Some of the better matches I saw included Magnus Norman's against Andrie Pavel, the night match between Mark Philippoussis and eventual winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and the men's doubles final.
But the best part about my experience was the chance to meet some of the players.
I was lucky enough to briefly meet top Aussie women's player Jelena Dokik. She's a lovely person, and posseses a game which is packed with potential. Her effort in reaching the semi-finals was marvelous. Dokik really has provided the shot in the arm that Australian women's tennis desperately needed. I had a photo taken with her, but to my despair this didn't actually come out!
I also was able to get Yevgeny Kafelnikov's autograph. He being the gold medal winner is quite a coincidence; I got it before the first round!
As part of my work I was able to interview Michael Chang and the Woodies before the tournament began. Chang struck me as being easy going. I was amazed when I first saw him because he just walked up as though he was a regular guy, and I looked twice and realised who it was! He spoke about how much he was enjoying the Olympic experience, and said that his confidence was improving after recently winning the title in Los Angeles (this wasn't evident afterwards, when he was upset in the first round). I must add that later on I was warned never to ask him about his Christian faith, as he is quite difficult to stop after that!
Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge were also quite friendly, and I found them to be determined to defend their title. In fact, in Mark's words they weren't looking to defend it but rather to "win again." In the event they won the silver medal, a fine effort in Woodforde's swansong year.
The whole time there I had resolved not to spend anything since I obviously wasn't being paid. We'd all heard horror stories about the prices of food at the Games, but fortunately I was able to survive without too many problems.
I even managed to get some freebies including a couple of Olympic pins, a Swatch Watch, a Sydney 2000 tennis ball and a volunteer outfit. Hopefully I will get a chance to sell the latter as I have a spare!
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