I play my first round of singles and of doubles today, starting with singles at 6pm and doubles not before 9pm!

In singles I play (to no surprise), a Spanish player, Silvana Gonzalez Lessa who is a pretty good player and just won a Grade 2 last month.

Yesterday Kerry Ballard and I were in the 55 doubles with a draw of 10 teams and we didn’t have a match today. I think what happened is that after the draws were made  Carmen Perea and Rosa Togores were allowed to enter late  (they weren’t in the original draw) so there were 3 teams to make a 60s round robin. (Sala/Sala and Kerry and I were moved into the 60s.) Sometimes the ITF referees won’t allow any changes to draws once made and sometimes they apparently are extremely flexible.Or perhaps they had entered online and were overlooked when making the draw which may be the more logical interpretation. Anyway it happened, we  are happy to have a draw. We play Sala and Sala tonight!

Update: I just received an email that we received a walkover tonight so I now only have a singles match at 6pm. Interesting…

Last night I ran into Susan Kimball from the USA (though originally from GBR and since she’s just come from Britain, she sounds particularly British this week! She’s playing with her husband Mas in mixed 65s and also in 70 singles. She was happy to have beaten the #4 seed and defending champion Daniele Bonnet 76 62. She said after the first set she started to crowd Bonnet when returning serve and forced a lot of double faults. Mas and Sue are shown below. She next plays Heide Orth of Germany. Here is a link to their travel blog.

Ross Persons, USA upset his doubles partner and the #4 seed, Felix Riba, using some clever drop shots 63 46 60. He plays the #7 seed, Alejandro Spinelli from Argentina next.

I had a double practice yesterday and a slightly shorter double practice today with Heide Orth and Kerry Ballard. It was much cooler today and clearer and less humid. We are using Babolat balls here which are a lot lighter than the ones I practiced with next week (and lighter than the Dunlop Forts we will be using next week). I’m getting used to them and to the clay here which is quite nice clay, well maintained and not too slippery.

Here’s a link to the draws: http://www.itftennis.com/seniors/tournaments/tournament/info.aspx?tournamentid=1100035775