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 I suppose I should start with a gripping account of the trip here, but let's skip all that in favour of the place at the end of it. It's my first time in Australia, but over the years I've picked up a few things which I hoped would put me a little ahead of the game. I can just about keep score in cricket – and more importantly, know who won the Ashes. I've previously seen episodes of not one but two Aussie soaps, including Home and Away, the former television home of Mrs. Lleyton Hewitt. I can name two Australian prime ministers – which isn't much, but still two more than most people. I was also aware that the paper money here is actually plastic – which means it won't crease, fall apart in the wash and is virtually impossible to tear. (It can, however, burn and melt, a lesson that costs a $5 note to learn.)
But like any other northern hemisphere visitor, there was one thing I had to come find out for myself: does the water really go down the drain the other way? Meticulous planning was required. Before leaving, I carefully observed the direction in my own sink – anticlockwise. (Or was it clockwise? No, definitely anticlockwise. I think.)
Stage two: I filled up the sink in my hotel room, pulled out the plug and watched, agog. Aha: clockwise. And yet, others here have sworn otherwise, so the results are a bit inconclusive. Perhaps the real Coriolis effect is to make people suddenly interested in which direction the water goes down the drain.
All was quiet on the competition front on Sunday, which made it a good time to fit in a trip to Kooyong, the former home of the Australian Open. Get off the tram at stop 65 (bright idea: each major stop has its own number), and just a stone's throw from the side of the road is what looks like a large bungalow: cream with a sloping red-tiled roof and wooden window frames painted yellow. It's hard to believe that 19 years ago, this was the hub of a Grand Slam. The room that served as the player lounge during the Kooyong Classic earlier in the week looks no larger than the room now given to each individual player at the Masters Cup in Shanghai.
Still, it's nice to think of the top players sitting here, looking out at the grass and clay courts and walking down the corridors lined with photos and trophies – a bit like visting the house one of your parents grew up in. John McEnroe may have once said "the facilities are so poor you can't even pretend this is a world-class event," but outside the context of a Grand Slam, Kooyong is elegant yet friendly: think Newport in a balmier climate (see photo). For history buffs, there are a few gems in the trophy cabinets, like the 1907 Wimbledon trophy and, with perhaps even more curiousity value – a passport belonging Norman Brooks, an Australian who won three pre-WWI Grand Slams and helped Australasia make its first impact in Davis Cup. Needless to say, even in those days a tennis player's passport needed quite a few pages.
While tournament banners and fences were being taken down at Kooyong on Sunday, they were being put up at the Australian Open's current site of Melbourne Park. The scent of eucalyptus drifted down over the small park on the way, and the nets next to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds were occupied by England's cricket team (they lost the Ashes). Coming up ahead, the grounds are a good size – spacious without being sprawling – and directions given by the staff at the entrance betray a relaxed air ("go the stage door and ring the doorbell to get inside... keep walking, past the blonde security guard called Rita, then turn right...").
The players seem to like the place too – praising an event is normal, but not so effusively. This afternoon, Roger Federer christened the Australian Open the "happy Slam" – "Everybody is kind of happy to see each other after the off-season... people are happy to play again, happy to see each other."
Marcos Baghdatis described the "weird sensation" of coming back to Melbourne after his run to the final last year. "It's great to be back," he said. "I'm really excited to go out there, play tennis. I'm just really excited."
Nadal missed the event last year because of injury and wants to make up for lost time. "It's one of my favourite tournaments in the year, no?," he said. "When I came here two years ago, three years ago, I always play my best tennis here."
Amelie Mauresmo added her words: "I love this country. I think the people are great. I come here for 10 years now."
And yesterday, Lleyton Hewitt waxed quite poetic on his home Grand Slam: "I love the Australian Open. I love playing here. I get goosebumps walking into this place. This is great memories for me, not only coming here as a young kid watching Lendl and Edberg and Wilander and all those guys, but making the final two years ago, even though I lost, was a huge occasion for me and one of great pleasure and great memory."
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