I played my first round match last night at dusk. I was scheduled for 7:30 and got on closer to 8pm. I was fortunately following King Van Nostrand, who wrapped up a win here in the men’s 80s right before my match. I played Patricia Labat Laberrere from France. I’d played her a couple of years earlier in Mallorca and we had good points there. I was a bit more aggressive this time I think and won 60 60…we didn’t have a lot of long rallies and finished just about sunset, and the lights had come on over our court.

Erin Boynton played a Spanish player and won 60 64. Her court was out in the back and had the older style lights and one light was out (though she said she never realized it). Her match started late this time because her opponent was 30 minutes late because she drove and couldn’t find parking. (The tournament had sent out an advisory to players that there would be no parking on Thursday due to a 120th Club Anniversary bash.) So it was pretty dark on that court and as it got cooler and the balls heavier, her opponent came alive and got a lot of balls back. Erin adjusted and won about every other point with a drop shot!

The anniversary party went on apparently till 2:30 am…my room was on the opposite side of the hotel from the party but Erin’s was just above the party which apparently featured a horrible singer till 2:30am. The club was issued a permit to have loud music till 2:30am too so there was no way to stop the racket. It’s Spain. (Erin’s room is on the left side in the photo below…mine on the right..I was lucky!)

Tonight I play the 3rd seed, Encarnita Gomes Ruiz from Spain and Erin plays the top seed, Laura DiVittori from Italy. Then we play a couple of Austrians in doubles. (We last played doubles 3 days ago! ) We start at 6pm for singles and have doubles scheduled at 7:30 which is pretty optimistic scheduling by the referee I think.