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Rhys De Deugd recounts golden moments from Australia’s Davis and Billie Jean King Cup Finals campaigns in Malaga as he joins the groups as a content material producer.
Malaga, Spain, 25 November 2024 | Rhys de Deugd
The prospect of getting each Australian males’s and ladies’s tennis groups competing on the similar venue for world championship titles is a novel one.
It introduced a possibility ahead to have me, Tennis Australia’s social media and content material producer, alongside the groups for the primary time.
Welcome to ‘diaries of a content material producer’, recounting my main highlights from a whirlwind fortnight on the Billie Jean King (BJK) and Davis Cup Finals in Malaga.
The Arrival
I arrived in Malaga on Wednesday 13 November when over 4200 residents have been evacuated from the area following torrential rains that brought about widespread harm and disruption.
To say the beginning of my journey was loopy and annoying is a gentle understatement.
Because the streets of town centre become rivers, the Spanish climate company issued a crimson alert. Rainfall reached as much as 70mm in only one hour, marking among the coastal city’s worst flooding in a long time.
So as to add to this, the airline misplaced my baggage, and I struggled to get an Uber out of the airport. Seems, town was utterly flooded and locked down.
I don’t know a lot Spanish, however I understood what the Uber driver meant when he stated “Malaga … mucho problemo.”
I managed to get the Uber driver to show round and head the opposite path whereas Lauren Coridas, the Australian BJK Cup group supervisor, sorted me a room on the group’s lodging. What a saint.
I used to be drained and emotional, but it surely was so good to be across the ladies’s group for dinner and eventually be in a mattress after an extended journey to get there.
Nonetheless in my filthy garments and with out toiletries, I stayed the night time at their resort and shortly walked to an outlet within the morning to get some requirements.
Then I went straight to the courts to see the brand new stadium for the primary time and be across the Australian ladies’s group for his or her first practices.
The Billie Jean King Cup
The camaraderie was infectious, and I used to be already creating connections with the group.
Within the days main as much as their quarterfinal tie, my job was underneath risk because the gamers, notably Daria Saville, took nice pleasure within the artistic path of what was to be produced. However their enthusiasm helped create enjoyable items that have been extra genuine and relatable to audiences again in Australia.
Seeing if the Australian @BJKCup group is on the identical web page 🗒️#GoAussies #BJKCup pic.twitter.com/tF0hU71DLp
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) November 16, 2024
My baggage ultimately arrived, that means I might now don the inexperienced and gold for the primary time.
Getting into the pop-up Billie Jean King Cup stadium with the group gave me goosebumps and nerves, regardless of the very fact I used to be holding a digicam and never a racquet.
Quickly the stands started to pack with followers, and I took my seat subsequent to the gamers’ bench because the introductions and pre-match mild present created intense anticipation.
The nationwide anthems performed, and feelings received the higher of me as I began to cry. This was a particular feeling.
Though the Australians misplaced their quarterfinal tie to eventual finalists Slovakia, the general expertise and reference to the group is one thing I’ll treasure eternally.
The Rafael Nadal Farewell
It will be remiss to depart out the truth that certainly one of Spain’s greatest-ever athletes was calling time on his illustrious profession in Malaga.
Murals and billboards stuffed town streets with the lettering ‘Gracias Rafa’, and watching the 1000’s of followers wearing crimson and yellow all through the week, you knew that they have been flocking simply to catch a glimpse the nice Rafael Nadal one final time earlier than he retired.
The BJK Cup group was fortunate sufficient to get greater than a glimpse, capturing some golden content material. Ready for Nadal to complete observe and pretending to take a group photograph within the path he was about to stroll previous, we politely requested if he would be part of the photograph. There it was – the video of the occasion.
> WATCH VIDEO HERE: Australian BJK Cup group get photograph with Rafael Nadal
On the eleventh hour, I used to be in a position to rating a seat within the stadium for what ended up being his remaining skilled match. Yet one more ‘pinch myself’ second, watching my childhood hero dash from the web to the bassline for the ultimate time.
The sector had an environment extra corresponding to a European soccer recreation than a tennis match. And whereas the 22-time Grand Slam champion fought onerous towards giant-killer Botic Van De Zandschulp, Nadal was unable to drag out a fairytale victory.
The Davis Cup
After the Billie Jean Cup competitors concluded, all eyes turned to the Davis Cup groups, together with final 12 months’s finalists Australia.
Working alongside the legendary Aussie group felt in a means like I had lastly made it to the place I dreamed of being as a younger tennis hopeful in low junior sections of my native tennis competitors.
There was an aura round captain Lleyton Hewitt and the group, in how they went about their enterprise in observe and their routine. It felt just like the group actually believed they have been in it to go one higher this 12 months and raise the cup for the primary time since 2003.
The quarterfinals set the stage for an epic showdown: Australia towards the US – the best rivalry in Davis Cup historical past.
I sat courtside for an epic battle within the opening singles rubber, as Thanasi Kokkinakis upset American Ben Shelton in a deciding tiebreak for the historical past books, and for my part the match of the event.
I marvelled courtside at how each athletes constantly fired down serves of over 210 km/h, proper up till the ultimate level of the final-set tiebreak at 15-14, the place a peaceful Kokkinakis sealed it after saving 4 match factors.
The group was stuffed with overwhelming pleasure as Jordan Thompson and Matt Ebden secured the tie with a doubles victory.
Standing behind the digicam, I felt a surge of satisfaction and emotion. Witnessing the pure elation, I felt a part of it.
Two days later when the group confronted Italy, it was a contrasting feeling of heartbreak because the 2024 Davis Cup journey got here to an finish for the boys in inexperienced and gold.
I hope to stay these experiences on the remaining phases of the ‘world cup of tennis’.
Identical to the group, I really feel hungry for extra success.
Discover your strategy to play: Go to play.tennis.com.au to get out on court docket and have some enjoyable!
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