Medibank International

The Australian Open begins in Melbourne this week and there were several tune up tournaments around the country last week, including the Medibank International here in Sydney. A friend and I went on Wednesday and had a great time. We saw several great matches, even with ground passes rather than centre court tickets, although we did get to pop in to the arena for a quick picture. There was other entertainment as well, including these lifeguards and a couple seagull mascots that stuck their
beaks in my food.
The first tennis shot is Richard Gasquet (FRA), seeded sixth and ranked eighteenth in the world. I like this shot because I caught the ball on the raquet, just like the pros do. The second shot is Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) seeded second and ranked number three in the world. I found it very interesting that the third best player in the world was not playing on centre court in a warm up tourney. I also found it interesting that he apparently has no endorsement deals. I
also found it interesting that I had never heard of him before. Anyway, he withdrew after losing the first set, citing a leg injury. The reason he is noteworthy is because of his post-match press conference, where he said a lot of players were withdrawing from the tournament because 'I don't think
nobody care about here.' James Blake, defending champ and vice president of the ATP player council, slammed Davydenko, citing disrespect to the paying fans. He also took a little swipe at Davydenko's lack of a following--guess I'm not the only one--saying 'I don't know how many of those people that paid for tickets are here to watch Davydenko - but there's some - and in my mind he should be thankful for that.' The tour fined Davydenko $US10,000 for his comments, but did acknowledge the numerous withdrawals. For more, see 'Davydenko blasts Sydney Intl, cops fine' and 'I care, says defending champ Blake'.