If there is one thing I took away from my experience at the Medibank International, it is that Australian crowds cheering for an Australian are very, very cruel.
*
I would have hated to be Dmitry Tursunov coming out on court last night. Any other opponent, and I wouldn't have been surprised if the crowd's support was with him - he's a funny, likeable guy. But no, Guccione was Australian, and so poor Dmitry got just about nothing. When they started warming up, one guy yelled out, 'He looks worried, Chris!' Later on - I think it might have been in the first set breaker - someone else yelled out, 'Don't choke, Dmitry!'
*
No one was exactly rude, I suppose - no one booed or anything like that - but it must have been hard. Every time Dmitry won a point, there was a few smatterings of applause. When Gooch won a point, just about everyone in the stadium cheered their heads off. It was quite a strange match - there were no break points. Probably the closest there came to being a break point was on Tursunov's serve at 30-30 about halfway through the second set. The poor guy's standing there, trying to serve, and the crowd is still cheering maniacally for Guccione.
*
I can't imagine anything harder - to be standing in front of eight thousand people, when nearly all of them are willing you to fail.
*
But I wasn't!
*
It was very intimidating being in the crowd, actually. I was quite vocal about my support of Dmitry - if you watched it on TV and heard the occasional, 'Go Dmitry!' or 'Go Dima!' that was probably me! - and I think some of the people around me might have wanted to kill me. I certainly heard mutterings of, 'but she's Australian...!' I think the only other Dima supporters in the whole arena were three little girls with a Russian flag sitting over the other side of the stadium - occasionally they started up a 'DiMA, DiMA, DiMA!' chant, only to be drowned out instantly by seven thousand other people bellowing, 'GooCHIE, GooCHIE, GooCHIE!'
*
I guess Australia doesn't agree with me on the point that tennis is about personality, not nationality. But I wonder how many of those Guccione fans there knew anything about tennis...?
*
Like I can talk, I suppose. But I would like to think that my personality-over-nationality mentality makes me a little bit discerning. You can't exactly help your nationality. You can help your personality.
*
Guccione played good tennis last night, it can't be denied. But when it comes down to it... he's a bit boring, really. His game relies so heavily on his serve that he rarely gets into proper points. He did pull off some lovely serve-and-volley manoeuvres, but on the whole, it was all about his serve. Nine times out of ten, when they did get into a rally, Tursunov won. His forehand really is beautiful - one of the best I've seen. He spread Guccione all over the court with it.
*
But Dmitry's forehand - great as it is - isn't the reason I follow him. It's the fact that he doesn't take himself too seriously. He's a tennis player, but it looks to me like he still finds tennis fun.
*
So well done, Dima. I was gunning for you.
_
_
Today's Results
_
Medibank International (Sydney)
_
Dmitry Tursunov def. Chris Guccione, 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4)
_
_
AAMI Classic (Kooyong)
_
Andy Roddick def. Marcos Baghdatis, 7-5 6-3
Marat Safin def. Fernando Gonzalez, 6-3 6-3
_
_
Heineken Open (Auckland)
_
Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-6 (7-4) 7-5
Posts
