Hollywood on centre court as celebrities descend for men’s Open final

Around the grounds

At Tennis Australia’s exclusive O suite, accessed by a concealed lift in Rod Laver Arena, Tennis Australia chair Jayne Hrdlicka hosted tennis great Margaret Court (who has well and truly been welcomed back into the fold after a few lean years while the AO adjusted to her Christian views).

The O invitation formula can be summarised as: three parts tennis greats (Court, John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall), one part billionaire (trucking magnate Lindsay Fox) and one part politician (ex-premier Steve Bracks) topped off with a smattering of celebrities, Eric Bana and Bear Grylls among them.

Elsewhere, Melbourne Demons president Brad Green and TV presenter partner Caty Price dined in exclusive Club 1905. Former cricketer Michael Clarke and partner Arabella were at Piper-Heidsieck along with restaurant impresario Chris Lucas and wife Sarah. Olympic swimming great Emma McKeon was at Marriott Bonvoy along with former tennis player Mark Philippoussis and ambassador Ash Barty.

No shows

A few highly touted celebrities didn’t make it. The early signs were good for Kylie Minogue, in town rehearsing her tour. But nada.

Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has a family connection with doubles specialist John Peers, was in the Paris crowd to see him win the men’s doubles Olympic gold medal. Peers’ winning streak continued at Melbourne Park, taking out the mixed doubles final with Olivia Gadecki. But Big Bill didn’t make it. Maybe next year.

Chance encounter

Open Season bumped into legendary lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, KC, in the media centre. “I used to play tennis with Lew Hoad,” the eminent human rights barrister told us, before fondly recalling Australia’s golden age of tennis from the 1950s onwards.

Turns out Robertson was with his son, actor Julius Robertson, whose amazing tennis knowledge had him in demand as a media interviewee. Julius clinched the Rod Laver ticket. “I shall be watching the TV at home,” Robertson snr said wistfully.

Melebrity most often

Such is the desire of Tennis Australia and its big name sponsors to lure famous names to the Open it seems that some Melebrities (Melbourne celebrities) were more frequently at Rod Laver Arena than many of the actual players.

But who played the most public appearance matches? Early on we had our money on Queen Melebrity and bayside crimewave commentator Bec Judd. But the wife of AFL legend Chris Judd told us she was only appearing twice, one being a 45-minute late appearance at the Emirates marquee.

Influencer Rozalia Russian got so many invitations she had to double up, attending with Emirates for a day session then backing it up with Ralph Lauren that evening. When asked how often she had attended, Russian said “never enough”, despite calculating she’s already been five times.

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Comedian Joel Creasey told us, “I’m here every day”, although that turned out to be partly due to his hosting duties at Squealing Pig’s wine bar at Grand Slam Oval.

However, the ultimate Melebrity tennis fan has to be stylist Lana Wilkinson, who attended “six or seven days” as a guest of various sponsors including Ralph Lauren, Marriott Bonvoy, Chemist Warehouse and Tennis Australia.

“People will probably start asking if I’m working for Tennis Australia,” she said. “I had a photo shoot on Thursday with my team, and they were even joking, ‘Oh did Tennis Australia let you have the day off?’

“I do love it, I really love it.”

While the bonus of being a tennis Melebrity means never needing to fork out for a ticket, Wilkinson extolled the good value of “$20 ground passes”, indicating it may have been a few years since she last bought one. Ground passes this year cost from $30 to $85.

Money grab

Tennis Australia’s push to tie the Open’s top seats to expensive hospitality offerings has left rows of empty prime seats in Rod Laver Arena throughout the tournament – as well as put a few noses out of joint among faithful tennis superfans.

One longtime attendee, who asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation from Tennis Australia, said his single corporate Rod Laver Arena seat had increased from $13,545 last year to $32,450 this year, adding on lunch and dinner every day (which he didn’t want).

The superfan had been buying a single Rod Laver ticket for himself since 2005 and spent every year glued to his seat watching upwards of 12 hours of tennis a day.

“I travel from the United States to Melbourne every year to experience the excitement of world-class tennis, in person,” he said.

But last year he received an email from Tennis Australia which said “due to the incredibly strong demand” it was “repurposing the stadium” and changing its premium packages.

The ardent fan was given a take it or leave it offer. Pay the extra price or be moved to a seat on an upper level.

“All the loyal Rod Laver corporate ticket holders have been kicked out of their seats by Tennis Australia, who seem to have made a business decision to exit the tennis event industry and enter into the food and beverage catering industry,” he said. “The changes are a money grab by a greedy organisation that has lost focus of their core business and does not care about loyal customers.”

Ouch! We heard the same from other loyal ticket holders.

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Another regular attendee who bought the same corporate seats for 30 years was pushed out by Tennis Australia’s new reserve seating for Club 1905 and had to buy seats much higher up to avoid the hospitality package.

“Reluctantly, we purchased seats in row S of the lower section, (without dining options) but because for most of the matches most of the Club [1905] seats are unoccupied, we find that even though we are much higher up than previously we still have a clear view of the court. Ironic really, and such a waste.”

It remains to be seen if Tennis Australia, which didn’t answer our questions on the matter, will modify its policy or if the stand-off continues into next year’s Open.

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