Wednesday — the day started well but ended with a team loss and crutches
Erika — we played South Africa today.  Shelly Works led off at #2 singles and won 6-2, 6-2 in just over 2 hours.  Shelly thrives on long points.  By "long" I mean between 50 to 100 balls struck per point.  After one particularly long point (close to 100 balls hit), her opponent showed some good natured frustration and Shelly said "that was fun, I wish you lived closer so we could play once a week!"  In the second set, after another long point, Shelly made a rare unforced error and her opponent raised both arms in victory and said "you finally missed one!"

Next, Anna played #1 singles.  She lost a tough three set match against a hard hitting opponent.  Anna has a very good slice backhand and an incredibly well disguised drop shot.  She fought hard but just came up a little short.

So, it would come down to the doubles.  Alissa and I were ready to win it for the team.  We played a tough first set, but lost it 7-5.  We were at 1-1 in the second set, playing a long point when something happened in my right foot and I was in a lot of pain.  We won the game and took a medical timeout.  The Turkish  trainer came out and poked, prodded and twisted my foot (causing some additional pain!) and then pronounced my foot fine.  We asked for it to be taped but he didn’t have any tape with him.  But, for 10 euros, he would wrap it with a bandage.  With the foot bandaged, Alissa and I made some modifications to our strategy and kept playing.  We somehow won the second set 6-2.  I was not able to stand on the ball of my foot, but I was able to put weight on it.  At 1-0 in the third set, something more happened and the pain increased.  Now, I was barely able to stand on the right leg.  We kept fighting and Alissa basically played singles while I was up at net trying to help any way I could.  We lost, but fought to the last point.

Now, the challenge was how to get me off the court.  One of the US players on the 40s team, Vesna McKenna, is a paramedic.  One of the players found her and she quickly came over to the court to help.  Carolyn Nichols negotiated crutches from the medical team and arrangements were made for a cart to drive me to my room.
It was a tough day, but the support of my Court Cup teammates and the other US players was greatly appreciated.
Tomorrow we play Spain in the 5-8 bracket.