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!).