Draws for the tournament in Lugano are here.

Yesterday, Monday, was hot and muggy in Lugano, Switzerland. Not Palm Desert or Florida hot, but here there’s no reprieve in most places…other than grocery stores most places are not air conditioned, and few even have fans.

To cut to the chase, I played Elisabeth Barraud from France and won 60 61. She had a very good second serve. It was very hot when Erin Boynton and I warmed up around 2:30…in fact everyone who had seen us practicing commented on how crazy we were to hit then…and it WAS hot. After practicing, of course we went to the grocery store where Erin was happy to find sweet potatoes. And I found cinnamon, the first cheap thing I’ve seen in Switzerland (50 cents for an average sized bottle). Then Erin who had no match yesterday, went back to the apartment and I waited for my “not before 5:30” match…which actually was finished around 5:45.

The tournament is using six courts at Tennis Lido, three each on the side of the entrance to the huge (Olympic sized I think) swimming pool and beach along the lake. The tournament has given everyone access to the facility for the week, which is very nice.

The club itself has a small clubhouse with a restaurant, office and lorckerrooms, and has wifi. It’s a pretty typical European club, big on charm, with fewer amenities (but a better restaurant) than in the USA. All the courts are red clay and seem slower than Barcelona by a bit and seem well-maintained.

Today Erin and I practiced really early (early for us…we haven’t previously practiced before 11am), at 8am. We tried to take the bus back to the apartment but failed (talked right through our stop…and passengers do have to push the “stop” button before their stop comes up…we did not and ended up walking quite a ways.) After dropping off my gear, I went to find the farmers’ market (it wasn’t much really), and then to go to the Coop City market grocery store, and saw a church, and admired the plazas and beautiful, ornate buildings here.

After that I went to the club to practice with Isabel Gemmel from Australia, and am back, waiting for Erin’s daughter to arrive…Hannah was caught in the summer airline fiasco in London, but managed to book a flight to Zurich when her flight to Milan was summarily cancelled (book with the airline directly or a real travel agency (offline, not online) if traveling this summer!) I successfully navigated the bus to and from the club…👍

Update: Erin Boynton won her singles 61 61. Next match is on Thursday at noon (when the high is supposed to be 97!)