Australian Open

Got off the plane in Melbourne and headed straight for Burley and Kate’s place to enjoy some beers and watch the tennis for the night. Early the next morning I kitted up in my shorts and singlet and caught the tram to the grounds of the Australian Open. This was the number one thing I wanted to do on this trip as the Australian Open is my favourite tennis tournament ever since my buddy Chris opened up his restaurant to watch the finals late into the night a couple of years ago. Sitting there enjoying beers in the dark restaurant I promised myself I would go to the tourney. Two years later I found myself outside the gates with no ticket in hand. The tickets were all sold out and after asking around, everybody seemed to be in the same situation I was. I decided to make a sign that read “1 ticket needed please”. A whole hour passed and I was verging the point of giving up when a group of three approached me and asked if I needed a ticket. I asked how much they wanted for it and they refused any money and told me I would just have to behave because I was sitting with them. I thanked them and entered the grounds with them and then on into Rod Laver Arena. We took our seats and watched the rest of Maria Sharapova (4) vs. Angelique Kerber (30) and then watched Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Nicolas Mahut.  After the games I hit the beer gardens for the night sessions before catching the tram back to the house. They were having a party so I joined in on the festivities until the early hours of the morning.

I woke up on Sunday with the bright sun shining in on me, I was too hot to sleep any longer so I set out for another day at the Open. I actually had tickets for Sunday so I did not have to repeat my pan handler technique of the previous day. I made my way to my seats and found them directly in the sun. I watched the first match between Agnieszka Radwanska (8) and Julia Goerges (22) and could not take the heat any longer as I was dripping with sweat. I made my way to the gift shop to buy a hat and then got some cold beers before hitting my seats again for Tomas Berdych (7) vs. Nicolas Almagro (10). Luckily the shade line was creeping towards me and it engulfed my seats before I had to bail out again. After the game I was cruising around when a gorgeous Australian girl caught my eye, I was stuck staring as my jandal* caught a lip and tore it right off. My momentary lapse left me walking on the hot ground with bare feet the rest of the day. Hoping from different shadowy grounds I finally made it to the Heineken tent. I saw a group of girls and went and joined them for some drinks. We watched the Federer game together and then they invited me out for the night. I told them about the footwear problem and they quickly offered up a hair elastic to temporarily fix the problem. I threw on my change of clothes and we hit the town of Melbourne for some drinks. It was a perfect way to end the weekend before I took the flight back to New Zealand the next day. It wasn’t a cheap weekend and I will be living off the bare minimum until next pay day but completely worth it to cross off one of the highest ranking events on my bucket list.

Foggy

*Jandal- The terrible kiwi word for flip flops

Tags: Australia, Australian Open, Beer, Drinking, Events, Friends, Sports, Women