Scottish Player out of Aussie Open

No, not a shock dismissal for Andy Murray, but a loss for Elena Baltacha, the British number 3, by Amelie Mauresmo, the 20th seed from France.

We chose to go to one of the show courts to watch this as our first game. Baltacha was the better player in the first set, taking it 6-4.

The standard of her play dropped a little as Maureso upped her game in the second set and she lost it by six games to three.

Baltacha battled again in the third set, taking the first two games but, in the fierce heat and gusting wind, she couldn't maintain her superiority and lost the next six games. She showed she has the game to beat players of a higher ranking than he 134 in the world but will have to work on consistency.

Jean

At the tennis

Day four of the Australian Open tennis at Melbourne but day one for us as we caught up with world number one Rafael Nadal.

He reached the third round with a convincing 6-2 6-3 6-2 victory over Croatia's Roko Karanusic in one hour and 37 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena - the Centre Court.

Bookmakers have made Andy Murray favourite at 3-1 just ahead of Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. I reckon Murray can win it but 3-1 is skinny.

In the women's, Australia's Samantha Stosur, better known as a doubles player, looked quite good as she eased past Germany's Sabine Lisicki 6-3 6-4. Interesting day's tennis but not many surprises.

The shock exit of Venus Williams came at the Thursday night session when our tickets were no longer valid, but we saw the game on TV.

Dave

Super Night Out (2)

The Melbourne Club (pictured) is right out of the land of London's gentlemen's clubs. Beautiful place inside including huge dining room for up to 200 though only about a dozen of us were there on Wednesday night. Maybe the movers and shakers are still on holiday.

The lift is a virtual museum piece, all dark wood and grills, the billiards room as it should be, the library and reading room undisturbed and the garden at the back a haven of peace, far enough away from busy Collins Street.

Another gem is the wine cellar which is about 100 metres long and currently holds around 150,000 bottles. It also has private vaults where individual members can store their own wine ! Dave