THURSDAY AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

It is now Thursday and I will be on the court again playing in the Semifinals of the Singles against a French woman. I did get some information about her game from 2 of the American ladies, Myke and Tracy, who played her and both lost to her in straight sets. They said that her backhand was excellent and could drop or hit it well from that side. They simply said she was deceivingly good!!! Nothing special but she did not miss much and used the court extremely well!!

We played at 9 am and again I was hoping that of all days, I would play later in the day, so that I would have a little more time to recover from yesterday's long day on the court (5-6 hours). We had an umpire on the court which is always a good thing in case of questionable calls etc. W

We started the match on time and I started well with a hold in the first game. I really thought that I would be more consistent than her and that I would wear her out with my deep moonballs and long points. But she immediately started to use her slice and drop shots very effectively from the second game on. She had watched my match yesterday so she knew what my patterns and tendencies were and it was obvious in the remainder of the set, which I lost 6-2. She dropped me, moonballed me, used alot of angles on her forehand, and also attacked me. She used the entire court very well and did not allow me to get very comfortable. The first 3 games of the second set were just like the last set, uncomfortable and frustrating for me. So I decided to change my strategy a bit and from the beginning of the 4th game second set, I focused on hitting more to her forehand (her backhand was just killing me!!) and only hit to her backhand when the court was open. This worked and before I knew it, she startedt to miss, got a little winded (I made her hit alot of shots, of course!!) and before I knew it I had was back into the match and I won the 2nd set 6-3!! I was psyched!! I felt that I had the upper hand and that she was getting tired!! Well due to the dry court conditions, they swept and watered the courts and this took about 20 minutes!! Just enough time to get her second wind!! I truly felt that if it had been only a 10 minute break, it would have worked to my advantage. We started the 3rd set and I was leading in the first 4 games 40-love!! I only managed to win 2 of them!! She got her second wind, played flawless and unfortunately I came up a bit short!! I lost the match and was very disappointed because I truly felt that I should have won that match!! Well the one thing good about losing a match is that you can always learn from it. I learned that I must develop a drop shot and use my net game to finish off points. This I will work on and will use it in future matches. For now, I am going to rest and get ready to play the finals of the doubles tomorrow. We have a tough match against our USA friends, Mary and Fran and it should be a very close match!!
Well off we go sightseeing!! Win or lose, life goes on and we will enjoy our time in Mallorca. I am exhausted but how often do you get to visit such a beautiful place????? We are going to drive through the mountains today and visit Valdemossa. The sights are supposed to be spectacular!!