Writing Thursday Morning 10/14/21

Yesterday was my last practice day at Global Tennis, in Marraxti. I drove over in the morning, over the now familiar route, past the small agricultural towns in the center of Mallorca. I know know that on 2-lane roads the general speed limit is 90 km/hr unless otherwise posted (about 55 mph); 100 on four-lane highways (about 60 mph) and 120 on the freeways. The difference between highways and freeways: on the highways, about every 5 km there’s a roundabout for drivers to exit the highway or continue on the same route. On freeways there’s a normal exit (then most likely a roundabout…there aren’t many stoplights or stop signs in Mallorca but there are hundreds at least of roundabouts!

The two-lane roads are often lined with stone walls (most ungrouted) and the farms are dotted with stone buildings and cisterns to water the fields. There are lots of olives (domesticated and wild) and almond trees all over the island, and citrus near the southeast part.

I stopped again at Montuiri for a photo with a better camera…the town is actually even prettier from the other side. Montuiri is known for its many windmills.

After a 90 minute practice, I got gas, then hit the Alcampo one last time (peanut butter and apples of course) and drove back to Font de Sa Cala where I hit with Les Buck from USA who had arrived the day before. I saw Tina Karwasky, who was hitting with her doubles partner, Patricia Medrado from Brazil, an excellent player. And while waiting for a court I watched the French 65 team practice…they are playing Spain now and then Germany…the Germany/France match tomorrow should be a good one. I don’t believe any of the players on the teams has won a world team championship before (regards to the missing teams), so it’s a big match for all involved.

A lot more Americans arrive this afternoon and evening.

The singles draws came out last night for the individual world championships which begin Saturday. Doubles draws will probably be posted tonight. The link is in my previous blog post.