• Category Archives Switzerland
  • Travel » Switzerland

  • Beating the Rain (and Opponents) on Finals Day in Klosters

    Posted on by Carolyn Nichols Comment

    My first match today was at 9:30 and my last one finished in the dark as it started to rain sometime after 8pm.

    I played my singles under cool and breezy conditions against unseeded Helen Litt of NZL. She beat the #2 and #3 seeds en route to the final but it took a toll on her calf I think. She didn’t run for a lot of drop shots for fear of pulling it. I won the match and her calf was ok, so all in all it was a successful final.

    Later in the day, after my doubles partner, Kerry Ballard, played her last round robin singles (against Nora Blom), we finished our match which was suspended yesterday, winning 61 62, to reach the final.

    Meanwhile, the other semifinal was going on at a different location and Litt/Rosemary Everett won a cliffhanger 46 62 11-9.

    We started the doubles final on an unlighted court (Klosters has 4 with lights) at 6:30. We split sets and won the match tiebreak 10-8. I poached at 8-7 to give us two match points…and we only needed the two.

    Just as we finished the rain started, though play continued for a while on other courts. Kerry & Ian Ballard, Sue Ellis and Leanne Swaysland, all Aussies, Lisa Prechtel from Netherlands and I had dinner at the club. I had rosti (a fancy name for hash browns, with a fancy price to go with it) with eggs, and it was very good. My big suitcase is in Annelies Simons car and will go with her to Ulm. I am going by train tomorrow early.

    Next stop, Ulm, Germany for the ITF World Team Championships. Opening Ceremonies are Saturday!

    Klosters is a really nice place…I hope to be back soon and to have more time to explore the area next time.


    International Tennis News ITF Tournaments Klosters Klosters Grade A Switzerland Tennis Travel 📎and tagged

  • Klosters: Into Singles Final; Half Way to Doubles Final

    Posted on by Carolyn Nichols 1 Comment

    I played Rosemary Everett of Australia today not before 12:30 and we got on at 1:30 which wasn’t too bad. It was fun to play and I played pretty well..I like this 1200 meters of altitude so far. I play Helen Litt of NZL who beat the #2 seed first round, then the #3 seed today, and an Aussie team member yesterday so she’s having a good tournament so far.

    The doubles has been hard for the tournament to schedule. I think they just don’t have as many courts as they would like despite using courts in Klosters Dorf, the Sport Hotel and the six at the Sports Center. And matches have untimed warm ups and there have been a lot of three setters. Today the tournament organization tried to finish early so players could go to the dinner at the top of the mountain. So anyway, Kerry and I were to play Reinhilde Adams and Nora Blom tonight after Nora and Reinhilde finished their quarterfinal doubles. They couldn’t play last night because one of the players didn’t know she had a match. Tonight Reinhilde had a birthday dinner to attend so had to stop at 4:55pm. The only open court was at the Hotel Sport (someone kindly drove us) wait 10 minutes for a match to finish, wait as the court was prepared….brushed, lined, watered; it was after 4pm before we even started warming up. We warmed up Kerry, who hadn’t hit today. We started playing about 4:25. We won the first set 61 and were up 2/1 when Reinhilde had to go. We finish the match tomorrow. Kerry was hitting while we were discussing the situation and didn’t realize we were only starting the match today; she thought we would get a retirement at 4:55pm (the match had been scheduled after all and it wasn’t our fault that one of our opponents had a party to attend). On the other hand, it was another beautiful part of Klosters where we played today. The views can be rather distracting…and relaxing.

    So tomorrow I play Litt at 9:30, finish doubles not before 3pm (Kerry has singles not before 1;30 against Nora) and if we win we play the doubles final not before 6pm. I leave early Friday for the ITF World Seniors Team Championships in Ulm.

    Meanwhile, my team is traveling to Ulm, or trying to. Susan Wright is almost there, but Pat Purcell’s flight was cancelled…she’ll be there tomorrow. Travel can be hard!

    Draws are here.

    Photos are here.


    ITF Tournaments Klosters Klosters Grade A Switzerland Tennis Travel 📎and tagged