The Close: Day 14 OZ Open

Written by: Sven Groeneveld on 30th January 2011

The Close: Day 14 OZ Open |

Final day!

To be here at end of the tournament is every player’s coach, manager’s, parent’s, and tennis fan’s dream! Those who have had the privilege of getting to the end know exactly what I mean by this!

It is hard to explain or describe, however, you can imagine by first picturing what it means when the tournament starts and you have around 500 competitors and their teams around the lounge, locker room and courts!

Now, today only a few of those, maybe 2 to 3 people were left! The mixed doubles were played and the men’s final started on time at 7:30.

Today was the hottest day of my entire stay in Australia (40 plus degrees) and that is very unusual. They played the mixed doubles with the roof closed and there was even the intention to play the men’s final (7:30 pm) under the roof however around 7 pm the temperature dropped to about 30 and the roof was opened!

The final was 1 sided and I will only say that Andy did a great job of reaching the final 2 years in a row (his time is still in front of him) and Novak forced his game upon Andy that delivered him a 2nd Australian Open Crown!

Most of my day before heading to the site at 4 pm consisted of packing, administration (end of the month bills) and sleep!

At the site I had the chance to catch up with Esther Vergeer and her physical trainer Marijn Zaal, as well David Hall—a fellow ITF Wheelchair Tennis ambassador!

I look forward to put some more into the Adidas Player Development Program and of course on my return, to spend time at my Tennis Center in Amsterdam!

Tomorrow Esther Vergeer and I are invited at the breakfast TV show here in Melbourne and I will finish my packing before heading back to Amsterdam around 7 pm via Singapore and Dubai!

On my return I will take some days off and recharge my batteries with a very special person!

Thank you for taking the time to read the blog and your interest! Look forward to share more with you in the near future!

Sven

Topics: Andy Murray, Esther Vergeer, mats merkel, Novak Djokovic, sven groeneveld

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