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.

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????