Recently I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Australian Open Finals. At the time we had no clue who would be in the finals, but we were insanely lucky that it ended up being Serena Williams vs Venus Williams, and Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal. My friend Sid from London was going to be in Australia for a coupla weeks because he was doing a bit of an East Coast tour, and with him being sports mad, we decided to just go for it and buy a VIP package deal that we found.
The finals tickets were completely sold out, but we managed to find a really good deal with Mastercard Priceless Surprises that meant we got Category 1 tickets to both the womens and mens finals, plus two nights accommodation in the Grand Hyatt, for $2,500 ($1,250 each, around £750). It was a lot of money, don’t get me wrong, I would never usually splash that much on a sporting event, and it took some serious thinking before I booked it.
In the end I thought about all the years I wished I’d gone to
Wimbledon, but couldn’t get the time off work when tickets came up, or the time I missed going to the FA Cup Finals with my whole extended family in 2008 when my team, Portsmouth FC won it, because I was living in Australia. And I thought, here I have an opportunity to see the finals of one of the major Grand Slam tournaments, when am I ever going to get this opportunity again? And it was totally worth it. So, so worth it. With the flights from
Sydney to
Melbourne costing just £100, pretty soon we were on our way.
Serena Williams vs Venus Williams
On the Saturday it was the Williams’ sisters match. We got to the arena around 6pm and had a wander around the outside area which was split into different areas; France, England, USA, and Australia. One for each of the major Grand Slam tournaments. Being Brits we headed straight for the English/Wimbledon section in search of Pimms and Strawberries. Having being away from the UK for 4 months, I was desperate for a bit of home.
We managed to find Strawberries and cream, and they even added icing sugar, which I was very happy about! Sadly there was no Pimms though – the Italians had invaded and Aperol had some sort of exclusive deal which meant there was no Pimms allowed. Also I feel like my legs in the below photo look photoshopped, but I promise they’re not…it’s just the way I’m standing haha!
After our strawberries and cream we headed inside ready for the entertainment to start at 7pm before the 7:30pm match.
After the National Anthem the Williams’ sisters came on and the match began. The entire thing was electrifying. It was a pretty predictable match, we all knew Serena would win because if she won she would smash a record for winning 23 Grand Slam titles, so it was kinda a given that Venus would give it to her. It was still amazing though, and a total dream to see the two sisters play against each other!
I’ll leave you with some photos, but scroll down to find out more about the Federer vs Nadal final!
What an epic first finals! Not as epic as the following days match though…
Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal
After a
day of exploring Melbourne we met up with Sid’s friend Aasheen, and all walked over to the Rod Laver Arena. The arena is just a 15minute walk from the city, and it was such a lovely day we decided to walk instead of take the tram. We took our seats and got ready for two of the greatest tennis players of all time to arrive. They walked out to rapturous applause, and my heart skipped a beat at the thought of what we were about to witness.
The entire match was just incredible. Insane. Historic. And a whole mixture of feelings. I last saw Rafael Nadal play ten years ago at Wimbledon, in July 2007, and I was hoping he would win. Sadly Federer won, but the majority of the crowd were rooting for Federer – every single time he even won a point the entire crowd went wild and everyone would stand up cheering, shouting, and stamping their feet. It was craaazy!! Here’s a pic from when I saw Nadal play ten years ago in 2007 at Wimbledon…
Anyway, the entire Australian Open finals I was on the edge of my seat. Quite often you can predict who will win just from the first couple of sets, but you literally had no clue until the final 5th set with this one. Both of them wanted that title so badly that they put absolutely everything they had into it, and to see it live happening metres in front of me was just amazing…but also very stressful haha!
Ultimately both players put every ounce of energy into the match, and Federer was very deserving of the win. Rod Laver himself presented the trophy! I’ll leave you with some of the photos – it was super hard because everyone kept standing up, and waving their hands around haha, especially at the end when Federer did a walk around the arena!
We had the best time at the Australian Open! Now I just need to try and get to Wimbledon this July 😉
Catherine Lux
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
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Those photos are awesome! A damn good weekend overall!