World Champion! ITF Masters World Championships Day 8

Draws for the ITF Masters Individual World Championships, Turkey (65-90 Divisions)

Livestreaming link can be found HERE (four courts).

Groundhog Day again…10am match, 8:50 warm up on court B-1 with Susan.

This Turkish clay is sloooow…hard to put the ball away unless you get a bad bounce, dead net cord or have a killer drop shot (looking at you Anne Clark). And it bounces way higher than American green clay, and more straight up, not forward. And they used Wilson US Open Extra Duty balls, to make sure conditions were slow enough.

Today was a beautiful day with only a slight breeze, in contrast to the windy conditions of the past several days. I played Susan Wright in singles and won in straight sets, maybe the best match I’ve played.

Thanks #volkltennis for the great racquets, strings and bag!

The only other American in action today was Chuck Nelson, who lost to the amazingly fit and fast Herbert Althaus in men’s 90 singles. Mr Althaus won the 90 singles/doubles and I think 85 mixed and was second in the team 85s.

After the medal ceremony and lunch, Anne Frautschi, Susan and I went to Side for a couple of hours, viewed some ruins, the Mediterranean Sea, ran into Jimmy Parker and Fred Drilling (Jimmy sported a new “Rolex” watch which he said was “guaranteed” to be real [but cost 40 Euros]), and did a bit of shopping (spices are good here in Turkey). Side by the way means “pomegranate” in Turkish. Side dates back about 1800 years! Then back for a “last supper” at Ali Bey Club Manavgat.