Today was a super busy day. We met at the Publix (a grocery store) parking lot to merge into one car for practice…Tina however was at a different Publix. She texted us to say she was near the Starbucks..so were we but it turns out there are two Publix on PGA Blvd. So we started practice about 8:15 and got in about two hours on one court.

I dashed off to the captains’ meeting which was scheduled for 11:15am. I made it just barely on time, then we waited for about 30 minutes till the previous meeting was done. At the captains’ meeting we were given the seeds, the draws were made, and we learned about the procedures for the week from Sergio, the ITF Rep and Kitty, the referee. We will warm up from 10:30-10:50 on the match court or from 10:50-11:10. Then the court will be groomed and we play #2 singles, #1 singles, then doubles. There’s a 20 minute break between singles matches and 30 minutes between doubles matches.

The seeds proposed and accepted with no discussion were: 1: USA; 2: Gr. Britain; 3: France; 4: Australia and 5: Switzerland. The format when there are 13 nations in a Cup are three round robin groups of three teams and one group of four teams. A coin was flipped to see into which half France and Australia would land; France fell into the group of three teams and Australia into the group of four teams (along with Switzerland). The remaining teams were drawn randomly to fill out the draw. We drew Turkey and Netherlands. We have Monday off and play Tuesday against Turkey.

At the conclusion of the meeting I dashed off to change, pick up Susan and go down to Boca Raton to take photos. It took a bit longer than expected but we were there in time to take photos of most of the players in their USA warm ups. Then we dashed back up to the opening ceremonies where again we had to wait since the USA, as the host nation, is the last to enter the stadium. However, we used the time well to take a group photo and some team photos.

the opening ceremonies were really nice. There were kids holding all the participating nations’ flags who preceded the players into the center court at BallenIsles. The USA, coming in last, to big applause, stayed in the center of the stadium, with other countries rimmed around the edge of the stadium. We felt pretty special, I can tell you that! There was a big crowd in the bleachers and overlooking the court. A 12 year old girl sang the Star Spangled Banner beautifully, there were short speeches and then we marched out of the stadium to mingle, get drinks and snacks. I caught up with my friends from Austria, Australia, So Africa, Germany and more.

We have the day off tomorrow so will practice and scout the opposition.

Here are the draws for all the USA teams. Click on the group to see who the USA teams are playing and the name of the Cup to see where each team could potentially end up in the knockout draw which begins on Thursday.

USA is seeded #1 in the Connolly and Bueno Cups, and #2 in the Dubler Cup. USA is seeded #3 in the Young Cup and Austria Cup and #3 or #4 in the Perry and Lenglen Cup. The USA is seeded #5 in the Trabert Cup and in the top 8 in the Italia Cup. All teams are to seeded in their round robin groups.