well, i remember watching BjörnBorg play". I was simply envious and awestruck and went on to ask him how he felt tennis had changed over the years, his experiences at all four (!) grand slams and match analysis for the ongoing game.
vodafone arena, melbourne park
We were very lucky that the matches at vodafone turned out to be even better than those on centre court. Sure they had nadal and sharapova playing but the matches were won quite easily and it was nothing like the 4 hour battle between nalbandian and grosjean with nalbandian clawing his way back 2 sets down to defeat the frenchman in a glorious 5 set thriller. Many tie breaks, deuces-advantages-deuces and brilliant winners later, nalbandian won 5-7, 4-6, 7(7)-6(4), 6-4, 6-1.
grosjean serves to nalbandian (in blue)
In the next match, Kim Clijsters defeated Alona Bondarenko in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 but it was really good to see Clijsters play seeing that she's retiring at the end of the year. After that, play was between Fabrice Santoro and Nikolay Davydenko and the French were cheering their hearts out for Santoro. Davydenko was a good aggressive player, coming to the net and hitting fabulous baseline winners but boy, that tall russian bloke sure lacked a sense of humour. He kept such a stern face even through the more light hearted moments in between points and the englishman next to me quipped "he looks as if he could work for the KGB" and i laughed saying "He probably does".
clijsters serves
davydenko (red) waits to return serve
6 hours of match play later, blake and ginepri were on and i was quite certain blake was going to take this one in straight sets, and he did, but ginepri was so close in the second set at 5-4 advantage but failed to convert that break point to bag the set. From then on, blake cleaned it up good 7(9)-6(7), 7-5, 6-2. That was the last match schduled but they transferred the match between murray and chela from margaret court over to vodafone because of the rain and well, thank god for retractable roofs that i didn't have to spend my day running around looking for shelter and waiting for play to resume.
robby ginepri (in black) vs james blake
blake slices a cross-court backhand
With murray playing, the scottish fans were certainly having a ball of a time with the racket (puns unintended) they created.. cheering every point boisterously and the argentineans were only too eager to counter every cheer, only louder. By 11pm and murray leading 6-3, 6-2 yolanda and me decided to leave. 12 hours of tennis watching is pretty exhausting and it was quite evident murray was going to finish it off, and he did at 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
andy murray waits to return chela's serve
It's so bloody great, really, to immerse yourself in something you enjoy so much. When i got ground passes on friday to watch safin vs roddick, i knew i'd never get into rod laver but sitting on the lawns watching the match with the crowd was just as exciting. The atmosphere was intense with the aussies mostly supporting the russian. Meanwhile, it seemed that i was one of the very few supporting roddick, interjecting with calls of "come on andy!" with every nail biting point. Everyone knew it would be an emotionally charged match (safin made sure of that) with brilliant play from both roddick and safin. But the best thing you can hear when rooting for a player in one hell of a match like that? "game, set, match.. Andy Roddick"
on the lawns watching roddick vs safin
"who can live without it i ask in all honesty, what would life be? without a song or dance what are we" -thank you for the music, abba
