Love has been in the (Open) air this week.
On Tuesday, Serena Williams started to open up about her serendipitous first encounter with finance Alex Ohanian at a restaurant in Rome. And that night, Rafael Nadal was asked on-court about his long-term girlfriend, Xisca Perello, making her first trip to Melbourne this year. "Yes, it was great," said Nadal, asked by Jim Courier whether they had been doing some good things with their spare time. "The negative thing is that I lost in the quarter-finals in Brisbane, but the good thing is that I had the chance to visit Sydney and I hadn't been there before. I was knowing a bit of Sydney, and we enjoyed it. And now finally after 10 years my girlfriend gets a wildcard to come here." No main-draw spot yet? wondered Courier. "I"m speechless!" he said, but that was all he could get. "You know," smiled Rafa, "is better we stop here."
![Love game: Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.](/web/20170127103507im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/x/s/m/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtxquo.png/1485237030124.jpg)
In love with love
Grigor Dimitrov is in love with tennis. He says the sport is his best friend, "the person" for him, the thing he always counted on. Until a few years ago, when life got in the way. "I was, I don't want to say grumpy, but there were things going on around me," he said ahead of his quarter-final against David Goffin. "I just needed to find that inspiration again. I needed to find that way of playing and enjoying again, loving again." He has found it again, well and truly, though it was wondered in the press room whether something else had taken the place of tennis during those bumpy months. Dimitrov answered the questions with a smile.
Reporter: Talking about falling in love, do you think that falling in love with something else than tennis did delay a little bit your rise?
Dimitrov: What are you referring to? Go ahead, say it to me. It's OK.
R: When I was young, I did like very much the young girls. Sometimes I got distracted. So I'd like to know if you get distracted too.
D: You deserve the best answer now. Let me think about it! That was the greatest thing I've heard man. Oh wow.
And the answer? It all got a bit deep and meaningful. "I obviously have a soft spot for that," said Dimitrov, still smiling. "You know, on a serious note, I always try to keep whatever else outside the court. I think when I was younger, I was struggling to kind of differentiate 'love' from a 'person love' or a 'tennis love' or whatever else. You know, there was a time, a period, that I wasn't, like, kind of sure how to deal with both things in the same time. But you learn. I guess we grow. I mean, I don't want to say I've learned from my mistakes, but I've learned myself a little bit better. I think that helps me. Hopefully it's going to help me for the future through any kind of falling in love stuff."
My kitchen rules
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni makes a very good porcini risotto, even if she does say so herself. The quarter-finalist has an Italian husband, who owns a couple of restaurants in Sarasota, Florida. But she saves her cooking for home. "I eat there a lot!" she said, asked whether she helps out. "The food is good. The food is very good … I don't do that part. I cook for my husband and with my husband a lot. We enjoy cooking a lot together we do that a lot, but not in the restaurant."
Quote of the day
"The mentality I walk on court with is: I deserve this."
- Venus Williams