It was another 90 degree day in Austria and a nice day for tennis, as a breeze came up midday.

I played my doubles partner, Gundula Weiland, in the final. She was #1 on the German team in Turkey and is #3 in the ITF world rankings (I am #4). I won 60 61 and played well today. Then I watched the American/Aussie duo of Bruce Barrett and Jan Johns play the 65 mixed final. Jan is very intense and has an effective lob. Bruce is a good doubles player but was careful to not hurt his opponents. The first set was over before I arrived, 61 for Jan and Bruce. The second got interested as they fell behind 41 and were down set points at 56 before rallying to win a tense tiebreak,which featured several match and set points before Jan and Bruce won it about 12-10.

Gundi and I played an Austrian pair in doubles, Roswitha and Hilldegard. We started out 3-0, then they got going. We had to resort to some tandem formations when we served and eked out a first set win 76 (4). The second was tied at 2-2 when we won a long game to hold Gundi’s serve. We ran out the set 62. Our opponents played pretty classic European doubles, one up, one back with the net person poaching frequently. It’s very effective on the slow clay. After the men’s 55 doubles final there was a long prize giving ceremony…for doubles, medals, for singles, a towel, a trophy and 2 nights at the Werzer hotel for next year for the winners, one night for finalists.

The tournament dinner was tonight, but most players had gone home, so it wasn’t hugely attended unfortunately.

Tomorrow I go to Munich with friends for two days, and on Monday we’ll drive to Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. There are only three players in the draw but one is Lyn Mortimer again, and the other Elena Polykova from Russia both good players.

A number…actually pretty much all of the European players foot fault, without any penalty…this fellow below is a classic example. Note that he has yet to hit the ball but his foot is 2 feet over the line!