No More Bets

Well, my money has gone. Jelena lost her match this afternoon ;( and I'm currently watching Novak play his night match. So my picks now: Nadal and Dokic (who is on a comeback streak). Let's see how they go lol

Day 7 - Sunday 25th Jan

The end of my trip (until next year). Here I am at Melbourne International Airport waiting to board. How about this..... after going through security and getting my carry on's x-rayed I was "randomly" stopped for their electronic sniffer test for any explosive residue and I also got patted down. I use the quotation marks because everytime I go through I get "randomly" chosen - is it because I'm Asian???????

Anyway, it was a pretty good break from the stress of work. Obviously I would have liked to stay longer, but it was also too long away from my honey (wink, wink).

Points to note:

* fastest serve I saw was 225kms
* another riot breaking out Melbourne Park between the Serbians and Croatians
* record breaking crowds for yet another year
* some hot, hot days

Also, props to:

* the staff at The Victoria Hotel, Little Collins St, Melbourne;
* Steven (I hope I spelt it right) from Man-To-Man, 96 Elizabeth St, Melbourne. (www.mantoman.com.au) for great service in helping me with my suit purchase;
* Malcom & Mireille from Cafe On Bourke, 50 Bourke St, Melbourne. (www.cafeonbourke.com) for the excellent meals.

That will be about it until I travel again. Fingers crossed my picks win........

Day 6 - Saturday 24th Jan

Hot day again on RLA. Saw Amelie Mauresmo go down to Victoria Azarenka (who just might be the loudest woman on the tour).






Then it was Tsonga winning in four sets against Dudi Sela.

Day 5 - Friday 23rd Jan

Just only saw the one game today as I had plans to meet a friend for a BBQ later that night. Was on Rod laver Arena to see Amer Delic play Novak Dokovic. Novak took out this game. As did Jelana later that day..... My money is still safe :)




Later that night I met up with an old University mate at his place for dinner. In the last 15 odd years I've been in Melbourne this is the first time I had travelled to the suburbs lol It was a good time catching up with Greg and his wife Tam and meeting his baby girl.

Here's something from its a small world.... On the train back to the city a work-mate hopped on and we caught up there as well.

Day 4 - Thursday 22nd Jan

Was a good day for tennis watching. Not too hot, abit of a breeze and some cloud cover. The first game on Hisense Arena (formally Vodafone Arena) was Iveta Benesova against Elena Dementieva where Elena took it out.

Next up was Gisela Dulko who was up against the numer 2 seed Serena Williams. This game went the full three sets with Serena taking it out in the end.

Then came Gael Monfils from France up against the Austrian Stefan Koubek with the Frenchman winning that encounter.

Then came the last match of the day and quite possibly on of the better matches that I've seen so far. It was between last year's Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) and Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia). The was pretty much anybody's match as it went to four sets. The first three sets were tie-breakers with Ivan winning the first set and Jo-Wilfried winning the next three sets.

Another long day at the tennis.

Day 3 - Wednesday 21st Jan

Another fine hot day - but not as hot as yesterday. Made a purchase - a new suit and a couple of shirts all for $150AUD including alterations (many thanks to Man-To-Man).

The first match a saw was on Hisense Arena where Dinara Safina took out Ekaterina Makarova.

My money is still safe, both my picks got through to the next round. However it was a bit touchy when Jelena Jankovic called for a trainer.

Unfortunately our Kiwi hopeful didn't fare too well. Even chants of "Uma Rabiti" couldn't motovate her - she tried though losing 9-7 in the third set :(

Finally, an upset when Yen-Hsun Lu from Taipei took out the
number 10th seed David Nalbandian in 5 sets.

Day 2 - Crown Casino

There I was ready to play in a little tournament but was told that there wouldn't be one due to the Aussie Millions being played :(

Anyway, after dropping $70 on Rapid Roulette I decided to try my luck on a $2/$3 NL Texas Table with my buy-in of $100. I was doing ok, getting a big stack going - until I lost a fair chunk of it when my pocket 10s got busted by pocket 9s!!!!! (Didn't see the trips - doh!). So there I was building it up again and was on the table long enough to see my pocket 10s hold up against pocket 9s - joy!!!

It was a pretty good table until we got a couple of new players. Being in the casino industry for as long as I have you get the feeling when trouble was around and boy did I get that feeling even before this player spoke a word. Boy was I right :) This guy was a real tosser - rude, arrogant etc So I gathered up my chips and left.

Overall though I came out a WINNER!!!!

Day 2 - Tuesday 20th Jan

It was a scorcher!!! We went to Queen Victoria Markets for a wander and I got my first purchase for the holiday - 5 pairs of sports sox for $10!!!! LOL The temperature peaked at a cool 40 degrees at 2pm and in a matter of minutes dropped back down to 28 degrees!!!!! Good old global warming......

So hot that I'm sitting in the hotel room writing this. I'll be trying my luck tonight at The Crown Casino. Fingers crossed......

Day 1 - Monday 19th Jan

Pretty hot day. Saw Ana Ivanovic play and win :) Then our only NZer was scheduled to play later that day and I decided to go and support her. Glad I did - my turning up to Court 19 made all the difference and our Kiwi girl Marina Erakovic made it through to the second round :) :) My bet is still alive as both the Serbians made it to the secound round. Long day at the tennis today as I was at Melbourne Park from 11am to around 9pm.

The Beginning

I'm pretty new to this blogging thing, so here it goes...... Arrived in Melbourne today for my yearly vacation. Looking forward to watching some good tennis matches.

Put a tiny bet on for a Serbian double champions (Novak Djokovic and Jelena Jankovic), we'll see how it goes.......