Sunderland, GBR - Day One

I made it to England! Today seemed to be an incredibly long day I feel like I should go to bed but it's only 8 o'clock here. Crazy. But I left Miami last night and I thought I wasn't going to be able to sleep on the plane but was I wrong. I usually have anxiety while flying so I can never really get a good sleep but I ended up taking some sleeping pills and they worked like a charm. I took them just as I was getting on the plane and I was asleep before the plane even taxied to the runway. I don't remember taking off, don't remember the little flight attendant emergency spiel, nothing. I do however remember waking up to look out the window to see if we took off but I could only see the reflection of the girl sitting next to me writing in her notebook and dozed off. Then I remember waking up to being asked what I wanted for dinner, and I am pretty sure I answered the flight attendant cross eyed and probably drooling haha. But the next thing I remember is putting the food on my tray table then waking up to find it gone without eating a bite. And another thing that was strange was I asked for water, I took a sip, then woke up to find it empty in the seat pocket in front of me with the napkin in it. Either I was drinking in my sleep or the girl next to me got thirsty and tried to hide it. And I'm really hoping I drank it because that would just be weird. But those sleeping pills carry a big punch! That has never happened before.

But after landing in Heathrow I still wasn't close to relaxing. I had to take the Underground from the airport to Kings Cross which took about an hour and then wait for a couple hours in Kings Cross until my train to Newcastle came in. But for all you Harry Potter fans out there they have a Platform 9 3/4 sign and trolley lodged into the wall on Platform 9 where Harry and the Gang head of to Hogwarts. Kings Cross also makes a damn good sandwich. A fresh baguette with mozzarella, basil, and olive oil. Delicious! You can't get that at Subway! But after waiting around I finally got on my 3 hour train ride north to Newcastle. (Saw the very pretty English Countryside, with the rolling hills, green grass, and lots of sheep. All the buildings here are small and quaint looking. Almost all neighborhoods seem to have the row houses. If you've seen the movie Billy Elliot or one of my favorite Christmas time movies Love Actually those are exactly the houses (and I would hope so because the movies where filmed here heehee). House after house after house connected to one another along the small streets.) But once in Newcastle I boarded the Metro south to Sunderland. I got driven to the tournament site and I have to say either they have crazy drivers here or everyone is very confident in their driving abilities. I'm not sure whizzing passed buses/pedestrians and going around roundabouts at twice the speed limit is normal but who knows. But finally got to the site and it's really nice. Has an indoor pool, 8 indoor courts, outdoor courts, fitness center, and cafe. The indoor courts remind me of my college days with the 4 courts seperated by stands high above and another 4 courts on the other side of the stands. It's like playing Mississippi or Michigan all over again! But the courts are nice, fast but not too bad, so I'm excited to start playing. But doubles starts tomorrow, so now I'm going to head to bed. After such a long day I don't think sleep will be much of a problem.

England

So I am excited to tell you all that next weekend I will be heading across the big pond to England. There are a couple 10s over there and I thought it would be a good place to play, rather than forcing my way back into playing 50s and 75s. Also playing indoors on a hard court suits my game rather well, so I'm hoping I can use that to my advantage. But as I've done before I'll tell you all some facts about England, and me being a geographer I like to learn about places. So buckle up your seat belts, we're off to the England.

England, if you haven't heard, is part of the United Kingdom which consists of Wales to the west, Scotland to the north, and Northern Ireland which is across the Irish Sea to the northwest.

England, Scotland, and Wales first formed to become Great Britain, and then Great Britain and Northern Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom.

Her Majesty the Queen is the oldest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She became the Queen at 26 years old and is Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms (Australia, Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas to name a few).

The Queen is not allowed to enter the House of Commons because she is not a member. (Funny how someone who use to rule the world is not allowed to enter.)

The land area of the UK is a bit smaller than that of Oregon.

The capital is London which has a population of about 8.6 million. That is a few million more than New York City, NY.

Palace of Westminster

The London Eye is the tallest observation wheel in the world (135 metres/443 feet), and it takes 30 minutes to make a full rotation.

Big Ben does not refer to the clock, Big Ben is actually the 13 ton bell inside the tower which is called St. Stephen's Tower.

St. Stephen's Tower is located in the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament where the House of Lords and House of Commons meet.

The UK has the 6th largest economy in the world.

The London Underground, aka "The Tube" opened in the mid 1800s and was the first deep underground electric railway.

Today, The Tube has about 150,000 passengers on average riding every hour.

So hopefully you enjoyed the ride. But most importantly I hope you learned something. I never knew some of those facts. But thanks to Google and all the UK fact websites for giving me the info. Now that I feel like I have a better understanding of the country I have to go make some calls to set up tea time with the Queen. hee hee.

Courtsider?

A courtsider (or court-sider)? Does anyone know what that is? No idea? Well, it's a new term for me in the tennis world. I learned this over the past week at Williamsburg that I thought I would share. I learned about it by overhearing the tournament director and ITF supervisor talking about someone with hands in his pockets and clicking and electronic device in each hand. So my friends and I thought someone was cheating, and us being curious asked what was happening. The ITF supervisor said that these 'courtsiders' are people who are paid a lot of money to go to tennis tournaments, watch matches while helping cheat the system of betting on tennis. Sounds interesting doesn't it?

Supposedly in the US it is illegal to bet on matches, but in other parts of the world it is legal. And you can only bet on a tennis by who wins and loses, so this 'courtsider' sits next to the court with a device in each hand, and when one player wins a point he clicks a button in one hand, and if the other player wins a point he clicks a button in the other hand. These clicks feed a certain person inside information on a live match, therefore giving him/her a greater advantage of picking a correct winner.

In addition to sitting and watching matches, they also have a room in the tournament hotel and when they see a player who is taped up or have ice everywhere, they asked the player what's wrong? if they are ok? are they going to play? just basic questions and the player doesn't think anything of it and says the truth, and the 'courtsider' takes this information and sends it to whoever is paying him, because that is more information that could determine the outcome of a match. So it is just crazy to think of the extremes people go to to bet on matches, and at a 10k? I mean really?! The smallest pro tournament! Isn't there the WTA going on in Asia right now? I just thought the whole thing was wierd. But now you guys know some inside info on what happens behind the scenes of tournaments.

Williamsburg, VA

So I finished my last tournament last week. Again I lost first round 3 & 3, but again I thought that I played well, my opponent just played better. I mean for my second tournament back I thought that I was hitting the ball well, I just don't think I constructed points well enough for the way my opponent was playing. That will come with time I guess, but I thought compared with my match from the previous week, I thought I played a lot better. I wasn't bailing out of points quickly like I said I did in my last match, the points were longer, I felt like I was moving around the court well. So I mean it's only a small step forward but it's a start. On the doubles side, myself and doubles partner Kirsten Flower made it to the semifinals. We played really well the first two rounds, playing doubles. A lot of girls seem to play singles when in fact it's a doubles match. What I mean by that is doubles is all about being aggressive, coming to the net, and finishing the point with a volley winner or overhead winner. Most girls nowadays don't like to come in to the net because they don't practice volleys or they just are not comfortable volleying. So when I say they play singles I mean they sit at the baseline, never coming into the net, and just hit cross court until someone misses. The way Kirsten and I played was serve volley, or return look to get to net, and finish with a volley or overhead. So that's what we did. In the semis when came up against two girls that were unpredictable. They played similar to how we played. So the score ended up being 3-6 6-4 (10-5) in their favor. We didn't play bad, they just hit some better shots on crucial points and that was the difference. So nothing to get mad about. I just now know to be a bit more attentive while at the net, because they caught me off guard a few too many times, and that's unacceptable to me. So I'll be sure to work on that for the next tournament.