Tough Tournament for Anna

Hi all,

Friday saw Anna and Ilija both go down in straight sets in their semi finals in El Paso. This meant that it was time for Anna and me to jet off to Augusta, Georgia for a 25K.

The original plan was for her to play purely ITF’s on this trip but after her success in the summer in England it meant that she was eligible to play qualifying here. We stopped over in Dallas on Friday night and then completed the journey on Saturday by flying to Charlotte then renting a car and driving the 150 or so miles to Augusta. The flight to Charlotte was actually very relaxing as I, for some reason still unbeknown to me, was upgraded to First class. A tip for you all, if ever you can take the grind out of travelling then jump on the opportunity because they are few and far between.

These tournaments are valuable for Anna’s learning and progress as she will come up against much higher ranked opponents who are stronger and much more experienced. It is also good for her to be around players who themselves are currently inside the top 100 or who have been at that level in the past.

Anna won her first round against an American girl but then fell quite a way short in her last round qualies match against an opponent who had a very heavy hit on the ball. Anna was pushed too deep by the spin and hence couldn’t hurt her from that position; hopefully she has learnt from this match though and will be more tactically wise when she comes across a similar player in the future.

She has paired up with a French girl ranked 250 in the world for the doubles which means we will be here for a few days longer and believe me I am quite happy with that thought in mind. The enthusiasm of the organisers and volunteers at the club here result in an extremely well run tournament and hospitable environment.

Until next time

See y’all