My first round was against Wagemaker, a tall Dutch girl with
a monster serve and big forehand. I ended up winning 7-6(4), 6-1. It was windy
and her forehand was off and on and the same with her serve, so I was lucky it
wasn’t closer in the second. The next day in my second match against Ayassamy,
a French player and it was another close one 6-2, 7-5. The second set could
have gone either way. And she should have won the second set with the way I was
playing but somehow I managed to win that set and the match. A few hours later
in the final qualifying match I was up against the 6th seed Pirazhenka
from Bulgaria and won 6-1, 6-1. I just played really well. Attacked and didn’t
give her a chance to get into the match. I got a day of rest and practiced a
few times so it was an easy day. In the first round of the main draw I played a
wildcard from Germany, Engelmann. I won 6-2, 6-1. Again, I played ok. She
seemed a bit nervous and made some mistakes but I of course didn’t seem to
mind. In the second round I played the first seed Voracova. I woke up that
morning feeling like everything was off, nothing seemed to be going right. I’m
not superstitious or anything but I do like to keep a schedule of when to do
things and the moment I woke up it just felt wrong. So I got to the courts and
the girl I was supposed to hit with never showed so I managed to hit for about
10 minutes with two other girls, it was rushed but oh well, can’t do anything
about it. But in the match I didn’t play well. I lost 6-2, 6-2. She was a very
steady player who didn’t miss much of anything and I seemed to be 3 steps
behind getting to the ball. So even if I was rested enough I’m not sure who
would have won. But she was a good experienced play and it showed.
In the doubles I teamed up with Laura Siegemund from
Germany. She plays on the same club team in Holland as me so we’ve known each
other for a few weeks but have never played doubles together. She played the
backhand side and I the forehand which I’m not that used to. In college I
played my last 3 years on the backhand side but Laura has a better backhand
than me and I seem to have a better forehand than her, so that’s how we played.
We won all our matches in two sets 6-3,6-1., 6-3,6-1., 6-4,6-2. Then on the day
of the final our opponents wanted to leave as soon as possible because they had
another tournament to get to, however, the weather didn’t cooperate. It rained
all day then at 6pm the tournament director said we are playing indoors at a
club 20 minutes away. We got to the club and the surface was carpet, a big
difference from the slow clay. But we got about 20 minutes to practice on it
then the match started. And not long after the match started the match was over
and we won 6-0, 6-0. The girls definitely didn’t want to be there. Oh well,
their loss. I certainly wasn’t going to complain and neither was Laura because
she was playing in the singles semifinals the next day. So we got our gifts and
a big bottle of champagne (I swear they must think we are all alcoholics). But it was a good tournament. I played pretty
good, won some matches, got a point (most important), and won doubles. So not
too shabby. Now I head to Bad Saarow, Germany for another 10k. I got a bye in
the qualies so I begin on Monday. Hopefully I have another good week. I’ll keep
you all posted.
