I was glad to be able to fly business class over to Australia from South Africa – South African Airways sponsor the ATP Tour and I was one of the SAA “upgrade winners” so I could get a free upgrade. Chris Haggard (another South African) was with me at Joburg airport. I still like having the aisle seat in business so I mentioned to Chris that I hoped my seat was an aisle seat – Chris who was flying economy was noticeably sarcastic in his response saying it would be terrible if it wasn’t...it was an aisle seat (whew!) but Chris’ economy flight went from bad to worse when his entertainment system stopped working 2 hrs into the flight – so it was another 7 ½ hours of staring at the back of a chair for him – but it’s all worth it once you arrive in Melbourne for the Australian Open. 

Flying is very much part of your life as a tennis player…..You kind of get numb to the whole experience just because you have to do it. You tend to arrive late at the airport and are last to board the flight – Although that can sometimes backfire. I was once last onto a Southwest Airlines flight (no allocated seating) and didn’t know it was a full flight, so I continued walking until I saw a half-open seat at the back. It was taken up by approximately a 100 pound woman, unfortunately for me that 100 pounds was joined to the other 200 pounds of the same woman in seat A. And so I had no choice but to snuggle up in seat B. She didn't seem at all shy to announce very loudly to everyone including the flight attendant a few rows ahead that she needed an extender belt. I have a few other stories but most of those are too depressing to remember accurately. I did enjoy one of Chris’ stories though - he took a super-sleeping tablet on one flight and when  he woke up he had people thanking him for the tennis lesson. He didn’t remember anything….

It is going to be an interesting Open with a few players who could win the title. Federer has to be a favourite, particularly taking into account that the two players who he probably hates playing the most are on the opposite side of the draw, (Nadal and Murray) and that he was able to silence some of his critics by winning the US Open, which obviously lifted enormous pressure. The only other player (who I can think of) who can regularly beat the obvious favourites is Nalbandian - who is in the same section as Djokovic. However Nalbandian has the uncanny ability to lose to players he shouldn’t. Murrays’ work with Jez Green is obviously paying dividends and will no doubt give him an edge. I have worked with Jez before so I know that Murray will be super strong and fit having Jez on his side – I would put him at a close 2nd favourite. I think Djokovic will find it hard to repeat and Nadal hasn’t had his best results at the Aussie Open - and will  have to potentially contend with Murray in the semi's. I guess in a week from now, we’ll have a better idea of how these favourites are measuring up. 

As for me, I’ve been practicing hard, enjoying the fact that I can actually spend a good amount of time on court and not worry about my knee flaring up. It still has some improvement to go but it’s the best it’s been in a very long time. 

I normally stay in Melbourne city during the Australian Open but as I’m without my family this year my partner arranged private housing for me to stay in. I had my first Friday night Jewish dinner (Shabbat) and was given a Jewish hat (Kippah – I think?) for the first part of the meal. After a reading we could take our “hats” off and eat. You always feel like you’ve been thrown in the deep end a little when you don’t know the rituals but we didn’t have to do much and I didn’t feel as foreign as when I first went to the Catholic Church. I’ve been to a few (rock) concerts before and without fail, when people start clapping in time with the music – there is always a hand full of people who clap on the wrong beat. So you get 10 000 people clapping with the lead singer (or drummer) and about 30 non-musicians clapping on the wrong beat or totally out of time. That would pretty much sum up my Catholic Church experience. When people sat – I  was left standing and when people stood up I was sitting. Some times they would do it fast so I’d go from sitting to standing and back to sitting all out of time. It was a lot more confusing than what I was used to. I belong to the Methodist Church in South Africa and all you have to do there is sing a few songs with the rest of the congregation and listen to the sermon – not much exercise in the Methodist Church – maybe that’s why the Methodist Church is generally full of old people…. 

Looking forward to writing more on the Aussie Open soon….Wes