To be honest, it couldn't have worked out much better.

Aussies have been annoyingly cock-a-hoop about their sporting successes this summer and the first couple of days of the Australian Open has only given them further cause to crow - seven locals through in the men's singles alone.

We've only got one tennis player representing us - but what a representative, Big Andy, the Colossus of Dunblane, resplendent in green and black under the opened roof of Margaret Court Arena.

It's hot, but not quite as hot as it's been in recent years meaning that the hundreds of ex-pats who've come to support the big fella are not melting quite as quickly, in their saltire face paint and kilts as perhaps they did last time.

Though this is only a 2nd round match, there's an extra inducement for those of us well and truly fed up with Aussie sporting arrogance as his opponent this afternoon is a local with a mouth and ego significantly bigger than his tennis ability.

Marinka 'Mad Dog' Matosevic is the bloke at the other end of the court, from a Bosnian background but, make no mistake, as Aussie as a vegemite and koala sandwich.

Rinko, his supporters call him - and there are more than a few of them, plenty of whom seemed to have made an early attack on the amber nectar - evidenced by their noisy demands for Andy's fans to 'shut up'. A reminder, if anyone needed one, that this isn't Wimbledon.

Rinko made his bones by kicking over Rafa Nadal's water bottle in a game a few years ago, in an attempt to put the great Majorcan off his stroke.

It didn't work incidentally, Rinka got gubbed, but he's dined out on the reputation of being a 'bad yin' ever since.

Not that it seems to worry Andy.

The first set flies by, one solitary game won saving Rinko from the dreaded 'bagel'.

What a specimen our boy is, I'm always amazed when you see him in the flesh, he's a monster, looking fitter than ever.

Really he's in no trouble whatsoever, delivering the 2nd set without drama, and even though the Aussie fans keep up their boisterous banter - the umpire even has to ask them to keep it down on a couple of occasions - our man is well in control.

Andy looks to be playing right up to his best form though it's hard to say for sure because Rinko, to be fair, is having what Aussies call 'A Barry Crocker' aka, a shocker.

No Mad Dog antics here, whether this is because he's intimidated by Andy I don't know, but Rinko is guilty of worse decision making than Prince Andrew. As yet another of his shots fail to get over the net, he turns to the crowd and offers up a plaintive expletive followed by a shake of the head and the despondent words - 'ah, technique'.

For a second, you almost feel sorry for him.

I said almost.

In no time flat, the game's over, big Andy is through to the next round, possibly to meet another arrogant Aussie with any luck, since quite a lot of them seem to remain in the draw.

As the crowd drifts away, Andy's supporters in quiet celebration, Rinko's in loud, rambunctious despair, I comment to my court-side companion the opinion that Aussies invariably seem to be incredibly bad losers.

'Not like the Scots', I say, 'we know how to lose'.

'Yes', comes the reply, 'but then, you lot have had so much more practice.'