Day 4: Tournament Dinner

Wow, who are those people all dressed up? The USA team was looking very sharp last night for the tournament dinner. Our hotel (Sa Coma Resort) was host to the dinner, so all the other teams were bused in (except for the W45s and M55s who had their own celebration far away in Palma). The guys all had light blue US Open ties so were easy to recognize. The gals got to wear whatever we wanted, as long as it was not tennis clothes! There were A LOT of people from over 26 countries attending. We meet in the lobby before dinner for a group photo and then some team photos. Dinner was in our regular dining hall so the Young and Dubler Cup'ers knew the drill! We put some tables together so we could all sit together. It was a special buffet dinner including the Spanish speciality of Paella, and lots of Serrano ham and honeydew. After dinner a group of us reconvened in the lobby to test our luck with the wifi. Luckily it was working pretty well after a few false starts! The lobby has actually turned out to be a pretty cool central gathering place. It's not smokey or noisy and there is room to sit and talk and blog etc and since we are right by the central stairwell, we see people coming and going! Vesna and I shutdown around 11pm as we have a 10am start today. The guys start at 9am.

Highlights from Thursday. It was our day off. Unfortunately, Vesna's calves were bothering her, so she and I didn't go siteseeing. Rachel and Renata went exploring and what looks like a beautiful walk along the coast. I am hoping we can do that on Sunday. So, Vesna got treated by the physio several times and today she will be playing with the infamous kinesio tape on both calves! She said it is working well! We watch the guys play #3 France and felt their disappointment as they lost both singles. They will play Friday against the Netherlands.

I only have 10% battery, and no power convertor plug, so more later!

 

Day 3: USA def. Sweden (3-0)

Today we continued our routine of being the first team on the practice courts at 8am, the die hards that we are! The sun was out and there was not a cloud in sight. What a great day for tennis we thought. It was so calm in the morning. Then the wind picked up pretty strong around noon and didn't let up until late afternoon, which made for some interesting points!

Renata lead us off again with a 6-4, 6-1 win at #2 singles. Vesna followed with a 6-1, 6-1 win at #1. The wind was super strong blowing from one end of the court to the other. We could tell that the Swedish gals are indoor players, they didn't like the wind at all! Renata and Vesna hit with so much spin that they were able to adjust very quickly and take advantage of the elements. Rachel and I finished up with a 6-0, 6-1 win in doubles. It felt good to bounce back from our loss yesterday.

The guys beat India 3-0 today. Mike won 6-1, 6-1 at #2, then Andy won 6-1, 6-3 at #1. Gil and Doug cleaned up in doubles. Unfortunately, Mike was not looking too good after his match. He said he felt seasick. So did Andy. We are hoping it is not a sign of swine flu coming our way!!!

So both the Young and Dubler Cups finished #1 in their respective pools. The gals get the day off tomorrow. The guys continue playing as they have more teams than we do. We are in the semi finals against Italy (#1 seed) on Friday. The other semi finals will be France vs Spain. We are so excited to have made it to the final four. We are in the company of countries known for their clay court prowess!

Spanish phrase for today: Hasta manana

 

Day 2: USA def. South Africa (2-1)

The weather gods smiled on us today, bringing warmth and sunshine for our 10am start! The conditions were excellent for tennis!

We had an exciting day of matches today against South Africa. Renata started off play with a 7-5, 6-1 win, coming on real strong in the 2nd set. Vesna has a much closer match, winning 7-6, 7-6 and keeping us all on the edge of our seats. We thought we would have an advantage because one of the South African gals told us they don't have clay courts, but the ladies we played had great slice, quick hands and no qualms about coming to the net.

Rachel and I experienced that firsthand as we got throttled 6-0, 6-1 in doubles. The match was over before we even had a chance to get warmed up. Renata and Vesna kept telling us to try and stay in the points longer. I think we had one rally with a 5 shot exchange, the rest lasted about 3 shots before they knocked off a winner. Yikes! They were good!

The guys were playing Ireland on the court 18 right behind us, so we watched and cheered for them too! They swept Ireland 3-0. Mike and Andy cruised through their singles matches. Doug and Gil had an exciting 3 setter that probably lasted longer than both the guys singles matches!

Tomorrow we play Sweden (who South Africa beat 3-0), and the guys play India (who beat Ireland 2-1). It's the last of the round robin play and I think both USA teams have real good chances of advancing to defend our #3 and #6 seedings.

The only upset so far in the Young Cup (W40s) is that Spain beat Great Britain today 2-1 (7-6 in the 3rd in their doubles match), so it looks like Spain will advance (over GB who was seeded #4) from their group.

We expect to have Thursday off with the playoff rounds commencing on Friday.

In our free time, we have ventured off the grounds of the hotel to check out the local area. There are some small markets and shops and restaurants. It is very much a resort/beach town. In fact, our hotel is only about 350km from the beach and today I actually wandered out there with Renata and Rachel. We got some gelato to go with the view on the boardwalk. It is off season now, so not many people are around. The beach is a fine white sand and is very wide. The sea is a nice shade of blue!

Thursday we are hoping to rent a car so we can drive around and see some other towns and sites.

My favorite foods so far: 1) Serrano ham & tomato sandwich 2) sweet navel oranges 3) honeydew melon 4) fresh french rolls!

Wifi was down tonight, so this post is a little late getting online!

 

Day 1: USA def. Slovenia (3-0)

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, the team got out on the practice courts at the crack of dawn (7am) and braved the light rain to warm up! It was kinda cold! Apparently, every other team decided to wait until closer to 8am to warm up! We thought they weren't serving breakfast until 8am so we wanted to hit and still have time to eat before the 9am start. Luckily they have decided to start breakfast at 7am tomorrow, and start the matches at 10am! We're hoping it will be warmer!

Rachel was first up today at #2 singles and smoked her opponent 6-1, 6-0. Vesna followed that up with a quick 6-0, 6-0 win at #1. We were done with our first two singles while South Africa and Sweden were still playing their first match! We had a 1 hour break for lunch (Serrano Ham sandwiches for all, yummy!) and then Renata and I cleaned up 6-0, 6-0 in the doubles. It was nice to have a 3-0 win under our belt. Tomorrow we play South Africa who beat Sweden 3-0 today.

Vesna and I are happy our apartment is a stones throw from the courts. We took a break in the afternoon and then the team went out to practice again around 4pm. It was crazy WINDY! The guys had the day off today, so they cheered us on. They play Ireland tomorrow who lost to India today.

Everyone is happy that the wi-fi seems to be working again!

That's all for now. Adios!

Monday April 27, 2009 - 2am

I am sitting on the lobby of the Safari Park hotel. This is the only spot we can get Wi-Fi access in the hotel! The signal has been going on/off the whole time we have been here. I think it's works better in the middle of the night! It's nice to be back online even if I have to be up at this hour!

I slept like a baby when I first got here. After 18 hours of travelling, I was pretty wiped out, so I slept 12 hours my first night. I think jetlag might be starting to kick in now, which would explain why I am up! I was sleeping at 8:30pm, then woke up wishing I had internet access!

Vesna and I are sharing an apartment. It's a one bedroom but with sleepers in living room. I got bitten 3 times by a mossie my first night! Vesna killed it the next morning and I could see my BLOOD! The sucker!!!
We get to see the Barcelona tennis tournament on TV and we also have CNN in english. Thank goodness Vesna is fluent in Spanish!

The tennis courts are about 5 min walking distance from our room. There are 18 beautiful clay courts. Nadal used to train here when he was younger. Apparently he lives about 20 km away. We practiced for 2 hours on Fri, Sat and Sun, so were very happy that courts were available. These red clay courts are pretty fast, which I like and the balls are a good weight.

Yesterday was the captains meeting where they determined seeds. USA is seeded #3 behind Italy and France. We play round robin first and then go on to elimination rounds. We have Slovenia, South Africa and Sweden in our pool. We play Slovenia tomorrow. The men's 45 team is also playing at the this location and they are seeded #6 out of 26 teams. We've been hanging out together and eating together and generally getting along very well!

I posted pictures of the Opening Cermony on http://picasaweb.google.com/cmwei888, so please take a look. I will continue to update assuming I can get connected, and also continue to blog.

I am using Skype to make phone calls from my computer. Vesna and Rachel both have iPhones with the Skype application, so they don't need to lug around a computer to make a call! Carolyn Nichols got a netbook which she really likes. I definitely think smaller is the way to go. This laptop is SO HEAVY!

That's all for now. Ciao!