Around the world in 80 (ok, 300ish) days: Melbourne -- Finale

I'm in Sydney now, got here last Wednesday. Ended up playing poker everyday in Melbourne until last Sunday, 11 days straight. In total I think I was up about $700, which basically paid for most of my two weeks there. I should have quit a couple days earlier and I would have been up over $1500, in fact I should have quit about 4 hours earlier and I would have been up about $1100. It was all good fun and I think I learned a trick or two while I was at it.

Anyway, enough about poker. On Monday I finally met up with a fellow Washingtonian turned Californian world traveler whom I'd had tried to meet up with in New Zealand without success. Ethan is a friend of Brett's and a pretty cool guy, even if he is a UW grad, oh and speaking of huskies, man did they get their asses kicked by the Cougs in basketball yesterday. I digress..

Since I was still in Melbourne, Ethan and I went to the first couple days of the Australian Open http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html. $29 for ground passes which allowed us to get into almost all the matches. We saw some greats like James Blake, Martina Hinges, Fernando Gonzalez, to name a few. Monday was a nice day for tennis, with temperatures in the mid 80's, Tuesday was hot, hot, hot, with temps on the outside courts getting over 120 F. In the first match we watched one guy was ahead 2 sets to 1 and seemed to be in control of the game but he completely ran into a wall, gave up the 4 set 6-0, and finally retired in the 5th set after getting down 2-1. If anyone back home is following the open I'm sure you heard about some of the issues they have had with heat. Ethan and I avoided most of the afternoon heat that day by getting into the Vodaphone Arena after about a 2 hour wait in line. That's where we saw Hingis and Blake. Later that night we watched what I thought was the best match we'd seen. Fernando Gonzalez, seeded 10th from Chile, played against a Russian Evgeny Korolev. The match only went 4 sets but the amazing support for Gonzalez from a strong contingent of Chileans was really cool. The match didn't get over until 12:30 am, but the stands were still full. Fernando lost the first set in a tie-breaker, but came back to win the second set in a tie-breaker and then the next two without losing service. He also won last night, ousting Australia's last hope Leyton Hewitt. I'm picking Gonzalez to go all the way.

I took quite a few pictures at the open and here are some of them.

Entrance into the venue. Ethan was smart and purchased his ticket online. I thought I'd save $4 and buy at the door. The line to buy my ticket took about 1.5 hours. Damn Internet surcharges...

This was a great match from the first day. We came in pretty late, but Australian favorite Wayne Arthurs battled back from 2 sets down to win. The crowd was awesome in support of their hometown hero with all sorts of chants and shouts. I think my favorite was "Go for the jugular Wayno". (you have to imagine it with an Australian accent)

Here's looking down at the court in the Vodaphone Arena. The first day the weather was pretty tolerable so it was fairly easy to get in here. I'm pretty sure that's American Mardy Fish causing the first big upset of the open by defeating the fourth seed player.

Second day action, outside. That's David Nabandian on the right. His opponent, Janko Tipsarevic, was ahead 2 sets to 1 when the heat became too much for him and he ended up retiring.

Several pictures from that match.

Martina Hingis. She's doing very well this open. I don't think she's lost a set yet and hasn't seen much of a challenge from anyone.

Ethan and I in the Vodaphone Arena on the second day after waiting in line for about 2 hours.

I was outraged by a call the umpire made...it's amazing how well sound carries in a quiet stadium. We were told to be quiet ourselves or we'd have to leave. I guess the bottle of Gin that we snuck in didn't help my attitude. (BTW, snuck isn't really a word http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/usage/snuck)