One of the joys of living in Melbourne is getting the opportunity to attend the Australian Open each year. Melbourne being the host of the first tennis Grand Slam each year means an opportunity to see the best players in the world in our own backyard. I mean the venue is literally a 15 minute walk from my apartment.

I’ve been going to the Australian Open since it moved to Melbourne Park (then named Flinders Park) back in 1988. Since then I think I have only missed attending in the years I have been out of the country. This year I got to go over two days.

First I attended with my new friend Arzu. Arzu has been struggling financially to survive since moving to Australia 5 years ago which means she hasn’t had the chance to enjoy events like the Australian Open. I thought it would be a good Christmas present to Arzu but it turns out I was the one who received the present, that being her excellent company.

We spent most of the day exploring the venue, watching everyone having fun, including the children in the kids’ area with the trampoline, sandpit and mini tennis courts!

The lovely Arzu and myself enjoy AUSOPEN 2017

The next day I returned to the Australian Open with my brother Reagan (who gave me a ticket) and my nephew Andrew and his fiancée Danelle. For this day we mostly stay on Hisense Area. All the matches were fun:

• Legend’s Doubles Match: John and Patrick McEnroe vs Mansour Bahrami and Fabrice Santoro
• Men’s Singles Match: Ivo Karlovic vs David Goffin
• Legend’s Doubles Match: Joans Bjorkman and Thomas Johannson vs Wayne Ferreira and Henri Leconte
• Women’s Double Match: Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua vs Martina Hingis and Coco Vandeweghe

Andrew and Danelle enjoying Hisense Area

The Legends matches in particular were great fun, these players could still put the ball anywhere they wanted to and mostly they just wanted to entertain us all, for example the ball boys got to play some points. All in all a great two days made even better with the people I got to share the experience with 😀

Photos