On our last day of Tennis against the host team, we switched up the lineup a little more with me playing number 1 singles and Carsten in the lineup in doubles.
Dan opened played at number 2 singles and won convincingly 6-1, 6-0. He had been working on bringing back his two handed backhand and found his stroke today.
I made my singles debut at number 1 singles and won 6-0, 6-3. My opponent had played college tennis in the US shortly after I had and we shared some nice stories after the match.
Because we clinched the match and the courts were needed Carsten and Willie did not get to play their doubles but we won 2-0.
Bittersweet ending for us as we were 1 win away (even just a couple more sets won…which could have happened) from playing for the top 4 places. We ended up with 3 wins and 2 losses, with our loses coming to Czeck Republic (#6) and Great Britain (#8). I went undefeated in Turkey but I would gladly trade that for team victories.
After our match we watched Mario and the Men’s 45s barely go down against France. Mario was down 6-0, 4-1 with things looking very bleak when he completely changed his game plan and rolled winning nine of the next ten games. The Frenchman fought back, saved two match points and won the match 7-6 in the third set tiebreaker. A great match and a terrific comeback showing a lot of heart but deflating nonetheless. As with many of our matches the USA teams felt confident if the could just win one of the singles matches and get into the doubles that we would be able to bring home a victory. Tarango’s match was not as close today and Men’s 45s Team USA ended with a Silver medal (again). A great accomplishment but definitely short of the Gold this team was expecting.
In the afternoon a couple of us went to a nearby town called Side where we walked the ruins and had a nice change of scenery, reminding us of the history that surrounded us.
When we returned from our brief excursion, the officials were about to start the Medal Presentation. I wanted to make sure we were there present to see the Medals (namely the Gold) and to taste the defeat one more time. We could have been there. We expected to be there but we have more work to do. If I get another chance to compete on this team for Team USA again we will be there.