Rhys De Deugd recounts golden moments from Australia’s Davis and Billie Jean King Cup Finals campaigns in Malaga as he joins the teams as a content producer.
Malaga, Spain, 25 November 2024 | Rhys de Deugd
The prospect of having both Australian men’s and women’s tennis teams competing at the same venue for world championship titles is a unique one.
It brought an opportunity forward to have me, Tennis Australia’s social media and content producer, alongside the teams for the first time.
Welcome to ‘diaries of a content producer’, recounting my major highlights from a whirlwind fortnight at 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 were evacuated from the region following torrential rains that caused widespread damage and disruption.
To say the start of my trip was crazy and stressful is a mild understatement.
As the streets of the city centre turned into rivers, the Spanish weather agency issued a red alert. Rainfall reached up to 70mm in just one hour, marking some of the coastal town’s worst flooding in decades.
To add to this, the airline lost my luggage, and I struggled to get an Uber out of the airport. Turns out, the city was completely flooded and locked down.
I don’t know much Spanish, but I understood what the Uber driver meant when he said “Malaga … mucho problemo.”
I managed to get the Uber driver to turn around and head the other direction while Lauren Coridas, the Australian BJK Cup team manager, sorted me a room at the team’s accommodation. What a saint.
I was drained and emotional, but it was so nice to be around the women’s team for dinner and finally be in a bed after a long journey to get there.
Still in my filthy clothes and without toiletries, I stayed the night at their resort and quickly walked to an outlet in the morning to get some necessities.
Then I went straight to the courts to see the new stadium for the first time and be around the Australian women’s team for their first practices.
The Billie Jean King Cup
The camaraderie was infectious, and I was already creating connections with the team.
In the days leading up to their quarterfinal tie, my job was under threat as the players, particularly Daria Saville, took great pleasure in the creative direction of what was to be produced. But their enthusiasm helped create fun pieces that were more authentic and relatable to…
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