Australian Open Crisis Center, Day 14

Hi everyone. I'm finding it hard to believe that the fortnight has flown by so swiftly, but here we are on the last day of the 2009 Australian Open, with just one major match left to be played - the men's singles final. Here's your space for discussing it.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm feeling short on sleep in spite of the fact that this match begins at a fairly civilised hour of 8.30 a.m. here. I'd set my alarm to go off at three different times, one of them involving very loud music, and had also booked an alarm call, but somehow my body wasn't trusting itself to technology during the night. After all, what if there was a power cut and the alarm failed to go off, and there was also a terrible mixup over my alarm call? Or if my sleeping ears refused to hear any of those wake-up sounds? The result was that I never got beyond dozing, and kept on looking over to check the clock. OK, I confess that part of the reason for my worry was that it's my task to make sure that the TWibe has a fresh Crisis Center for this match, which is probably the most important one of the tournament for many of us. But mostly it was the match itself.

TWibe member aussiemarg will be there this time, and I envy her a little, because as a partisan I've found  these big matches a little easier to deal with in person. It's partly because of the sensory experience itself, and I'm sure the absence of commentary also helps. In my case I'm also usually taking pictures, which serves as something of a prop in dealing with nerves. When watching at home it's sometimes bad enough that I find myself retreating behind the sofa.

I declare this Crisis Center officially open for pre-frazzling.

Enjoy the tennis.

-- Rosangel Valenti