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 Post subject: 2017 Melbourne Open
PostPosted: 28 Jan 2017, 19:03 
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First tournament of the year, held at Albert Park. Did anyone else from here go?

I brought daughter #1 to play in U11 singles and doubles. It's her second tournament. She lost all 4 singles rubbers and won one of two doubles rubbers. Good experience for her overall.

I was hoping to enter Div. 5, but that's on Sunday and it might have clashed with Brett Clarke's service clinic, so I'm gonna pass up my chance at Div. 5 this time, in order to invest in future tournament glory. :P

Today, however, I played Div. 4 singles, Div. 4 doubles and O50 Men's doubles. As I told my teammate, it's my first ever quinquagenarian event.

So I got through the first singles round 3-2 against a player with a similar rating to me. Several hours later, I played the second round against a player about 200 points higher, losing 1-3. I thought I could get the win because there were clear weaknesses that I believed I could exploit, but it was getting hot, the floor was a little slippery, and I felt I wasn't hitting the ball as well as earlier in the day. Obviously my weaknesses were a bigger problem than hers!

We were immediately blasted out of the O50 doubles 0-3.

Div. 4 doubles went better, considering my teammate is barely at the bottom of Div. 4 and my rating is below Div. 4. We played teenage juniors in each round. We won the first round, had to work a little harder in the second round to win, then lost 1-3 in the semis. Damn, only had to go a tiny bit farther to make the final! My teammate was almost exhausted by then because he'd also been playing O50 singles, and I wasn't at my best either.

Just prior to leaving, I stepped in to replace an umpire who had to go play a match; the match I umpired had already reached 2-0, and the leader won the last game, serving illegally (super low toss, dropping the hand a little and barely projecting the ball upwards). I didn't call the fault or give a warning, but I should have. I mentioned it to the loser afterwards and he thanked me for noticing, and said that it wasn't why he lost, but that the previous ump had already cautioned the guy, to no effect.

I watched my doubles teammate play his last O50 singles game, which he lost. His opponent's serves were even more illegal than in the game I umpired – the ball basically left the hand only because the bat hit it…

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 Post subject: Re: 2017 Melbourne Open
PostPosted: 30 Jan 2017, 06:58 
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Postscript: Hell yes, it was worth going to Brett's session instead of playing on Sunday. I'd known I had a timing issue on my serves and just couldn't put the whip action together with contacting the ball, I hadn't made any progress in service practice for ages, and was getting anxious about it.

Brett spotted the problem straight away, told me how to fix it, and I spent most of the two hours feeling I'd really made a start on a breakthrough. For reference, the biggest issue was that I'd not been keeping the racket still until the ball fell from the toss, instead moving the racket back at the same time as tossing the ball, making it impossible for the whip action to coincide with contact.

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 Post subject: Re: 2017 Melbourne Open
PostPosted: 30 Jan 2017, 08:58 
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I played in the Melbourne Open in the 50s singles and 50s doubles. It was a fun having the vets, open, and juniors on the same day. It was great to watch the up and coming juniors - there are some amazing young players. And yes it was incredibly hot/humid there. Overall it was very well run. My only criticism is that the prize-money was rather low.


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 Post subject: Re: 2017 Melbourne Open
PostPosted: 30 Jan 2017, 10:11 
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+1 about the climate in the hall. I'd step out into the much cooler concourse as often as possible, but understandably, you can't hear your name being called in the hall from there, so I guess that's where it would have helped those who were acclimated, fit and/or thin!

Results are up on Ratings Central: http://www.ratingscentral.com/EventDeta ... ntID=23790 (I'm CC, my teammate is SS)

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 Post subject: Re: 2017 Melbourne Open
PostPosted: 30 Jan 2017, 11:18 
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carbonman wrote:
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... My only criticism is that the prize-money was rather low.


Should have had Kia as a sponsor (they sponsored the Aus Tennis Open down there) ... mind you the head of Kia Australia is a Mr. Cho ... maybe they could also supply ear plugs ... :) :)

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 Post subject: Re: 2017 Melbourne Open
PostPosted: 30 Jan 2017, 12:13 
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lol - They actually did have some sponsors for some of the open events...doubt they would rival Kia though. In the 50s singles there were 25 players and entry fee was $15. Winner got $60.


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