Day 2
Today was warm
with clear blue skies and quite a few of us had breaks from the constant sun
during the 3 hours 20 minutes of the doubles match. The fanatic group is in
the sun for the whole day but have seats quite close to the court which is
terrific.
Todd and Wayne got off to a bad start when Sweden went up 4-1 in the first set
but they managed to claw their way back to 4 all only to lose the first set.
They won the next three sets making us 2-1 in the tie and we all heaved a sigh
of relief. Wayne was so happy.
The fanatics were in full voice with their chanting and again Peta, Kerrin and
I held up the BYE BYE SWEDIE PIE banner. It got a mention in Monday
morning’s paper. At one stage during the match someone yelled out “I love
you Wayne” and then a guy yelled out “I do too” lol.
In the evening we met up with other fanatics in an amazing building at Darling
Harbour where Sega World use to be. They were playing a great range of music
from the 80s, very retro, and a lot of the fanatics had an awesome time
dancing to it. Peta and I stayed there till about midnight and then decided to
get some sleep as Sunday was going to be a huge day.
Day 3
Well this was the big day, were we going to have a final in Melbourne. I guess
we were starting to feel confident being 2-1 up. First up was Lleyton and he
didn’t let us down. He went out and won the first set in a tiebreak but then
lost the second set to Johansson when his concentration lapsed. We were
starting to get a bit worried as we didn’t know how Pat would fare in the
5th rubber as we know he had tired in the 2nd rubber on the first day and we
didn’t know if maybe his shoulder might be troubling him. Anyway in the 6th
game of the 3rd set Lleyton found his second wind while Johansson just
crumpled under Lleyton’s onslaught and the match was won. Woohoo!! We had
won the semi final tie against Sweden and were into our 3rd final in 3 years
AND it would be a home final in Melbourne.
Quote from Monday’s The Daily Telegraph – “As Johansson staggered on
serve again the Fanatics held up a sign saying BYE BYE SWEDIE PIE.”
When he won, Lleyton fell to the ground and then rushed over to the team to be
congratulated. Just loved seeing the big hug Pat gave him The
fanatics went crazy! All through the match they had been breaking out singing
“There’s only one Lleyton Hewitt” and now he had done it. We were all
wrapped. After taking congratulations from the team, and then being hoisted
onto the shoulders of some of the team members, Lleyton came over to the
fanatics and took off his shoes and threw them into our group. It was amazing
that we had made it to the final. I felt sorry for the Swedish team and their
supporters. Sweden has always had the most supporters at the Aus Open and they
are very colourful and friendly and make a lot of noise. We love them and of
course we all love Jonas too, he is such a lovely man, not to mention all the
times he partnered Pat in doubles and now plays with Todd as you know. In fact
when the commentator talked to Todd after the doubles match on the Saturday he
mentioned how smart Todd was playing doubles with Jonas throughout the year!
After a 20 minute break Pat came on to play Jonas and won in straight sets. He
seemed really happy with his win and gave a delightful interview afterwards.
As well as the fanatics there were a lot of Aussie support groups including
four girls dressed in green and yellow polka dots who kept singing “We love
you Patty, we do…………” and then at the end of this song they would
whoop like Native Americans and everyone would laugh. It was a really festive
atmosphere and the o/s girls with us, Sheena, Gail, Andrea and Ranji remarked
on how amazing it was to be at a DC in Aus and the electric atmosphere and the
incredible amount of noise and cheering.
Now it was time to party!
THE PARTY
We all met up at One World Sports, another great building at Darling Harbour.
They were replaying Day 3 matches on all the tvs and big screens there. Again
there was the retro 80s music and everyone was having a ball.
After a few hours the players arrived and went to a roped off section. There
were about 400 fanatics there so it was pretty crowded so the players stayed
with their friends and team mates in this particular section.
After a while they all took the stage one by one and gave speeches and
celebrated. Kevin “Bloody” Wilson sang some songs and then it was back to
the music with the players dancing energetically in another roped off section
on the dance floor.
Peta had her new digital/movie clip camera with her as I mentioned before so
during DC and the party she made some clips so you are in for a real treat
here. Peta has the fanatics and the DC team singing the fanatics theme song
“Throw my arms around you” plus some other clips and has taken clips of
the fanatics singing at the stadium including John Williamson singing his
“True Blue” song to Newk and Rochey. Between us, Peta and I have about 600
photos of DC which will go up in the next week.
I was sitting with Bee, Louise and Mandy most of the evening and we were
waiting for Pat to come off the dance floor but unbenownst to us Pat, Lleyton
and Fromberg ducked out a back door about 11pm which was a shame as we never
got to talk to Pat. Pat normally stays till all hours. Lleyton is always the
one to make an early exit.
During the evening I talked to Pete, Killer, Andreas and Muddy, they were on a
real high as you can imagine and Andreas and Muddy are so chuffed about the
final being in Melbourne, their home town.
A funny moment was when Peta and Mandy took Bee to the toilet only to walk in
the door of the handicapped toilet to witness Sandon relieving himself,
don’t know who was most surprised lol. They made a hasty exit and then
Sandon came out and apologised for not locking the door. Peta remarked that he
shouldn’t have been using that toilet but he said it was the closest one!
Must have been in a hurry.
We left the party at 2am with the fanatics still cutting up the dance floor
and having a fantastic time.
It was wonderful to catch up with all the Rafterbabblers and to celebrate a
great win. Now onto Melbourne woohoo!!
As I posted to the board a few weeks ago. Woz has no idea how many tickets he
can get for the DC final. It is going to be HUGE being a home tie and everyone
will want to be there. Woz has told me I can maybe only have a few tickets so
I have suggested that everyone thinking of going should email Woz asap to go
on the waiting list. Pete said it is going to be so tight for tickets that
even he isn’t assured of one, I can’t imagine that but it really stresses
how rare these tickets will be. Tickets go on sale at Ticketek here in Aus on
25th October. I think Kerrin posted the date before. I will check the exact
date and let you know.
If anyone who was there has more to add to this report please do so, there
were many wonderful moments and I’m sure I haven’t covered the half of it
and with so many RBs spread around the One World sports complex I’m sure
there are a lot of other interesting tidbits to convey.
