The USA Britannia Cup team fought valiantly against Spain but fell in singles to the tough Spanish players. Padg Bolton won the first set of #2 singles and said he lost a bit of focus and the balls got very heavy in the second set on heavy red clay. He thought the new balls would help in the third, but he couldn’t hold serve…there was only one hold of serve in the third and it was by the Spaniard. At #1 singles, Brian Cheney was facing an uphill battle against Camina Borda, who has won many world singles titles and team titles. The first few games took half an hour, but once Camina got the upper hand, he quickly asserted himself and won 62 61 to clinch the Cup for Spain. USA earned silver medals.

After the tennis, I biked into old Umag, a mixture of tacky waterfront souvenir shops, seaside fish restaurants and old buildings which are quite interesting. There’s also a pretty church in the center of town. I ran into Lee and Peter Delfausse and also into Cindy and Bruce Babb and their German friends.

The next stop was ATP stadium where the opening ceremonies were held for the individuals. There were only three players from the US there, Hugh Thomson, Jerry Thomas and Bruce Barrett…and they carried in the flag backwards, but finally turned it around. That was better than the Canadian player who carried in an upside down maple leaf though!

Off next to Spain, good luck to all the players in Umag next week for the individuals!