I love this time of the year in Melbourne. In the hot summer sunshine, the city becomes a giant carnival as the Australian Open tennis championships capture imaginations, spare time, and TV ratings. For two weeks, every conversation is full of the names of tennis stars, and no one even gets too upset when the local hopefuls get knocked out by the superstars of the men's and women's tours. In fact, everyone seems to be full of joy and goodwill.
Jenny and I managed to get along to a couple of days at the Open this week, in between all the work she is doing and my stint as a guest blogger for George Dvorsky (which was great, by the way ... at least from my point of view). We just bought ground passes, rather than tickets for either of the two big arenas, but that was enough to let us watch some of the most exciting players in the world, including Marat Safin in his second-round match (before he unfortunately encountered Roger Federer in the third round).
It's one thing that I'll miss big-time if (or really, when) we leave Melbourne.
About Me
- Russell Blackford
- Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).
3 comments:
You could always go over to George's place for a quick game but then again it not much fun if your all on the same side of the net. WWW
Dr. Blackford, you have a most interesting blog except for this entry; I don't 'do' sports.
Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor
That's one thing that really struck me when I went to the Australian Open last year, that it basically involves the whole city (and country even). I love that.
What a difference to the US Open, where the tennis is restricted to Flushing. You notice very little of it in the rest of NY.
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