Draws are here.
Susan played yesterday afternoon against Anita Valdez 0,1 in a rain delayed match (from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm).
Steven Dance won the 70s singles yesterday, which was amazing considering that he hurt his wrist when a ball skidded off the line in his quarterfinal match and his wrist swelled up so much he thought he’d have to withdraw…but Tim Wright helped translate at the Physio here (he’d gone to one in town) and with the help of some injections, his wrist calmed down and he was able to play.
Kelly Stobbe of Canada and I had lunch yesterday and Steve Dance and Susan joined later.
I ran into Sergio Elias of Chile (we were colleagues on the ITF Seniors committee a long time ago.
Our semifinal doubles was originally scheduled for 4pm on court 2 but was moved to not before 5:30. However the W70D match was quick, so we were able to start earlier, around 4:45 and play before it was too dark. We beat Consuelo Galdos and Maria Gonzales, two Peruvian women who were very nice.
The order of play came out very late last night, around 10pm I think…and Susan was scheduled for 8:30 and Susan and I were scheduled for 1pm. I warmed up with Susan and then with Tim till we were bumped from the court. Susan’s opponent had an early flight home so asked if we would play earlier than 1 pm which was fine with us, so I walked back to the apartment to get my tennis bag etc. A few minutes after I arrived there (about a 7 minute walk), Tim texted me that Susan was up 5/0. I left five minutes later and Susan was already finished and taking photos when I arrived! The draw in Susan’s division consisted of two round robins, one of four and one of three…the group of four had three players with 2/1 records but Martinez somehow managed to beat one of the three 60 60.
We were able to play the finals on the same court as Susan’s singles final and finished about 10:05 am, just when the next match was scheduled. The ladies were super nice and very good at hitting net cord winners (the nets are just tied onto the net posts with rope and are extremely loose).
The flower Susan wears in her hair has garnered a lot of comments and curiosity and compliments (along with her game which everyone admired a lot).
We had lunch at the club (yes, even Susan who tried some chicken appetizer which turned out to be a sort of tamale), I had ceviche and Tim had the rice/ceviche duo. Everyone was content. Tim and Susan hosted me which was very nice. The restaurant was busy and the club was hopping today. We also watches some finals. Tita Zea, with whom I played doubles last year won the 60 singles 64 64 despite hitting all her serves underhanded (bad shoulder even after surgery). Carlos Behar(Columbia) had a knockdown dragout match with Ricardo Rizk (BRA) in men’s 65s…Rizk won 76 (6) in the third (after leading 4-1 and 65 in the third serving) and celebrated as if he’d just won Roland Garros…and also broke his racquet (sure sounded like it anyway) in the tiebreak. The only thing missing was him ripping off his shirt! The two face each other later in the MD65 final. Rizk foot faulted on every serve (but no calls from the chair for foot faults or racquet abuse). Foot faults are not called in most Masters tournaments, and weren’t called her even though every match had a chair umpire who was able to call all lines from the chair. And they called the lines well.
On the walk back to the apartment after our doubles, Susan and I ran into a swarm of skateboarders roaring down the street in front of the club. Apparently it’s “Go Skateboarding Day” in Lima and started at 9am at Plaza St. Martin and finished in Miraflores (where the club is located).
There’s a prize giving ceremony at the club later this afternoon. There’s a big screen on center court connected to the internet or a laptop somewhere.
