Tennis Tidbits, Gossip And More From Australia • And Novak Does Not Belong in a Country That’s Had so Much Covid Lockdown

Good Morning or Evening wherever you are in the world right now. 

We read somewhere Australia won the Ashes against England? Very unAustralian of Global Chick not to keep up with the cricket. 

AUS Paralympian Dylan Alcott and World Number One Ash Barty were at the cricket on boxing day. 

Simona Halep was at the top of the list of players who covered the largest distance on court during last year’s Australian Open. She ran 9.26km – that is a fair distance. Elina Svitolina was also on the list but came in at number 4. Maybe the extremely large diamond engagement ring slowed her down a tad. Global Chick loves Elina and Gael. Can’t wait to see you play. 

https://twitter.com/Simona_Halep/status/1475952478701117442

Louise Pleming former Aussie player, Coach, and Grand Slam Commentator and all-around great girl started a charity organisation called “rally4ever”.

https://rally4ever.org/

Louise has been travelling around Australia encouraging people to get out on court and connect with others, promoting well being and mental health. This great initiative made Lousie the winner of the John Newcombe Spirit of Tennis Award. Great work Lou. 

We can all become a little philosophical when the year nears the end. Frances Tiafoe, aka @Bigfoe1998, said on social media he started treating this whole life thing totally different. Great guy to watch on the court. 

Comeback kid, shall we call him player instead maybe? Bernard Tomic was out hitting in the rain and doing his fitness routine. Do we know where he is going to play this summer? We are still holding out for a charity match between Bernie and NK? The latest video on Tomic’s account was when he beat Lleyton Hewitt at the US Open in September 2015. 

Global Chick loves supporting comeback players. One player I would love to see back on the court is Fabrice Santoro. What a player. Double handed slice topspin, the ability to use the whole court, and a massive repertoire of shots. (Mahut needs a partner) Andy Roddick did have power and the serve but lacked finesse.  He was fun to watch. He was witty and funny. He did have a bad habit of giving opponents “player boxes” a stink eye look. And stare. Like he was saying don’t mess with me. Typical Texan. 

Not a good COVID case day in Aussie Land yesterday. Record numbers for Australia. Benoit Paire posted on Twitter something in French, we think it says he has COVID-19 for the second time. (maybe time to shave the beard ?) The emoji on the top of the Tweet clearly explains his feelings. 

https://twitter.com/benoitpaire/status/1476032540075081730

I am in the process of booking some restaurants for the upcoming Melbourne trip. I was lucky enough to eat at a very fancy restaurant at the Crown in Melbourne. We were seated next to a certain top-ranked WTA player who had a super nice Teal coloured Birken Bag – and she put it down on the floor! 

We promised Gossip and tidbits… we will catch you tomorrow…