Today was another warm, sunny day in Essen, and I finally played my first match. I played Eldeltraut Horstmann from Germany, a steady, quick lefty. However, she didn’t take any volleys or overheads in warm up…and approached the net only to retrieve drop shots. We had some good rallies, but I managed to win most of them, and after dropping the opening game won 61 60. We played on Center Court before one fan (hundreds of empty seats…must have been roaming the grounds instead of watching us!).

Jenny Cerff had the match of the day. She played Jutta Boekmann who is a member of the German Marble Cup team this year. She has a nice drop shot and a very good backhand. Jenny said she made too many errors in the first set but was on track in the second, on serve and finally broke to go up 65…then she started cramping. That was just as I finished my match (we started about 40 minutes later than Jenny). I could see she was having some issues but she still managed to win the 2nd set 76 (5). The third set was tough to watch since Jenny kept cramping, but she didn’t stop, fought till the end and lost 62 in the third. She plays consolation now at 9am…fast turnaround after a long match.

In the women’s 65s, Heide Eisterlehner plays Nora Blom in the final in a battle of two former world champions. Heide Orth is in the 75 semis in singles and doubles. I had a nice visit with all of them…Heide and Heidi are shown below.

And below are some words for the day, courtesy of the wall of the Mercure Hotel (which has one of these pairs on each floor in the stairwell).

Draws can be found here (click on order of play, then draws).