Aus Open 2013 - Mens Semi 1

One of the great things about being back in Melbs at this time of year is indulging in one of my favourite activities - going to the Australian Open tennis tournament! Something even better happened this year though...POOEY GOT FINALS SERIES TICKETS!!! :O :D :O :D So here I am, going to the first men's semi-final of Novak Djokovic of Serbia versus David Ferrer from Spain with Spu.

Happy happy with our giant novelty tennis ball!

Having the ticket to the men's semi also allowed us free rein to the general courts, and we were able to watch legends Martinas Navratilova and Hingis vs. Nicole Bradtke and Rennae Stubbs of Australia.

This is not the final scoreboard but the Martinas won quite handily. They've still got it!

Eventually we made it in to Centre Court where Spu and I posed with an inflatable crocodile hat that Pooey really wanted us to wear to increase our likelihoods of turning up on the television. 

Yes...

yes...

After a short amount of time, it was consigned to the our bag for the rest of the match and I made happy again with the big ball.

Unless there is a serious delay, e.g. a preceding match goes on forever, players make it onto court around 7:30pm, with play starting around 7:45pm. 

Novak and David post-coin toss to determine who serves first. 

Novak warms up.

David gets ready...

...and errrr, the match was going by very quickly....

and David was pretty much out outclassed and it was over by 9:30pm.

Novak's post-match interview with Jim Courier. 

All in all, it was a pretty unsatisfying match to watch. Ferrer is great at returning shots and keeping the ball in play until his opponent makes an error, but this didn't work because Djokovic was pretty much making no errors. Luckily we had a great legends match to follow - Guy Forget and Henri Leconte vs. Pat Cash and Goran Ivanisevic! 

Lining up for the pre-match photograph with two photograpers!

The sartorially resplendent Frenchies, Guy and Henri.

Goran and Pat take it easy. 

And taking it easy was the name of the game. These are guys who clearly just play for the fun of it now and they were not only having fun with each other, but also with the crowd! Here was Goran showing off his sexy legs. 

But while Goran had sexy legs, Henri had tired legs and he had to call an injury time-out...

And Dr. Djokovic came out to give the treatment...

which included some massaging

Because this was an exhibition match as opposed to a *real* one, most of the other spectators cleared out. This just meant that I was able to move to a different (read - even closer!) part of the stadium. 

When the match finished (won by Cash/Ivanisevic) the players spent a leisurely time signing autographs and I managed to score Cash, Ivanisevic, and Leconte on big ball. Score!