Love-all at Rod Laver Arena
The Australian Open organisers are using their new premium on-court seats to woo a bunch of VIPs – as well as high-flying tennis fans – during the tournament.
While the number of celebrities will increase as the finals near, Tuesday night saw the first of the beautiful people on court, with Jimmy and Nadia Bartel and David Jones ambassador Jessica Gomes and her new beau, actor Xavier Samuel, canoodling at the night session.
Date night at the tennis @australianopen @jrb03 #ausopen
A photo posted by CHRONICLES OF NADIA (@nadiabartel) on Jan 17, 2017 at 1:47am PST
Nadia Bartel said she had long been a tennis fan but it was incredible being so close to the action.
"You get an even better appreciation of their skill and athleticism," she said.
Gomes is in Australia to prepare for the David Jones winter launch, which is happening at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral on February 1.
On Wednesday night, singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte and her partner, Cameron McGlinchey, as well as a host of Olympians including swimmer Belinda Hocking, were due on centre court.
Also at the tennis on Tuesday night was the Bachelorette, Georgia Love, fresh from her star turn at the Portsea Polo last weekend, with boyfriend Lee Elliot and contestant Cameron Cranley.
Three's a crowd? Georgia Love with Lee Elliot (right) and Cameron Cranley at the Canadian Club Racquet Club at the Australian Open. Photo: Chelsea Dennison
Corridors of power
For the players fortunate enough to play on Rod Laver Arena, there's nothing like walking past the photos of previous winners of the tournament to make you feel revved up, or woefully inadequate.
From next year, Open officials are said to be looking at animating those images, meaning players coming down the race could have the likes of Roger Federer, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi spurring them on.
A spokesman said organisers had found the technology to animate the boards and it would be like "the ghosts of champions past haunting them". Sounds scary.
Career change for Rafa?
If this tennis business doesn't work out, Rafael Nadal could try his hand at fashion design.
The world No. 9 stopped into the Nike store on Grand Slam Oval, the revamped public precinct at Melbourne Park, to customise his own T-shirt as a souvenir from this year's Australian Open.
The shirts feature the work of Melbourne artists Travis Price and Nathan Nankervis.
Rafael Nadal shows off his T-shirt design at the Australian Open on Wednesday. Photo: Mitch Fong
Back to the future
Tennis champion Michael Chang, who these days coaches Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori, said the tennis game has changed so much since he was last in a Grand Slam final in the 1990s.
"The guys are a lot fitter and a lot stronger. The game has gotten a lot faster. That's due to the technology in the racquets and the strings," he said. "Guys are serving bigger and generating more spin. You couldn't do that with the older technology."
At his peak, Chang's fastest serve was about 209km/h. The world record holder, Australian Sam Groth, hit a 263km/h belter in 2015.
They don't make them like they used to ... Michael Chang. Photo: Getty Images
Have you spotted a celebrity at the Australian Open? Email us.