Yesterday was a late one! Rosemary Everett and I practiced at 10 am for an hour, then I went back to my hotel to prepare for my 5pm singles match and “not before 21:30” doubles match.
I played Glorida Ramirez from Columbia in singles. She’s a rarity, being more of a doubles/mixed player. Our match started late…the tournament said she was waiting for her racquet to be strung! I spoke with the racquet stringer and he said he’d bring the racquet to our match court (she had a second racquet), so we began warmup about 20-25 minutes late. And the racquet was finished as we finished warm up. I won 60 60 and went to watch the other 65s singles matches, two of which were on the courts next to mine. (The third was way out in the back after another player complained about those courts and was accommodated). My doubles partner (Rosemary) was just finishing up a good comeback in set 2 of her singles match, rallying from 6-2 4-1 down to win the set 64. She then went down 3-0 in the third but won it 64, an impressive win over Carmen Chillida, a good Spanish player. Next to her Melin Gual and Michelina Valente were also starting a third set…Michelina was the #3 seed and Gual has retired, worked on her game and was playing very well, much improved backhand. Michelina won 64 in the third despite winning fewer games, 63 06 64. It was pretty warm and they were all tired. Kim Reed beat the #4 seed Veronica Lima DeAngelis 63 62 and plays Rosemary, I play Michelina.
It was about 7:45 pm when Rosemary finished, so we had about two hours to wait…we thought. We watched NZL player, Phil, play an American who lives in Spain, Patrick Mangan (who beat the #2 seed the day before), in Men’s 60s. They were just starting the third set after three hours. Phil managed to win the set 63, while Patrick, who was cramping badly, competed well and soldiered on.
Our doubles didn’t go on till after 10:30 because one of our opponents was playing mixed! We were put on a court behind the food trucks…and the music and singing, under the lights. We finished around midnight, I promptly left, got a taxi to the hotel, stretched and got to bed just before 2am.
Below, of what it looks like around 9:30 pm at this tournament…lots of action at the food trucks.
Here’s hoping they are more on time tonight. Rosemary has mixed after our doubles, so our match should be on time.
This morning we practiced at 10am again (going at 11 tomorrow though!)..the kids camps were finishing up, here are some future tennis players. They were well behaved during the organization process.
