Yesterday and today I practiced early with Heide Orth. We are always the first ones at the court at 7am, then Nora Blom (who plays the 60s final today) and Annalies Simons come to the court at 7:30, then others around 8. The courts are open for practice till about 8:50, then we have to sweep and line the courts.  Heide plays the final in her age division at 3pm today. My opponent for tomorrow, Olga Markova from Czech Republic was out hitting with Barbora Koutna, the top seed in the 50s, and also from Czech Republic. She’s a good player, we played in the final of one ITF tournament a few years ago and in the semis of another two years back, so it will be a challenging first match.

Heide found a good, reasonably priced restaurant that we’ve been to twice. The specialty everywhere this time of year is mushrooms…Chanterelle mushrooms to be specific, which are on every menu and dish from pizza to pasta to fish to chicken, all very good. I like chanterelle season much more than white asparagus seaason!

I play at noon tomorrow in singles. I am going to play doubles with Margreth Beyer from Germany in the 50/55 doubles. The entry doesn’t close for the doubles till noon tomorrow.

Here are a few photos from Heide’s match yesterday and of the spectators taking in the action yesterday afternoon. The castle is just across the Rheine from my hotel.