ATP Cup Sydney

Okay.  My second attempt at this blog.  When I saved the last one, it disappeared.  I am going to change platforms this year as I have had many problems of late with the Blogger Platform.  I will give my readers plenty of notice!

So, back to the subject of this post.  The inaugural ATP Cup hosted by Australia.  

I purchased tickets online, while we were cruising, for the ATP Cup Quarter Final that was to be held in Sydney.  At that time I did not know who would be playing in the quarter finals but just overjoyed that we were going to be in the right place at the right time.  You can imagine my excitement when I found out Australia had made the quarter finals and were playing Great Britain.  

We purchased the Rockpool Hospitality Package that included a complimentary shuttle from the city to Ken Rosewall Arena at Sydney Olympic Park, best seats in the house, and a three course meal designed by Neil Perry from the famous Rockpool Restaurant. It was well worth it. We had no trouble finding the shuttle at the Sheraton on the Park and with the new underground tunnel the journey from the city to Olympic Park took less that 30 minutes.  We were given a bit of misinformation regarding the shuttle and arrived before the gates were open but as the shuttle dropped us where the players entered we were able to watch the arrival of the teams and their captains.

It didn't take long before the doors were opened for us and we took our seats that were three rows from the front in Section A1.  Our seats looked down the centre line. Nick Krygios vs Cameron Norrie was the first game and Nick hardly got a sweat up when he defeated the Brit 6-2, 6-2.  I want to say at this point that I am a great supporter of Nick Kyrgios. The 24 year old has the ability to be the World No 1 (he has beaten the worlds top 3) and to get to that place you need fire in the belly. Nick has plenty of that. When he came onto the tennis scene, it was alongside Bernard Tomic, who was nothing but a spoilt brat and unfortunately for Nick the press shoved him into the same boat as Tomic. I'm not saying he is a saint but we have had plenty of outspoken players who've gone on to achieve career highs.  Think Mark Philippoussis and John McEnroe.

Time will tell.

The next game was Alex De Minaur vs Dan Evans.  Alex is a Sydney boy and he badly wanted to win in front of his home town but it wasn't meant to be.  It was an epic 3 hour game with the score of 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 telling just a little of how this game went down.  Alex had a huge amount of support from the crowd but it just wasn't enough to take him over the line.

The decision by Captain Lleyton Hewitt to bring on De Minaur/Kyrgios for the deciding doubles game I think was a brave decision as the Chris Guccione/John Peers team had been a winning combination.  De Minaur had just come off the court from a long match but Kyrgios was well rested.

When they hit the court they were immediately on fire and the match was nail biting down to the epic 30 minute 18-16 tie breaker.  Alex and Nick are great buddies off the court and that mateship certainly helped them to win this deciding match. Semi finals next and after watching this team play and final placing is not out of the question.

After the three games ended we wandered over to the practice courts where Rafa was practicing.  Be still my beating heart.....

This was our first live tennis game and I can't tell you how much we enjoyed it.  I always thought you would see more on TV and possibly you do but there is NOTHING that can equal the atmosphere inside an arena when your team are playing.