Dad bought our Australian Open tickets today!! THANKS DAD!
He bought us passes for the first four days to Hisense Arena. I think we'll be sitting somewhere under that red smudge in the corner of the photo above. One perk of getting tickets for this court? It has a roof that prevents rain/heat delays. This past year, each of the following players had matches on this court during the first four days:
Andy Roddick (2x)
Venus Williams (2x)
Juan Martin del Potro (2x)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2x)
Dinara Safina (2x)
Serena Williams
Novak Djokovic
Justine Henin
Elena Dementieva
Fernando Verdasco
Jelena Jankovic
Caroline Wozniacki
James Blake
Marcos Baghdatis
David Ferrer
Taylor Dent
Plus, a Hisense pass allows you to see matches played on any of the outside courts, as well. We're also hoping that by purchasing tickets for opening night in Rod Laver Arena, when the defending champion usually plays, we'll get to see Roger Federer. (If not, it will likely be Rafael Nadal... not a bad replacement!) The only players we're unlikely to see are Aussie favorites Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur, and Kim Clijsters (who isn't even Australian but is still beloved down under because she used to be engaged to Hewitt). They always play in Laver Arena. But, I kind of think it would be more fun to watch one of these matches outside the stadium with this crowd, anyway.
In related news, Andy Roddick made it to the semi-finals of the Cincy Masters tournament this week, despite admitting that he still doesn't feel 100% physically recovered from his mild case of mono. He beat #5 Robin Soderling and #2 Novak Djokovic en route to the semis, where he lost to his BFF Mardy Fish, who is playing better tennis this summer than he ever has before. (If you want to know my theory, I think Andy might have been less than devastated to let this one get away. He served for the match in the second set, but Mardy broke him and then won the tiebreaker. After that, I got the feeling that Andy knew he wouldn't be able to compete with Federer the next day given his level of fatigue, so losing to his best friend, who was playing well and had more energy, suddenly seemed like a not-so-bad idea.) Mardy put up a good fight in the finals against Roger Federer, but lost 4-6 in the third set. Can't wait to see what happens at the US Open!!
The Australian Open opens on January 17. Just under 5 months to go!!!
("Questions of Travel" is a poem by Elizabeth Bishop in which she questions why we feel compelled to travel to distant locales. Check out that link for the full text. As for me, I know why I feel compelled to travel to distant locales during January-- it's summer and tennis season in Oz then!! Do you remember what I was dealing with this past winter?!)
No comments:
Post a Comment