Monday 9/11/23

A moment of reflection on the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. I am in Austria today which is where I was during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Many thanks to the multitude of heroes which rescued victims that day.

Yesterday, 9/10/23, we played Berlin in the final of the German team championships. Carole played #2 and Reinhilde played #2 at 10am. Carole played Katrin Dippner who is a tough player and was up 5-4 (from 5-2) but down 0-30…but then hit two huge shots, missed one and hit three more to win the set and won the second 62 with similarly big forehands. 1/0.

Reinhilde won at #462 62 but finished after Carole…they had longer points and more deuce games. 2/0

I played Susanne who has ALS and it was her last match. She was formerly a terrific player and it was very different type of match. 3/0

That left Luisa (Nini) as the last singles match. She lost the first set 62, and it was warm and she was tiring. Gabi did a terrific job on the bench, Luisa fought hard, retrieving beautifully and won the second set. Winning that set clinched the win (not sure if Nini knew it though) and she went on the win the tiebreak. 4/0. Berlin did not want to play the doubles which was unfortunate as we had four players ready to go in doubles, but they had only 5 players.

Our match finished around 1:30 but the match between the Bavarian team we’d beaten yesterday and Mainz went down to the doubles (singles was 2/2) an both doubles matches were close…in the end Mainz won, I think.

On Saturday night Sabine and the club arranged a nice dinner and there was dancing later (I saw it in videos, I was gone by then). On Sunday morning we had a photo of all four teams together and after we won, of all our team members jointly and individually with the trophy.

Nini and I were to go to Vienna last night but our flight was cancelled…but that story is for another post.