Today was much like yesterday; Erin Boynton and I practiced in the afternoon after a late breakfast, then got ready for our evening matches. We played at 6pm singles and 7pm for doubles.

I played the #3 seed Encarnita Gomez Ruiz and won 60 60. We had some good points and she was quite a bit stronger than my opponent yesterday. I play Kim Reed from Great Britain (though she lives in Spain) tomorrow. She won easily in the semis and is a very good player so it will be a tough match tomorrow. She’s steady, fast and crafty.

Erin Boynton broke her opponent…she played the top seed Laura DiVittori and won 61 40 ret. She lost to DiVittori by similar scores a couple of years ago but is playing much better. After DiVittori retired with a foot injury Erin, as Erin does helped her figure out what her injury was and told her how to help it get better. So she basically broke her then fixed her!

We were scheduled for 6pm singles and 7:30 pm doubles but started doubles around 8pm since we needed to change and Erin had to fix Laura. It’s not been hot her but it’s been quite humid. Today was particularly mild as it was overcast all day.

We played doubles on court 35 which as one player, Quentin Massey said meant you have to take Bus #16 and change to the #25 to get to the court…this place is huge and we were a loooooong way from the clubhouse by the time we reached the court. There were singles sticks still on the court (and of course no sign of any referee…other than the one in the office I’ve not seen any sign of a roving referee all week) and the net was an inch low but there was no way to raise it. On the plus side, these nets are the tightest I’ve every seen which is great. And the groundspeople are doing a great job of prepping the courts before and between matches, sweeping, lining and watering them.

We played two Austrian players and won 60 60 and finished around 8pm. Our probable doubles opponents tomorrow night, Kerry Ballard and Leanne Swaysland, were scheduled for 10:30 and Kerry just started her singles around 9pm!

The tournament has food trucks, one with pasta etc, one with gelato and ices, one with local things like prosciutto, melon and lettuce salad (very good), hamburgers and steak and another with snacks, sandwiches and wine. Tomorrow we think we play at 5pm with doubles to follow.

Draws can be found here: http://www.itftennis.com/seniors/tournaments/tournament/info.aspx?tournamentid=1100038580

Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/alD0rfmCbTXULVv63