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Published: January 26th 2006
Rod Laver Arena
Best day ever: front row seats for Roddick, Sharapova & Davenport!!Where to begin..........I will start out by saying that this has been by far the best week of my life. Something I have dreamed of since being a child. Mine & MN's ex-asst. coach from Furman now works with Xavier Malisse and was able to get us player's badges for the Open. We didn't know what to expect, but we knew it would be good haha. Anyway, right when we arrived in Melbourne, we went directly to the Open, as Xavier was supposed to play around that time. Right when we got here, we basically were treated like superstars haha. Had to go into a different gate and under the stadium to go get our pictures taken to get our badges. I was amazed from the beginning! Within 30 seconds we had passed Taylor Dent, so I knew this was definitely going to be a good thing.
Xavier had just gone on when we got there, so we headed to his court for the match. It was one of the outside courts, so there was a smaller crowd, but it was a beautiful afternoon and we were excited! He played a great one and won in 4 sets......we then got to
talk to Mark and he asked us to go to dinner with them. You can imagine our shock and excitement! We basically sprinted back to the hostel so we could take showers and put on our best (which from living out of a backpack for 6 weeks is not much) before we had to meet them. They were staying at the Crown (which I must say rivals any Las Vegas casino/hotel), so we were going to eat at a Chinese restaurant there. We met Xavier and if I haven't said it yet, he is such a cutie! The pictures speak for themselves.....oh yea, and if I haven't mentioned it, this is MN's birthday, so this was quite a treat. Anyway, he was such a nice guy, asking us all about our trip and what we've been up to, the whole thing was great! We ended up hitting up the casino afterwards for some blackjack. I'd never played, but was definitely excited for it. After it was all said & done, Lynds & MN lost 50 & I was the big winner at 250. I'm pretty sure it was beginner's luck haha. Anyway, the entire night was a dream!
I realize
this is getting long (sorry it really has been the best week ever), so I'll just go over some highlights haha. The badges ended up being amazing...we got to eat in the player's cafe, hang out in the lounge, use the Australian Open courtesy cars for free transport, not to mention front row seats at Rod Laver Stadium all week right besides the player's boxes. I didn't really know what went on in the background of a tournament and what the players were like, but it was awesome. We had breakfast by both Maria Sharapova & Roger Federer on multiple occasions, and pretty much saw every player we ever wanted to see in person hanging out. It was the greatest!
One of my other favorite nights was the other night back in the casino (for the 3rd time), Xavier had lost so, this was a free for all haha. We all hung out at the bar between playing blackjack at the tables and it was awesome. I even sat at a table and played with Kim Clijsters! She is by far the coolest player from what I can tell....she's always joking around having a great time, not to mention, she
is so much fun to watch play. I definitely have a new fave!
We've seen some amazing matches, watched Roddick 3 times (I'm pretty sure his box thinks we're stalking him, which isn't totally false) because we're always right beside his box when he plays cheering and taking pics of him haha.....He is so cute in person! We definitely stalked him in the player's lounge always trying to find him haha.
Well, I think that's about it.....don't want to bore you guys to death, to sum up, the week has been UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
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Mammy
non-member comment
I can't believe your luck.
What a way to end your trip to Australia. Meeting and being with all the pros. What a blast. You'll definately will be glad you were there and hope you don't get bored at home. Just enjoy the experience. I know you will have an exciting time in New Zealand and other locations. I Still want you to think about being a tour guide. Love You. Tell Mary Neal Happy Birthday and give her a hug.