The good news was that the rain only lasted a short while today and my match was only an hour later than scheduled.There wasn’t much bad news, only that temperatures were in the 40s…it was really cold today!

I played Elena Polyakova from Russia (photo below). She’s a nice player who has had some injuries over the past few years but now is mostly recovered. She hits good angles and drop shots and volleys effectively. I won 62 62. In the middle part of the match it became really dark and colder and the balls turned into big, cold rocks, but then it lightened up and so did the balls. The weather really affects how a clay court plays and how heavy the balls play. These courts are very firm and somewhat slippery. Tomorrow Lyn Mortimer plays Polyakova and I play Lyn Friday morning.

I ended up playing mixed doubles here, there is no women’s doubles, with Bruce Barrett from Florida, who I met in Austria. We played Wendy and Stuart Armstrong, who are Australians but who live in Japan. In the final we play Polyakova and a Canadian player, Rosti Brankovsky, who is in the 60s. Bruce plays in the 65s. That will be tomorrow afternoon. See photo below.

Below are also some photos of Karlovy Vary and the tennis club. There’s a stream that runs through the club. I have decided that the club is located in a rain forest.