Aussie Open Tennis with the Harpers

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Hello all,

After an excruciating 3 weeks back at work following our trips with the Barnes', we were saved by the arrival of the Harper family where a whole new adventure began and another week on vacation. We started in Sydney showing everyone around our digs and had a great evening out that started out with a picnic in the botanical gardens with fresh seafood from the Sydney Fish Markets and finished with an outdoor movie with a screen that emerges out of the harbour water with an incredible backdrop consisting of the Sydney skyline, the opera house, and the harbour bridge.

From Sydney we flew South to Melbourne where the 2009 Australian Open Tennis tournament was already in full swing. Not only were we able to take in the unique streets and cafes of Melbourne, but the 26th is a national holiday (no, not for matt's birthday, but it might as well be), Australia Day. This holiday is a Summer long-weekend that is similar to Labor Day in the states and involves lots of different outdoor activities and general Australian nationalism. We saw a parade with all sorts of different clubs and associations being represented and Australia's largest rubber ducky river race! We bought 5 ducks to compete in the marathon for a new car, but unfortunately none of them performed up to our expectations.

Next up was an evening session at Rod Laver Arena where we took in a men's 4th round singles match and a men's doubles match with Jamie and Kendall. The complex itself is enormous and composed of the one main court that you need to have ticketed seats and 3 secondary courts where you just show up and sit wherever you can. We walked around all these courts and were able to watch any match that caught our interest and even had the opportunity to see the Williams sisters playing in a doubles match. The following day session started early with all of us checking out the side courts (about 30 of them in total) where we caught some juniors matches and some of the pros who were warming up for their matches later in the day. On center court we saw the first matches of the quarterfinals, including Women's names such as Bartoli, Zvonereva, and Delaqua and an exciting match between American Andy Roddick and number 3 seed in the world Novak Djokovic (which Djokovic pulled out of in the 4th set from exhaustion having to do with extreme temperatures, which most of us felt was poor form considering his history of doing the same thing in other big matches and since Roddick was experiencing the same conditions). Overall, it was some amazing tennis to see in person and a great venue to do it in.

We all enjoyed the charm of Melbourne and good food and drink it had to offer, but we had big plans ahead of us starting out with the incredibly scenic Great Ocean Road......

More to follow,
Matt and Heidi

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Photos

Action on the side courts
Jelena Dokic was Autralia's longest lasting player, going into the women's quarterfinals and we caught her on one of the side courts practicing before her night match later that day

Margaret Court Arena
One of the side courts that you can walk up to and watch whatever match is playing

The whole crew
From left to right: Jim Harper (Dad), Betty Harper (Mom), Heidi, Matt, Jamie Harper (Sister), Kendall Lin (Sister's Fiance)