The Sun Returns…then So Does the Thunderstorm

Wednesday June 12, 2019, Poertschach am Worthersee, Austria

This morning was beautiful and sunny here in Carinthia (the sun rises at 5am!). I hit midday with Laura DiVittorio (Italy, W55), and watched a little tennis. I ran into an Austrian friend and we arranged to hit at 3:30.

I went back to my hotel for lunch and to do some writing (no, not this blog). I had the drapes shut so I could see the screens and did hear noises from time to time but thought it was the AC cycling on (it wasn’t…I had actually turned it off). A bit after 3pm I left the hotel and saw that the ground was wet. It was sunny…I had totally missed a couple of downpours. The practice court was soaked, and matches delayed. Back to the hotel for a bit.

I went back around 5pm to see if my doubles partner was playing yet (she ended up coming on court after 6:30pm) and stayed to watch a really exciting women’s 50s match between #2 seeded Lucie Schwab (Austria) and #3 Petra Dobusch (Germany). This match was of a high level (the power was ridiculous) featuring huge forehands and service returns, insanely powerful overheads and magical down the line slices from Petra and gorgeous drops, slices that didn’t bounce (but still were returned), and lovely heavy topspin forehands combined with ferocious slice forehands from Lucie. Lucie won the first set before I started watching. Petra won the second 64. The two players didn’t take much of a break between sets, neither left the court and they didn’t even ask for new balls! Lucie won the first two games quickly; Petra rebounded, finding the court again from 2-3 down to go up 5-3 (Lucie gifted her the 53 game with two double faults and errors). Petra then blinked a bit…backed off with the power allowing Lucie to raise the ball more and hit some gorgeous dropshots, to win the final four games. This match was on court 11, the last court in the club. It should have been on a show court, it was a semifinal, or even center court. But center court seems to have only men’s matches. OK…there are more men than women by at least a 3/1 ratio but some women’s matches (and this was one) should be on center…and Lucie is Austrian!

The other match I watched was a 35s women’s match (on a show court) which was in the third set when I sat down. It was interesting as it was between a counterpuncher who slid beautifully and an aggressive baseline who occasionally went to net. Apparently, after I left, one of them injured an ankle (the blonde aggressive baseliner). It was either Katherina Jacob or Christine Kraupa. Scores aren’t posted, so obviously it was the loser of that match. (I’ll update with the winner later). Update: Kraupa won by retirement, so Jacob was the one who was injured (taken to the hospital).

American Bruce Barrett was upset in the quarters today. That match was next to the women’s 50 match, but other results aren’t posted yet.

I didn’t play a match today…the match which went unfinished yesterday turned into a default today as the Austrian player had a conflict. So actually the four seeds all reached the semis and I play the German Cornelia Keller while two lefties battle it out on the bottom half of the draw.