Tennis

26th January, Sunday. Australia Day.

After a lazy morning and a pleasant walk along the sea front and part of the ‘Solar System’, it was time to get Gill to the tennis.

 

She got a ticket in Sydney, for the men’s final. Got there quite early and in she went.

I had a wander around Federation Square and parts of Melbourne, then settled in a bar nearby.

After a while I headed towards the Rod Laver Arena at about 8pm and got there just as Stanislas Wawrinka threw a bit of a wobbler over Nadal having a long break.

Gill came out after the match buzzing but I’ll leave her to describe her evening.

We had watched some of the tennis on TV in our apartment in St Kilda, when we got home in the evenings. I couldn’t decide who I wanted to see in the final. Of this year’s players, I had only ever seen Roger Federer play live, albeit when he was much younger. I guess I had hopes for a No1 & 2 seed, Rafa and Novak final.  Djokovic was beaten by Stanislas Wawrinka (seeded 8) in the quarter final, so it was going to be a Wawrinka & Nadal final.

I guess I should explain how all this came to be.

Some years ago, I was lucky enough to see a men’s final at Wimbledon. I have always loved tennis and it was a ‘bucket list’ target to see all four of the men’s Grand Slam finals. The years have a habit of slipping past, so we came up with this holiday plan, partly to try and fulfil one of these goals. Before we left the UK, I had looked at ticket availability but we arrived in Australia with no plan formulated and I was concerned that I may have to pay ‘big money’ for a ticket. I had pestered anyone we chatted to, including a Norwegian TV news presenter that we met in Uluru and offering the Flying Doctor service a (for us) large donation if they could secure a ticket from any of their contacts. By the beginning of January it seemed that my last chance might be to look on eBay! We were in Sydney’s Westfield Centre and they had a Ticketek outlet, where I asked, without any hope, if there were any tickets available. She looked and said there was one. In a very good position and as an official agency, they were not allowed to charge more than the highest priced tickets for the event. I was not sure I entirely believed that this ticket was as good as suggested but beggars couldn’t be choosers and so long as it was somewhere on the court, I knew it would be amazing, as the layout of the Rod Laver Arena is excellent no matter where you are.

So I had stored my precious ticket and today was the day. I was so excited!

As I know Ron has already said, we chatted to so many lovely Australians, who on hearing our London accents, could never resist opening a dialogue on our ‘crappy cricket team’, so I was used to, within a few minutes, chatting like old friends to someone. On entering the Arena I was soon talking to a couple about my visit. They asked me where my seat was and when I produced my ticket, they nearly fell off their chairs!

As I went to my seat, I found I was four rows from the front, in a corporate block, belonging to Rolex. For some inexplicable reason, Rolex had decided to sell one unwanted seat? Clearly the tennis gods were smiling on me. (It is strange and seems mad for me to include this but as I write this now, the feeling I had then has returned) I felt tears stinging my eyes and as the match started, I felt really emotional.

I would love to write that it was an exciting match, with some amazing tennis but sadly this was not the case. Apparently Rafa felt a back problem during the warm up and was soon a set down. The audience were, at this point, unaware of the injury problem and Rafa was soon a break down in the second set, when he left the court for treatment, much to the annoyance of Wawrinka and some sections of the crowd, who booed him on his return. 

It soon became clear that Rafa could barely serve and lost the second set. He seemed close to tears and my ‘Rolex buddies’ thought he might have to retire. However Rafa, dosed up on painkillers, managed to win the third set 6-3. Was the mother of all comebacks was about to happen? In the end, Wawrinka deservedly won the fourth set and the championship.

In his speech, Wawrinka said “it’s a strange feeling. I still think I’m dreaming” and I felt pretty much the same. The evening had passed so quickly. I met Ron and we wandered back through Melbourne. It was Australia Day and the city was really busy. We watched street artists performing, bought ice cream and got a late tram back to St Kilda. It really had been a perfect day.