Australia Day

We spent Australia Day (Independence Day) at the Australian Open watching tennis. We watched Serena Williams win her match when her opponent pulled out halfway through because of illness, we think that she lucked out because she was not playing well and her serve was off. Although it was fun to watch the game, it was equally entertaining watching Venus and Mama Williams in the stands. One of the highlights of the match was when Serena threw down her racket and said some not very nice words earning a warning. I always thought that nothing was funnier than hearing the players grunt when they played, I have since changed my mind...Serena's opponent actually made a bird like sound every time she hit the ball. That made the rallies that much more fun...grunting and cooing over and over again.

We were then able to see Rafael Nadal (ranked #1 in the world) beat Fernando Gonzalez (ranked #13) in a rematch of the 2008 Olympic gold medal match. The men were amazing to watch. So much more powerful and precise. It was a lot of fun to watch them play. In the picture of the two of us, you can see Nadal in the big screen behind us. There were a lot more challenges in this match which were fun and Gonzalez displayed frustration by hitting a tennis ball high in the air, hitting his chair during a break and finally earned a warning when he threw his racket to the ground.

And finally, here is John as chair umpire. He made a lot of tough calls, but drew no ire from the fans or the players, much to his dismay. We actually took this picture when we went to the Billy Joel concert last year. We were able to go down on the courts at that time and walk around. It was awesome.

Colin went to the opening round last Monday with some of our friends. He watched Andy Roddick beat his opponent, last year's winner Djonovik beat his opponent and the #1 woman's seed Jankovic beat her opponent (she has since lost). It was a day that he will always remember.