Australian Open Tour 2020
In January 2020 20 Tennis Specialist students plus staff travelled to Melbourne for the Australian Open Tour 2020. This was an amazing opportunity as revealed by Year 9 student Sienna Millar below:
On the 19th of January 2020 we were up bright and early to board a flight to the great city of Melbourne. Upon arriving we settled into our rooms and not long after caught the tram to play beach tennis. Walking around Melbourne we looked like an army of blue. The diversity in Melbourne was different than Perth and was an eye opener for a lot of us.
Beach tennis was a different form of tennis that required good hand eye coordination and a strong grip. Half of us were good at it, the other half not so much.
The first day of Australia Open commenced and we were up bright and early to conduct a demonstration of how tennis is run in high schools, it was a short, fun hit around on court. After the demonstration Steph was chosen to do the coin toss for two female tennis players to commence their first round of the tournament.
We visited Rod Laver Arena to watch the number 1 female tennis player in the world that night, Ash Barty, which was a cracker game to watch as she battled it out to win the match and advance to round 2. Djockovic swung into the 4th set and by then most of us were drifting off to sleep because it was so late. That didn’t stop Steph and I, we both pushed our way through the crowd to try and get an autograph but we got trampled on by Djokovic’s’ eager fans.
Melbourne weather was the definition of bipolar it was constantly changing so when we went out we carried clothes for all four seasons.
The next day we visited the 91 floors of Eureka Tower and then made our way to Luna Park. That night we watched former world number 1, Simona Halep play followed by Alexander Zverev, who I have been in love with forever. Alexander Zverev handed me his sweaty Adidas headband at the end of the match that I have not washed since that night.
We toured the MCG and got a first-hand view of how big the place actually is and how exclusive and prestigious it is to be a member. We also took a train to Ballarat to play Royal Tennis.
The last day was a sad day as many of us didn’t want to leave and felt the Melbourne trip went by too fast. I speak on behalf of the majority of students that went to Melbourne that it was one of the best experiences ever and if you ever get the chance to go in later years do it you won’t regret it!
Thank you to Mrs Campbell, Mr Campbell and Mr Davis for taking on the responsibility of supervising 20 kids to the other side of the country. Without Mrs Campbell we would have gotten lost catching all those trams and walking around the city, without Mr Campbell we wouldn’t have heard some of the worst dad jokes ever told to mankind and to Mr Davis who bought 20 ice creams for all of us.
Thank you for an amazing trip and the memories we made that will last forever!
- Sienna Millar (Year 9 Student)
