Robyns Sydney Game 2000 Report
By Robyn Lakeman
Monday, 18th September left Melbourne with my friend Ton for the 9-10 hour drive to Sydney. Ton did all the driving so I was able to relax. I had bought a small TV especially for the Olympics and was able to pick up reception here and there along the road to watch some of the Olympics on tele. Also tuned into ABC radio. I was hoping we would make it to Sydney in time for Ian Thorpe's race at 7.10pm but fell short by an hour so we pulled off the highway and watched it on the small TV. Thorpe won the gold medal as anticipated. We arrived at my friend Annette's place in Merrylands about 8pm and sat around watching the rest of the swimming. Annette mentioned that on the way home from work she had driven past the stadium and how amazing it was seeing the torch glowing. We then went to the local club for a few hours before getting a reasonably early night at 1am.
Tuesday morning was an early start, said bye to Annette and Ton drove me over to Kerrin's place at 8am. Today was the first day of the Olympics for me and I was really looking forward to it. Kerrin had already been to the Opening Ceremony which is something that will stay indelibly stamped in her mind forever. No problem catching the bus, they were coming every 5 minutes and after 50 minutes we were there!!! We arrived at the North Gate and the Tennis centre was 3 km across the other side of the grounds at the South Gate. I had a doctors certificate saying that Robyn Lakeman couldn't walk 3 kms because of her health problems :-) so I was qualified to use the Accessible Shuttle Bus (new name!). Kerrin is very fit but was relieved that we didn’t have to waste an hour walking. No problems getting the bus and before we knew it we were at the Tennis Centre.
Caught up with Peta at the Ticket Office trying for tennis tickets. We scouted around for some scalpers but not many to be found and the ones we did find were selling tickets for table tennis! I had already phoned Woz the day before and had asked could he acquire tickets for Peta and Adam but he wasn't in a position to be able to do that. I know he would have helped if he could. We went back to see Peta and told her we would keep in touch by phone. Inside the Tennis centre we approached the Box Office there but they said there were no tickets for the tennis at all! Peta went off to the hockey match that she had tickets for.
Our first objective knowing Pat was playing that day was to check out the practice courts. Woz had told me that the practice courts were out of bounds to the public so I knew the chances weren’t good. No Pat on any of the courts set down for matches where some players practiced before the 11am start so we settled down on Court 1 to watch Guga practice and lo and behold plonked ourselves down next to Tina and Adana, what a coincidence! So then there were 4 of us. Took a few pics of Guga, at one stage he posed for photographers before a shot but I missed that one of course, my head was in the clouds I guess.
At 11am we watched the first set of Guga's match then I went down to Court 6 to take a few photos of Juan Carlos Ferrero for Stephanie’s web site. On the way back to Centre Court Kerrin spotted Max Mirnyi and then Marat Safin walking to the players area so we caught up with Marat and I took a pic of him with Kerrin and then a couple of him by himself. He was most obliging and even waited patiently smiling for me while I fiddled with my camera. What a nice young man!
We then went into Centre Court to wait for Pat's match to begin. It was a beautiful day, brilliant sunshine, cloudless skies and I ended up a bit sunburnt at the end of it. Kerrin, Tina and I had tickets up in the bleachers today and it wasn’t till the second day that I cottoned on to how to work my way down to the front so unfortunately my photos are from a distance and I probably didn’t take a lot for that reason. Mind you my tickets for the night match were 2nd row!!!! Bugger! I held up the GO WARRIOR PAT banner and Kerrin had AWESOME AUSSIES although I don’t think Pat saw the banners as we were too far up.
Pat seemed to play well and won both sets pretty easily. He looked good. It must have been such a buzz for him playing at the Olympics. The reception he was given when he walked on court was awesome! I love the team uniform they wore - white with a sea/aqua/green trim under the arms and down the side of the t-shirt with an Australian crest over their hearts. All the boys looked terrific and so fresh and crisp!
Well it all ended too quickly and then Pat was gone. Met Kerrin outside for some lunch - $9 for a ham and salad roll! – pretty pricy. Saw Andrew Ilie talking to some people, gave Peta a ring and then went back in to watch Mauresmo and then MarkP. It was wonderful the way the boys supported each other as a team. They all showed up for Mark’s match – Pat with a white towel over his head – incognito! I took more pics of Pat from a distance. Even though the tennis was a sell out there were always plenty of seats available and lots were reserved for players and family so the tennis centre never looked full. It’s a shame they can’t find a system to delegate these seats to other people instead of them missing out, like Peta and Adam for instance!
I had a PR Update newsletter to give Pat and also a card from a fan in Thailand. I had tried to contact Louise that day but to no avail. Kerrin suggested that as Pat came out we could catch him so we went outside and we were nearly knocked down by Lleyton who had taken off in a hurry through the crowd and then sure enough there was Pat walking in a huge hurry towards us with Muddy, Rochie, etc. I walked up to Pat and passed the items to him, a slight look of annoyance crossed his face and then he glanced up at me (he had been walking with his eyes down to avoid eye contact, he does this a lot for obvious reasons) and said “Oh Robyn! Hi, how are you?”, I wished him well for the Olympics and he was gone, chased by young girls armed with cameras and autograph books etc. It was a shame that Louise wasn't there with us so he could have had the card then too. I was to see him again the next day in similar circumstances but this time the crowd chasing him was bigger and I nearly got knocked over.
After the day session ended we left the centre after meeting up with Mandyr, Tina and Adana and went to see Peta and Adam who were waiting on the grass under a tree. I had told Peta earlier in the day that I would give her my night ticket so she could at least experience some of the tennis but then Adana decided that she didn’t want hers so I thought I could then look after Adam and watch the swimming on the big screen and then maybe go in for a bit at the end if Adam was OK for a while by himself. While we were still working that out, Mandy’s cousin Tony came running up saying that he had secured tickets for the swimming because the Ticket office had just put some on sale so Adana jumped in the queue and I gave her a supply of Peta's jelly babies to keep her sustained while I went back and sat in the shade, I’m older and need my rest :-) Well Adana did manage to get tickets for us so I gave Peta my tennis ticket so Adam could go in too and I took off with Adana in the direction that Mandy and Tony had gone before us.
We had to climb a lot of stairs at the Aquatic Centre as we were up in the bleachers here and when I reached the top I was just about having an angina attack so the St Johns Ambulance rushed over to save me. I told them I was OK and had my tablets on me. We entered to much cheering and chanting from the Aussies. What a positively awesome night we had!!! we saw an Olympic and two world records get smashed and the Aussies win two gold medals and a bronze! We saw Michael Klim, Susie O'Neil and Ian Thorpe amongst many other swimming stars and I never thought I would get to actually see the swimming let alone Olympic medal presentations and two of them Aussie golds – Suzie for the 200m freestyle and the Aussie men for the 4 x 200 relay streeting the US by 10 metres!! Worth every penny and what a bonus.
So after all that excitement it was back to the tennis center. I didn't have a ticket as I had given it to Peta so I went to the entrance and asked how much longer the tennis would be as I was going back to Kerrin's that night. The attendant told me that the first match with Magnus Norman was still in progress so it would be at least another one and a half hours or so. He then said “You look worried” and I said that I had given my ticket to a friend and was just wondering how long I would be waiting for the tennis to finish. He said “One good turn deserves another” and handed me a ticket! I was so grateful so I went into the centre, Peta saw me come in so came up to see me and then Adam joined us. Towards the end Peta went back to her seat near the front and I gave her my camera so she could take some pics of Venus for her hubby.
After the tennis, said bye to Peta and Adam and went back to spend the night at Kerrin's beautiful home. It was 1am by then and we were completely exhausted and sunburnt, but what a 1st day!!!!!!!Next day came too early, I was so tired from the previous day but Kerrin was my alarm clock so up I got. I had a sore throat so knew that I was in for my usual dose of bronchitis. I met Kerrin's husband David and her two gorgeous daughters Faryn and Tara, what a lovely family. Had crumpets, honey and tea and then we were off to catch the bus. I must say I was very impressed with the whole transport system during the Olympics. Sydney can be very proud of themselves for a fantastically organized Olympics.
We arrived at the tennis and ran into my niece Penny and her girlfriend. We had decided to watch the first part of Andrew Ilie's match on an outside court so made a beeline there where we caught up with Tina. After a while Pat turned up and sat at the opposite end of the court with Muddy, Rochey etc in front of some of the Spanish team and their coach. Pat was wearing his customary white towel over his head and when he entered drew a big cheer from the crowd. A while later Lara appeared and sat behind Pat. In the second set, because all the stands were full, they let people into the player/coach area where Pat was and straight away he was hassled for autographs etc so he ended up leaving. It was pretty obvious by that point that Ilie wouldn't win the match but it's a shame Pat is constantly harrassed when he is just trying to support a team mate.
Mandy worked that day so didn’t catch up and Louise sent me a message to say she had sunstroke from the day before. Kerrin, Tina and I decided to head back to Centre Court. Kerrin had seats at the front but I was up in the bleachers again. Tina told me that she had sat for a while in these seats on the wheelchair level the day before and then had worked her way down to the front, so I decided I would do the same thing today and it worked. In the end I was down the front with Kerrin in the second row. It was interesting to see all the police and secret service men around when Chelsea Clinton arrived. We watched Karol Kucera defeat Tim Henman and then Jelena Dokic came out and accounted for Barbara Schett. Last match on Centre court was Marat Safin and we were so surprised that he lost to Fabrice Santoro but I can imagine that Marat would be getting slightly worn out after winning the US Open then Tashkent and flying straight away to the Olympics. A body can only take so much!
We met up for a drink with Henry and then we all walked over to the grass area from the day before to catch up with Adana who had again secured tickets for the swimming that night but I didn’t join her this time as I wanted to watch Lleyton's match. Just before we actually met up with Adana we noticed some young girls looking through the main entry doors to the Centre court building. Curiousity peaked, we walked up to find out that Pat was practising with Lleyton. No one was allowed in and the only view was through the narrow glass panels on the main doors which were a fair way away from this action. Never to be daunted I got out my camera and clicked off a few pics through the glass. A 300mm lens comes in handy sometimes! The pics came out surprisingly well considering the distance and glass. Pat was all in white – shorts and tank top and his hair in the warrior style. Pity I couldn't get any close ups though.
After a quick meal we were ready for the night matches. Adana had left for the swimming. Henry and Kerrin went their separate ways to their seats and I stayed outside for a while with Tina as I wanted to watch some of the swimming on TV particularly Michael Klim's race. He was beaten by Lenny Krazelburg the swimmer from the US. We went in for the start of Lleyton's match and cheered him on but it just wasn't his night. His US doubles partner, Max Mirnyi was just too good and sharp for him. I can imagine how disappointed Lleyton would have been to go out in the first round. Again Pat was there to support Lleyton and I took a couple of pics, no towel on his head this time.
I had tried to get tickets for Pat's second round match on the Wednesday but had no luck at all, I couldn’t even get a ground pass! and in the end was just resigned to getting updates on my mobile from Kerrin. Thanks for that Kerrin, although the final result was a shock.
After the tennis we took off to catch the bus and Woz and his girlfriend caught up to us at one point so we walked along the boulevarde for a while chatting. My next trip will be meeting up with Woz and the Fanatics in Barcelona to cheer the Aussie Davis Cup team on. When we arrived back at Kerrin's she drove me to Pat's place (my mum in law) where I was to stay the next couple of days. It was about midnight and time to climb into bed at last after another hot, exhausting day.
The next morning I felt worse so slept in. I had decided to go to the city in the afternoon with friends to soak up the atmosphere, seeing tennis was a no go, but Pat wasn't that well so took her to the doctors and met up with my friends in the evening where we walked around Star City and Darling Harbour and watched the swimming finals on the big screen there with thousands and thousands of other people from all nationalities and walks of life – what a buzz, what an atmosphere!
Friday morning went to the Athletics for the day with Pat, Ton and some friends. This was the biggest traffic day by far for the start of the Athletics, they expected 400,000 people and they got it! Surprisingly though, traffic and getting into the Olympics and Stadium Australia flowed freely. One of the most amazing sights was walking along the main boulevarde and looking back at ALL the people - one long, moving sea of humanity, it was awesome!
We had great seats so I was able to take some close up pics of some famous track and field athletes – Michael Johnson, Alvin Harrison, Ato Bolden etc. and from further afield, Matt Shirvington, Melinda Gainsford etc. It was a fantastic day and a wonderful atmosphere in that huge stadium. That night went back to Darling Harbour, met up with Louise for a while, watched the big screen and then to Star City - then the next day home to Melbourne. I was so sick with a virus by then that I spent the next few days in bed, so what's new! Travel and me don't mix!
The Olympics - A once in a lifetime experience definitely. I can imagine how flat Australia will feel once the games are finished after building up to this for the past 7 years!
Robyn