Label Me: Action From the Aussie Open 2011 in Melbourne

I've never attended a tennis tournament before so I was very excited about going to the Australian Open in Melbourne. Being a Federer fan, my prime purpose was to 1) see an exciting match with Federer playing and 2) to get his autograph.

I set out to achieve these objectives by:

purchasing tickets for both of the men's quarter final matches held at night (reasoning being that Federer might not make it past the quarters, given his current form at the time I bought tickets; but he's still No. 2
paying the ridiculous premium to stay at Crown Towers (the choice of Federer, Nadal, Roddick and other top 10 players); and
upgrading our package to include access to Crystal Club, the hotel's executive lounge).

What happened in the end:

Roger ended up playing during the day session, but luckily I managed to score two lower-level seats for $50 the night before!
I never met Roger, but rather his wife & entourage. Mirka refused to sign my ball, citing her reason as "only my husband signs things". It made our subsequent run-ins at the club rather awkward for me...
We met Nadal outside the club - he was relatively tiny in person compared to what I've seen on TV (or that infamous Emporio Armani underwear ad), but ever so polite. I made him wait for what seemed like ages while I rustled through my bag for a pen... and he still thanked us twice after autographing. It made watching his match that night more personal and painful!
On our last day during breakfast, I saw Roger's manager at the buffet and took my chance to ask him whether Roger would be popping down. He said Roger tends to sleep in really late, so it's not likely he would be making an appearance. I was crestfallen, so he kindly went through his bag and found an autographed card for me! Wasn't what I originally set out to achieve, but better than nothing :-)
Matches-wise, the three matches we saw were straight-setters which was disappointing. I also miss the commentary on TV while in the arena. Nevertheless, I still plan to return next year for the finals!