Draws for the ITF S700 tournament in Lugano are here.

The record high temp in Lugano was set in July of 1945, around 100 degrees F. That’s the expected high for tomorrow in Lugano…today was a mere 97…it was warm for sure.

I played Gundi Weiland from Germany in the final, fortunately for us, at 9am and won 64 62. Gundi played well..she’s a lefty with a good serve, wicked slice backhand and nice topspin forehand…it was a good battle for sure. We were supposed to play doubles, but since we entered 65s and were put into the 60s (without the tournament director/referee asking us about it), and the match was supposed to be very late (some matches yesterday ended at midnight!) we decided to abandon the doubles.

Erin Boynton of Canada did not have such good luck as to play at 9am…she had to play not before noon. She played an experienced red clay player, Maria Rosa Bruno from Italy. Bruno had a typical European backhand, very heavily sliced, a nice drop shot and a surprisingly effective forehand which she got to bounce over Erin’s head a couple of times (Erin is 6 feet tall, so that’s no mean feat!). The first set was brutal, lasting over 90 minutes in the heat of the day, and ended in a tiebreak, won by the Italian. The second set was 61 but still lasted 45 minutes.

After the tennis, since we had no more matches, we returned to the apartment and cooled off for a while, then returned to the club for dinner. The tennis club was quite busy for dinner and had a good menu of Italian food, pasta, salads, fish and meat, and was quite good, and for Switzerland, reasonably priced. We walked back along the lake, admiring the lights from the buildings reflected in the lake. There was also a festival going on with food trucks, music and a lot of people enjoying the relative cool of the evening (the fan I bought in Barcelona has saved me!)