AO: The Point of Melbourne
So, we went to the tennis. The Australian Open, the AO. It’s in Melbourne you know. The rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne is fierce on the East Coast of Australia. For the rest of the world however the image of Australia is of Sydney; the bay, the bridge and the House. Melbourne, they might wonder, what’s the point? Well in the last few days we have discovered what the point of Melbourne is. And it’s tennis. A tennis point! For two weeks in a year the city comes alive, basking in a brief period of global significance. A kind of collective madness descends on the place and perfectly sane looking people decide that $200 for an AO branded Polo shirt is a good value purchase. Tennis has always been of peripheral interest in my admittedly over-crowded field of sports interest. The last time I went to a professional tennis tournament it was in a leafy suburb of South West London and bad boy John McEnroe played, followed by the somewhat more appealing (to a teenage boy!) Hana Mandlik...