Practice Day in Warm and Sunny Austria

While it’s raining in England….it was warm (upper 80s) and sunny on the “Austrian Riviera”, and it’s supposed to hit 90 by Friday.

I had a hit set up today at 11, but my practice partner strained something so I wandered down to the courts to see if I could find someone interested in hitting. I ran into Herbert Althaus who plays in the 85s, and he said his friend Werner needed a hit. Werner is the top seed in men’s 80s and is tall and walks very fast. The court I had been told was at the Leonstein courts up the road, but it turns out it was at the PTC (Poertschach Tennis Club) further up the hill abutting the railroad track (literally right next to the end of the courts). The court reservation had been made by a friend of the person I was supposed to hit with so there was initially a bit of confusion at the PTC as well, but it was soon sorted and we were hitting.

Werner isn’t super fast but he hits a good ball and we had a great hit. It was not only warm but a bit humid and I was soaked at the end.

I went to the store (Billa) to get lunch stuff and drinks (along with a lot of other people, it was pretty packed), and after lunch watched a bit of the match between Gundi Wieland and Ingrid Bruckner. I play the winner tomorrow which, as I expected, was Gundi. Both are lefties…there are a lot of lefties in this draw.

Overall it was a mellow day, really warm and lots of people were swimming in the lake. Or having a drink in the shade.

I play at 11:30 tomorrow (though looking at the schedule, I expect the tournament to be an hour behind schedule) and there’s a pretty good chance of thunderstorms all afternoon so I hope I get the match in without too much delay.

And that’s it for Poertschach today.

Draws are here.