Open

Kim Clijsters serving

Daniela Hantuchova

This is the second year that we have attended the Brisbane Open Tennis Tournament, one of the warm-up tournaments before the Australian Open.  Back in October they started announcing the line-up.  One the ladies' side one of the first players to commit was Sam Stosur, then Maria Sharapova.  As soon as those two committed, we bought tickets for the Friday night semi-finals.  Then Kim Clijsters committed, followed by Francesca Schiavone, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams!  We were so certain that we would see a re-match of the US Open Final between Stosur and Williams.  Just before the tourney began Sharapova had to cancel due to injury, then in the second round Stosur lost and Williams had a very bad ankle sprain.  Jankovic and Ivanovic were both beat.  The semis were looking like they would be walk-overs for both Clijsters and Schiavone. 

Kaia Kanepi serving

Francesa Schiavone

What we ended up seeing were two incredibly exciting matches!  The Clijsters - Daniela Hantuchova match went to a tie-break in the first set before Clijsters retired and we were lucky enough to see a big-hitting Estonian, Kaia Kanepi, beat Schiavone in straight sets.  The matches were so much more entertaining than we expected.  It's too bad that we didn't get to see the Williams-Stosur match that we were after, but we are in no way disappointed with the matches that we watched.

These girls hit the ball HARD, especially Kanepi.  It is hard to get a sense on TV of just how hard and fast they are playing.  The fastest serve we saw was about 185km/h from Kanepi.  The ball moves so fast it is hard to even follow it as a spectator.  Even more amazing is how often a serve that fast gets returned!

The crowd was really fun.  We have never seen so many painted faces at a tennis match...all of them painted as the Estonian flag.  The Estonian fans were just so infectious and happy that the crowd ended up being completely behind Kanepi.  She ended up winning the entire tournament the next day and she was so happy we think she hugged every one of those Estonians in the stands!

This was our first week back at work after a very relaxing ten day break.  Like most people, we come back from one vacation only to start thinking about the next one.  We are now booked for a week in Melbourne in February!