Archive for January, 2011
View from the balcony of the Shrine of Remembrance, showing entry courtyard (depicts shape of a bomb blast) with Melbourne in the background.
MELBOURNE – Where’s Rafa? What happened to Roger? Am I in the wrong place? Aren’t Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer supposed to monopolize the major finals in tennis, leaving the rest of the mob out in the cold?
Sure, that’s been the overpowering pattern of No. 1 Senor Nadal and No. 2, M. Federer. But as I scan Rod Laver Arena, jammed with 15,000 patrons Sunday night for the Australian Open showdown, those two are nowhere in sight. This is only the second final in 23 majors that both Federer and Nadal are missing. continue reading »
January 31 2011 | Australian Open | 6 Comments »
Bud with 2011 winner, Kim Clijsters
MELBOURNE — Was it Confucius who suggested that it doesn’t matter how bad you play as long as you win the last set?
Sounds sound. Words to live by. Whether those were his words, I’m sure that Confucius, a Chinese philosopher five centuries BC, would have loved his latter-day countrywoman, Na Li, even though she finally flunked the last of her last sets Saturday night.
She lost the match of her life but not her bright-eyed sense of humor. That’s one reason everybody around here seems crazy about her, a spunky willowy 28-year-old out of the People’s Republic, who sought to become the first Asian to win a major tennis championship. continue reading »
January 29 2011 | Australian Open | 1 Comment »
Pathfinder bronze sculpture by John Robinson, installed in Victoria Gardens 1974
MELBOURNE — Dire musings from the tennis parlor called Melbourne Park:
Has Australian tennis civilization gone the way of the Etruscans and the Aztecs?
Are the Aussies emulating the ancient Romans in playing bad defense against the Barbarians at the gates?
Can Australians masquerade as phoenixes and rise from the ashes? (Not the beloved cricket kind.) continue reading »
January 29 2011 | Australian Open | No Comments »
Angel of Melbourne, created by Deborah Halpern in 1988
MELBOURNE — Call it Woeful Wednesday.
It was the day the Australian Open lost its leading man very unexpectedly – Rafa Nadal. And professional tennis lost one of its most appealing champions. For good, this time – Justine Henin.
Put them together and it was a huge, staggering hit for the game. There would be new champions. Roger Federer would fall to a confident Novak Djokovic (as he did in the U.S. Open semis), and the mysterious Serena didn’t make the starting line. continue reading »
January 27 2011 | Australian Open | 1 Comment »
Face painting, a favorite here.
MELBOURNE – The star of the show did not win.
Yes, she won the crowd of 15,000 at the Australian Open. And she won the praise of her colleagues, foremost among them No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki. But it was time to go home for the Italian pixie, Francesca Schiavone, the end of one of the more adverturous runs at a major title. continue reading »
January 25 2011 | Australian Open | 1 Comment »
AAMI Park, marvelous new arena for football and rugby
MELBOURNE – A couple of very nice young ladies went out to play a game of tennis at Melbourne Park Sunday. They’d done it before. Twelve times over eight years. But they weren’t ready for what happened – something that had never happened in the history of the Australian Open.
They would play, and play, and play. And play some more. Plus quite a bit more – wondering if they would spend their lives on that tennis court. Help! Who would liberate them – Italian Francesca Schiavone and Russian Svetlana “Koozy” Kuznetsova – as the hours and thousands of shots, acrobatics and scintillating rallies went by? continue reading »
January 24 2011 | Australian Open | No Comments »
Ball kids at the OZ Open
MELBOURNE – It was inevitable. After only the sixth day the last Australian bodies were carted away, and the once-proud Aussies were once again shut out of their own championship.
This is hardly news. Chris O’Neill, 1978, and Mark Edmondson, 1976, are the most recent home-grown winners of the Australian Open, and Lleyton Hewitt, 2005, the last finalist. But record crowds (51,276 on Saturday), didn’t seem bothered by domestic failure and the absence of someone capable of emulating the feats of victorious old boys such as Laver, Hoad, Rosewall, Emerson, Newcombe. Or Court and Goolagong. continue reading »
January 23 2011 | Australian Open | No Comments »
Bud with Australia's leading and most influential wine critic, Jeremy Oliver
“It was a dream,” said Ryan Sweeting.
Ryan Sweeting, a tall Floridian who plays tennis for a living – and says he does make a living, $ 164,423 last year – walked onto the blue asphalt court of Rod Laver Arena and looked up and around. People. Everywhere people – 15,000 them. Staring at him. continue reading »
January 20 2011 | Australian Open | 3 Comments »
CEO of Tennis Australia, Steve Wood, in his office
MELBOURNE — Where have all the Aussies gone? Or the Etruscans and Aztecs for that matter?
Lost civilizations that I miss, but maybe the Australian tribe will yet revive and make us remember their might that caused fright, and bite that gave them ownership of the tennis world in the 50s, 60s and a slice of the 70s. Ancient history, I know, a time of wooden weaponry. But whenever another Australian Open rolls around again (as it has on a couple of unseasonably chilly days this week), we Aussiephiles recall the past ruled by greats such as people named Grand Slamming Laver as well as Rosewall, Newcombe, Emerson et al — and hope that a revival is in the making. continue reading »
January 18 2011 | Australian Open | 1 Comment »
Flying across snowy USA, we leave the cold behind when we arrive in Melbourne
Can’t even fully digest 2010 as 2011 springs into view, the 44th year of open tennis – or the 134th year since Wimbledon cranked up the original tournament.
Everybody ready? Probably not. Not enough recuperation time during another ridiculously brief off-season as the years bump together like pigs in a pen. Life on the road resumes, and few are lucky enough to occasionally play at home and eat Mom’s cooking (presuming she knows how to cook). Room service can be forbidding, though Pete Sampras made a pretty fair career on it. continue reading »
January 09 2011 | Australian Open | 6 Comments »
