A day at Australian Open (Jan 2020)

I have always enjoyed watching live telecast of tennis and get glued to television during the semifinals and finals of the four grand slam championships. Tennis, like other individual sports, is the epitome of technique, stamina and sheer grit. The top players climb the champions’ ladder because they just don’t give up, and this attitude is brazenly at display at a major championship. I had never found an opportunity to attend a grand slam event in my life. Therefore, now that circumstances brought me to Melbourne in January this year during the Australian Open season, I resolved to attend it for at least one day. My daughter, who resides here, bought tickets for Tuesday 28th Jan for me and her young daughter. My granddaughter has been playing tennis once a week for last many years. She is fairly good but, contrary to my wife’s hopes, will not be good enough to play a grand slam event. There are several classes of tickets to the championship. The ‘ground pass ticket’ allows one to witness all matches except the ones in Rod Laver or Margaret Court Arenas, where the major matches are played. To my delight, my daughter bought tickets that allowed us entry in Rod Laver as well, and we were able to watch three quarter final matches in this main court. This multi-purpose arena with a retractable roof is named after the great Australian Tennis player Rodney Laver of 1960s who won the inaugural Australian Open men’s singles title in 1969. The Open is held at ‘Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct’ on Olympics Boulevard. It is really a sports city comprising three parks that was the site of 1956 summer Olympics. It would merit a dedicated article to describe its sports venues that would make us in Pakistan covetous of Australians. Australian open is held in Melbourne Park complex that houses food outlets, media centre, public bathrooms, open lawns, sponsors’ stalls and live screening areas. There are three main arenas with retractable roofs and are named Rod Laver, Melbourne and Margaret Court Arenas with seating capacities of 15000, 10500 and 7500 respectively. There are also two show grounds with capacity of 3000 each. Then there are another 35 courts with a standing capacity for 1500 each. We took a 30 minute train ride to the Open from Glen Waverley station, an eastern Melbourne suburb, to Richmond station in the city, and took a five minute walk to the Park. As we neared the courts, it was evident that spectators were already swarming the area and the pathways were crowded. Modern sporting events are like popular village fairs where people throng in festive mood. There were men and women of all ages and plenty of children. There were Muslims girls in head scarfs, Jewish men with skull caps, Sikhs in their colourful turbans and others with all styles, and colours of hats and caps. While some young girls showed plenty of skin and got sunburnt, the traditional Western men wore tie and jacket. Multiplicity of dresses highlights the multiracialism of Australian society and the fact that it is an open competition bringing in players, and their supporters, from all over the world. On entering the Park, we passed by a row of practice tennis courts on our left. Each court had alpha-numeric electronic displays that announced its number and schedule of practice sessions. I noticed that Rafael Nadal was due to appear at 1230 at court #25. I made a mental note so that I could go back there to see one of the three current tennis greats in play. Of the other two, I would see Roger Federer play and win that evening in quarterfinal against Tennys Sundgren and the third great, Novak Djokovic, would go on to win the final later on Sunday against my favourite Dominick Thiem in a four-hour five-set thriller. As I walked along one of the tennis courts, I was struck by the sight of two wheel chairs maneuvering at lightning speed around the court. Two paraplegic tennis players were playing in their specially designed manual wheel chairs. A racket in their one hand and the chair-wheel in the other, it was amazing to see these players hit hard serves, execute sizzling shots, place delicate drop shots and defend in all corners. They are embodiment of human spirit and grace. They were here to participate in wheelchair championship for the paraplegic with the final played in the main Rod Laver Arena. The winner was awarded a cup and good prize money. Wheel-chair tennis is a fixture at all the major tournaments including the four grand slam tournaments. The total prize money for the wheel-chair players at Australian Open was A$ 300,000. The winner at French Open last year received €53,000. That is handsome award. We walked to Rod Laver Arena. The first match was between the 21 years old Russia-born US citizen Kenin and the 25 year old Tunisian Jabeur. Jabeur is the highest ranking Arab tennis player with world ranking of 51. Kenin would go on to win this tournament a few days later and become famous as the youngest American lady to win a grand slam since Serena Williams. It promised to be a good match. The ticket counter displayed a sold out sign on all its three windows. I pulled out our tickets. All entrants to the Arena have their seat numbers marked on the tickets along with the serial number of the gate to use. Having watched the wheel-chaired players for some time, we reached a little late for the match. As I neared my designated gate, I saw people in a line, calmly waiting to get in. After a few minutes, the gate opened and we walked in. Spectators are not allowed to enter or exit a court when the play is in progress to avoid distraction to the players. We settled in the middle of a row of seats in the second enclosure behind the referee (after a series of ‘I am sorry’ to the already seated persons). It was a nice perch that gave a good view of arena and clear vision of players. After the first match, we walked out to see Nadal practicing. A huge crowd had gathered as he walked in, followed by officials and security. Everyone cheered. It was like putting the king of world tennis on display. We watched him play for ten minutes before going back to the Rod Laver. The next match was between Ash Barty of Australia, ranked 1st in the world and the reigning French Open champion, against Kavitova of Czechoslovakia, ranked 11th but having the top rank for left handed players. Kavitova has won 27 career singles titles, two of which are Grand Slam titles at the Wimbledon Championships in 2011 and in 2014. Ash Barty, playing at home ground, was clearly the overwhelming favourite of the crowd, and her victory in straight sets delighted the crowd. The most awaited match for the day was between Roger Federer and Tennys Sandgren. Federer had undergone groin injury and knee surgery. He was not fully fit, yet he played in a remarkably determined manner, justifying his inclusion among the three current greats. Luckily for him, Sandgren didn’t have the killer instinct, failing to cash even one of the seven match points that he created for himself. The five-set match lasted three and a half hours and was a great contest to watch, with tennis played at its best. No matter how much one follows a sport on live television, it doesn’t match up to the live event. TV can only offer limited coverage. The overall view, ground ambience, player reactions, crowd euphoria, fan disappointments, cheers, cat calls, the turning heads during a rally, to-and-froing ball, the sun angle, the wind direction and a hundred other things can only be appreciated with actual presence. One of the most adorable sights in tennis is the service. With the ball thrown high in the air, the high leap and full-strength striking of the ball is a sight to behold. The top male players send their first serves at around 200 km/hr while the second, more careful serves, go at over 160 km/hr. For women, these speeds are over 170 and 150 km/hr respectively. The fastest men service has been recorded at an incredible 263 km/hr and that of women at 220 km/hr. It was amazing to see the activity at the court. Before the players arrived and during the breaks, there were several security persons who stood facing the spectators all around the play area. There were scores of other security staff, men and women, at the gates and within the enclosures. The one assigned to our enclosure was a middle-aged, ponytailed, roughshod man who seemed to have his full time job as a bouncer at some unsavory establishment. The referee sat opposite on her high canopied chair next to the net. Besides them, there were six ball boys (two behind each player and two on the net) and nine linesmen, one for each active line. That makes a total of 16 court officials. There were four large video screens installed high in the arena, two displaying the live match and the other two showing the score. A smaller screen in the court indicated the time lapse since start of the play and another showed the speed of the serve. Over a hundred cameras and sensors are installed on all sides of the top opening of the roof, with one mobile camera hovering in the arena. With technology advancing at a brisk pace, it is likely that all linespersons would eventually be dispensed with, leaving only the referee and the ball boys/girls in the arena. The game is played in pin drop silence. In between the play, there are plenty of clapping, singing and talking but a polite call of ‘Thank you’ from the referee before the service brings on an immediate silence. I didn’t hear any cell phone ringing. The final match finished at about 1930 and we left for home after a wonderful day. After the tournament, we learnt that total attendance for the 14 days of Open was a little over eight hundred thousand. With ticket price ranging from A$125 to A$1595 for various categories of seat and days, the gate money alone would exceed A$ 100 million, which is in addition to the sponsorships and telecast rights. That’s quite an income for Tennis Australia. Australians are a great sporting nation. They play all kinds of games including cricket, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, netball, basketball, rugby, footy, beach football and netball, cycling and swimming. Footy is Australian Rule Football, invented and played in Australia only and draws big crowds. For me, it was a memorable experience being at one of the premier tournaments of a great sport. This article appeared in the weekly The Friday Times on 14th Feb 2017 Parvez Mahmood retired as a Group Captain from PAF and is now a software engineer. He lives in Islamabad and writes on social and historical issues. He can be reached at parvezmahmood53@gmail.com