I played second match on Court 9 today…that’s the way the matches are scheduled, for a specific court and it can be match one or match nine…match #2 is good, as matches start at 9am tomorrow, weather permitting. I won today against Dagmar Anwar from Germany, one of the top Germany players, new into the 55s. She was nursing a knee injury, and I dropshotted her a lot, but she seemed to be moving pretty well. She’s taking a break now for a while though. She’s also very nice and speaks excellent English. She was her visiting her sister from Slovenia, who watched the match even when it started raining quite hard in the second set. We were lucky to finish before the courts were underwater!

I talked Petra Kruger from So Africa into a 10 minute warm up, which was good. The courts were slower today, since it was wetter and cooler…it was a good day for drop shots. There are quite a few Aussies here, and they are all staying in Poertschalk for three weeks, for this tournament and the European and Austrian Championships to follow. Aussies travel a lot and it’s their winter. Petra  is here for ITF points and practice for the world championships in Croatia in September, also held on red clay.

Tomorrow I take on the Austrian #1, and #2 seed here, Julia Smutny. I haven’t played her before. She seems to spend a lot of time questioning calls and crossing the net to look at marks, or did in the two matches I saw her play this week. I’m looking forward to playing.

Yesterday I went to the player dinner…which started at 8pm! For that reason, matches today didn’t start till 10am. The dinner was a buffet at the clubhouse. It consisted of about 10 different kinds of cold pork..cured, uncured ham, sausage, roast, dumplings (giant ravioli filled with I think a potato mix), Germany potato salad, fried chicken, Weiner Schnitzel, bread and for desert what looked like a sweet bread baked in a bundt pan. No vegetables or fruit…hmmm.

Tomorrow after I play I hope to catch the train to Munich, and go on to Baden Baden the next day. However, just looking at the order of play, I am  the 4th match, even though I told them I had a train to catch…we are the last singles match scheduled. I’m playing an Austrian so that’s probably the reason. Not only that…we are scheduled behind a men’s 70s doubles match and the team we are scheduled behind is 2nd match on another court against another team…maybe we will get moved up to the third slot, or maybe some matches ahead of us have already started and were rained out mid match .

Below, rained out courts, Me and Dagmar; Judy and Tom Hancy, Jan Johns; Petra Kruger and me

Yesterday I biked to the supermarket near the club because I arrived at 6:30, not 7:30 for dinner….again, check out the chocolates…but also the pork…quite different from US Supermarkets!