Today we practiced at Tennis Son Besso where we are to play the majority of our matches this week. The courts are not great, tons of clay on them which is not packed down so a plethora of “interesting” bounces and the courts were extremely dry…but it’s the same for everyone. Good for dropshotters!
Our practice court reservation was missing but the staff was helpful and got us the practice court at noon instead of 11 and at Son Besso instead of the Beach Club, which was good since we play at Son Besso, it all worked out.
Below is a photo of the Son Besso courts, a view from the “scenic route” to Son Besso, my Italian friends, the British flag carriers and the Cheneys, Ann and Brian.
Immediately after practice we had the captains’ meeting. There had been a glitch in the ITF software so many people could not open the information, but the ITF went over much of it and the rest was posted quickly on the ITFtennis.com website along with the draws.
My team, the Kitty Godfree Cup team, is the #1 seed, but Australia at #2, Great Britain, #3 and France #4 are all very strong. Germany (5), So Africa (6) and Argentina (7) complete the seedings. Germany landed in the round robin of death, with Austria and Netherlands, the two strongest unseeded teams in my opinion. We have Sweden and Spain which are both solid teams, and play Sweden tomorrow morning. I am the first match, at 9:30, and Susan Wright plays #1 following.
After the captains’ meeting we had some team photos and then the opening ceremonies.
Above are Chris Smith, first cup at age 85, and Brian Cheney who just won his 100th gold ball! Great ambassadors for the USA.