Athens blog

07 April, 2009 | 23:04

Hey everyone

So, I’m playing in a challenger in Athens this week with my good friend Jamie Delgado. I tried to play in Casablanca but couldn’t find a partner as a lot of guys will go to play qualifying in Monte Carlo once they are finished in the singles.

But, I felt I needed to try and get back to winning ways - get that winning feeling again - so I decided to play in Athens with Delgy, and so far its paid dividends: we got a win today against the tough pairing of Dominic Hrbaty and Lukas Rosol. 

From my point of view, I thought we played a good match on a very poor court - it kind of suffered from the rain! It felt good to get the job done especially in such a close match.
 
Most fans will never really get to see life at the Challenger level, simply because it isn’t televised, but I think the guys get a raw deal. I don’t think the prize money has gone up in the last 20 years, and you know what, the standard is very high.

Most guys are almost at Tour level and everybody is scrapping to win points so they can sneak into some tour events. For some reason the money is so poor, and it’s so tough to get out of it and onto the main tour.
 
Anyway, we play the next round against a couple Russians so I expect another tough one.
 
What can I tell you aside from the obvious? Well, we’ve been eating at this restaurant across the road from our hotel which looks absolutely hanging from the outside but serves great Greek food inside: Delgy has had more Greek salads then Nick the Greek himself!

We went down to the port on the weekend to have dinner, and have a little walk around. I can imagine there being some good parties going on in Athens!  Maybe we will be around here long enough to get involved. Tennis first though.

Speak soon
 
Jamie