[Composed 1/18/2019]
It was fitting that on our last day of our Australian Open adventure we would get to see Steve Johnson play doubles. After all, it was Steve Johnson that we watched play in the Auckland Open at the start of our trip so many days ago. Apparently we're not exactly Steve's good luck charms, as he lost again with us watching. Sorry, Steve.
We got to see some legends play today, including Serena and Djokovic, both of whom sailed by their opponents. In the Serena vs Yastremska match, Serena was more big sister than opponent. Telling her at the end, "you were amazing" and "don't cry." And when the interviewer suggested that Yastremska was star struck, Serena played dumb, saying she had no idea what the interviewer was getting at. It was all very precious.
The most impressive tennis we watched today happened by accident. While arriving for the Serena match we managed to take in the 3rd set of Zhang vs Svitolina. You can study who's playing who, and guess which matches are going to be the most interesting, but you just never know until the ball starts flying.
As we wrapped up our time at the Australian Open we couldn't help but compare the grounds to Flushing Meadows, where the US Open is held. The Aussie site seems noticeably larger, with what seem to be more side courts, more packed in. Courts 10, 11, 12 and 13 are so close together you can practically take in matches on all 4 courts by standing in one place. It's crazy. On the other hand, none of the stadiums are anywhere near as colossal as Arthur Ashe. When we arrived at the grounds we assumed the massive stadium nearby was for tennis. The stadium we saw was the 100,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Grounds, the largest cricket stadium in the world. Looking back, we didn't really get a chance to thoroughly explore the grounds. I suppose that's just a side effect of getting to take in so much tennis. Guess we'll have to come back.
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