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Australian Open 2012 – 19 Jan
Day 12 – Serena and Cricket
I have trouble getting out of bed this morning. I have been using the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock App on my iPhone. It is great because even with little sleep it will wake at the correct stage in your sleep cycle so that you do not feel tired. I forgot to set it the night before. I feel asleep for most of the morning. My eyes are blurry and I am having trouble focussing.
After I get through the morning rush we are offered some tickets to see Serena’s match on Rod laver. The tickets are in Strycova’s player box. Joe and Len have tickets as well. The difference in standard between the 2 players is astonishing. Strycova struggles to keep the ball in play. There are few rallies. She makes a lot of second and third ball errors. She seems close to tears after just a few games. Her coach is not happy and smashes a water bottle into the ground when the match is finally over.
After the match we head over to the noodle place to get some lunch. The food is good apparently. They are so busy. They are taking orders faster than they can make food. The organisation is poor. There is no number system. All of the people who have ordered food cram wait at the end of the counter and as food is brought out the closest person just grabs it.
The dim sims are good. The pad thai is very salty. It is like gargling with sea water. No more noodles for me.
Within minutes of getting back to the room I get slammed. My players are sending in urgent racquets at regular intervals. I have another on-court for Kukushkin which is done in 16 minutes again. I also go head to head with Tadashi over some Nishikori on-court racquets. He beats me by one string.
Tennis Australia has organised some tickets to the cricket for some of us tonight. I head over to the MCG with Joe, Jim and Matthieu. It takes us 20 minutes to track down the tickets. None of the staff at the MCG seem to have a clue about their basic procedures. We are there in time to see the final 15 overs of the match. The Jim Beam tastes good.
We head back to the room to collect our bags after the cricket and head home. Vasilly is staying to cover the night matches. He is asleep on the floor when we walk in.
It seems more like a holiday than work today. That should change tomorrow. We expect to be busier as the junior players start to check in. We also lose one of our stringers tomorrow. Today was Dickie’s last day so one of us will have to cover his players.
Shane Mikic is the pro-shop manager for the Tennis Gear stores and their online store www.tennisgear.com.au in Brisbane. He has over 17 years racquet stringing experience and is currently part of the Wilson Global Stringing Team at the 2012 US Open. The following blog shares his experiences during his time in the Wilson Stringing room.
