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 chance 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 triggered widespread injury and disruption.
To say the beginning of my journey was loopy and aggravating is a gentle understatement.
Because the streets of the town centre changed into 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, the town was utterly flooded and locked down.
I don’t know a lot Spanish, however I understood what the Uber driver meant when he mentioned “Malaga … mucho problemo.”
I managed to get the Uber driver to show round and head the opposite course whereas Lauren Coridas, the Australian BJK Cup workforce supervisor, sorted me a room on the workforce’s lodging. What a saint.
I used to be drained and emotional, nevertheless it was so good to be across the ladies’s workforce 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 evening at their resort and rapidly 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 workforce 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 workforce.
Within the days main as much as their quarterfinal tie, my job was underneath risk because the gamers, significantly Daria Saville, took nice pleasure within the artistic course 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 workforce is on the identical web page 🗒️#GoAussies #BJKCup pic.twitter.com/tF0hU71DLp
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) November 16, 2024
My baggage finally 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 workforce 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 gentle 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 workforce is one thing I’ll treasure endlessly.
The Rafael Nadal Farewell
It could be remiss to depart out the truth that one among Spain’s greatest-ever athletes was calling time on his illustrious profession in Malaga.
Murals and billboards stuffed the town streets with the lettering ‘Gracias Rafa’, and watching the hundreds 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 workforce was fortunate sufficient to get greater than a glimpse, capturing some golden content material. Ready for Nadal to complete follow and pretending to take a workforce 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 workforce 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 world had an environment extra corresponding to a European soccer recreation than a tennis match. And whereas the 22-time Grand Slam champion fought laborious 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 workforce felt in a manner 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 workforce, in how they went about their enterprise in follow and their routine. It felt just like the workforce 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 in my view the match of the match.
I marvelled courtside at how each athletes persistently 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 full of overwhelming pleasure as Jordan Thompson and Matt Ebden secured the tie with a doubles victory.
Standing behind the digicam, I felt a surge of pleasure and emotion. Witnessing the pure elation, I felt a part of it.
Two days later when the workforce 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 dwell these experiences on the remaining phases of the ‘world cup of tennis’.
Similar to the workforce, 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!
