Melbourne pt. 3
(20th Jan 2026)
Time for some tennis! With two days remaining on my trip, the focus is now firmly on the Australian Open. I had a ground pass today (to watch any court except the big two) and nearly had a heart attack when I saw the people literally queuing around the block to get in; thankfully, it progressed smoothly and I was in the grounds within 15 minutes.
Jodie invited herself along to come watch some tennis with me before her evening shift, so after a wander around we went into John Cain Arena to watch Aussie teen Maya Joint lose feebly to impressive Czech teenager Tereza Valentova. We then sat in a couple of deckchairs for a while (which were inexplicably hard to get out of), before going in search of more action. Our hope was to head into Kia Arena and watch the hugely popular soon-to-be-retired Gael Monfils, but I think half of Melbourne Park had the same idea; I took one look at the long lines forming at every entrance to the court in the baking sun and agreed with Jodie that it wasn’t worth heatstroke.
I was flagging quite a bit in the energy-sapping heat; there is no way in hell that the big screens’ claim of 22 degrees was remotely accurate – in fact hell would’ve likely been cooler – so we eventually found some cover on an outer court and a bit of doubles. We saw the opening exchanges of the established Scandy/Baltic duo Ulrikke Eikeri & Ingrid Neel take on American/Canadian up-and-comers Iva Jovic & Victoria Mboko (she of the magic Montreal run); it was shaping up to be a fun match but we spied a British player would be next on the neighbouring court, so we jumped ship to go cheer on Sonay Kartal in her match against Anna Kalinskaya.
Unfortunately, I was still finding it hard to remain lucid in the sweltering temperature; despite my best efforts, I couldn’t keep my eyes open and faded in and out of the first set (Jodie admitted afterwards that she was doing the same, so I didn’t feel quite so bad). We were both with it for the last few games as Kartal nearly snatched the set on her opponent’s serve, but it went to a tie break that Kalinskaya won.
I’d had enough by this point and Jodie had her shift to think about, so we left Kartal to it (she lost in straight sets while the young North American pair pulled off a surprise in the dubs). I bade Jodie goodbye and staggered back home via a tram, a train, and maybe a KFC.