10k Bournemouth, UK

This past week I played in Bournemouth, UK for a 10k. It was held at the West Hant Tennis Club outside on green clay. On the train ride there from Waterloo Station I was pleasantly surprised to see all the towns surrounding Bournemouth were like those in Massachusetts where I grew up. I grew up on Cape Cod in Mashpee but now live in Sandwich (I know, weird name). On the Cape there is a town called Bourne and here in southwest England are towns like Falmouth, Yarmouth, and Weymouth to name a few. All of these are also in Massachusetts. So I felt like I was home and it was refreshing after being away now for nearly 5 months. Too bad I didn’t see any Sox hats…

When I got to the hotel and it was raining. I should have known this was an indication of the week ahead. I was in England, so I should have known better but I guess I was hoping for the best. Main draw play was scheduled for Monday and Tuesday but the rain held up the start until Wednesday. During those rainy days not much was done besides playing cards, reading (Hunger Games, again), working out, and trying to hit on the indoor hard courts until club members kicked us off, which was about 5 minutes in. So it was pretty boring. I think it was Wednesday when the tournament director said we were going to play indoors at a different site. But after an hour or so he changed his mind and said we were going back outside, then back indoors, then outdoors, then finally after 9 hours of waiting he said to go home. Only 3 women’s matches were completed, only because they were moved indoors. Everyone else had kept getting their hopes up thinking they were going to play then 2 minutes later it was a false alarm. It happened several times so it wasn’t a fun day. Mother Nature was playing a cruel joke on us. But because we had to end the day without completing the matches we had to play 2 rounds on Thursday to make up for lost time.

Thursday the weather cooperated most of the day. There were a few rain showers but none too bad that suspended play for over 30 minutes. My first round was against a girl from Belgium Verhamme and boy was it windy. The forecast said 25mph and gusts to 45mph. Some of the points I felt like a beginner because we weren’t taking full swings at the ball. It was more of just tapping it in up the middle so you didn’t miss. But that match I won 7-6(3) 6-1. Next round I had the 7^th seed Juhaszova who had just won a long 3 setter and I took advantage of her being a bit tired and won 6-1 6-2. The wind had calmed down during the match, which was helpful. And she ended up rolling her ankle in the 2^nd and needed the trainer to come out and tape it up. But I played really well up until then, which I was happy about. But after the trainer came out she couldn’t do much which was unfortunate for her. My next round was against a French girl Benamar who took out the 2^nd seed in 3 sets in the 1^st round so I felt like it would be a close match. But it wasn’t really. I won 6-1 6-1. I think it was due to the fact that we sat around for hours waiting for the courts to dry and the 15 minutes only allowed for warm up. Then in the semifinals I played a British girl Windley and lost 7-6(3) 6-1. This match was moved indoors because it was raining and they wanted to get both the semis and the final completed. So we got our usual 15 minute warm up on the hard courts and off we went. I had chances in the first set and didn’t take advantage. I botched a couple forehands in the tiebreaker that might have given me a chance at taking the first set but oh well I guess. In the 2^nd set I played bad, missed a lot of forehands and played more of a clay court game style by waiting for the ball to come to me instead of attacking the ball. But my opponent also played really well, she played a hard court game and I didn’t. So she deserved to win. The semifinals is pretty good. I’m happy with the way I played this week. Now I head to Germany for another 10k, so hopefully I can continue to play well and win some matches. I’ll keep you posted.