Sunday 24th January 2016.....tennis then tennis and then more tennis!!!!

This time woke up to a drizzly rain but not cold weather......but no problems because my ticket today was for the indoor stadium so off I went to the fabulous tennis facility and here is the man himself Rod Laver!!!

 and the stadium they built and named after him!!

This was the order of play

 and this on the other free arena

Sorry those are blurry!!!
I did some planning and decided that even though I had a ticket for Rod Laver I did not want to see the first game there with the "grunting" Sharapova so when the gates opened at 10am and I was almost first in line  dashed to the Hisense arena and found a great seat there to watch what was promising to be a great match up between two very high ranked players Tsonga and Nishikori....well it turned out not to be as Tsonga

did not bring his A game and lost in three sets!!!
After this match ended I went to one of the outdoor show courts and the sun had come out and it was hot and saw that the tennis Icon from Canada, Daniel Nestor, was playing men's doubles....Google Nestor and see how many titles he has won and I think he is now 41 years of age and still competing at the top level.....I watched them loose the first set and you can see by the photo what a great seat I had front row!!!

That is Nestor in the hat.
After the first set I went into Rod Laver arena and had a great seat!!!
A few months ago when i was back in Nanaimo my friend Annie invited me to lunch to meet her neighbor Judy who had a friend from Australia visiting for two weeks and this friend, Helen, was a big tennis fan...to cut a long story short I met Helen and she was a lovely lady and offered to order on line the ticket for me which I have today.....she got me a great seat and she was sat a few rows in front of me so it was so nice to see her again and thanks for the seat!!!
Serena Williams the world number one had just started her match

to be honest it was no contest and Serena looked like she was bored and not wanting to be there and the game ended in just over one hour.....in time for me to go back outside and to the show court where Nestor was playing and when I got there they had won the second set so it was going to the decisive third set and I was back in the same front row seat.
Doubles at this elite level is so different from what I play and the games are high paced exciting and very enjoyable to watch and happy to say Nestor won so they are through to the quarter finals..
So when this game finished back to Rod Laver stadium and the world's number one Novak was just about to start against a high seeded Frenchman Simon......

 What a fabulous stadium holds almost 15000 fans who were noisy and fun spirited!!

 This match was one of the best I have ever seen and to be there in person was a thrill...Novak has been the number one for a few years now and is at the top of his game and he is a machine but Simon brought his A plus game..it was just fantastic and many times their rallies brought the fans and me out of our seats.

The 4.26 is not the time of day but the length of the match...can you imagine the energy and fitness level required to be on court that long??
Fittingly Novak won but it was not easy and I bet one of the toughest matches he has played....
It was 7.30pm by the time I left and caught the tram back to the apartment..kudos to the city for having all the transportation and other facilities so well organized!!!
Tennis was not finished yet because when I got home the rising your Australian tennis star a young lady who became an Australian citizen a few weeks ago and is nicknamed Dasha, her name is Gavrilova, was thrilling the crowds on the same arena.....she has upset two other seeded players and was up against an older wiry veteran and eventually she lost but she is a real crowd pleaser....
After that my favorite player Federer took to the courts and easily dismantled his opponent to go into the last eight!!!
It was well after midnight when I went to bed!!!
What a day one for those memory banks!!!
Now Monday morning and I am getting ready to leave Melbourne and I will blog tonight and tell you where I am!!!
Yashi Kochi!!