Tennis & Tomato Sauce

Took the early train out of work and headed for the Olympic grounds to check out the Sydney Open. The Sydney Olympic Center is impressive - hard to believe all the work they did just for one event. The Olympics is huge, of course, but these grounds are mind bottling.

The sun was quite hot on the courts, even at 5:30pm. Sunscreen anyone? The first match between Carlos Moya and Agustin Calleri was a nightmare - at least for Carlos Moya. The match was being held on Court 1, not Center Court, so I mosied up and prime seating. Sat next to a nice couple, chatted about tennis, beer, and food, and enjoyed the match. Moya, of course, got his butt whooped.

The featured match on Center Court was between Jankovic and Vaidisova. Although an "exciting" 3-setter, the only thing really exciting was the crazy Serbian fans almost getting kicked out of the stadium for being absolutely nuts. There was of course a lot of ooh-ing and ah-ing from the civilized blend of Englishmen and Australians. One fist fight between a Serb and an Aussie, but it was broken up quickly.

I usually have a hard time following women's tennis, so took a time out at the end of the second set to grab some fish and chips. The meal was delicious. But ya know, they do weird things with sauce down here. First, it's called tomato sauce, not ketchup. Second, I had to pay for it. Yes, I paid for the ketchup (er, tomato sauce). And third, it comes in this awkward container where you have to pinch to small bins together to release the juicyness - but when I tried, it exploded all over me and on a woman walking by. Woops! The sauce says "Squeeze On" in large print, but I must have missed the part where it follows with (Squeeze On) "Your Body and everyone walking behind you." This picture shows the fish n chips, minus the fish, and minus the mess. Yep, didn't take a picture after the mess. (I can take a picture of bat shit, but for some reason taking a picture of ketchup was too complicated.)

Armed with blotches of tomato sauce, an ice cold beer for myself (and a beer for the poor woman sharing the tomato sauce), I headed off to watch the oh-so-exciting finale to the women's match. After Vaidisova gave her victory speech, it made room for the Bryan Brothers to take the court.

The next match was awesome. Doubles. Front Row. Fun crowd. Lots of noise. Just about as exciting as tennis can get. Almost as exciting as next week's Australian Open (can't wait!). The Bryan Brothers traded some magnificent rallies with their Israeli opponents - and won in a thrilling 11-9 third set tiebreaker. After the big win, I hustled back to the train stop just after midnight, traveled through the sleepy suburbs of Sydney and toward my lively neighborhood, where I danced with some local folk at my new local bar to classic, comfortable American rock.