ETUF, Essen, Germany Friday Sept. 8

Today after sleeping some I practiced with Luisa, Sabine and Desiree from the ETUF 60s team at high noon. It was in the high 80s here today…and very very sunny, a “California” sky.

Luisa and I warmed up, hit a few cross courts, then played Sabine and Desi a couple of sets of doubles and Luisa and I played a few singles points. I went back to my hotel and Sabine asked if I could pick her and Luisa up at 15:50..I blame jet lag for reading that as 5:50 pm instead of 3:50 pm. Fortunately she found another ride and I arrived around 16:30. Most of the team was there, outdoors in the shade drinking wine or water or both. Around 6:30 pm, we went over to the. main clubhouse restaurant, which was packed on such a balmy Friday evening. Members of other teams arrived and were knocking on the table (a way of saying hello to everyone at once I found out).

I left early with another teammate…to get ready for tomorrow and write some and still get to bed early.

We start play at 10am tomorrow. I am second match on, so probably between 11-12, as match tiebreaks are played in lieu of third sets. Doubles is later in the day. And there’s a big dinner tomorrow night.