First match of the day between Vincent Spadea (USA) and David Ferrer (Spain, ranked 5th)
#1 ranked Justine Henin (Belgium) meets Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) in the middle to flip a coin for the serve
Russian Maria Sharapova not only claims 5th seed but also monopolizes the advertising contracts. Her serve was the most beautiful in my underinformed opinion.
Ana Ivanovic (Serbia, ranked 4th) whacks the ball on the practice courts
Serena Williams (USA, ranked 7th one spot ahead of sister Venus) starts her warm-ups on the practice court
Some of the open air courts boasted backdrop city views
I woke up this morning and decided I'd like to see some famous people play tennis in a world renowned sporting event. It's a good thing I live in Melbourne because it was a short trip into the city and along the river to make this a reality. What kind of surreal world do I live in where I have access to all of these amazing opportunities? I have to say a couple weeks ago I didn't give a hoot about the Australian Open. I figured I'd go 'to go' at some point, but something happened to me. I saw a couple amazing televised matches with top Australian players Casey Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt and I got sucked into the sport. I was up past 3 AM last night watching Lleyton duke it out! Today did not disappoint. I met Casey at the Vodaphone arena where we proceeded to watch a few indoor matches and wander around the grounds viewing practice courts as well as singles and doubles open air matches. Famous tennis players whizzed right by us on the sidewalks with balls in hand and bags slung over shoulder. Ana Ivanovic (Serbia, ranked 4th) stopped practicing to sign autographs. I hit my threshold for tennis around 5PM today when I started getting restless. What an amazing opportunity though!
I woke up this morning and decided I'd like to see some famous people play tennis in a world renowned sporting event. It's a good thing I live in Melbourne because it was a short trip into the city and along the river to make this a reality. What kind of surreal world do I live in where I have access to all of these amazing opportunities? I have to say a couple weeks ago I didn't give a hoot about the Australian Open. I figured I'd go 'to go' at some point, but something happened to me. I saw a couple amazing televised matches with top Australian players Casey Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt and I got sucked into the sport. I was up past 3 AM last night watching Lleyton duke it out! Today did not disappoint. I met Casey at the Vodaphone arena where we proceeded to watch a few indoor matches and wander around the grounds viewing practice courts as well as singles and doubles open air matches. Famous tennis players whizzed right by us on the sidewalks with balls in hand and bags slung over shoulder. Ana Ivanovic (Serbia, ranked 4th) stopped practicing to sign autographs. I hit my threshold for tennis around 5PM today when I started getting restless. What an amazing opportunity though!
