Australian Open 2010

This New Year has started with quite a bang, full of surprises and drama and emotional extremes, yet there is no excuse for such a delay in my update. So I am happy to say that my resolution this year, though a little late to come up with one, is to pursue my photography dream and write regularly on my blog. Here’s hoping this resolution isn’t broken ;)

Now getting to the point, yes I went and saw the Australian Open in Melbourne from 17th Jan to 22nd Jan 2010. To begin with I was a bit unsure of how I would manage to go watch tennis for 5 days straight, but to my surprise (you’ll hear this word a lot in the next 2 posts as well) I loved it and could have been there longer. The whole atmosphere is so vibrant and contagious that you can’t help but get involved in everything. The ground in Melbourne is huge and the courts are really good. I got lucky enough to sit in both the Rod Laver Arena and the Hisense Arena and they are great. Never enjoyed watching cricket or even soccer live, but tennis surely is something different altogether.

I pretty much got to see every seeded player in action. Thanks to the charity game on the 17th we were able to see Federer, Roddick, Djokovic, Nadal, Hewitt, Serena and others being themselves on the court, it was great and so was the money they raised for the Haiti quake. But the highlight of my trip was on the very last day, sitting on one end of the ground and getting a twitter update about Federer practicing on Court 17 at the other end. Having missed the opportunity the day before, I get up, grab my ticket, a pen and my friends camera (hadn’t bought my dslr till then) and ran to the other end, stood there for 20 mins and was finally rewarded by seeing Federer’s shoes walking towards the court. We were about 50 people just standing there watching him, in complete patience, waiting for the moment when he would walk up and sign our belongings. And it finally happened, and to top it all I not only got an autograph but I also managed to sneak in a picture with him, which I will shamelessly put on my blog and brag about :)

Anyhoo all bragging aside, any tennis fan, even if you don’t play the sport but follow it, must go to a grand slam. Sitting in the courts for 9 hours in 40 degrees weather, with loads of sunscreen, a hat and pretty much burning for 5 days straight is a whole other experience.