Thursday September 14, 2018, Umag, Croatia

It was a lovely day to play tennis today in Umag…a bit of cloud cover to make it feel cooler and no wind.

I played Sylvia Reigl of Austria in the final. Sylvia is a good athlete….she shows up for matches on her scooter…I’d fall off of one! She took up tennis late, but has a strong lefty forehand, and likes to run. She also seems to like pace so I rope a doped her, giving her little pace and few angles. She hit four winners in the first game…after that I won the next 12, though she had game points.

I watched the end of my doubles partner’s match after mine ended. She was playing Laura DiVittori of Italy, who is a nice player with good variety. Laura won but Ellen played pretty well.

45 minutes after they finished we were on the doubles court. We played the final on center court which was cool. There were a few people watching (maybe to get some shade and comfortable seats!). We played Petro Kruger and Sue Jamieson and Ellen played fantastic doubles. I was consistent and we won 61 61 but really had a fun match. Petro hit one shot where she misfit the ball and the ball hit her racquet several times (one continuous motion) before it ricocheted off the frame and into the court for a winner.

After doubles, I watched Ellen (and Marc Pepin) play mixed against DiVittori and Quentin Massey of NZL. There were lots of long games but DiVittori and Massey won the majority.

There was a trophy presentation after the matches….big trophies (though the mens’ trophies, even for consolation were much larger than the women’s trophies…hmmmm…but the women’s had handles). Ellen won three trophies but she was driving home so it was ok.

I rode my bike around for a while after that and ran into some Aussies at the grocery store and then back at the ATP stadium, ran into my doubles partner from Klosters and Barcelona, Kerry Ballard, and also some Americans, Brent Abel, Don Long, Jimmy Parker, Michael Stewart and Don Clark from the 70s and 75 teams, and Mai Ichikawa.

And that’s a wrap on the Umag tournament. It was fun, decently organized, with good weather. The venue is nice, if you want to see Croatia, it’s a good starting point.