Hey everyone, sorry for the delay. I really didn't feel like discussing my previous tournament seeing I was only there for a couple days. But here is a general overview as to what went down. I lost second round of the qualifying draw which I got a bye first round. Then I didn't get into doubles seeing everyone and their cousin signed up to play. So that was Esperance. I'm glad I got out of there. After we left Esperance we headed to Brisbane about a 5 hour flight from Perth and in the airport we saw Curtis Stone! If you don't know who he is well he has his own cooking show on TLC called the "Take Home Chef". And man is he good looking! He can cook for me any day. haha. Anyway in Brisbane we stayed at my former teammate Katie Lee's house. It was great. Her family was very nice and made us feel right at home. They even took us to Noosa which is a beach town about 90 minutes north of Brisbane. So it was great to get away from tennis for a little bit after my first two horrendous weeks. But while I was in Brisbane I got a lot of good practice in. I got to play over at Nudgee University where I hit with a couple guys and and Australian girl Harriet Sheahan. Then I went over to the Brisbane Tennis Center where they play the Brisbane International before the Australian Open. And let me tell you the facility was sooo nice. One day I hope to play there. I also got a really good hit with Shannon Golds the former Australia pro who was up to about 200 in the world, and she now is one of the hitting partners for Sam Stosur. So it was a busy week but it was good. I started to feel comfortable on the court again. So I'm hoping it will continue this weekend in Traralgon. The qualies starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

Esperance, Australia

This place is soooo much better than Kalgoorlie. We drove through the outback to get here and we went from desert to country to beach all in the matter of about 4 hours. We even went through a couple of towns on the way here and like one Australian said 'you blink and you miss it'. He was exactly right. One 'town' had a population of 190 people. Literally. It took all of 7 seconds to get from one side of town to the other. Crazy to think you would know every person in your town and every person would know you...guess you couldn't get into trouble. But anyway Esperance is really nice. It is right along the southern coast and it is much more civilized than Kalgoorlie. It has more streets than the one main road Kalgoorlie had. This is actually a town! The ocean is a beautiful teal color and the sand is snow white. They even had a permanent resident here...Sammy the sea lion. He lives on the beach next to the pier. Saw him today. Thought he was dead at first seeing he didn't move for a while. But he is alive and well. He's cute, rather large but cute. Anywho, the tournament starts tomorrow. I'm hoping to do well. But this tournament is stacked. The cutoff for the main draw is like 250. So we shall see how this one turns out...

Kalgoorlie

Well Kalgoorlie wasn't good to me it turns out. In the tournament I managed to make it into the main draw by winning two qualifying matches but then I had to play Sasha Jones from New Zealand who is about 250 in the world. I lost to her 3-6 6-4 and didn't play well but didn't play bad either. All week here I felt as though I wasn't playing well. I think I just need to get used to the different type of tennis balls they use as well as the wind. But that is no excuse, all I can do is make it work in the next few tournaments or else this trip will be a bust..and I don't want that. In addition to singles I didn't play doubles either. I was supposed to play with someone who then switch partners (I was not informed of this) the morning sign in closed and by the time I finished my match the deadline for doubles had close so I didn't have time to find anyone. So at the moment I want out of this town. All I'm doing now is practicing and working out. And the town here doesn't have much to offer. We went to go see the "ghost town" they have here and it turns out there isn't even a town to see. There isn't even a slab of wood on the ground to tell it was there. The area just has an information board about the town that once stood there but if that wasn't there you wouldn't have known because it is just a desert full of shrubs now. They have some sort of a downtown but all of the stores close at 6 and nothing is open on Sundays. So this place just reminds me of the old western movies that you see vacant with the tumble weeds blowing across the street. Don't know why on earth would they hold a tennis tournament here...oh well. Only a few more days that I'm out of this place and onto Esperance next!!