Here’s the fun blog (yay!) where I documented my daily activities during a tournament week. As luck would have it the tournament week I chose was particularly fun and filled with rare and amazing experiences and places; I went to Puerto Rico.
As you read along you will find hints for the answers to these pro player FAQ’s (people always ask me these):
1. Am I friends with the other players?
2. Do I ever get to sight-see when I travel and play?
It is worth mentioning that the answer to #2, according to this week in my life, is an exception to the norm because I was lucky enough to have some free time as well as a local guide.
I would like to explain a little of the scheduling logistics for matches during tournaments before the daily schedule starts. At professional tournaments they have certain assigned courts (as many as they can fit with the amount of umpires available- we do not call our own lines) and on those courts there is an order of play and a starting time for the first match on that court. Players stay on their same assigned court and wait for the matches to finish that are in front of them. If I am, “second on after 10,” that means the first match starts at 10 and my match follows that one. Whenever it finishes the player has to be ready to get on the court and play their match.
The only variation to this is when they give you “not before” times. This means that they say your match definitely cannot start before a certain time. This is done many times for matches that are scheduled much later in the day or at night.
And now, we begin.
Friday, Oct. 22, 2010:
I wake up at 8AM, go to work and fill up water/blow the courts off since Friday is my scheduled day. I string two racquets and go back home around 11AM, pack and go back to work so I can take the shuttle to the airport (I work at the Hilton DFW Lakes by the DFW airport). My flight leaves DFW at 4:30PM and arrives at 9:50PM in San Juan, Puerto Rico (I bought the flight with my miles which still cost $50 because it was so close to the date of departure).
The flight is uneventful except that my book runs out and I have no battery left on my laptop to finish my blog entry. In Puerto Rico I have arranged with a cousin of a friend to stay at an apartment that he (the cousin) owns—this will save me hundreds of dollars that I would have had to spend on a hotel every night during my stay. We arranged for him to pick me up at the airport and help me get to the rental car pickup the next day.
He has recommended me to a local car rental place called “Charlie’s Rent-A-Car”. My flight arrives early in San Juan, PR and I find Jaime (the cousin) outside at baggage claim. He drives me to Rio Grande where his apartment is—it’s raining but he tells me that it is on and off all the time. He speaks very good English even though I can speak Spanish just fine.
We plan the next day, eat at a restaurant by the apartment where I try some ‘tostones’ -- fried plantains that are smashed and then fried again. Yum! The Texas Rangers are on the television over at the bar, they have just made it to the World Series. By 11PM I am secure in the apartment and by 11:20PM I’m in bed. The place is absolutely amazing and I know the beach is right there so I can’t wait to see it in the daylight.
Saturday, Oct. 23:
The night before I left the storm shades open at night on purpose so the sun would wake me up in the morning in time to see the sun rise on the beach and take a picture. After taking a picture, I shut the shades and go back to bed. I wake up again at 8:45AM, finish writing blog #4 and wait for Jaime to pick me up to go get the rental car. I wonder whether my cellular phone will be charged extra in Puerto Rico, that’s something I will have to figure out. At 11:30AM Jaime arrives and we go pick up the rental car.
Once I have the car Jaime leaves and I am on my own with a GPS to navigate to the tournament site. I am nervous but I have done things like this a thousand times so I get right to it and start the trip. Jaime’s pre-configuration for the GPS doesn’t take me exactly there, but using the address that I have for the club I put in another address for the club and it is not far away in the town called Bayamon. There is a football stadium (soccer) and other athletic facilities around the tennis courts in this part of Bayamon, but there really is no beach because it’s in the middle of Puerto Rico.
I arrive at the courts in my tiny white rental car by 2 PM and I look for somebody to practice with. Sign-in for the qualifying is from 3-6PM (in the qualifying you have to sign in, and in 25K’s you have to be there in person for the sign in) but I need $40 cash for the entry fee (In anything over a 32 qualifying draw in 25K’s you don’t get any prize money if you lose first round so you have to give the entry fee up front in cash). The tournament director shows me the way to a cash machine close by.
I hit with the tournament director’s best young Puerto Rican player for 15 minutes (getting new balls for practice and cold bottled water in return, what a deal!) and then hit with another player from 3-4 after signing in. It is clear early on that I will not play until Monday because there are some byes in the qualifying and I am one of the seeded players who will receive one of those byes.
Earlier I had arranged for my doubles partner to share the apartment with me and also the rental car. She is taking a flight on this Saturday and hitching a ride with some other players to the tournament site. She arrives at the club at 4:30PM so I wait for her to practice and we leave to go back to Rio Grande at 5:30 PM. The trip takes about an hour (without traffic) and we arrive back around 6:30PM. There is food already in the apartment so we pull off a couple creative culinary masterpieces, dine, ooh and ahh about how awesome the apartment is where we are staying, and then go to bed.
Sunday, Oct. 24:
I wake up at 7:15AM, leave for the courts at 7:50 AM and hit in Bayamon at 9AM. After hitting for an hour it starts raining so we wait, squeegee the courts and hit again from 10:45 until 11:10 at which point a couple other players bump us off the practice court. When we find another open court we hit again from 12-12:30PM.
I would like to mention at this point how warm and humid the weather is in Puerto Rico. I forget the exact temperature but it was HOT and I was wringing out my clothes after hitting for just an hour. I do sweat a lot, more than the average player, but still. . .anyone there would tell you it was hot, hot, hot!!!
Believe it or not there is a Subway right around the corner from the club for lunch.
We then drive back to Rio Grande and shower, change and organize an incredible adventure! Three other players (Amanda, Macall and Megan) decide to come to the El Yunque rainforest with us and our local friend Jaime. El Yunque just happens to be right across the street from where we are staying. . .literally!
The three other players manage to make their way to the apartment where we stay at about 3:30PM and together with Jaime we all leave for El Yunque. The experience is amazing, we see two beautiful fresh water waterfalls, go for a swim, take photos and see as much giant foliage as I have ever seen in my life (see pictures).
We stay until it gets too dark for pictures around 6:00PM, then we change (wet from waterfalls!) and go to dinner at an amazing local seafood restaurant close by that we found thanks to Jaime’s local know-how. I try the ‘mofongo’ which is basically mashed plantains in a ball and you put lobster (or chicken or beef or whatever) in a yummy sauce over it. Amazing!!
By 8PM we are done eating, we go back to the apartment, the girls leave and I am left to make phone calls and check emails. I am exhausted and in bed by 8:45PM.
Tomorrow I play second match after 9AM.
Monday, Oct. 25:
I wake up at 7:30AM, we leave at 8:20AM and arrive in Bayamon at 9:30AM. I warm up with my doubles partner from 9:45-10:10AM. I play my match from 10:30-11:30AM against a young Canadian and come out successful with a 6-2, 6-0 win.
This means that I have now qualified for the main draw and earned myself one full point.
We eat lunch at Subway again, watch the press conference for the tournament in the players’ lounge and leave the courts at 2:15PM. We arrive back in Rio Grande at 4 PM after stopping for groceries.
I drop Liz (doubles partner) off at the apartment and go to the Caribbean Trading Company gift shop close to the El Yunque rainforest for souvenirs. I find some really beautiful sarongs and decide on a blue one with white flowers going across the middle to decorate a bare wall in my apartment back in Dallas.
I come back from looking at some other gift shops at 5:30PM, make dinner (another creative masterpiece you can be sure), watch the movie Sex and the City II, make some phone calls and then it’s bedtime at 10PM.
My main draw singles match doesn’t start until Wednesday but Liz plays tomorrow and we are also scheduled for our first round of doubles fourth on after 9AM.
Tuesday, Oct. 26:
I wake up at 7:15AM, we leave at 8:10AM and the drive to Bayamon takes us 1 hour and 20 minutes. We hit at 9:30AM, pause for some rain and I hit again with another person at 10:30AM to warm them up for their match. I go change (remember the serious sweat factor?), get some Gatorade, hang out in the players’ lounge and walk next door to the bakery/restaurant for lunch.
While watching Liz play her match the tournament supervisor informs me that our doubles opponents defaulted because one of our them got sick from heat in her singles match. I watched her go to the hospital in an ambulance to get an IV. Liz loses a tough one and we drive back to Rio Grande for an hour.
We both go to the Caribbean Trading Company this time on the way home to look at more sarongs for my bare apartment walls and something for Liz’s sister.
Jaime has put our names on the list for the complex with beach access so after perusing the gift shops we get our bathing suits on at 4PM and head for la playa (the beach). A 10 minute jog and a bazillion photos later by 6PM we are back in apartment trying to clean the sand out of our suits.
I shower, make dinner, eat, clean the kitchen, do some arm exercises plus stretch, then sit down for a second at 7:30 PM to outline this blog entry. Then I begin the important business of watching a vampire king execute his only daughter and start a war with werewolves -- ‘Underworld/Rise of the Lycans,’ is an entertaining movie.
I got nervous that night about my travel plans back to Dallas since my flight wasn’t booked yet and I didn’t know what the flight prices would be. So I sat up for a bit to hold a price and book a flight on Saturday evening to the tournament starting on Sunday at the club where I work in Dallas. I also iced my back, feet and shoulder in bed while falling asleep. I play second after 9AM tomorrow.
Wednesday, Oct. 27:
I wake up at 7:00AM feeling groggy and tired, we leave by 7:30AM and arrive a mere 2 hours later in Bayamon at 9:30AM. Luckily there has been a little bit of rain that delayed the match playing before mine for about 30 minutes, this lets me breathe easier and I am not rushed in the warm up. Liz hits with me for 30 minutes from 9:45-10:15AM and I start my singles match around 12:00PM.
About 3 rain delays and 2 hours, 30 minutes later I have lost 6-3, 7-6 (4) against a girl I beat in the finals of a tournament in Caracas, Venezuela about 3 years ago. I am exhausted so I let Liz drive back to where we are staying (we are still following the GPS every step of the way).
Once we reach the apartment we make dinner and rest. I spend about an hour on the phone trying to figure out an apartment bill that seems like an overcharge to me.
We play the second round of doubles (quarterfinals) tomorrow, fourth match on after 9AM.
Thursday, Oct. 28:
My back is hurting when I wake up at 8:45AM so I ice it until it’s good and numb, we leave at 9:30AM and arrive there at 10:30AM. We warm up from 12-12:45PM and start our doubles match around 2. The match ends around 3:15 and we have come out the winners with a 10-6 third set tiebreaker score. Trying to beat traffic we drive back to the apartment and also stop for groceries.
Trying to do something nice for Jaime for letting us stay in his apartment, I get out a bucket, a mop and some bleach and clean the floors. Call me neurotic or call it a nice gesture both probably fit. We do some laundry, I ice my back and we have a feast of pizza, Caesar salad and pina coladas that I have blended up with vodka instead of rum by accident. I am in bed by 9PM.
We play the semifinals of doubles the next day and if we lose I will have to change my flight to arrive earlier for the next tournament. If we win I will pray and beg the USTA supervisors who make the schedules to start the doubles final on Saturday with enough time to finish and catch the last flight out to Dallas at 5PM so I can still play singles that Sunday.
Friday, Oct. 29:
I wake up at 6:15AM and we leave by 6:50AM. We arrive at the courts by 8:30AM and warm up at 9AM for 45 minutes. There are much fewer players around now that the tournament is further along, which means that we have no problem at all getting a court all to ourselves for a warm up.
I eat a small lunch and take a cat nap in the players’ lounge on one of the couches. To wake up we hit for another 30 minutes. We get on the court at 2PM only to have 2 more rain delays before we can even finish the 5 minute pre-match warm up. Third time is the charm and we finally start the match. We struggle in the beginning and come back in the second set only to lose the third set 10-7 around 4:30PM. Liz and I get our prize money and are bummed when we find out about the 20% tax.
We get back to apartment by 6PM, make dinner, clean the apartment, shower, pack our bags, and I ice my back. We call Delta to see if we can get an earlier flight the next morning to Dallas. Delta tells us that we have to call 3 hours before the flight that we want departs. Since we want the 8:45AM flight (getting us in only at 3PM) that means we have to call them the next morning at 5:45AM.
We want to see Old San Juan before we leave so Jaime, being our local host, picks us up around 8:30 PM and drives us to the city. We see the old fort, some great local music, and the beautiful city plus some fun souvenir shops. The city is incredible and one of a kind, even though we only saw it at night. We don’t get back to the apartment and in bed until 12:30AM.
Saturday, Oct. 30:
We leave at 6AM for the rental car place to return the car and go to the airport after calling and confirming our flight change onto the 8:45AM flight. We arrive in Dallas at 3PM, go directly to the courts, practice and sign in. I have to go to the bank to get a check for a bill and get some food for breakfast (I didn’t leave anything in the fridge because I knew I would be gone for a week). The soonest I can get to bed is 9:20PM.
I play the next day third match on after 9AM-I requested a later start time because of the travel-if you have a match in the tournament from the previous week close enough to the start of another tournament the supervisors will usually try to accommodate the players and give them a later start time.
Sunday, Oct. 31—HALLOWEEN
I get up the next day at 8AM, my doubles partner this week is staying with me in my apartment, we get to the courts and realize that there are no on-site warm up courts. More than that, we realize that the matches on our courts are going by very quickly. My partner (Alina) is too nervous to go to the off-site courts to warm up because she doesn’t want to miss her match.
We improvise; one of the courts at the tournament site is not being used for matches and the net is down so we make a pretend net by putting some chairs up. We are successful in that we don’t hit anybody, we don’t disturb the match courts, we get a decent warm up and we didn’t accidentally miss our matches.
I don’t remember what time I got on the court and I don’t remember the exact score but it was something like a 6-2, 6-1 victory for me. By the time I finished and figured out the next day schedule and warm-up it was later in the day around 6PM. I went home exhausted and went to bed very early. My match the next day is second on after 9AM.
The next day I had a 3 hour match that I lost after being up a set and 5-2, and the tournament got rained out on the Tuesday when we were scheduled for our first doubles match. Our match was rescheduled for Wednesday, and then cancelled and rescheduled again for Thursday. We lost first round. I flew to Phoenix that Saturday to play in another tournament where the singles qualifying started on that Sunday.
Story
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