I warmed up today with Luisa again. She is great to warm up with! The variety of tools used to groom the courts (and the different ways used to store the mats), is interesting. Here is a common type, a cloth mat attached to hooks (held up by plastic zip ties!). In the back you can see the liner used here, just a basic brush. The lines here are narrow and have grooves in them which keep the brushes pretty much in a straight line.
Today I played my first match, against Karen Peeters from the Netherlands. She is a good mixed player and played better and better as the match went on and the tennis balls went from “normal” balls to balloons (think red ball tennis and you get the drift). I won nonetheless, and play the #4 seed and Swedish #1, Vladmirra Andersson, the European champion and a semifinalist at the world championships. Karen and I played at the Tapiola venue, a small club of four courts about 15 minutes from the main venue. I asked the tournament director before warm up what time I should be back for transport and he said 10am. I arrived at 9:45, much to their relief, as the 9am match (I was scheduled for first match after the 9am match) had been a default. They had been trying to call me on a US number but it didn’t go through (WhatsApp please)! Anyway, all was well and we finished before the next match ,which was a not before 11:30 match.
Below, Rosemary, Carolyn & Elfie (Rosemary’s opponent…she won 3,0)
I caught up with Rosemary Everett and Peter Gard of Australia. The Australians/NZL players are getting sick or banged up or both. Phil from NZL tore his Achilles in Karlovy Vary so now has an unintended vacation in Finland as he will have surgery here after the swelling goes down. Peter is a surgeon so went with him to the doctor here. Leanne and Wayne have come down with a virus. Another player has a pulled hamstring. Rosemary is ok! So are Damien Pound and Simon Arms.
The doubles draws are now up. We have four in our division (the first posting had only three…we weren’t in it, but it was quickly changed, as both Rosemary and I had signed in with our IPINs). There was something wrong with the ITF software or its use early on. All sorted now!