ITF Sr. World Team Championships 2009

Final Day of Play

2009-05-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

Day 6: USA def Spain (2-1) for the Bronze Medal!

I was so tired yesterday I didn't have time to blog after we won, so this is a little late. But pictures are up on Picasa.

I woke up at 5am on Saturday, eager to get online. I went outside at 6am to check the weather and noticed immediately that it was WINDY! At 6am? Well, it just kept picking up and while we thought Friday was windy, Saturday was even MORE windy! At least this time it seemed more consistent in one direction and less swirly than Friday. At least it was not raining!!! Warmup was fun, we had to make sure that everyone practiced from both sides to get a feel for the conditions. We played our matches on court 15 and the guys on court 18, so close by again.

We were very much looking forward to playing Spain, as they are the host country and this is the land of Rafa Nadal!

It is breakfast time so I am going to continue this later.

Home Sweet Home!

2009-05-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

Back home in the Bay Area

My Welcoming Committee

How ironic that I was up at 2am this morning...the same time that I wrote my first blog entry in Mallorca! Once again I slept like a log when I got home and now jet lag is kicking in again! I learned a few lessons on my trip home.

1) When flying to the US from outside the country, do not buy liquid in duty free unless you have a non-stop to your final destination!

On Saturday night the guys and gals went out to dinner and for dessert the restaurant owner let us sample some very tasty lemoncello-like (but non-alcoholic) drink. I found it in duty-free in Madrid and thought I had struck gold. One of my best friends loves lemon drops (the drink) so I thought this would be a great gift. Ooops. I didn't realize that we would have to go through security again (since I was transferring) once we cleared US customs. So, I gave my bottle to the nice lady at the security and told her to share and enjoy!

2) Do not panic if yours bags don't make it with you to the US.

I waited and waited at baggage claim in Newark for my bags to arrive. On the descent, I keep hearing about the need to retrieve my luggage and go through customs regardless of my final destination. How was I supposed to go through customs without my bags!? Well, I waited as long as I could before I was going to miss my connection and went through customs with my hang luggage only. Airline services said check with baggage claim in SFO. On the flight home, I made a mental list of the stuff in my bags...my Bronze Medal!!! Note to self: next time carry on Medal. All's well that ends well. My bags arrived the next morning with all belonging intact.

So this is the final entry for my Mallorca blog. I am glad to be home and see family, friends, kitties and colleagues. And most of all to be able to share pictures and stories from my trip!!!

2009-05-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

Captain Rachel Gale and me in the Spanish team jackets!

2009-04-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-28T21:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Day 6: 6:15am on Saturday

Well, my internal clock has adjusted pretty well to the hours where wifi is working!!! Now I am getting up at 5am! I stayed up all day yesterday with no siesta and crashed at 11:30pm. Now I am sitting in the lobby yawning but thrilled about my wifi connection! Having my computer has been awesome. I've been able to upload picures to the web really quick, throw in a blog and then see results of other Cups etc. Rachel and I have been hanging out in the lobby after dinner so I can show her all the cool things about Picasa. It's been a real test of patience to have the wifi signal go up/down within the span of two minutes. Makes it hard to upload pictures, but somehow we have managed!!!

I can't believe that I have been here a week now! Time flies! I regret not having experienced more of the local scene around town, but yesterday Renata and I went walking after dinner. We did some souvenir shopping and walked the boardwalk. I like these small resort towns, it is nice to say hi to the same shop keepers every morning and have them recognize you!
The people here are so nice, I wish I had made more of an effort to learn Spanish, but I seem to have gotten by with a mix of Italian and French and their English is pretty good!

It looks like all matches will start at 10am today, and I just walked outside where the sky is fairly clear, the ground is dry and it is a little breezy. This sort of reminds me of the Hawaiian climate, where the trade winds blow through and a storm can come at any time. I am glad I decided to get a warm coat here and big beach towel. It's been keeping me nice and warm in the morning when it is cold and the afternoon when the wind gets crazy! I think the forecast is for sunshine today and tomorrow. Yay!

Ok, I am now falling asleep on the couch in the lobby (and I am still the only one here). It is starting to get light. Breakfast starts at 7am so I am heading back to the room to get my first cup of tea.

Hasta Luego!

Lunch in Cales de Mallorca

2009-05-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 2nd, 2009

Today was our last day together as a team and we decided to go on an expedition around the area. I drove, Vesna navigated, Renata was the backseat driver and Rachel was happy to be relieved of captain duties! The picture is from our lunch stop. We had intended to meet the guys for lunch in Cala Figuera but we got a little lost along the way, and growling stomaches demanded that we stop and eat. We ended up in Cales de Mallorca to eat and do a little shopping before heading home in the late afternoon.

I dropped Vesna off at the Beach Club Font de Sa Cala where the World Individuals started today. Both she and Renata will be playing, but Renata is heading up on Monday instead. I was happy to see Carolyn Nichols so that I could say goodbye and also saw Tracy Houk who is from the Bay Area. It looks like a beautiful area/venue where they will be playing the Individuals. Vensa's room overlooks the beach and the water. Pretty sweet!

I zipped back to meet up with Rachel and Renata and we had evening tea together. Our resort seemed so deserted as many players had left for home or the Individuals and the rest were probably packing up like I needed to do! Our airport shuttle is due at 6:30am on Monday!

Young Cup (W40s) and Dubler Cup (M45s) Teams

2009-05-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

2009-05-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Captain Rachel Gale's Blog for Sat May 2nd

Saturday, May 2nd
3rd & 4th playoff
USA vs. Spain

USA defeats Spain 2-1 to come in 3rd place in the 2009 ITF Senior World Team Championships!
The USA Young Cup team clinches a bronze medal!
Our #2 singles player, Renata, played Leticia Almrall of Spain. Renata was down in the 1st set 3-5 and came back winning 4 games in a row to win 7-5. Then Renata kept her momentum going in the 2nd set and won 6-2!! Great job Renata!
USA 1 Spain 0

Our #1 singles player, Vesna, played Ana Maria Segura. Vesna had a great start in the 1st set and was up 5-1 when Ana came charging back to be up 6-5. Vesna held serve to make it 6-6 and went into a tie breaker. Ana won the tie breaker 7-1.
In the 2nd set Vesna lost 6-1 to a very strong ground stroking Ana Maria Segura.

The match came down to our doubles team of Rachel and Renata who played against Ana Maria Segura and Rosa Bielsa of Spain. Rachel and Renata played a great 1st set with crisp volleys and awesome hands at the net. They won 6-3.
In the 2nd set they were down 3-0 very quickly. Then they were down 4-1 and ended up losing the set 3-6.
They got very pumped up for the 3rd set and had the strategy to be very aggressive and get to the net! This strategy paid off for the Americans and they went on to win the match 6-2!!

I am very honored to be writing this blog because this was a big win for us over Spain. We are very excited to be bringing home the bronze medals!

In this blog I am being interviewed by my team mates.

Rachel Gale-Interview
Rachel is the Assistant Tennis Coach at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I love my job and being so fortunate to coach under head coach Kelly Weaver! The Meredith girl’s tennis team has made it to the NCAA’s this year and two days after I get back from Turkey I will go with my team to the NCAA tournament. The girls on the team are a very special group of individuals! It is great to have a job you love.” Rachel is also a teaching pro at Lochmere swim and tennis club in Raleigh, NC.

This is Rachel’s 2nd World Team Championships. She played on the Suzanne Lenglen Cup team in Turkey in 2008. This year Rachel was a playing captain.
How do you like being a playing captain?
After today’s doubles match I can say I LOVE being a playing captain! It was nice to play with Renata and pull out the win for our team mates!! I have totally enjoyed being with my team: Renata, Vesna and Carolyn all week long. We really bonded during this week! I have enjoyed interviewing them and writing these blogs each day. My team has been very supportive and they have made it easy for me to be their captain! This experience has been second to none!
My team has given 100% of themselves in this tournament and for this I thank them very much!!
On behalf of the 2009 Young Cup Team I would like to thank the USTA promoters and sponsors for this opportunity to play for our country. We are honored to be promoting tennis to our younger and older players in the United States. Tennis is a sport of a lifetime and the Young Cup team has cherished this opportunity and was proud to bring home a 3rd place finish!
Your 2009 Young Cup Team Members,
Rachel Gale-Captain
Vesna McKenna
Renata Marcinkowska
Carolyn Wei

2009-05-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Day 5: Italy def USA (2-0)

Can you believe we woke up to rain this morning and courts too wet to play on? Rain Delay!!! We ended up having a leisurely breakfast and lounged around in the lobby in between making numerous trips back and forth to the courts to get updates. We headed over around noon and sure enough, Renata was able to get started by 1pm. I bundled up in warm jacket put my hat on to keep off the rain. The wind picked up real strong as the afternoon went on. Brrr!

Italy is the #1 seed and for good reason! We were impressed with the way the gals glided around the court, got to every ball, and hit a wide variety of shots/spins! They played really well and Renata and Vesna both lost despite some spectacular points and shot making. Tomorrow we play Spain in the 3/4 playoff match. Italy plays France in the women's final.

The guys has a rough day as well, losing 2-0 to the Netherlands. Tomorrow they play Great Britain in the 7/8 playoff match. Austria plays Germany in the men's final.

It's been a long day and I am thankful the wifi is working right now, so I can get this posted and go get some sleep!

Hasta Luego!

2009-04-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

2009-04-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

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!