Yesterday was a wait for a court kind of day. It poured most of the night and the courts weren’t ready for play till around 9:30 or 10 depending on the venue (8:30 was the original start time). Vicki and I “warmed up” by hitting mini tennis on the driveway and volleying a bit.
I was scheduled to play at 11:30 and Vicki at 11:00…we got on around 3:30 pm I think, as did Jenny Rens. There was a second rain delay around 2-3pm. I beat Therese Archambault 61 61 on the red clay (artificial red clay but very soft and very slow). It was super windy by that time, and the red clay courts are right by Lac Tremblant so even windier I think. Vicki had a tough match against Anabel Andersson, but played a great match, moving Anabel around and making targeted approaches to the net. She won 61 63 (and had 3 match points at 5-2 before finishing it off…). Andersson has a bit forehand and really hit out at the end but throughout the match was forced into too many errors. Jenny Rens won 61 63 against Ann Gay, and played many different styles from baseline rallying to chip and charge…but she was in charge of the match throughout.
Helga, above right, upset #2 seeded Charlotte, above left in W70 singles yesterday.
The one bottleneck that adds at least 30 minutes or more to the matches overall for the day is that there is only one brush and one liner for every two courts and the liners are all pretty much broken so it takes twice as long as it should to brush the courts. The players brush the courts and the brushes are the Har-tru type, heavy and a bit slow. But effective, they are in good shape, I gave up on the liner!
Overall the tournament is run well, and the communication during the rain delays and in the morning about the rain delay to start the day was excellent for the first matches scheduled.
Today the weather is better. the times came out really late and when we went to sleep Vicki and I were scheduled for 10:30, Vicki at the golf course courts at Gray Rocks and me on the red clay at the Beach & Tennis Club…but this morning I had an email saying I was at 8:30, I think because my opponent has doubles later today. Fortunately we were up early.
After Vicki finished we made a second trip to the grocery store (but still forgot coffee and salt!), I had dinner, and we had an early night.
