Play began today and most players have matches today, only the players who have byes in the smaller draws are not playing today. I had an early practice from 8-9 with George Sarantos, who is the third seed in the 70 men’s division. The other Americans were playing today, but I have a bye and play the winner of a match tomorrow.

This morning we shared a court with Heide Orth and another good German player and there were 4 men waiting for a court. Two, Andrew Rae and Robert Van Malder (who is Belgian but lives in NorCal) waited outside the court, but the other two, who weren’t even signed up for a court as it turned out (and there were free spots available on other courts) came onto the court, sat on the court, then, for 20 minutes stood behind the court and even started to hit against the wall on the side of the court! Anyway, we were able to switch to a different court at 8:25 for 25 more minutes (I had to talk George into this, but it was good for him).

The weather is great, and the atmosphere is good here too, lots of players, though about 80% seem to be German, which, considering we are in Spain, is interesting. Germans really love Mallorca.

I’ll post again after I play tomorrow.