A very entertaining match last night/today in Melbourne:  An inspired and later cramping Marcos Baghdatis came back from two sets down to beat David Ferrer, cheered on by a singing band of flag-waving compatriots from his home country of Cyprus.  Baghdatis struggled through the final game, fighting a cramp in his left leg, and hopped and skipped and even sat down on the court between points, but was able to pull himself together for some stunning shotmaking to close out the fifth set 6-1.

I love seeing these middle of summer day matches, fans with their shirts off and in shorts, while here we are cold and stuck in a winter night.  I also like learning about the many diasporas in Australia — I would never have thought much about Cypriots living in Australia if not for the game of tennis.   You just don’t learn things like that from football.

I watched the DirectTV feed of the match, announced by Barry McKay and Jeff Tarango, a pair that has been narrating many matches on one of the five extra channels carrying tennis.  The coverage is refreshing — no commercials! — and also great to hear a different perspective than McEnroe, Cahill, Carillo, and, the worst of all, the unbearable glibness of Gimelstob.  

I was struck by the connections to Agassi’s memoir Open that this match afforded.  Agassi’s first scene focuses on his win over Baghdatis in the 2006 U.S. Open, and reports that later they held hands in the training room while watching replays.  Soon after, he writes about an early junior tournament when at the age of 10 he was cheated out of the match by none other than Jeff Tarango. Later, in the pros, when Agassi would beat Tarango, he never forget the match, thinking to himself, F-U Jeff, F-U.

I love the first week of the Australian Open, the hot-weather matches, the tennis night-dreams it permits, and all the stories it brings to mind.  One of these years I’m going to figure out a way to make the trip.

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