Hey, this is Anna and Stefy blogging from the States. We are just about to leave one of the coolest cities ever! We have spent the last few days in the city of angels, Los Angeles. It was pretty exciting for both of us, as we had never been here before. However, we have been in America for nearly 3 weeks now, so we should start at the beginning.

The first week we spent near Tampa, at The Saddlebrook Academy, we stayed on site in an apartment for a few days, and then Jez left to the Australian Open so we moved to a hotel down the road. Saddlebrook Academy is unbelievable. As well as the tennis academy, it is also the home of a huge golf academy. There are a lot of on-site apartments, some of which are owned privately, and the rest can be booked out like hotel rooms. As you drive into the academy, one of the first houses you see is still being built and is owned by Jennifer Capriati. The actual tournament wasn’t at Saddlebrook, it was played at St. Leo’s University, about 30 minutes from the academy. Unfortunately, the university was not quite in the same league! With three side by side portaloos as changing rooms and no food on site or within 3 miles, it wasn’t the most appropriate place to hold a challenger tournament. It wasn’t the most successful tournament for us, as we both crashed out in the 2nd round, and lost against the 2nd seeds in doubles.

At the end of that week, we flew to Phoenix, Arizona where Dave and Yastog joined us.

Everything that week was pretty convenient - decent hotel, pretty nice club and some good restaurants nearby. One evening, we got invited to an ice hockey match, by a friend that me and Yastog met last year in Vancouver. It was a really exciting game between the Phoenix Coyotes and the Columbia Blue Jackets. It went right down to the wire and we were gutted when Columbia scored to make it 4-3 with 20 seconds to go! (We were under strict order to support Phoenix!) On Thursday, we had to make a decision whether to travel and play a tournament in Hawaii or to train in California for a week. We decided that training would be the best option, given that flights to Hawaii were very expensive, and none of us felt that we had had the best preparation for a tournament. We had heard that Hawaii is a really stunning place, so we were a little disappointed not to be going there. But everyone knew it was better to have a week a good training before playing another tournament.

It turned out to be a rewarding choice because in this last week, we have fitted in some very good training, and also got the opportunity to be regular tourists of L.A for a couple of days! One of Dave’s friends from college, Ron Hightower, is the head coach at Porter Valley Country Club, a beautiful private tennis and golf club not far from Hollywood. We used this as a base for our on and off court training for a few days. We usually trained hard in the mornings, ate lunch, then let the club members challenge us to a set of doubles in the afternoon… we were victorious of course! One afternoon, we also hit with a squad of junior girls, aged between 12 and 17, which was a lot of fun.

We promised two guys that they would have a paragraph of our blog dedicated them, so here it is! During that week, Ron sorted it so we could stay at The Marriott hotel, for a very good rate. We made friends with one of the receptionists there (who spent 95% of the time ripping my mighty SheffieldUniversal City and down Rodeo Drive, which was outrageous! The next day, Brendan and Joey picked us up after training and we went on a mini road trip. We ate lunch at a place called Dukes, on Malibu beach, then went down onto the beach and watched the sunset! The beach was completely deserted, other than the odd guy walking his dog. A lifeguard drove past in his big beach truck so Brendan called him over and we took some photos posing with the life saver float things! Finally, the four of us ended the hard day’s work, with nearly two hours in the pool and Jacuzzi, followed by Chinese for dinner! Brendan and Joey, thank you so much for showing us round LA, it was awesome, and you know what? Next time… we’ll all be famous! accent!) and on the first night, we were in the Jacuzzi and got talking to a couple of local guys, Brendan (actor/model/surfer) and Joey (behind the scenes movie worker/surfer). We were talking to them for quite a while then they offered to show us round the city. That night, Dave took us to Sunset Boulevard to eat and we also drove through the Hollywood hills, to

Now, after an exciting few days, we are preparing for the $25000 in La Quinta, California. Hopefully the week after that, we will be playing the $75000 in Minnesota. I’m sure we’ll be writing again in a few weeks to let you know how things are going. Until then, all the best