Had a not-too-uncomfortable night’s sleep in our very basic hostel room, although as it had no windows, I could have slept all day – I need the light of the morning to wake me up (whereas K loves the blackout effect!).
After a brekkie of fruit salad and tea / coffee at a nice little place around the corner, we headed off with excitement to Melbourne Park for the Aussie Open. We had tickets for the main arena (Rod Laver) which is the equivalent of Centre Court at Wimbledon, although only for the daytime session, so we weren’t sure who would be playing. I was hoping for Andy Murray but when we arrived, it turned out he was playing in the evening on the equivalent of Number One Court (the Hisense Arena). Assuming that the evening tickets would all be sold out, I swallowed my disappointment and we settled down to watch the matches that we’d paid for! Nothing too spectacular, but saw Serena Williams, Amelie Mauresmo and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. Decided to stay on in the grounds to watch the Murray match on the big screen there, and then realised that there were actually still tickets on sale – hurrah!! Rushed to the box office, thinking there would only be a few left (you’d never get tickets at Wimbledon!), but as it turned out the arena was half empty and if it hadn’t been for a pretty good and noisy contingent of Tartan Army types, it would have been like a graveyard! It’s bizarre, sport is so much more accessible here – prices are lower and the small population means it’s easy to get tickets – but yet things don’t sell out – Australians don’t know how lucky they are sometimes!
Thoroughly enjoyed the match and was good to see Murray looking in good form (although he was later to meet his match against Verdasco).
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