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I played the semis of the singles in Bordeaux against Christiane Deryckere today and won 60 64. The second set Christiane played very well…aggressively with few errors and she moved well. We had a few long games, she won some, I won some and then I played a good 5/4 game, a bit more aggressively, to serve it out. It was a good battle. Our referee looked to be about 15 and he was quite good, calling all the lines and missed only one out call, which is amazing considering how dusty and clay covered the lines become during a match.

I really thought that Kerry Ballard and I would have an actual on court doubles match today. Our opponents had played a match yesterday and won it easily…but alas, they defaulted to us today! Let’s recap: Barcelona: We are in the 55s draw; removed from the 55s and put in the 60s; receive a default in both of our matches in Barcelona and win the title without taking to the court; enter Bordeaux in the 60s; get a bye; get a default; we are in the final still without having hit a ball! Kerry Ballard must just scare opponents sick when they see her name in the doubles draw! We will have a match tomorrow though! Our opponents said they would play.

Tomorrow I am third match up on Court 1 because I am playing a French player, Caroline Glazmann. She’s a lefty and we just played in Helsinki, but that was indoors on hard, this is outdoors on red clay. I am looking forward to it.

Ross Persons, USA beat Fritz Raijmakers, the #2 seed from Netherlands 46 61 62, but said the last two sets, particularly the third set was much closer than the score. So was the first since Ross had a lot of break points but Fritz played a fantastic first set, with good serving and nice volleys. Ross plays his doubles partner for the week, top seeded Carlos Behar from Colombia in the final.

Daniel Grossman and Polo Cowan, USA are playing 35 and 45 doubles here but their scores weren’t posted. The other Americans in the draws lost earlier.

I had a chance to talk with Adrian Alle, who plays in the men’s 85 and his wife. He’s 86 years young and they are travelling here in Europe till October! Next stop is Klosters, Switzerland. He said it was hard to find tournaments that offered his age division. We discussed the dearth of 85s players. He knows my dad from Cups going way back, so it was a nice connection. Tennis keeps you young I think.

Draws: http://itfseniors.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/player.aspx?id=0DB9AF7B-7BE6-4F08-A82B-84BA31CD1726&player=194

Photos: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipO04d4FCBpLA8l2uIdN3EyahzlzuS0oh-yqPXu6R0JjYFjGyGpLzStZlhI9zDzG9w?key=NFJ6WHJNd29admNNcVZYRU1TVk11bEI1OXNTR2hR

I had the day off today but like any nerdy senior player, I headed off to the club pretty early to watch and practice. I warmed up Ross Persons for his match (he won 61 61) and also Petro Krueger (she lost to Silvie from France 26 75 63 after having some match points in the second set so I suppose the warm up was ok) and after lunch (I walked down to the local bakery where they have nice baguette sandwiches and panini along with Croque Monsieur, lots of crosissants, pain au chocolat (called chocolaties here) and other tasty looking treats) I practiced again. All the practicing was done indoors on a sort of clay court. The court was basically a hard court with painted lines that had a bit of clay on top to make it slippery. It’s pretty fast but better than not hitting. The courts have skylights and no other artificial lighting during the day. There are five of these courts; three are in a building with pretty good light and the other two are in a dark building. There are also two hard courts and three 48 foot kids courts and a backboard. There are two outdoor clay  courts not being used for the tournament here, but they are reserved for members, who are playing on them most of the day.

Tomorrow I play singles, second match after 9am, and since it’s an 80s match I follow it could be around 10 (they play match tiebreaks in lieu of third sets). Kerry Ballard and I also play doubles, or so we hope! At least our opponents are here and already won a match today in doubles (and I played one of them yesterday in singles.)

Here’s a link to the draws, order of play and results: http://itfseniors.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/matches.aspx?id=0DB9AF7B-7BE6-4F08-A82B-84BA31CD1726&d=20160722

Bordeaux was pretty toasty today, it felt like summertime where I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California, only a bit cooler. (Yes, it was a dry heat). The scheduling here is quite different from that at a US tournament. Players are assigned a court, which in my case today was Court 3. I was the fifth match on and the 2nd match, not before noon. So I had to be there by noon in case there was a default or retirement. I finally got on the court at 5pm! Matches moved slowly on my court and with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees, players moved slowly, took their times on changeovers and found shade when they could. Europeans aren’t used to this type of heat in general.

I arrived around 11am having taken the public bus and hit with Ross Persons for about 40 minutes, after which my legs were covered in clay from the knee down. The court we practiced on was dry and dusty. By the end of the day I felt like I was covered head to toe with clay! Then I hit the grocery store, a Carrefour, which is a big chain. There was a wall of chocolates (but it was too hot to buy any, it would have melted) and another of jams (but no peanut butter, only Nutella). The cheese display was impressive too. I got some warm bread, cheese and a cold drink and went back to the club…only to wait and wait. Ross and I had another short hit in the middle of the match described below.

The match before my court was a women’s 60 between Austria’s Dagmar Sperneder and Marie Christine Deleuse of France. Dagmar wasn’t pleased with the heat and it was making her feel ill when the match started a little before 2pm. And it was pretty warm. She conserved her energy in the first set (sometimes at the wrong times) and came two points from claiming the set at 5/4, only to eventually lose it in the tiebreak. It seemed that Marie Christine would then take the match, but no, somehow Dagy started feeling better, despite not wanting to drink much water! She won the final two sets 64 62 a little before 5pm.

My match with Marie Christine Rambaud was quick though. She didn’t have much experience with tournaments I think, and I won 60 60.

One nice thing about the tournament is that every match is umpired, by juniors from the club, I think and they do a good job. They umpire four matches a day, regardless of the length, so the umpire for my match, which was under an hour, was lucky; the one umpiring Dagy’s match, less lucky.

There was a cocktail party at 6:30 but I was covered in clay and hadn’t brought a change of clothes, so I hopped on the bus back to the hotel…and my air conditioned room!

Draws are here. I’m 4th match on Court 9 tomorrow.

Yesterday I flew from Barcelona to Bordeaux (travel tip: take the train!) along with several other players from Barcelona, mostly Aussies. The flight was fine and the tournament director, Bruno Renoult and another person from the tournament were there to meet us and take us to our hotel which was really nice. It was warm but pleasant and very sunny. After consulting my new friend Google Maps to see what was open on a Sunday afternoon, I walked to a small grocery store for a few things (I love the Tomme cheese and the carrot salad in France…and the baguettes are good too of course!).

After my quick shopping trip I headed into the old city center which is really nice. There are trams going all over the city, though I mostly walked for a couple of hours, looking at the old buildings and churches. I popped into a sporting goods store and found that the brands of tennis balls on offer were quite different from those in the USA…priced differently too. It’s really a beautiful old city and after the tournament (and after it cools down later in the week from the 100s early this week) I hope to explore more.

Today one of the Aussies, Peter, gave us a ride to the courts (with the help of Google Maps offline, thank you). The Villa Primrose Club is old, very French and really nice. The organizers, Bruno and Shirley Friedl, do a great job from what I can see. There’s a trainer, one practice court (clay but indoors) and a nice restaurant on site. There’s also shuttle bus from the hotel to the courts and the public bus which goes 3-4 times an hour between a stop just outside the club to a stop near the hotel.

I hit with Shirley for about half an hour, enough to totally encase my shoes and socks in red clay and to get a feel for the courts which are different from Barcelona, drier and higher bouncing. The draw here is larger in my division and stronger I think and hopefully Kerry Ballard and I will get a doubles match in this week!

There was a minute of silence today in all of France to honor and remember the victims in Nice. It really puts tennis matches into perspective.

I play my first match tomorrow probably around 2 or 3pm (and it’s supposed to be around 103 tomorrow!) so I’m planning on drinking lots of water and staying in the shade (there’s no air conditioning at the club).

The draws for Bordeaux and order of play can be found here.

Photos