Stuttgart

15 July, 2009 | 21:07

Guys...I'm back...with a vengeance!

Sadly, not with such great news as we lost in Stuttgart today 6-4 7-5 to a tough German pair. I thought we played a decent match, but we couldn’t quite win the tight points. Overall, I feel pretty happy with the way I played, not to mention the good work I've done on the practice court since arriving here.

Being here in the first place is a bit of a random one - somehow we received a wild card into the tournament. Last minute, but we were loving it - although not when we were lying on the floor of the sleeper train from Bologna to Munich! The original plan was supposed to be playing a challenger in Rimini, but we signed in for the tour events just in case we got in, and we did!

The tourney director said he’d never had a British team playing in the tournament before, so next thing you know he’s decided to throw us a bone and give us a chance to play. All good and much appreciated.

The net result was we found out we’d got a wild card when we landed in Bologna, but if you’re thinking we got straight out of the there, forget it – we had to wait by the station for three hours before boarding the overnight train to Munich. What a shambles that was! Sleeping on the floor because the train was fully booked, only to  arrive at 6:30am the following day.

The really good nice was getting a 2.5 hour train onwards to Stuttgart. We got the hotel, finally, and slept.

As for the  Stuttgart itself, they put on a great tournament here for the players: great hotel, great food, plenty of practice courts. You even get a trip to the Hugo Boss factory! Tuesday turned out to be our shopping trip; purchased a few new additions for the wardrobe but I definitely needed more time to check everything out! Bad news from me, but my accountant was probably quite happy with the way it turned out.

So what’s next? Well we’ll stay here and practice another couple days before heading to Poznan in Poland to play a challenger. I’ve never been to Poland so it will be a first for me.

Speak soon

Jamie