I'm heading to Melbourne in about seven hours, which leaves me with about five hours sleep and hopefully, enough time to get to the airport. Traffic sucks and I live way too far from the airport.

Anyway, I don't know how much I'll write from Melbourne, considering my genius idea of going from Wednesday backfired rather nicely. I suspect JCF is already back home(or on his way at least lol!), poor Jarkko injured himself, Mario - I haven't been impressed with from Brisbane and PHM - while he is a favourite he's not in the good books for beating Jarkko looool. So that leaves me with PimPim, hopefully still in Melbourne. Gah, and he's not even playing!

Maybe it's about time to acquire some new/younger favourites!

Thursday 8 January 2009
I don't have much to report for Thursday, except I did see JCF off. :) My guess was correct! (for once) Afterwards I realised that if I arrived five minutes later, I would've missed him. Thank God I didn't....He was wearing a Ferrari t-shirt and jeans, I forgot to check the shoes for dagginess! Funnily enough his coach saw me first and stopped, and he's been quite nice this week. At least his English is good enough to communicate properly! :)

I got him to sign the calendar, and I was shaking. I don't know why! My pen wasn't working properly though, I really should be more organised. His coached asked whether I was going to Auckland - no, and I'll only be in Melbourne from Wednesday! Yes - JCF knows he has to win matches from now on. ;)

Also saw Ernests Gulbis as well, although at the time I wasn't sure whether it was him and whether he was going to Auckland as well. But after I checked the ATP photo and the entry list, that was him! That was pretty much it for Thursday, as I didn't go to the tennis at all.

Friday 9 January 2009
I got up at 9:30am today, the latest I've been all week! The odd/good thing is, I've only had coffee twice this week while I usually have it every day, or else I might get a headache. Tennis must be doing funny things to my body lol. Although the main reason is probably they only sell HOT coffee at the tennis centre, why anyone would drink something hot in this weather is beyond me. If they sold iced coffee I would probably have it everyday.

Back to the point - I arrived probably close to 11 (???) and met Christina. As we pondered what to do we eventually saw Magnus! Being the Swede, he did get us tickets (thanks!~~~!) although whoever told Magnus the tickets were "sold out", they should be fired because there were so many empty seats at the stadium. Anyway, it was rather funny that they were players box seats, but we weren't allowed to sit there because Robin is superstitous and doesn't want anyone other than his girlfriend and Magnus there. lol. We had some time to kill before the match started so we did watch a little of PHM's practice, shirtless. hmmmmmmmmm! I really should've taken more photos.



It wasn't long before the women's match finished and we had to go inside. Since there were so many empty seats, it wasn't a problem for us to find somewhere to plant ourselves ;) Today is apparantly "Myer day" or something (Myer is a department store) and they had this swimsuit parade before the match? WTF? Take this AMS Madrid! We have guys in speedos and girls in bikinis! (I'm sorry Myer, those swimsuits weren't even nice!)



I don't know what to think of the match itself. It's weird because both guys didn't hit the ball very hard, like you normally see. Radek is mega annoying with his drop shots, and I sat there wondering what his strengths are. Probably consistency? He tends to get a lot of balls back drawing the error from the opponent. I did cheer! I have the obligation to ;) and you know, I don't like Radek all that much anyway!



In this blog, there's more fangirling than tennis analysis but Robin does need to work on his concentration (I didn't want to write "mental issues", that kinda sounds bad). I'm sure we're on TV because Christina had her Swedish flags, which are banned (according the the newspapers!). Eventually, the security guard came and asked us to put the flags away - like who made that rule? We weren't blocking anyone's view (which was their reason for banning) so yeah - Steve Ayles, it's stupid.

After the match, we saw Robin, Robin's GF and Magnus heading off. Christina said goodbye to them. :) Robin's gf was quite nice too I thought! She's hot of course, like all tennis girlfriends are ;)

As there was not much to do afterwards we left. Note though, we saw Novak at the tennis centre today. Why is he still here? On the same note, Christina saw Mario hanging around - but I am avoiding him ;)

This might be the last of my reports at Brisbane, although tomorrow's OOP presents great value! Two mens semi-final matches and two mens doubles matches! (Same price as today - definitely more value for money I say)

I know I've complained a lot about the tournament in my early reports, I don't feel so negative about it now. (except for the lack of seating at the show courts, that DEFINITELY needs improving!) Hopefully the tournament wasn't that bad for the players and they'll come back next year????

After I said goodbye to JCF I stayed on the practice courts and watched a bit of Novak Djokovic. We had heard him laughing a lot (he was on the court opposite JCF) so I'm curious... From what I saw, it sure looked like he was having fun. They were playing a game where it's two against one, the team that loses have to do push ups!





As there wasn't much to do we headed off for dinner. :) We went to a cafe at Southbank, and after we ordered, the Frenchies came in! Richard was sitting at a table with his coach, and then later on, PHM's coach came in and sat at another table. The odd thing was though, when PHM eventually arrived, he didn't say hi or anything to Richard..... (even though earlier, PHM's coach was chatting to Richard's crew)

When we were about to leave, Benneteau came in as well! Julien and PHM did that handshaking thing, so they're friendly. But even when PHM left, he still hasn't talked to or acknowledged Richard at all.....

And then after PHM left, Julien also went to chat to Richard. hmmmmmm...... do Richard and PHM hate each other? LOL.

I found out this morning that JCF will be practicising late afternoon. So I aimed to get to the tennis at around 1:30pm, which was when Mario v Fer was scheduled to start. I really should've checked the scores before I made the trip because the matches before were running quite late. Mario's match didn't start until almost 4pm!

I wasn't expecting Mario to win since he wasn't playing exceptionally yesterday and he will need a lot more to beat Fer. From the couple of games I saw, Mario's level is around the same but the odd thing was he didn't serve and volley all that much. He was trying to rally with Fer. ?????? He thinks that he can out-rally Fer???? It makes no sense.







Before the end of the first set JCF headed out to the practice court, earlier than expected! He was hitting with Agustin Calleri, another first round casualty. They chatted for quite a bit and were relaxed. I think this was the first time I've seen Calleri all week. @@



However, JCF was not hitting well. I don't think he got into the rthythm for the entire session. Surely, his late arrival (Saturday) contributed to his loss, and I'm hoping since he'll be in Auckland on Thursday, this will give him plenty of time to prepare properly. Let's hope....



Afterwards JCF signed autographs and took photos, as usual. As there wasn't a huge crowd I did manage to speak to him, and he asked whether I was going to Auckland. (Too bad none of my other favourites are going loool.) Oh well.

[There is a little more to Wednesday but I'll finish it off tomorrow as I'm getting tired!]

I actually took better photos today, I think I've finally worked it out that my camera takes better photos during daytime. Even through the fence is ok because it steadies the camera so my hand shaking won't be an issue.

But GAH. again. JCF lost it again! This is like the fifth time I've seen him lose the first match of the year. (2004 - Guccione @ Sydney, 2005 - Hernych @ Auckland, 2006 - Guccione @ Sydney, 2007 - Massu @ Auckland) Note that last year I wasn't there and he reached the final? Do I carry such bad luck????? Should I be banned from his matches???

Anyway, to start today's report properly I got to the tennis at around 10.30am. Not long later PHM headed out to practice with Benneteau. PHM must've read my comments about the orange shirt yesterday since he wore it today! lol. So... does it go better with white or black shorts?



I think I've mentioned earlier I'm warming up to Benneteau. He has that nice fluffy hair thing going too :) But today he had stripes of sunscreen on his face. In this country, we do encourage slip, slop, slap but how hard is it to blend it in? It is not a good look!



Then, I saw Mario heading off to a nearby court to practice so I watched that. He practiced with Luka Gregorc! In my mind, he's "Starbucks guy". Well, in my mind he also looked different so I didn't recognise him lol. This certainly helped!



Mario spoke to him in English, and they seemed friendly. After the practice Mario signed autographs and took photos etc. I wished him good luck for the match and how he was feeling - not injured???? I hope. He said he was ok, and then he asked why I asked the question.... X_X er.... just wondering? I DON'T KNOW WHY I ASKED! It just came out???? GRRRRRR. Actually, it's a bit of a blur now. I really should avoid him now. Maybe it's weird because I haven't asked him for a photo or autograph yet. He might think I have money on him looool.



After Mario's practice JCF's match was just about to start so I headed to the show court. It was PACKED! Brissy people likes JCF! (More than Mario it seems - based on the crowd numbers later on!) I attempted to sit on the stands, under the sun, but it was distracting because of the crowd. The Show Courts only has seating on one side (where the sun is). So a lot of people watch it from the shady side and they just either get chairs and sit right behind the fence or stand. The shady side was packed so people started to stand/sit on the sunny side as well, in front of the seating. This blocked the view of some of the ppl sitting on the stands so they were pretty annoyed. I'm sure this problem wasn't sorted out until the middle of the first set. So that whole time, I couldn't concentrate on the match because of the complaints and the ppl blocking part of my view! ARGH.

After the first set, I couldn't stand the heat anymore so I moved to the shady side and stood to watch the rest of the match. It wasn't the best view since I couldn't see the other side of the court very well. (Better than nothing I suppose) For this reason, I don't have many pics of this match because I could hardly see it properly myself! Honestly, I can't pretty much copy and paste my comments from his previous "1st match of the year losses" because he didn't seem to 'be there'. He had some good shots early but once Serra got ahead, he couldn't fight back. There was some brief hope in the 2nd set when he broke back but that's only because Serra double faulted. Serra also made a couple of unforced errors but JCF couldn't capitalise. After watching these types of matches I'm always pessimistic about his chances next week. But he has proved me wrong in the past so I hope this year it's the same. I like the outfit though, if it helps anything.



Next up on the same court is Mario Ancic v Amer Delic. Amer has always been in my good books because I did think he was ok but now he has shocking hair....! It's long! Needs a haircut that one. Mario on the other hand, although the yellow outfit is rather yummy, he has major co-ordination issues. Yellow shorts call for white undies Mario! See through is not a good look!



The match was close. Both of them served well (Amer's arguably more consistent than Mario's it seems) so there weren't that many long rallies. Mario did come into the net often and it worked reasonably well. I'm skeptical of Mario having his brother as his new coach. All aspects of his game needs to improve to get back to the level he once was and he really needs someone experienced to help him. (I know, it's just another way of saying I miss Fiddie but still!) He just didn't seem to have a weapon besides his serve.



While we were standing to watch the match (since we didn't want to get sunburnt!) I suddenly felt someone standing really close behind me. First I thought it was a joke from someone I know but then I turned around and it was some random guy! He was wearing a blue Lacoste shirt and seriously, I could feel his breathing on my neck. WTF? I never found out who he was, but later on, I saw Michael Llodra with his coach (I presume) wearing that same shirt. So I suspect it was Llodra's coach from before. Was he Lionel? I don't remember. But Lionel is not listed as his coach on ATP???

Anyway, as the match went on, we managed to get a couple of seats right behind the players behind the fence. We were like 3 metres behind Delic. He must sweat a lot because he changed EVERY SINGLE ITEM of clothing on his body throughout the match. I'm sure he went through 4 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, and changed even his headband, socks AND SHOES during the match. How much stuff does he carry with him???? Plus we have to put up with a pile of dirty clothing right in front of us! =.= Not impressed!

[I just realised I didn't take any Amer photos!]

Eventually, Mario won, just. That match was like 3 hours! Amer and Mario even gave each other a little hug afterwards. :) After they sat down they even chatted a little, maybe about those doggy line calls during the match lol.



I had thoughts of seeing Robin Soderling v Julien Benneteau but it might not start until almost 7pm and I was bummed about JCF... :( So we called it a day.

In case you're looking for it, I did not see JCF today so there won't be reports / photos about him!

Today I'm volunteering but with no define job. So I ended up in two jobs, an usher at centre court and "door opener" lol. I took the usher job because it was at the door right opposite player services ;) Since the 1st match on centre was WTA I was pretty happy to just stand outside seeing people come and go. (and checking tickets in between!) After the first match it was Jarkko v Marcos. So I went inside and watched the match while working. Jarkko played well. But I am annoyed at all those people who seem to think his win was an "upset", and it was Marcos who lost the match not Jarkko "winning" it. ARGH. People, Jarkko is ranked higher???? Does anyone know this???? Towards the end though, Jarkko had some cheers from the crowd, although the majority was of course for Marcos. It was obvious though, Marcos is not very fit. He took a lot of time between games and made heaps of errors as a result. I remember a game where he double faulted three times. Jarkko had a mini-choke in the last set, but luckily he came good. Maybe it's because he has a coach now? lol.

Anyway, after the match there were heaps of people waiting for Marcos near where I was standing. They all chased after him as he was leaving, it was comical at times. Since the next match I wasn't too interested in (WTA again! HA!) I took a lunch break. It's funny how my co-workers don't "get" my support for the "unknown" Finn. I had to tell them multiple times that I will go to lunch when his match finishes!

Since Christina had been "watching" the Jarkko match we just went to Heineken Hill again. Nothing to do in particular. I decided after yesterday I won't deliberately seek JCF. Although Christina had been there the whole day and hadn't seen him. Weird.

After lunch I got back to my job, but managed to swap with the lady who was the "door opener". It may sound like the stupidest job in the world but it was fun! The job was to be outside the player area and simply... open the door as people go in and out hahahahahahaha. Too bad I didn't see my favourites but Tsonga was inside and there were two ladies who gave him a bunch of Adidas shirts (they were all the same!) and he picked one @@.

I wasn't the "door opener" for too long before it was quiet again so I could go! There was still two hours to kill before Mario's doubles match!

I went back to Heineken Hill and saw Christina there. She was waiting for Aspelin's doubles match and we just sat for a while. After a while we saw this guy with a odd looking purple shirt (well, I thought that purple looked weird!) and it happened to be PHM. As he's playing doubles with Mario so he must be practicising with him! :D Mario was in orange, and he looked good in orange, it's a tough colour to pull off! AND... he shaved! Excellent news :D



On a random note, I have been seeing Ivica A LOT today. As I was ushering he went into centre court to see the matches quite a few times. (I am starting to see the resemblence now, I think the eyes?) Plus I was walking around later on and I always managed to bump into him, weird!!!

Since Christina wanted a photo and autograph with Mario we waited for him to finish. He signed for a couple of ppl first then she asked him whether he could take the photo. I hope my hands wasn't shaking! But since he didn't smile for the photo I didn't ask him. :S He has the ability to make me swallow my words!

As Aspelin was starting we went our separate ways. I got some food and went over to Court 1 to wait for Mario/PHM's match. Safarova was playing against an Australian (Holland?) so there were quite a lot of people. I thought they would stay to watch Tsonga, but a lot of them left. So it wasn't too hard to find a seat to the doubles match. :) While the women were playing Mario was checking on the progress. In the fangirl tradition I had to take photos.... the balcony overlooking the court reminds me of Sydney!



Safarova won that match, as expected. So onto the doubles. This Mario/PHM team seems kinda random and it shows. Both of them probably just wanted match practice BUT such a good looking team! We ended up sitting a few seats away from Ivica but we were there first so no, we're not stalking him! LOL. Disappointed that they lost though, PHM wasn't playing too well. My comments about Mario are the same as yesterday. He was serving well most of the time though, a good sign. But he's playing Delic tomorrow who's a qualifier. And everyone knows qualifiers are dangerous because they already have a couple of wins under their belt. So I'm not very confident about PHM's chances now, he's up against a qualifier too tomorrow and I won't be able to see his match as it's on the same time as Mario. :(





Looking at the OOP for tomorrow it looks like I'll spend more time at court 1! It sucks though there are no seats on one side and the stands aren't shaded (while the court itself is!). I might stay and cheer for Robin loool, depending on how I'm feeling, I've had a few long days now.....

Mission Complete!

Thanks to Christina's tips ;) I found out when JCF was appearing today so I pretty much had the morning free. Apparantly Mario had already practiced (this was at 9.30am) so I wasn't expecting to see him at all. But thought it was weird - unless he's going somewhere else for those tourist things????

Anyway, I haven't actually given anything to JCF for a couple of years now and this time, I made an effort! loool. The plan was to make a calendar with fan messages on them. I had to go to the photo printing place to get a couple of the pages printed so by the time I got to the tennis, it was after noon. Here's the finished product (sorry I didn't take a pic of each page, but yeah, most of it is my old site layouts! whooo. I'm so lazy!)


The front cover (in action!) & what the pages look like

( read the long ramble with photos )

It's Day 1-ish because I've been to the new tennis centre a couple of times (before today) now, but I didn't stay for too long on the other days. So let's just class this as Day 1 of my reports.

Before today, I had already seen Jarkko and PHM in practice, so I guess the main goal of today was to see JCF & Mario. Slight complication - today I'm rostered on. This year is the first time I'm volunteering for a tournament! Luckily (or unluckily - depending on how you view it) we didn't actually have much work and finished quite early. Plus, the work that we did we had to go around to each of the tournament offices recording some things. So we got a pretty detailed tour of the "inside". It was interesting, so that was a positive experience. However, it rained for much of today. Centre court had a (partial) roof so players were practicising there. Well, even if it was sunny it would be hard watching players on the outside practice courts. There is no gap (for ppl to stand) in between each practice court so essentially, you have to watch them behind a fence. Sucks if you want practice photos!

(I've already written some comments on the new tennis centre itself and posted them on MTF, so I'll just re-post them here)

After the trip to the centre yesterday I have to say it's actually a bit smaller than I had thought. They probably concentrated on building a greater number of courts, rather than create more room for people to move around. I'm not sure what the official "measurements" are, but size-wise, it's nothing compared to Sydney, and even Adelaide. If anyone plans to get practice photos you'll be disappointed because there's no space for spectators in between most of the practice courts, so you can only see them behind a fence!

Also, everything seems to be cramped, and on one side it's directly looking at a power station! They really should've made more space for what they're trying to build. The centre court itself is good, you can probably get a good view even from the back rows.

That aside I didn't stay long but saw Gasquet practicising with Stepanek on centre court, also Nieminen with Melzer outside. (Heaps more women were practicising, except for Hantchuhova and Safarova I didn't know who the rest of them were!)


Back to today....
After we finished work we settled down to watch Gasquet / PHM / Berdych / Benneteau (I think) practicising. ahhh so much beauty! lol. Tomas though, had this weird looking haircut I can hardly recognise him. (Yes people, in this blog, the HAIR is very important!) He also looked pale, and I'm sure I asked multiple times whether that was really Tomas. PHM on the other hand, is a man of consistency (YAY!). The curls are still there and he still makes me swoon. I'm warming up to Benneteau, although (if that was really him) that shirt he was wearing is not very flattering.


Sorry all my photos of Tomas turned out blurry!

My day one report was supposed to finish here. Because the weather still looked quite grim and didn't look like play was going to start any soon. So we headed off for an early day! BUT (!) in one of those (good) weird twists as I was driving along I saw this mini-van and guess who was inside ---> Mr Mario Ancic! *0* Now my short day had turned into another long-ish day...

I was hoping he would practice straight away, but no, when I eventually park my car, walk up to the centre again he was nowhere to be found. Argh. I had thoughts of giving up but after watching some of Ivanovic / Kirilenko in practice I decided to take a walk again and found Via! We chatted for a little while but she had to catch a train so I went back to centre court. After the girls finished up - Mario / Jarkko / Jurgen / Robin rocked up! That was a good hour.

Mario is keeping his scruffy head / facial hair look (continuing on from last year) which I am not the biggest fan of, but it's acceptable. Jarkko is Jarkko (another man of consistency - maybe Anu likes it this way!), Jurgen hides it under a cap (but it's still good) and Robin (no comments since I don't have strong feelings one way or another). Phew. I had plans to give Mario something so I waited after they finished up. After Jarkko & Mario shaked hands I tried to get his attention but since I didn't want to say anything too loud (it was getting late and the stadium was mostly empty!) I don't think he heard me. Thank god Jarkko did and told Mario looool. I'm sure Jarkko has heaps of brownie points already but more won't hurt ;) So mission accomplished!


Jarkko / Mario / Jurgen / Magnus!

Afterwards I met Christina (MTF-er) - yes I did recognise her from her avatar! lol (plus she also said hello to Magnus Norman as he was leaving, so that was a giveaway!) After that practice I think Mario was heading outside for another practice! Although theoretically I could stay, but it was dark and it will be weird. :) So we left!

Mission tomorrow - to find out whether JCF is actually here, I have not seen him at all!

After some crappy reporting (or non-existent) for the past two years, can't say I'll promise anything good this time around. At least I can use my own computer every night!!! But I must say it's rather weird having tennis around, but not having to travel for it. I like those random sightings of players walking about the city, don't think I'll get that much of those encounters here!

Anyway, my plans for 2009 are:
- Brisbane (starting next week - I'll be going as long as my favourites are there!)
- Melbourne (21st Jan to 26th Jan - I can only take so much time off damn it!)

Four of my favourites are going to Brisbane (JCF, Ancic, Nieminen & Mathieu) so expect fangirling there! In Melbourne, I'm hoping to see GGL and the Belgians (well, just Kristof Vliegen now since Olli is nowhere to be seen!)

Ha! I finally have time to type this report seen as though I didn't go to the tennis yesterday (so no report from Day 5!) and today has been rained out. Tomorrow JCF will be on Rod Laver Arena at 11am and I don't have tickets to it either.... so hmmmm Day 4 could be my last day at the tennis this January!

We only got to the tennis just in time for JCF's match against Alun Jones to start. The court was pretty crowded already but luckily we managed to find a seat on 2nd row in the section behind JCF so that was good. I don't think he played as well as he did against Kiefer, but managed enough to win. There were a couple of shaky moments during his serve, but Jones' nerves got the better of him so JCF was lucky lol. Funnily enough he lost all 3 of the games when I had my camera out taking pictures, so yeah, not going to be many photos from here based on this statistic! I don't know if I'm jinxing him!

Then we walked around and saw Rafael Nadal practicising with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez! :) Heaps of people of course, and at first I couldn't even see anything, let alone take pictures. But then Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both walked out to practice as well so quite a few people left to see them :) It was crazy when Rafa left of course, and only a couple of people asked GGL for an autograph and he also took photos with some girls. He's been quite lovely this year, still in my good books!

We also saw some games of Kristof Vliegen's doubles match. He was playing a lot better than he did in singles, which was surprising. After a set we left and had some lunch/afternoon tea. I think we saw Igor Andreev signing at fanfest as well, but not many people compared to JCF/Bagdagtis yesterday!

Afterwards we went into Vodafone Arena and saw the last few games of Novak Djokovic's match. Not very interesting, clinical finish for Novak. Then it was David Nalbandian v Peter Luzack. The winner of this match will play against JCF so there's some interest for me lol. I don't mind Luzack - he seems to be a nice Aussie so I wasn't cheering against him. Luzack was playing quite well at the start, but couldn't keep up the level as Nalbandian "wakes up". Although we didn't see the last set, based on the two performances I don't think JCF can match up to Nalbandian unless he can at least bring his game from the Kiefer match. I know I haven't written my report from Days 1 & 2 yet, but I shall say now JCF's 1st round match has been the best I've seen him in years (probably two! haha!)

Now here's the scandalous tadbit from Thursday, as we were heading home (this is after midnight) we saw JCF, his coach and Albert Costa heading to a nightclub lol. I was pretty tired by then, don't know how these people can! Ha. And he still went out to practice less than 12 hours later at the tennis (as Kristen tells me, since I wasn't there!).

ohhh yeah, it's finally here. I better type up something before it'll end up like last year, where there are no reports because I don't remember anything - due to my ageing brain and bones.

Anyway, I got up late this morning and due to the events of Monday (took about an hour to line up, buy tickets, then line up again to actually get in) we thought it would be quicker to go to a net cafe, buy ground passes via ticketek.com.au, and print them out using the ezyticket option! So after all that we finally got inside at around 11:15am and watched GGL v Falla. There were quite a few fans cheering for both players, more for Falla I thought. To be honest, on entertainment value the match wasn't too interesting, so we left after a few games.

I think that's when I saw Serena Williams at the practice courts, didn't stay of course. Then on the other side there was David Nalbandian. Nothing much else so we went in to see some games of Jarkko Nieminen v J Levine. (The lucky loser - I only know this Levine guy from Auckland, when Mario Ancic pulled out and he played against JCF instead lol).

Just as we left the Jarkko match (since he was winning quite comfortably) JC was out practicising with David Ferrer. I guess nothing noteworthy about the session itself, but JC and David seemed to be having a good time, chatting and laughing quite a lot. But we also saw Wayne Arthurs walking by, a couple of people recognised him and asked him to sign autographs. :) I don't mind Wayne, he seems to be a nice bloke. What was funny was that there were a couple of guys with shirts which said "Bring back Wayne Arthurs"!! And Wayne actually posed with them for a photo, it was funny! (So I took a pic of this too!)

During this time I also saw Kristen and finally met JuanquiLover from MTF ;) and Peta was there too.

There were plans to see Oliver Rochus' doubles match. Don't know why he is not partnering up with Kristof Vliegen, but we saw a couple of games and things weren't going so well, so we didn't stay.

We went back to watch GGL - the match was still going. It got close at the end as Falla had set points. But GGL came back in the tiebreak to take the match, which was good to see. He took off his shirt and gave it to one of the Spanish guys who had been cheering for him. He's a sweetie :) and appreciates the support. Then he signed for lots of people and posed for quite a few photos as well, I'm impressed that he finally won 2 matches here! I seem to remember him as always beating good players in round 1 (Moya, Dent, Chela) but then lose in the next round.

Then I went to JCF's autograph session. It was supposed to start at 3:15pm but when I got there around 3pm there were already a big line. Probably 100 people? Thought I'd save him some energy so I didn't line up. JCF was late - so they asked the crowd questions and give prizes for correct answers. The first couple were easy so everyone knew, but when they asked about refurbishing an old cottage.... no one knew! So I had to answer it - it's Hotel Ferrero people! ;) Another two mini Sharpie pens for me! LOL.

When JCF finally arrived all he did was signing stuff. It did get a little stupid because at 4pm, Marcos B was supposed to be there. I'm not sure whether the organisers were just waiting for Marcos but no one bothered to even ask him a question. More like a factory line - everyone get in and out and not much else.

Afterwards, there was a bit of bumming around. Saw a couple of games of Jim Thomas' doubles, and waited for Kristof Vliegen v Igor Andreev. Thought that would be an interesting match but I don't know, I always think that Kristof is not really concentrating, or his mind is somewhere else. Igor hit the ball so hard, and Kristof really only had his serve in his favour. We saw the first two sets, Igor won both 7-5 7-5. Olivier Rochus and blonde came to watch too - there was a bit of candoodling, but still PG rated ;) Behind us GGL and Fernando Verdasco were playing doubles, thought they were doing well (but eventually lost!). oh well.

The weather was getting cold so we left. We got Vodafone tickets for tomorrow and will probably watch some of Nalbandian v Luzack.

At night we saw James Blake at the Baccarat table. hmmmmm. He was by himself too @@.

I think that's about it for today, did see some other ppl practice like Ana Ivanovic, Maria Kirilenko, Filippo Volandri (great hair!) but didn't stay. Did take a few photos though, so they might jog my memory when I eventually upload them. :)

It's Sunday already and I haven't actually been to the tennis yet :P I got here on Thursday but I must've caught something because I was sneezing and not feeling so well for the first couple of days. So I went to DFO on Friday, Chadstone on Saturday, and today to the Great Ocean Road!!! This has got to be the most tourist-y thing I've done here. lol.

But there have been some tennis people spotting, Belgians in particular! Saw Kristof Vliegen & Christophe Rochus at the Roulette table one night... and also Robby Ginepri. And then last night we saw Olivier Rochus with a blonde ;) and afterwards Kristof with Olivier's coach at the bar lol.

I think that's about it, I am going tomorrow! Hoping to see Jarkko/PHM/GGL matches, plus other favourites at practice of course. :)

I'm hoping to actually post this year, since I should have decent internet access (yay wireless broadband!).

Come to think of it I haven't even upload most of the AO photos from LAST YEAR.... hmmmm. Just one tournament this year, I thought it'll be weird sitting at work when Adelaide/Sydney/Auckland is on but in actual fact, a work day passes by rather quickly anyway. Oh well, maybe my enthusiasm for this tournament will return because of the lack of tennis this year!

I'm sorry I haven't been posting during AO! I didn't have much internet access during that week plus the heat/rain meant that I only went for about 4 days (??), or even less. The photo count is much lower than last year (less than 400? not all of them good, so I'll probably upload a lot less), I have a grand total of one photo with a tennis player (the annual JC tradition lol) and about 4 autographs? [same JC reason, Mario, Novak & Jarkko - only because Jarkko had an autograph session @ AO.....]

Not sure what happened there, but as Emily's mum described it - we're like "veterans" at AO now lol. Less crazed (?), where is that enthusiasm? I know I'm less tolerant to that heat!

I have a lot of offline stuff to take care of at the moment (eg. laundry eeek) but I'll try to type up some sort of report (or a massive summary because everything is all scrambled in my head) plus photos will be uploaded s-l-o-w-l-y. Here's 3 of PimPim.....

http://joachimjohansson.org/visual/thumbnails.php?album=54

Didn't have much of a plan for Qualifying Saturday. I had thoughts of going on Friday as well, but I slept in and decided to do a little shopping around Melbourne city instead.

I think we got there around noon, and watched a little of Marco Chiudinelli against Konstantinos Economidis. I had heard about Chiudinelli on MTF and saw some pics of him, so that's why I went. The Greek fans were there cheering Economidis on, so it was entertaining. We only saw the 2nd set, and Marco played pretty well and won comfortably.

After that match we went for a little walk and saw JC practice, I forgot who he was hitting with, but I *think* it was Juan Martin Del Potro... don't quote me on that though! There were a few people watching too, and JC signed autographs for everyone and posed for a few photos as well. :)

Talked to Kristen and Peta about various things... including Mollina!

Also saw Igor Andreev practicising, he still has that long-curlish hair. :S I hope his injuries are behind him this year. And then Kristof Vliegen also practiced as well, I watched for a short while and somehow he said hello to me... he may have remembered from Auckland. @@ Also saw Olivier Rochus' coach on the practice court with a female player? (no idea who she is, since I don't follow WTA!)

Then I think this was when I got a SMS from Kristen about Jarkko hitting and he was wearing the safety vest? Only stayed for a short time because that was when the security guards went around kicking everyone out. (In a very polite fashion - NOT!) They didn't even ask nicely. pftttt..

At night we headed to Crown for dinner. Saw Gaston Gaudio, Juan Monaco and Juan Martin Del Potro walking around.... also saw Nicolas Massu there, and Tomas Berdych was buying some pizza at the food court as well!

I'm not sure whether it was because of the rain delays earlier in the week, or the long walks to/from the tennis centre, or JC's dismal form... but my enthusiasm for this tournament had sunk a little. I wasn't too thrilled by the OOP, as I had to leave at 1:30pm at the latest to catch a 4:30pm flight. (I blame Airbus for this, because it takes about an hour to go to the airport)

But I had already bought my ticket, so I went anyway.

First up I saw Mario practicising - the lack of any crowd scare me, considering there were about 2 or 3 other people watching and it was somewhat awkward. It's the two extremes, at AO I'm sure there'll be a moderate crowd watching this but in Auckland... hardly anyone notices. The players have to walk through the dining area to get to the practice court too, and they're rarely hassled as well.

The matches on centre court today weren't all that exciting (except Fish v Ancic - but I would have left by then anyway), so I stayed on the outside courts. Watched the last set of Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Dominik Hrbaty, Philipp played well and Hrbaty was a little sluggish I think. There was a reasonable crowd too (for an outside court!) so it was a pretty good one to watch. Philipp won at the end... I do like his backhand.

Then there was Olivier Rochus vs. Juan Monaco. I think I said earlier that Olli is quite popular here so the stand was quite full for this one as well. It was getting warm too! The sun came out and it was beginning to feel like Melbourne lol. I had my umbrella out and sunscreen on, I think the heat had a hand on the match too, because it hasn't been this hot up to this stage of the tournament. Both Olli and Monaco played well, and the match was close. Two courts down Kristof Vliegen was playing against Nicolas Almagro. That looked to be a good one too... and Kristof was checking on the scores of Olli/Monaco as well lol.

As I had to leave early I only saw 2 sets and a bit...(if I remember correctly). So I grabbed a quick bite to eat and that was it for this tournament!

I ended up catching the same flight as Juan Martin Del Potro, he was sitting about 6 or 7 rows in front of me. He did move around the plane a bit probably because he's so tall (6'5!) that the economy seats just can't fit lol.

Arrived at the tennis centre to find Simon Aspelin & Chris Haggard doing the kids day thing. They had it at the indoor court because it was raining slightly in the morning. But then, it cleared up! And surprisingly the rain hasn't interrupted *most* of the play today.

Saw Wawrinka & Mahut practicising with each other, someone from MTF asked if I could take photos of Mahut so there's about 5 of them :P Then Mario arrived with Allegro, which is a little strange because Allegro's doubles partner, Robert Lindstedt is nowhere to be seen! They were discussing something about Adidas shoes... @@

Afterwards I watched JC v Massu. I missed the first 3 games though. But it was really frustrating to watch because JC looked so "out of it" for the entire match. At least Massu looked like he was trying.... but JC didn't look aggressive at all and early in the 2nd set one of JC's service games was just complete rubbish. (A double fault and some balls into the net, if I remember correctly) I don't know what he was doing. Will someone put some sense into him!?!?!?

Didn't really want to watch the next match on centre court (King-Turner aka local hero v Monaco) so I went for a little walk. Olli/Kristof were practicising but they were just about to finish. Got some lunch and saw a little of Almagro v Wawrinka. I actually thought it would be a really close match but from what I saw, Almagro was making a lot of UEs. *saw the final score was 1-6 6-4 6-1 to Almagro* (I saw the start of the 2nd set I think).

As the Monaco match finished pretty quickly I saw the first set of Mario v Rosol. This Rosol is not bad I must say (in terms of tennis abilities!). But I left because I wanted to see Olli/Kristof doubles. Also happened to see Jarkko signing autographs for little kiddies! He was wearing sunglasses but whenever someone wanted a photo, he would take them off @@ He actually signed his whole name for ALL the kiddies. There were quite a few of them too..... more brownie points to him. (I'm sure he has heaps already).

The doubles match was entertaining. It did start to rain but that only lasted for about 5 mins. Olli/Kristof wrapped up the match quickly to avoid the heavy rain later!

Just as I was about to go back to Mario's match it started raining pretty heavily. I probably should've watched the 2nd set because Rosol broke Mario's serve and I *think* Rosol was leading 6-5 before the delay? The delay lasted for about an hour or so (???) and in the end, Mario had to dig deep to win the match. argh, at least he's winning.

I didn't stay for the night session because I was getting a little tired. Not really sure how much tennis I will be able to see tomorrow as I'm leaving at around 4.30pm. I stopped by DFS and refrained myself from buying anything. I'm just not really in the mood? Not sure.... but I don't think I'll be ready for the hot weather in Melbourne, it's so nice & cool here!

I woke up this morning to dark clouds and rain. The rain did stop for a short while (maybe 1/2 hour, 45 mins) and they started drying the courts, but not longer after it started raining again and I don't think it has stopped since! The weather forecast for the rest of the week is "Rain" or "Showers". Not impressed. If they decide to play on the indoors courts out at Albany (where qualifying was) I'm not sure if it'll be open to the public.... and you only get a 50% refund on the ticket if there's less than an hour of play on the day.... hrm. Rip off much?

This morning, I bumped into Gregorc (again) - starting to get strange now since Auckland is a populated city lol. He was on his Starbucks run.

I got to the tennis centre at around 10:30am but nothing was happening as there was rain. There is an indoor practice court but part of it is now the "Corporate Dining Area" - where people drink too much and some women tend to laugh too loud! lol. Saw Mario practicising there with Massu. They were also sharing the court with Mardy Fish & coach. Massu was hitting the ball so hard it's scary! Mario looked okay, I asked him to sign something and somehow he said "Thank you" @@ before I could say it. Then JC also practiced there with Chela. (Not much to write about there), also saw Almagro hitting with Del Potro later...

There isn't much to do on a rain delay except... eat! But as JC was heading back after practice, a woman from TVNZ (?) stopped him for an interview. She asked the usual questions (eg weather, many Spaniards in the draw, goals for the new year, that sort of thing). Afterwards it was shown on TV and I saw it with the woman who just did the interview. She made the comment that JC "was a bit of a spunk" (direct quote - LOL!) and he had nice eyes.... just thought that was funny.

Later on, the same woman also did interviews with Mario and Olivier. I don't think the Mario interview was broadcasted on TV since they switched to cricket coverage. But apparantly Olivier is popular with the ladies of NZ? @@ She even asked Olli whether he was married!? Olli probably thought it was funny.... since the first question she asked was why does he think he's so popular with the women. He just laughed at that one. I avoided getting myself on TV but you can catch a glimpse of me there! LOL.

That's about it for today, the rain outside just got heavier!!! WTF.

Memory is somewhat hazy, probably because I had too much food - it happens when the food they sell in this tournament just happens to be reasonably priced! Less than NZ$5 for a hamburger.... icecream cone for NZ$3.50..... coffee around NZ $4.... lol. Enough talk of food...

Got to the tennis centre at around 10.15am, when Jarkko and Olli were both practicising on centre court (with different partners). Then the first match I was a little of was Vliegen v Tipsarevic, I only saw the first few games and thought it would be a good match. Don't know how Janko can be bagelled in the 2nd set!

Then I went to the outside courts and realised I completely forgotten about GGL's match lol. But by that time he was a set down and from what I saw Kendrick was playing quite well and GGL was continuing on from his rather average form. So I didn't stay and watch.

Mr Ancic was supposed to be practicising at noon. But never turned up! Instead there was Calleri, Almagro, Martin, Lapentti also saw Tommy R. Tommy has ridiculous hair - it's long. (yes that's about it, but it doesn't work!) He said hello and then after that JC came out to practice with Del Porto (who is really tall!) I can't write much about this (I think these reports are getting boring!) as nothing special happened! But JC must like seeing people looking confused, since he was talking Spanish to me =.= I think the word "bien" was used, hrm, or something.

He did manage to spell my name correct this time! (as I asked him to sign something) For some odd reason he likes to add an "E" to the end @@ but didn't do it this time lol.

Afterwards - Monfils was there, he arrived with headphones on and doing a little dance on the court @@. I only just noticed that he has a small head and big body?? hrm.... later there was Wawrinka there too....

Something funny... Calleri arrived with his coach (? or trainer.. or someone!) and that guy was actually doing pull ups (using one of the overhead rails).... then Calleri pulled that guy's shorts down and started laughing... they're a crazy bunch!

Watched Jarkko v Olli - Jarkko looked out of sorts even though in the first few games I thought he was playing rather well. Olli was just doing everything right, poor Jarkko though! At the end of that match they had the Mercedes Benz car racing thing... and the little kid won. :)

what else... did see a little of Jun v Gregorc (final round qualifying) only because I keep on bumping into this Gregorc guy! I see him everywhere @@ He reminds me a little of Verdasco actually.

Also saw Kohlschreiber won against Horna, not that exciting. I didn't stay and watch the night matches since I will have a long day tomorrow.

Well, I did manage to get to qualifying today. The bus trip took around 40mins and $5. The stadium was quite nice, with indoor courts plus some outside. But what was the most surprising was the crowd! There were quite a lot of people there and the carpark was full! I'm sure this crowd beats Day 1 at Adelaide lol.

Watched GGL v a New Zealand guy Stratham. GGL played pretty average, but the other guy hit the ball quite hard and just wasn't consistent enough. Don't have any pictures for this one - but since GGL won I can watch his final qualies match tomorrow :)

After that I had lunch and went to the main tennis centre. It was open to the public (!! I didn't know this... otherwise I would've gone in the morning cos Mario was practicising with JC!)... there were some spectators too (so I didn't feel so awkward) but by the time I got there it was around 2pm. Mario was practicising on the centre court with Mardy Fish. I didn't think Mario played that well, he just looked sluggish. Mardy looked like he had a problem with his knee, and was limping at one stage - not a good sign!

As I was watching Mario I heard..."RAUL!" lol and Olli Rochus' coach was having lunch up on the corporate stands. JC was there too, just sitting and chatting with GGL's coach. Vliegen & coach had just finished lunch as well, and other players who popped by include Jarkko (great hair... great jacket... :D), GGL, Alberto Martin, plus some other I can't remember. After a little while Olli also came out with his lunch. He had quite a big plate of pasta (plus a bread roll plus half a crunchie bar!) Not sure people would really want to know this type of details.. but hrm... oh well.

Mario needs a haircut though.

No photos for Mario's practice because everyone was there, I felt a little awkward. But afterwards the court was booked by Jarkko & Philipp Kohlschreider (hope I spelt it right), but I went to another court to see JC hit with Gaston Gaudio. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary..... I hope he does well against Massu on Tuesday.

After JC's practice there wasn't much to do. Wawrinka was practicising, and so was Calleri. I was feeling quite tired by then (haven't had coffee today - I think that's the reason) so I decided to head back. Tomorrow's OOP doesn't look too full on. I'm hoping to see GGL qualifying, Jarkko v Olli plus maybe some of Vliegen v Tipsarevic. Speaking of Janko - I saw him walking around the streets in the morning looking a bit lost. I think he was looking for an internet cafe because he was standing in front of this building where there WAS one... but it had closed!

I think that is it for today, I feel a bit stuffed after some Starbucks (couldn't resist the coffee urge). But a frappuccino was less than $5 which I think is a little cheaper than Australia? I don't know.... I have no idea what the conversion rate is and just work on the assumption it's the same lol.