There was a 100% chance of rain today in Austria…and the weather forecasters were correct about that prediction (first time for everything). Nini and I drove to the club around 8:30 (both of us were scheduled for 9:30), to see what was up. Playing indoors seemed likely, and we saw that an indoor court was open at the club, so we grabbed some balls and got in a 25 minute hit there, which was very helpful. The ceilings at the club were low and it was somewhat dark inside but not awful. The court we hit on was technically indoor clay though there was not much clay on the court and it was hard, dry and a bit slippery.
By around 9:30 we were told we were playing at a different venue, Nini at 10am and my match was to follow the 10am matches. We drove to the venue which wasn’t too far, the VAS Tennisstueberl. The courts seemed brighter than at Warmbad indoor courts and the ceilings were higher and there was plenty of room to run around the three courts in the back and on the sides. I got on pretty close to 11 (one court had a reservation till 11am and I got on that court).
I played Sylvia Reigl from Austria today in the second of my four round robin matches. Last year we played in Feld am See, Austria this same week and also indoors (though at higher altitude…here it is about 1600 feet but we played at around 3200 feet last year), and it was a three hour, three-set match, since Sylvia played lights out and hit winners right and left (I wrote that last year I hit short or too predictably, then was off to the races to chase down her shots!). This year I was moving better from the first point and hit about 3-6 feet deeper in rallies as a result and I won 62 60, though it lasted 90 minutes and we had some long games. She did not stick around for a photo.
MJ Pachl from Delray Beach and Catherine Morgan from Fort Lauderdale, about 30 minutes apart in Florida played first round today in the 60s with Catherine winning in straight sets. Nini played Ulrike Mattanovich of Austria and won 62 60, playing well (Ulrike had a very nice forehand, moved well but didn’t have a lot of variety).
After tennis we drove to a big Billa market (very upscale, especially in the deli and produce) and we both bought chocolate, of course, and various other edibles before returning to our apartment. It’s 6:30 now and still raining, hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.
I learned later tonight that some matches are going on at 8pm (2pm matches)…we were so lucky to be among the first to play today!
Like this:
Loading…