Today at breakfast the weather forecast was sunny and 25 degrees for a high (that’s about 77 Farhenheit). Since it was raining pretty hard and cold I found that hard to believe…the reality was that it rained and drizzled all day and the high was maybe 60 (15 Celsius).

Heide Eisterlehner and I were scheduled to hit at 8am in Rottach. I biked over there around 7:30 and was feeling more skeptical, the wetter I got and the harder it rained. However, Heidi was there and there were people playing in the courts when we arrived. However we weren’t allowed to play, the groundskeeper was afraid we’d hurt the courts. So we decided to play later in the day.

Bridget Harrer had a match today against Gina Monteleone who is American, originally from Chicago but now living near Frankfurt. So we went to the Bad Wiesse courts to warm up but they were playing tournament matches on the outdoor courts (yes, in the rain)…the courts were in pretty good shape, but the balls were sodden after a few games). We hit indoors, on clay, then I hit for a longer time with Heidi indoors where it was warm and the lighting was ok as the bubble was translucent.

The Bad Wiesse Club used to have a permanent indoor Halle for tennis, but converted it to a childrens playground and soccer field so now there are two fewer courts and only a bubble for indoor tennis. This tournament used to be held nearer to town (now it’s outside of town) but that club, which had about 10 courts was torn down and made into a parking lot and the big tennis Halle was converted also to a children’s play area. It’s disturbing when so many courts are taken away in Europe, where tennis really is pretty popular. This is the last year this tournament will be here in Tegernsee. Next year it will move to another location near Munich.

Bridget had a good match with Gina. When I walked up Bridget was up 60 40 and promptly lost five games in a row and Gina had set points in the next game. The set eventually went to a tiebreak (only Coman tiebreaks are played in ITF Seniors tournaments…or only Coman tiebreaks are supposed to be played), and Bridget won, her first win she said in a Grade 1 event. After the match as is the custom here, Bridget got her opponent a coffee and we all sat down and socialized some before leaving.

I play tomorrow at 1:30, but am warming up at 8 with Heidi and a little later with Bridget. Singles draw is below.