We’ve had just over a week in Melbourne (pronounced ‘Malbun’ here) and have loved every second of it. We stayed just south of the city centre in an hip area called St Kilda. It was great to jog along the beach some mornings and spend an evening enjoying the sunset views from the pier.
Our main reason for coming here at this time was to go to the Australian Open tennis grand slam.
For 4 days we were ‘eat, sleep, tennis, repeat’. For the sake of our aging memories I’ll list the matches that we attended:
- Monday:
- Tiafoe def. Rinderknech 7-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7, 6-3
- Bencic def. Ostapenko 6-3, 7-6
- Kostyuk def. Hibino 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
- Passaro def. Dimitrov 7-5, 2-1 Ret.
- Tuesday:
- Raducanu def. Alexandrova 7-6, 7-6
- Monfils def. Mpetshi Perricard 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4
- Shapovalov def. Bautista Agut 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6
- Wednesday:
- Machac def. Opelka 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4
- Alcaraz def. Nishioka 6-0, 6-1, 6-4
- Fernandez def. Bucsa 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
- Saturday:
- Swiatek def. Raducanu 6-1, 6-0
- de Minaur def. Cerundolo 5-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3
- Svitolina def. Paolini 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 (watched on the screen in the grounds)
Some highlights/stories from our time at the AO:
- We sat right beside the coaching boxes for most of the matches during the first 2 days. It was really interesting to see the interactions between the players and their teams. During the Monfils match we were surrounded by Monfils fans but sitting beside the other guy’s box. At one point his agent had tried to tell a fan to stop cheering so loud which, no surprise, just fuelled the loud fan’s fire.
- We were sooo hot in the direct sun during that 5 hour match but couldn’t bear to miss any of it. Eventually we snagged 1 seat in the shade and traded spots every few games to get some relief.
- We sat behind some Raducanu superfans who wore shirts spelling out the letters of her name. Seeing their rollercoaster of emotions during the close match was very entertaining.
In between the tennis action we took a day tour to the Great Ocean Road. The morning started out overcast but burned off for beautiful blue skies.
We were lucky to see koalas and kangaroos in the wild.
In the afternoon the road hugged the coastline which was featured in the movie Point Break.
One afternoon we followed a walking tour of the downtown core and saw all of their historic arcade shopping areas. It is true that the coffee culture in Melbourne is on point. We finished the afternoon (of course) watching more tennis at a downtown big screen.
Today we met a friend of our friend Messele from home. Tebeje and Messele organize a grassroots charity that funds Ethiopian children to go to school. We love hearing about their work and love that 100% of the money goes to the cause. If you are looking for a spot to give a meaningful donation we can connect you. Tebeje showed us around an Ethiopian Epiphany festival and treated us to lunch and coffee. It was so nice to meet him and hear more about the city from a local.
Now we’re having a couple of relaxed days in a flat with a pool before we head south to Tasmania. No doubt we’ll continue to be looking at tennis updates along the way. After this immersion we are sure ready for our Med Hat tennis season to start up!