The National Senior Women’s Clay Court Championships begins on Monday for the women’s 45/55/65/75 & 85 divisions. The 35s begin on Thursday. This is a USTA National Gold Ball Category I championship. Along with the corresponding “even” hard court categories (40 & 50/60/70/80/90) in La Jolla in May are the two biggest events of the year I think. Sue Bramette, Cathy Lassiter, Harriett Hulbert, Judy Job and countless other volunteers do a splendid job of making this a perfect tournament for the senior players.

I arrived in Houston today and made it pretty uneventfully to my hotel and then over to the Houston Racquet Club. The club is great, dozens of hard and clay courts in a wooded venue. The facilities, from locker rooms to fitness to tennis to pools to dining are top notch. I ran into one of the players who said she was local…living as she did “only 90 miles away”! She said she came to the racquet club to hit at least once a week! That’s Texas for you…90 miles away is around the corner.

I had a relaxing day except for my drive back…my Chevy Cruz rental car didn’t like the stop and go traffic (caused by malfunctioning stop light at a busy intersection at rush hour) and the brake light (red) and power steering light (amber and blue) both came on. Budget delivered a new car to me though a couple of hours after I called them, a VW Jetta, so hopefully that’s the end of the car woes for me.

Tomorrow I’m  hitting and then checking out Tennis Express which has its only store in Houston. It’s huge and full of tennis stuff, nirvana for tennis players…like a Prada store would be for inhabitants of Sex in the City.