Today was a relaxing day, I hit early and watched quite a few matches, trying to get a feel for the tactics on the clay. The clay here is pretty fast and hard and slippery, and I saw some very good sliding in some matches.

I watched Beyko from Canada, he eased to a first round win. He’s the world champion in the 45s, a lefty and the defending champion here. He ran the legs off his opponent who seemed pretty fit.

Tomorrow I play my first match, not before 2:30….they schedule matches for 10, 11:30, 1, 2:30, 4 and 5:30 but if a match finishes early, the court is left open and if a match runs late on a court then your match runs late. At the end of the day, if some courts are really far behind, the referee will allocate matches to a different court.

Here are a few photos of the memorabilia in the clubhouse…the club started in 1881.