Credentialed and Ready, but Juniors not imminent

Credentialed and Ready, but Juniors not imminent ~~~
©Colette Lewis 2006

We left Gold Coast in a monsoon and arrived in Melbourne to very hot and windy conditions. After checking in, we made our way to Melbourne Park via the tram, which is, hard-to-believe as this is, free to Australian Open ticketholders. The first person we ran into once we arrived at Rod Laver Arena was David DiLucia, who has recently gone from USTA High Performance coach (1990 birth year) to working with Lindsay Davenport. Lindsay had just won her match with Maria Kirilenko, so he was in good spirits. Picking up our credentials was, if not simple, then at least well-signed, and we managed to grab a beer and a sandwich (also free to media) while we waited for the young and efficient IT employee to configure my computer for wireless access. All in all, pretty glitch-free and in fact very little suffered in comparison with New York.

But not everything went swimmingly. No desk to work at, although I'm on a waiting list for one, and then the news that no one knew what exactly was going on with the juniors, but that they didn't start until Monday. But I should check again later, because no one was quite sure. And qualifying was in Nottinghill, in a suburb of Melbourne. So we'll have to see whether we are able to get out there, or instead spend the next few days just loitering around the media work room and, when the mood strikes us, watching--gasp--professional tennis. At least this Grand Slam, Andy Roddick isn't already back in Austin when we arrive.