Hollywood on centre court as celebrities descend for men’s Open final

It was Hollywood on the Yarra for the men’s final of the Australian Open as a group of Australian actors who made it big in the US converged on Rod Laver Arena: Liam Hemsworth, Rachel Griffiths, Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush.

Actor Liam Hemsworth with his girlfriend, Gabriella Brooks, in the Polo Ralph Lauren Suite

Observers would have thought the couple of hundred people waiting outside the Ralph Lauren suite were there to catch a glimpse of Hunger Games star Hemsworth and his partner, model Gabriella Brooks.

But in a sign of how the celebrity economy has shifted, they were really there for K-pop stars Mark Lee from NCT and Sana Minatozaki from Twice. Hemsworth and Brooks dutifully posed for photos while the crowd went politely crazy for the singers.

K-pop stars Sana Minatozaki from Twice and Mark Lee from NCT.Credit: Getty Images

Across Melbourne Park, Griffiths, who will appear in Nine’s marquee drama Madam this year, sat with Nine chair Catherine West over dinner in Nine’s hospitality suite at John Cain Arena.

Also spotted: Nine acting chief executive Matt Stanton, 3AW’s Ross Stevenson and incoming Nine head of broadcasting Amanda Laing. The Nine goodie bag slung over every seat was labelled Grand Slam Clubhouse. Cute.

A surprise celebrity spot was Oscar-winning actor Rush, whom Open Season happened across as he was striding past the Chemist Warehouse outlet next to Rod Laver Arena two hours before the men’s final. His destination, the marquee of major sponsor Emirates.

Geoffrey Rush arrives at Melbourne Park.Credit: Eddie Jim

It was a rare sighting. Rush has largely shunned the limelight since 2017 when Sydney’s Daily Telegraph reported that the actor had behaved inappropriately to a young actress during a theatre production of King Lear.

Rush denied the allegations and sued the paper in the Federal Court for defamation and won. The paper was ordered to pay $2.87 million in damages. Since then, he has largely retreated from the public glare and given up acting, his only film appearance being in Storm Boy in 2019.

Rush did not break stride when acknowledging Open Season’s photographer.

Other guests hosted by Emirates included cricketer Ricky Ponting and wife Rianna, and Inspired Unemployed star Jack Steele.

Ricky Ponting with wife Rianna at the men’s final.Credit: Eddie Jim

Back on Saturday at the women’s final, Hollywood star and martial arts legend Jackie Chan had some of the best seats in the house – in the front row of Rod Laver Arena.

Earlier in the day, the Rush Hour actor visited the player gym and hugged Alexander Zverev before he showed a bemused Lleyton Hewitt how to train with fighting sticks.

Jackie Chan and his pandas at the Australian Open women’s final on Saturday night.Credit: Arsineh Houspian

Chan brought along some unexpected guests to Rod Laver Arena – two toy pandas – which he perched in front of him in full view of the world’s cameras. Looks like he was taking in the tennis as a guest of Chinese liquor company and major Open sponsor Luzhou Laojiao, the company behind all those 1573 ads. And it can’t be any coincidence that Chan’s latest film, not yet available in Australia, is called … Panda Plan.

Around the grounds

At Tennis Australia’s exclusive O suite on Sunday, accessed by a concealed lift in Rod Laver Arena, TA chair Jayne Hrdlicka hosted tennis great Margaret Court (who has well and truly been welcomed back into the fold after a few lean years while the AO adjusted to her Christian views).

Bear Grylls watches on.Credit: Eddie Jim

The O invitation formula can be summarised as: three parts tennis greats (Court, John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall), one part billionaire (trucking magnate Lindsay Fox) and one part politician (ex-premier Steve Bracks) topped off with a smattering of celebrities, Eric Bana and Bear Grylls among them.

Eric Bana was also on hand. Credit: Getty Images

Elsewhere, Melbourne Demons president Brad Green and TV presenter partner Caty Price dined in exclusive Club 1905. Former cricketer Michael Clarke and partner Arabella were at Piper-Heidsieck along with restaurant impresario Chris Lucas and wife Sarah.

Olympic swimming great Emma McKeon was at Marriott Bonvoy along with former tennis player Mark Philippoussis and ambassador Ash Barty.

Ken Rosewall and Margaret Court (right) at the men’s final. Credit: AP

Peak seats

It looks like Vanessa Hudson, the boss of beleaguered airline Qantas, has emerged from her aircraft hangar of seclusion to a safe space – the seats reserved for major Open sponsor Emirates.

The Middle Eastern airline is a long-time partner of our national carrier and Hudson is sitting next to Emirates chief executive, Sir Tim Clark. Also in the environs, the political Eddie Everywhere of major events, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who decided his man of the people persona didn’t vibe with sitting in Tennis Australia’s premium seats on the eve of an election, was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who was afforded guest of honour status, along with his wife Rachel Schutz, next to Tennis Australia chair Jayne Hrdlicka.

Sporting his trademark funky fedora, billionaire investor Alex Waislitz took time out from his litigation schedule to watch the match with girlfriend Rebekah Behbahani.

Rachel Schutze, Richard Marles and Jayne Hrdlicka at the men’s final.Credit: Eddie Jim

Elsewhere, Tones and I with husband Jimmy Bedford sat in the prime-time courtside seats. We also saw rebirthed AFL star Ben Cousins heading for his seat, closely followed by AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon, closely followed by commissioner Richard Goyder.

Martin Pakula, the former major events minister, with wife Lisa, sat in the exclusive Club 1905 zone. Pakula, chair of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, was near Collingwood statesman Jeff Browne and seated a few rows behind his chief executive Travis Auld.

Meanwhile, outgoing Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Senator Simon Birmingham, whose creases on his trousers looked so sharp they were in danger of giving a paper cut, came down the stairs only to pirouette and walk back again. Wrong way, go back Simon!

No shows

A few highly touted celebrities didn’t make it. The early signs were good for Kylie Minogue, in town rehearsing her tour. But nada.

Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has a family connection with doubles specialist John Peers, was in the Paris crowd to see him win the men’s doubles Olympic gold medal. Peers’ winning streak continued at Melbourne Park, taking out the mixed doubles final with Olivia Gadecki. But Big Bill didn’t make it. Maybe next year.

Chance encounter

Open Season bumped into legendary lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, KC, in the media centre. “I used to play tennis with Lew Hoad,” the eminent human rights barrister told us, before fondly recalling Australia’s golden age of tennis from the 1950s onwards.

Turns out Robertson was with his son, actor Julius Robertson, whose amazing tennis knowledge had him in demand as a media interviewee. Julius clinched the Rod Laver ticket. “I shall be watching the TV at home,” Robertson snr said wistfully.

Billionaire Lindsay Fox (centre) at the men’s singles final.Credit: Eddie Jim

Melebrity most often

Such is the desire of Tennis Australia and its big-name sponsors to lure famous names to the Open it seems that some Melebrities (Melbourne celebrities) were more frequently at Rod Laver Arena than many of the actual players.

But who played the most public appearance matches? Early on we had our money on Queen Melebrity and bayside crimewave commentator Bec Judd. But the wife of AFL legend Chris Judd told us she was only appearing twice, one being a 45-minute late appearance at the Emirates marquee.

Influencer Rozalia Russian got so many invitations she had to double up, attending with Emirates for a day session then backing it up with Ralph Lauren that evening. When asked how often she had attended, Russian said “never enough”, despite calculating she’s already been five times.

Influencer Rozalia Russian, pictured in 2023, kept up a busy tennis schedule.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

Comedian Joel Creasey told us, “I’m here every day”, although that turned out to be partly due to his hosting duties at Squealing Pig’s wine bar at Grand Slam Oval.

However, the ultimate Melebrity tennis fan has to be stylist Lana Wilkinson, who attended “six or seven days” as a guest of various sponsors including Ralph Lauren, Marriott Bonvoy, Chemist Warehouse and Tennis Australia.

“People will probably start asking if I’m working for Tennis Australia,” she said. “I had a photo shoot on Thursday with my team, and they were even joking, ‘Oh did Tennis Australia let you have the day off?’

“I do love it, I really love it.”

While the bonus of being a tennis Melebrity means never needing to fork out for a ticket, Wilkinson extolled the good value of “$20 ground passes”, indicating it may have been a few years since she last bought one. Ground passes this year cost from $30 to $85.

Show them the money

Tennis Australia’s push to tie the Open’s top seats to expensive hospitality offerings has left rows of empty prime seats in Rod Laver Arena throughout the tournament – as well as put a few noses out of joint among faithful tennis superfans.

One longtime attendee, who asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation from Tennis Australia, said his single corporate Rod Laver Arena seat had increased from $13,545 last year to $32,450 this year, adding on lunch and dinner every day (which he didn’t want).

The superfan had been buying a single Rod Laver ticket for himself since 2005 and spent every year glued to his seat watching upwards of 12 hours of tennis a day.

“I travel from the United States to Melbourne every year to experience the excitement of world-class tennis, in person,” he said.

Inside the opulent Chandelier Room at the premium Club 1905.Credit: Eddie Jim

But last year he received an email from Tennis Australia which said “due to the incredibly strong demand” it was “repurposing the stadium” and changing its premium packages.

The ardent fan was given a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Pay the extra price or be moved to a seat on an upper level.

“All the loyal Rod Laver corporate ticket holders have been kicked out of their seats by Tennis Australia, who seem to have made a business decision to exit the tennis event industry and enter into the food and beverage catering industry,” he said.

“The changes are a money grab by a greedy organisation that has lost focus of their core business and does not care about loyal customers.”

Ouch! We heard the same from other loyal ticket holders.

Another regular attendee who bought the same corporate seats for 30 years was pushed out by Tennis Australia’s new reserve seating for Club 1905 and had to buy seats much higher up to avoid the hospitality package.

“Reluctantly, we purchased seats in row S of the lower section, (without dining options) but because for most of the matches most of the Club [1905] seats are unoccupied, we find that even though we are much higher up than previously we still have a clear view of the court. Ironic really, and such a waste.”

It remains to be seen if Tennis Australia, which didn’t answer our questions on the matter, will modify its policy or if the stand-off continues into next year’s Open.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.