Lugano, Switzerland, Tuesday Morning
I had my first match yesterday in Lugano. I practiced around 3:15-4 with Leanne Swaysland, then waited for my “not before 5:30 (pm)” match. I played Esther Aeschmann from Interlaken and won in about 70 minutes. We had some long rallies and she was a nice player. We had played next to someone who was speaking American English, so checked and it was Rocky Royer from New Mexico who beat the #7 seed in the 65s. He finished up his match just as I was going to watch, so I spoke with him and with Michael Roberts, USA (M55) afterwards. I then watched a match from the other W65s group (there are only 6 players in the draw, so the format is two round robin groups of 3, with the winner of each group playing for the title), before walking back to my apartment.
In the morning I had gone to a Swiss Lidl for some food and drinks, and also dropped by the Coop and Migros Supermarkets (separate chains) afterwards. Coop wins for quality and variety of products, though Migros has an upstairs cafe with good looking pizza! Coop though had delicious berries, nice looking veggies, takeout roasted chicken (1/4, 1/2 or full chickens), and prepared foods, and natural almond, cashew and peanut butter (neither Migros nor Lidl had the latter).
Switzerland is a richer and more expensive country and grocery prices are on par or higher than those in the USA but the quality of the food is very good.
Today i have no match. I practiced at 7:30am with Leanne, hit a bit with Michael Roberts from Vero Beach, Florida.