It doesn’t take long to feel at home, does it? Or maybe I’m just an extreme creature of habit. But one week in a Melbourne hotel and I’ve got a routine I could probably live with for months. I’m not sure how long I could live with the other part of the routine: 10-hour days spent watching tennis matches and press conferences and wedged between a German reporter and a Belgian reporters—good guys, both of them—at a small desk smack in the middle of a stuffy pressroom. I guess I could handle it as long as I got a chance to write, which takes care of a lot of things.
The daily routine begin the old-fashioned way, in a way I don’t have time for at home: With the papers. Here’s what they’ve been saying in Melbourne.
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Seems that at least one betting organization is hoping pretty desperately that Petra Kvitova does not win the Australian Open. TAB Sportsbet opened her at $251. Within seconds they had a $200 bet, which would mean a $50,000 payout. Now Kvitova is all the way down to $9! “It’s safe to say we are extremely nervous,” said one TAB employee.
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There’s been talk of how much better Rafael Nadal’s English has gotten recently, though I don’t really hear it myself—he’s still all about the “humble illusion.” His English has never seemed that bad; maybe not as a good as some other tennis players, but many of them speak it exceptionally well as a second language. Still, Nadal may have learned how to do a Freudian slip. In his post-match interview with Jim Courier after the Tomic match, Nadal said, “I have to play better if I want to get to the quarterfinals. I didn’t have enough from the baseline to destroy him.”
The crowd laughed. Nadal grabbed the mike and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t have another English word.”
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Speaking of the Nadal-Tomic match, Rod Laver himself weighed in, saying that it looked like Nadal was “embarrassed” by what Tomic was able to do to him. There did seem to be some truth to that. Nadal wasn’t pleased in general during his press conference.
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I guess it figures that if you go off script, you’ll get a surprise you might not like. In her first post-solo presser, Caroline Wozniacki was asked, “What’s the most exciting thing you’ve ever done?” Wozniacki launched into a story about how she had tried to take care of a hurt kangaroo that morning, and that it had mauled her. She pointed to a bandage on her shin and told an elaborate story of her trip to the hospital. After the story made its was around the Internet, Wozniacki came back for a second damage-control press conference to apologize. She had actually run into a treadmill. As I said, her first press conference was nice, but not to be repeated. She had to answer 41 questions before her Saturday was done. Wozniacki will learn, unfortunately, that saying nothing makes life, as well as playing good tennis, much easier.
In all, though, as embarrassing as the story was, I’ve came away liking Wozniacki more after last week. She went overboard this time, but she cares what people think of her, and that’s kind of touching coming from a pro athlete.
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Favorite headlines: The day of the Tomic match, the Age screamed, “No Pressure” across the top of its sports section and above a huge shot of the 18-year-old. Sure, no pressure. Until you see this headline.
After Stosur’s defeat: “Oops, I Did It Again,” with a shot of Sam covering her mouth with her hand.
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Another Aussie loser has gone onto better things this week. Lleyton Hewitt has made his commentating debut for Channel 7. It’s always interesting to hear a current player bring his particular insight about his friends and opponents, and Hewitt has been good, from what I’ve seen. But that doesn’t mean he knows everything. Courier asked him whether he thought Roddick was more aggressive from the baseline these days, or in the old days. Hewitt said he was more aggressive now. Weird.
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My café seems to be a European haunt. Italian journalists, ITF head Francisco Ricci Bitti, and Amelie Mauresmo all hang there. Some players can’t seem to get away from the game. Mauresmo is a press room fixture, and I’m three seats down from former French Open semifinalist Filip de Wulf.
Once the papers are done, it’s time to walk to the grounds. There are birds in the trees in the park along the way. They’re still a surprise to me, coming from a NTC winter. Normally, I would listen to my IPod on the way, but I’ve been making time for the birds—tweeting, in their old fashioned way. But that doesn’t mean music isn’t going through my brain. How do the songs we sing in our head get there? I haven’t actually listened to most of them in years.
Yesterday it was the highly politically incorrect “Girls are Made to Love,” by the Everly Brothers, with its amazing harmony on the chorus and its vintage 1950s lyrics explaining the variety of girls' appeal: “That’s why some have eyes of blue/That’s why some stand 5-feet-2.”
This morning the song rattling through my skull was “Kodachrome,” by Paul Simon. The speedy rhythm must go with walking. “Mama don’t take my Kodachrome, mama don’t take my Kodachrome, mama don’t take my Kodachrome away.” Does Kodachrome still exist? No matter, what made it enjoyable was controlling when I switched to the other line in the chorus, “Don’t leave your boy so far from home.” I would sing the first line maybe half a dozen times, then mix it up with the second line once, and then go back to the first half a dozen more times. It gave me something to look forward to as I approached Rod Laver Arena.
Which is where I am now. The first part of the daily routine is over. Now the second begins: Kvitova or Dolgopolov?
Kvitova or Dolgopolov, Kvitova or Dolgopolov, don't take my Kodachrome away. Not that catchy. Not a good head song. Think I’ll go with the ATP this morning. I haven’t seen much of Dolgo, or his opponent, Soderling, so far. Tell you more about the day later.