The last day before a Grand Slam starts is always frantic, for everyone involved.
Between players trying to make last-minute tweaks to their game, tournament staff setting up the venue for the thousands of fans – Australian Open director Craig Tiley says no less than 50,000 people are expected to turn out through the gates on day one – and us journalists rushing to get some one-on-one time with players and coaches before the action begins; Sunday was a real rollercoaster.
Novak Djokovic has created a tradition where he hands out chocolates – gluten-free of course – to the media in his first press conference of the Australian Open as well as in his last one of the year.
It's time for Choc-ovic!
@DjokerNole is back in Melbourne and he is handing out (healthy) chocolate to the press ? pic.twitter.com/j3xdkzSE7a
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 17, 2016It’s a gesture that turns many journalists into hungry children, clamouring to get a piece of chocolate and perhaps get photographed with the world No1 handing it over to them (not a pretty sight, trust me).
I was forced to miss Djokovic’s press conference yesterday as it got rescheduled last minute and it clashed with another interview I had.
A while later, walking down the halls at Melbourne Park, I bumped into Djokovic, his coach Boris Becker and his agent Edoardo Artaldi.
“You didn’t get a chocolate?” the Serb asked me as I stood their slightly embarrassed that I didn’t attend the defending champion’s pre-event presser. “Then take this,” he added as he handed me a gluten-free coconut macadamia energy ball.
I’m supposed to be neutral but you gotta love the Djoker!
Someone just gave me this cuz he found out i missed his presser & didnt get any chocolates! pic.twitter.com/ZznH4ygjAz
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) January 17, 2016Inside the “Media Theatrette” as Australian Open PR officials like to call it – it’s a uniquely-designed press conference room that looks like a mini theatre – things have been quite hilarious.
Maria Sharapova’s media session somehow ended with her talking about leopard-print underwear thanks to a question from a colleague regarding tournament laundry fiascos.
“I actually just returned a pair of underwear that wasn’t mine, like 45 minutes ago. Funny you ask that. I don’t know if you were like checking out the laundry room situation, but it really happened,” she said amidst laughter. “It was a female pair of underwear, not male. It was leopard. I’m like ‘that’s not mine’.
“It happens a lot. I’ve lost some great things in the laundry. I lost a great T-shirt in Brisbane 10 days ago. I ordered another one. Thankfully Nike provided me another one. It was one of my favourite long-sleeved shirts.
“Lost that. It’s okay. I don’t get attached to things, so I guess that’s good when you lose laundry. Hopefully the individual wasn’t attached to their underwear.”
