Official 2008 Australian Open TW Meetup thread.

OrangeOne

Legend
Ok, given our wilson-plentiful friend Jo11yRoger has indeed setup a UO thread about 8 months in advance, I figure I'll set this one up about 2 weeks in advance :).

I'll be down in Melbourne for the AO with some mates for the entire first week. We're going to the tennis at least Mon, Tues & Thurs (and probably either Fri or Sat)...

If you're down in Melbourne - feel free to drop in to this thread and say hi - hey - maybe we'll see you down there.

If there are people who are keen to arrange a TW-AO-tennis-hit in Melbourne sometime that week, well post that here too and we'll see what we can arrange....
 

chiapants226

Professional
i live in melbourne. would be interesting to see a few of the ppl on these forums. im going to the AO heaps of times :p
 

Duzza

Legend
Hey, I will be in Melbourne obviously, but doubt I can go to the Aussie Open any of those days. I'm up for a hit anytime you're down though!
 

Duzza

Legend
When it's not so hot....I'm still up for the Melbourne Park idea, but it's gotta be very busy atm?
 

OrangeOne

Legend
Hey, I will be in Melbourne obviously, but doubt I can go to the Aussie Open any of those days. I'm up for a hit anytime you're down though!

Right. Well, I'm down there for the week. What do you reckon on the getting-a-court front? We've always struggled during AO week, perhaps obviously. We do usually find *somewhere*, but it's not always good...

Do you know any other TWers that would want to hit? Chia?

i live in melbourne. would be interesting to see a few of the ppl on these forums. im going to the AO heaps of times :p

Well, I'm sure it's likely to happen. I'll be the tall guy :p

Hey OO,

Keep forgetting to ask you. Did you stick with the 2hbh?

Nah. After recovering from one of the injuries, I had comp finals to prep for. I won them, so that was good. Lately I've found (strangely) that the time spent on my 2HBH has improved my 1HBH, so I've been sticking with it. Hmmmm.
 

Duzza

Legend
You can come down to my club if you'd like. It has 14 en tout cas courts, but it's a little out of the city, you have to go down the Nepean Hwy which takes about 10-20 mins I'd say. I'm sure I could get you guys on for free.
 

chiapants226

Professional
i'm up for a hit. depends where though. i live pretty far away from duzza, so i'd rather not go to durhams club to play, but if you can find somewhere closer to the city maybe id be interested?

well, if you want to meet up at the aus open Orange, im sure we could work something out. im sure there'll be plenty of other tall guys at the open :p
 

OrangeOne

Legend
You can come down to my club if you'd like. It has 14 en tout cas courts, but it's a little out of the city, you have to go down the Nepean Hwy which takes about 10-20 mins I'd say. I'm sure I could get you guys on for free.

Sounds good. Driving is no problem - we're driving down from Sydney to Melbourne, so hopping in the car is easy.

Have to aim for an evening I guess - is that going to work do you think? Otherwise we'll have to work out what we're doing on what day, and see if..you're free one of the days we don't go to the open.

Sounds like a great idea duzza.

Eq: you're an aussie from memory - Are you in Melbourne? Are you keen for the hit?

i'm up for a hit. depends where though. i live pretty far away from duzza, so i'd rather not go to durhams club to play, but if you can find somewhere closer to the city maybe id be interested?

Pretty far away? I like about 900ks away! :p Jokes aside, I'm not going to be the one knowing courts in Melbourne here. I'm happy to leave it to Duzz / You / other melbournites. You know the good courts, all I know is our availability - as above, mostly nights, one day later in the week, maybe friday?

well, if you want to meet up at the aus open Orange, im sure we could work something out. im sure there'll be plenty of other tall guys at the open :p

But I'll be the one from Sydney :)
 

Duzza

Legend
Friday the 18th sounds good to me. Night/late arvo is fine by me too. We'll confirm later down the track but that seems good to me.

Chris, equinox in too?
 

chiapants226

Professional
Friday the 18th sounds good to me. Night/late arvo is fine by me too. We'll confirm later down the track but that seems good to me.

Chris, equinox in too?

depends when and what time. and also where :p for now, i'll say yes. once i know the details i'll be able to confirm that yes or take it back :D
 

OrangeOne

Legend
Friday the 18th sounds good to me. Night/late arvo is fine by me too. We'll confirm later down the track but that seems good to me.

Chris, equinox in too?

depends when and what time.

Going to the tennis 19th. So 18th is ok with me.

Excellent. The TW AO hit is alive :)

All looking good so far, we'll pencil in that Friday night/late arvo for tennis and go from there, who knows, we might even get a few more takers in the coming weeks.

Now I just need to remember how to play on en-tout-cas, given I get to play on it about once every 3 years. I mean, it's not as if it's much of a change from slippery-fast synth-grass to en-tout-cas :D
 

Duzza

Legend
Yeah, sounds like we should have a really good hit lines up. IIRC, Equinox is about 4.5 quality as am I.
 

equinox

Hall of Fame
I should be about same level as our man duzza. Of course today i wasn't. 4 weeks break and recovering from illness, every third ball was from shankville. Routine 6-0 6-0 6-1 . . . . 3.5 op.

Real surprise was the damage caused by that storm we had last week. It was like a warzone on our nearly demolished courts.

There were huge craters to jump over and massive charcoal pieces dotting the surface. Partner took some photos. I might post them. DendyPark should be an upgrade. :)

Hey duzza, you get any decent girls (top800 or so) to hit bring'em down for mixed. :D

My team will probably need a hit before feb, might bring one of the better ones down for a bash.
 

Duzza

Legend
Yeah I played today for the first time since my loss at schoolboys. Won with my main partner 5 and 3 then switched it round won 5-7(after being 5-1 up :|) 6-2 6-0. very satisfied with how I played actually....although I'm seriously sore now :(

And I really don't know any girlies that are that good at tennis unfortunately. Played once with Amy Shipperd and she absolutely stole the court from me though :D.
 
Last edited:

OrangeOne

Legend
Yeah, sounds like we should have a really good hit lines up. IIRC, Equinox is about 4.5 quality as am I.

Yeah, I'm also about 4.5 (though I will confess to being a better singles player than I am a doubles player :)).

That said, yesterday I played maybe 10 'super-tie-breaks' of mostly-mixed, and really enjoyed it, more than I've enjoyed dubs for some time.

im probably not as good as either equinox or duzza. :p

My two mates who are coming along fit this description - I regularly beat them but they're still competitive and it's still a fun match.
 

chiapants226

Professional
Come on, everyone has seen your videos. You're damn quick. Don't you have a national ranking?, you should crave us hacks up.

haha i may be quick, but my shots probably arent up to a good standard. and no.. i dont have a national ranking unfortunately. not YET anyway :D i plan on achieving one soon :p
 

OrangeOne

Legend
haha i may be quick, but my shots probably arent up to a good standard. and no.. i dont have a national ranking unfortunately. not YET anyway :D i plan on achieving one soon :p

Ahh, well I'm glad Eq mentioned the videos, because now I've scouted out the opposition :)

This hit is looking like it'll be great...when does the smack-talk start? ;)

Me - I hit for the 8th day out of 9 in a row today, and yeah, there's no doubt ridiculous amounts of hitting is good for one's game!
 

equinox

Hall of Fame
Since my home courts are out of action for 2 weeks..yeah right..

Have to find a nice friendly wall to bash against.
 

Duzza

Legend
Well I've played last 2/2 days for a fair while. Massive setback in my serve with elbow pains arising nearly every serve. Could be the racquet, could by my elbow snapping every time I serve...

May be time to hang the Babolat's back up....This is why I hate demoing. You get max. 2 days with a racquet strung completely different and you feel fine with the idea, then you find out 3 months later you can't move your arm.
 
Last edited:

equinox

Hall of Fame
Bring all your sticks duzza. Like to have another bash with the babs again.

Had some pains yesterday from lack of recent play. Shoulder aching..
 

chiapants226

Professional
Bring all your sticks duzza. Like to have another bash with the babs again.

Had some pains yesterday from lack of recent play. Shoulder aching..

equinox bring your racquets as well :p i like the sound of the pog os and the npro open in your sig. ive been wanting to try a pog for a while :D i also want to try the npro open cos thats the racquet guccione use to use :p or at least had a paintjob of.
 

Duzza

Legend
Bring all your sticks duzza. Like to have another bash with the babs again.

Had some pains yesterday from lack of recent play. Shoulder aching..

I think my pains are from lack of play too. That and 3 rounds of golf. I think golf is really bad for my elbow :|
 

OrangeOne

Legend
I think my pains are from lack of play too. That and 3 rounds of golf. I think golf is really bad for my elbow :|

My pains, alas, are from too much :) Apparently if I don't stretch more I could well be heading towards a stress fracture in my foot. Damn.

OO.
....who also needs a replacement for the RDX. Hmmm :(
 

jaykay

Professional
This is unbelievably cool. I wish I was there.

While I might not be in Melbourne during the AO, there is a strong likelihood that I might be relo-ing there lock-stock-and-barrel by Feb/Mar. Would defly like to hit with you guys then...

Cheers.
 

chiapants226

Professional
well ive been hitting a lot lately. starting to bring out my A-game. i'll be in top form for this hit if i can even make it :p
 

Duzza

Legend
Yeah, had another hit today. It's goin' off now. I must have been serving well into the 190's and I accidentally hospitalised my friend. He's in intensive care at the moment.
 

OrangeOne

Legend
Yeah, had another hit today. It's goin' off now. I must have been serving well into the 190's and I accidentally hospitalised my friend. He's in intensive care at the moment.

Ok, now I'm getting nervous...and I didn't hit today (2nd day out of 12 that I haven't hit) because I was at the Medibank.

I need to....hit again! :)

(as for your friend - you *only* hospitalised him? Pahh :p)
 

chiapants226

Professional
well i also had a hit today. ive been hitting real well... just that i broke strings on both my tecnifibres today :( got to get them restrung soon, so i can kill you guys with them :D
 

OrangeOne

Legend
well i also had a hit today. ive been hitting real well... just that i broke strings on both my tecnifibres today :( got to get them restrung soon, so i can kill you guys with them :D

All this violence, you with the killing, duzza with the hospitalisation... I think I'll be bringing body-armour :)

As for the string-issues, I have bigger issues on that front between now and Melbourne, thanks to a very, very naughty RDX.

Hmmm, what frame is next I wonder.
 

equinox

Hall of Fame
Duzza,

You drew a tough match (5th seed,430AR) in frankston classic maindraw.

Won the 1st and then was steamrolled in last two sets, what happened! Did you get injured?

Ah well you can do well in consol / dlbs and get some pts.
 

Duzza

Legend
Yeah, won the first quite easily, breaking in the first and last game of the set. Started to get some elbow twitches and the 2nd set kind of drifted away after I lost focus up till 4-0. Then I started to focus on the upcoming set, knowing I wasn't coming back.....but really played a poor 3rd set with a really weak serve that got broken too many times....

Consol was an interesting one....definitely a decent player but my serve was back on (had a 5 hour break) and I ran to 4-1. He fought back a little bit more and I became a lot more conservative which didn't help me. Then my elbow hit again, and a semi-sore thigh muscle didn't help pushing off for groundstrokes either. I started having to serve about 60% potential which lost me a lot of games. Got to 6-5 finally and had 3 (yes 3!) set points on the Deuce-Ad part of his service game. Finally let go and he won the TB really easily....then 2nd set was on serve till 4-5 where I basically broke myself!
 

OrangeOne

Legend
Hey flaming flamingo, will you be coming down for the hit as well?

Nah, FF isn't coming down to Melbourne.... although if he was, he'd be bringing his mid-court forehand with him, which would be...interesting, for anyone sitting outside the fence anyways :p
 

Duzza

Legend
So OO how many do you think there will be of you at this hit?

Just it would be nice if we had an even amount. I'm still not sure on Chia though.
 
Nah, FF isn't coming down to Melbourne.... although if he was, he'd be bringing his mid-court forehand with him, which would be...interesting, for anyone sitting outside the fence anyways :p

1. How do you know i'm not going to melbourne i'm in the main draw (i wish)
2. That mid court forehand has never gone over a fence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3. It may be unreliable but i seem to remember hitting a shot past you in dubs up the middle off it
4. How can you hit you broke your racquet when you were versing me!
 

OrangeOne

Legend
So OO how many do you think there will be of you at this hit?

Just it would be nice if we had an even amount. I'm still not sure on Chia though.

There'll be three of us (me plus two mates), though I don't know how keen one mate will be (it'll depend on injury and time of play, but I reckon he'll be keen still). We're used to rotating on & off anyways, so if there's an odd number it won't worry any of us....
 

chiapants226

Professional
yehh im still unsure. depends what time and where? guess i might be able to make your club durham if i REALLY have to :p
 
Top