Blog 15 - Australian open

 One of the things I looked forward to the most after learning of my acceptance to this program was to watch tennis at the highest level at the Aussie open. My family and I have always been huge tennis fans but none of us have ever been to one of the four majors which made them envious of me. This was the day I had been waiting for and it felt like a fever dream as we walked around the grounds wondering which of the many matches we should go to first. We began by going to the Aryna Sabalenka Vs. Shelby Rogers match and it definitely did not disappoint. Most of the group rooted for the American, Rogers, while me and a couple others rooted for Sabalenka. I have watched Sabalenka play for years now and knew that Rogers' talent did not match hers and the tennis we saw backed up my claim. Sabalenka won in straight sets (6-3, 6-1) and she played an absolutely incredible game making it difficult for Rogers to return any of her serves. Although there were many more matches to see, this being the first one made it such a surreal moment and I knew that this day could only get better. As an avid tennis fan, I helped others around me understand the game so that they could enjoy it just as much as I do. However, it was difficult to accomplish that as my friend Hayden was sitting next to me discussing the Raven’s entire roster while one of the best women tennis players in the world was two points away from winning the match.


Next, we went to the Casper Ruud Vs. Jenson Brooksby match which featured the number two player in the tournament (Ruud) Vs. the unranked American (Brooksby). We all were pulling for the underdog because who doesn’t love an underdog and obviously we had to root for the American. Brooksby played an unreal first two sets with minimal errors and almost flawless tennis and went up 2 sets to none. In the third set he dominated once again and took a commanding 5-2 lead. However, Ruud wasn’t ranked number two for no reason and he did not go down without a fight. He came back and tied up the set 6-6 and won the tiebreaker that followed to cut Brooksby’s lead to 2 sets to 1. Brooksby then had another dominating set and won the match which was followed by an eruption from the crowd as it was one of the biggest upsets of the tournament thus far. That match went on for almost four hours but there was still light in the day so we all walked around stopping by different matches. We saw the Tsitsipas brothers win their doubles match, John Isner from a distance, and Coco Gauff/Jessica Pegula compete in their doubles match. Even just seeing these players in person was enough for me but getting to watch them compete was a dream come true. This was one of the coolest parts of the program and I am grateful for seeing one of the coolest sporting events there is in the most beautiful country in the world.

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