Title : Forget Rod Laver, Court 15 is where it's at
link : Forget Rod Laver, Court 15 is where it's at
Forget Rod Laver, Court 15 is where it's at
The beauty of the festival of tennis that is the Australian Open is that you can pick and choose from the buffet of entertainment on offer.
Sure, you could spend the big bucks to watch the superstars Serena, Rafa and Roger as they create their art on the arena courts.
But if you really want to get up close and personal with your tennis, head to the suburbs — the outer courts are where it's at.
Watching tennis at one of the outer courts at Melbourne park is a completely different experience to sitting in the gods at Rod Laver Arena.
Court 15, tucked into one of the far corners of Melbourne Park, is as far as you can get from the glamour of centre-court action.
There are leaves on the grounds from the surrounding eucalypts. A small fence is all that keeps the crowd from the action just five metres away as the women's 28th seed Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh takes on German Laura Siegemund.
Here, you experience the real thing. You can see the players' eyes.
Siegemund is the one to watch — she's going down to the higher-ranked player — but her steely eyes show the desperation and focus. After she thumps each ball, there's a pause before her cheeks bellow and she exhales a held breath as she tracks down each ball, while her opponent runs her around the court.
It's 32 degrees. It's humid. There's not a breath of wind. At the end of a losing point she tries to draw in some oxygen, but there's none to be had — it's too oppressive. She loses the battle 6-3, 6-4.
High in the Rod Laver Arena, you only use your eyes to follow the action. On the outside courts, the whole crowd swivels their necks from side to side — we are the laughing clowns' carnival game caricature of a tennis audience.
You see the speed. You see the effort. You see the sweat. You see the skin tighten and the eyes focus. You see the pain. You see the exhaustion as the players slump between matches with ice-laden towel hanging around their necks.
That's why Natalie Rule and her nine-year old son, Tyler, are here. The pair have travelled to Melbourne from Canberra for the tennis.
"You can actually see the tennis players, rather than little dots running around," she said.
"And you get to see some really good tennis without paying a fortune for it."
English tennis fan Alistair Mitchell-Innes agreed.
"You can really see their technique, you can hear the balls bouncing on the court, you can see the emotion on their faces, you can hear conversations between them and the umpires, so you really feel like you're part of the game," he said.
Roger Federer will never play a match on court 16, but you can see him here practicing just a few metres away.
It's the only chance you'll ever get to see the master this close unless you're prepared to pay $400 to get a good seat at Rod Laver arena (and that's for an early round) and you'll never be this close.
That's why Mr Mitchell-Innes is patiently waiting for his favourite tennis player.
"I've been a big fan for a long time and he's a very difficult man to see close up. I'm two seats back and I've waited five minutes to get in," he said.
"I've seen him once before at the ATP tour finals in London where I was right at the very back of a huge stadium and it wasn't that different to watching him on telly."
But the tennis itself is just part of the theatre. This is a mini solar system with various planets revolving around the action.
The ball kids are a mesmeric mini-militia. A flurry of scuttering blue and red with the militia's secret code. Arms up, two arms by the side, palms out, elbows locked. The perfect example of a 19th-century child: seen but not heard, here to serve.
Then there's the line judges. Bending from the hips, arms on to top of their knees, eyes focused. There are sweat patches appearing in widening blobs on their blue shirts. The centre-line judge is the most interesting. Can you dodge a 210kph rocket coming at your head, while screaming "FAULT" and flinging your arm out?
Between matches they retreat to whatever shade they can find in pairs and whisper — are they talking about the match, how bloody hot it is, or what they're doing tonight?
The outer courts may not have the big games, but if you want to save some money, you'll never experience tennis quite like it.
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