My 2nd Aussie Open Experience

And rock up I did.

Indeed, Day 4 of the Australian Open promised many interesting matches and storylines, more than enough to convince me to come back and pick up a Ground Pass for the afternoon. Between my evening performance and my publicity photo shoot with my Jersey Boys mates with the Head Coach and former soccer star of the Melbourne Heart FC John Aloisi, I had several hours to kill. When the photo shoot wrapped up at AAMI stadium around 12:30pm, I literally crossed the street and walked the few minutes down Swan Street to Melbourne Park. (Disappointingly, I did not need to walk on Batman Avenue this time.)

(AAMI stadium would be just off the upper right corner of this map.)

The main purpose of my visit was to see the 2nd round match of Richmond Hill, Ontario’s Milos Raonic. Having risen from seemingly out of nowhere in 2010, and out of the Top-100 as recently as 2011, Milos’s hard work and natural talent have carried him to become the 13th seed here. And he would need to prove his worth today, facing off against Czech Lucas Rosol, whose claim to fame was knocking off Rafial Nadal at last year’s Wimbledon. So, clearly, Rosol is no push-over.

Lucky 13’s.

When I arrived at the rather remote Court 13 just before 13:00 local time, Raonic had a slight 4-3 lead, on serve in the 1st set. Even though he is young and without great fanfare, I was somewhat surprised that the Open would schedule the 13th seed to play so far away from the main courts here. (Though from the photo above, you can see how just how close the tennis facility is to Melbourne’s downtown core.)

I was, however, happy to see an estimated 250 fans watching, many of whom were proudly Canadian, held flags, donned shirts or the increasingly ubiquitous Blue Jays hats (I had mine on). At 6’5” and just 22 years old, Raonic’s natural gifts have been amplified by a new extensive training regimen, and upon first sight today, he looked stronger overall, thicker through the upper body, and possessed perhaps a bit more poise than usual in those rare moments when he struggled.

The two men held serve for the next few games, although Rosol struggled more on his serving games. A typical Raonic serving game was at 4-4 when an Ace of his cracked the ballgirl in the back, eliciting a sympathetic groan from the crowd. Undeterred, he followed that one with two more Aces. Raonic did seem uneasy at times, perhaps frustrated with not having broken Rosol yet in the match. Ahead 6-5, Raonic let out a “So Bad!” critique of an easy topspin forehand attempt that went well long.

If this match was close in the early going, from the 1st set tie-break on, it was all Raonic. He cruised through the tiebreak 7-2, and then broke Rosol in the 1st game of the 2nd set, setting the tone for what was to come. In the 39C heat, Raonic fired 18 Aces, 18 winners against only 6 unforced errors, losing only 1 service game and coasted easily to a straight set victory 7-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Raonic kept his cool during under this umbrella sponsored by everyone’s family car company, Kia. Every sit-down, he had a towel wrapped around his neck and shoulders that appeared to hold three ice-packs, taped into place. He also drank copious amounts of water and an orange-coloured sports drink.

His biggest weapon is obviously his serving game. Unfortunately, there was no radar gun out on Court 13 to track the pace, but regardless, Rosol didn’t have much of an answer for it. Throughout the 2nd and 3rd Sets, Raonic showed incredible poise, even when coming back from down 0-30. Serving at 3-2 in the 3rd set, he fell behind Rosol 0-30, only to follow up with four straight incredible 1st serves – three un-returnable and one Ace. Aside from the serve, his groundstrokes looked strong too, especially up 4-3 in the 3rd when his three consecutive slice backhands won him the point to go up 30-0, and eventually break Rosol at Love. A few minutes later he would break again to end the match.

With Raonic’s match concluded, I wandered over to watch a few minutes of several different matches ongoing at Melbourne Park. None of them terribly caught my interest until I found one of the best stories so far in the Aussie Open. The formerly-retired, 42-year-old Japanese Energizer bunny Kimiko Date-Krumm became the oldest woman to win a singles match at this tournament by winning her first round match. I found her squaring off against Israeli Shahar Peer at the start of the 2nd Set.

Once ranked as high as 4th in the world, the diminutive Date-Krumm had retired from tennis for 10 years, only to come back with a vengeance. A former semi-finalist here (albeit back in 1996!), Date turned pro in 1989 when her opponent was literally still in diapers. After a grueling battle of wills in the 39C heat, Date-Krumm gave Peer a spanking and sent her to her room, 6-2, 7-5. She continues her dream run in the 3rd round against 53rd ranked Serbian Bojana Jovanovski. I hope she wins that one, too, just to see that winning smile again.

The crowd was especially colourful during the match. Barely a word of English was heard, as repetitive chants in Hebrew were shouted by Peer’s admirers, hoping to help her get back in the match. Then, the ever-polite and plentiful Japanese supporters would applaud and hold their flags aloft, beaming their support to Date. And then there was the Japanese press and photographers, out in full force. This reminded me just how international the tennis world is. This is a pretty incredible experience to take in.

The other top stories of the day featured Australian men. Bernard Tomic toughed out a tight victory over Daniel Brands and has himself a hot date with Roger Federer in the 3rd round. The winner of that match may end up facing our homeboy Milos Raonic if he can win his 3rd round match against 27th seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber. And local hero 20-year old James Duckworth broke his 1st round Aussie Open record for the longest match, this time losing in five sets, 4 hours and 52 minutes out in the 39C afternoon sun. The sold-out crowd on Show Court 2 was firmly on his side, and their chanting could be heard all over Melbourne Park. He has certainly earned their respect this week, by playing his way into the tournament as a wildcard, and then gutting out 10 sets and over nine hours of tennis in grueling conditions.

All in all, it was a great afternoon. Who knows, maybe I’ll be back again on Monday… Raonic vs Federer on Centre Court at Rod Laver Arena? Yes, please – and Monday is my day off, so if it’s a night game, I’ll be there, with my Blue Jays hat on.