I played singles in the morning…scheduled at 8am BUT, some courts were reserved for teaching pros and members till 9am (the normal start time for the tournament). One of those courts was mine and one was Vicki’s; mine was ready at 8:30 and Vicki’s at 9am. The tournament was very apologetic and gave the affected players some coffee and breakfast sandwiches. But it was a weird start to the day.
I won my singles 61 62 over Encarnita Gomes-Ruiz…she was happy, and played pretty well. Vicki lost a tough match to Elisabetta Morici of Italy, a fine player who according to Vicki and onlookers played a flawless first set. I only saw the second set and Morici was very good, moved great and made few errors. She plays Barbara Funke of Germany in the final…Funke took out the #4 and #1 seeds en route to the final. However, Vicki and I took out Funke and Thekla Gutermann, also of Germany in the doubles semis this afternoon 64 64. It was just 10 minutes shy of a two hour match…lots of deuce games and some long rallies too.
After we won our doubles (it was after 6pm) we decided to watch a bit of the match between our potential doubles final opponents which was just starting. We sat down in the stands and a short time later a woman asked if I would mind moving my racquet bag so she could also sit (with her friends), which of course I did…and one of the friends suddenly said “Vicki?”…it was Andi, the pro at Mirasol Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens (who had practiced with the 60s team there before the Cup matches a few weeks ago). Andi is Hungarian and lives in Budapest during the summer..what a small world tennis is.
In between singles and doubles (I finished singles at 10:30 and doubles was a not before 4pm match) I went to find a pair of reading glasses at a store down the street…and found a small mall with a gourmet grocery store which was the nicest one I’ve seen. It had both chicken lunchmeat and peanut butter…and a lot more including butcher’s counters for chicken, pork, sausage and more, a bakery, nice looking fruits and vegetables and prepared foods. And I did find the reading glasses at the store I thought would have them.
I play my last round robin match at 9am tomorrow, and the doubles final is not tomorrow so that’s my only match.