The Tennis

I have to confess, I couldn't have cared less about tennis a month ago.  But last week I got to stand four feet away from Serena Williams at a hotel event, and today I got to watch Raffa Nadal win a match in the Australia Open.  I think I'm hooked.

One of the benefits of having a job that supports Sales is I occassionally *have* to take customers to certain events.  This is definitely the toughest part of my job.  Footie games, the Melbourne Cup horse race, the Australia Open, they make for miserable days of work.  So today was the 2nd round match of the Australia Open, one of Phil's long-time dreams (well, the Open part, not necesarily the 2nd round part-).  We had seats four rows up in Rod Laver Arena, and fortunately the intense heat of the last couple days let up a little today.  The first match featured a young Aussie Olivia Rogowski and a woman from China Na Li.  Li one fairly easily, but Phil sure enjoyed watching the Aussie play.

The second match was a quick one - Belgian Kim Clijsters beat some French chick quite easily.  Didn't really watch that match, but lunch was sure tasty!

For the final match of the afternoon we watched Raffa Nadal play Tommy Haas.  It was quite a contrast between watching the women and men play - the women's games were shorter, there were less volleys, and they didn't move around much on the court.  The men played much harder, faster, and from farther out because they had much more power.  It was funny hearing the men grunt when they swung - it's hard for me to believe that actually helps much, but I guess they are the professionals.  Nadal ended up winning, adding $4500 in prize money to the $44 million he's won in his career. 
After the match he threw his nasty sweatbands and shirt into the crowd.  Fortunately I was nowhere near them.

Melbourne is really into its sport, and it was fun experiencing an event like this - especially since I didn't get sunburned!

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