Crown’s IMG Tennis Player’s Party

Last night, Crown Casino debuted the most toned and tanned members of the sporting world at their annual welcome party. Providing the most star power on the night was world number one, Rafael Nadal, who was the epitome of European chic with his golden tan and crisp white shirt.

The fluro themed party, which featured giant gold and silver goblets of Moët & Chandon, also featured some local talent in the form of Pat Rafter and Bernard Tomic. Tomic seemed pretty happy to keep it casual, looking more like he was dressed for a night at the movies than a high profile cocktail party.

Slovakian player Daniela Hantuchova was the recipient of most of the male attention in the room with her form-fitting dress and golden tan. While hers was real, other coffee-hued skin tones in the room were not.

Bernard Tomic

Fluro fashion

Players were all too happy to carry the fluoro theme onto the courts, with the majority of matches featuring at least one player clad in neon brights. Dishonourable sartorial mention goes to Czech world number seven Tomas Berdych, who is sponsored by H&M. The blue and white striped outfit provided by the global budget fashion brand looked cheap as chips in comparison to the sleek designs of Nike and Adidas. C’mon H&M, we know you can do better.

David Ferrer

Age gap

Today it was a generational battle when Swiss player Belinda Bencic beat out Kimiko Date-Krumm. At 16 years old, Bencic is the youngest player in the tournament, while Date-Krumm is the oldest at 43. Just to rub it in, even Bencic’s mother is younger than Date-Krumm, who lost to Bencic 6-4 4-6 6-3 after a two hour match.

Kimiko Date-Krumm

Bye, bye Venus

While her sister is a favourite to win the title, poor Venus was ousted in the first round today by Russian 22nd seed Ekaterina Makarova. Maybe the fact that she chose to dress like a Zebra had something to do with it. Maybe not. Either way, we will be interested to see whether Venus checks out of the Olsen Hotel tonight or sticks around to see her sister win.

Venus Williams