Sunday 9th October 2011
The start of a new week today which means new opportunities, new experiences, the chance to pick up some points in a new event and lots more things to learn for both Mia and I.
We had breakfast this morning at 8am and I was very happy to have cereal rather than the eggs and bread I’ve had for the past 8 mornings. Our solid team of Mia, Anais, Julia, Pierre (Anais’ coach), Stephanie (Julia’s mum) and I have been getting on great for the past week and now we’re doing everything together. It’s great to form a strong bond with players and coaches when you’re on the road, both for the players and for the support team as travelling 1 on 1 can often become very intense. The girls have been getting on very well and Pierre, Stephanie and I have really enjoyed each others company.
We all trained together today and had a good 2 hours on court before me and Pierre tried to show the girls how it’s done! We were hitting well and sweating buckets but after 20 minutes and an exhausting up to 7 off the ground we decided to call it a day!!! We were back to the hotel at 12.45pm for a shower and lunch after which Julia and Mia wanted to do a bit of shopping. I was definitely up for that as I love to have a haggle with some locals and soon I found myself in a huge battle to try and get Julia a traditional Vietnamese hat for less than $1. To the shock of the locals I managed to walk away with one for 10,000 dong (about 20p or $0.50) and Julia was over the moon with it! Here’s Mia and Julia (proudly wearing her hat!) with one of the locals:
As I said yesterday this is one of the best Grade 5 tournaments I’ve ever been to; not only is the organisation fantastic – we get our own personal translator per team, but the courts, transportation, hotel and food are superb. We also get to be part of an amazing Opening Ceremony which is live on local TV and the coaches get some great gifts! At 2.30pm we were all taken off to the Town Hall for the Opening Ceremony which ran from 3.30 – 4.30pm. We all watched some local music and dance acts before each country’s coach or player representative was taken up to the stage to be presented with a scroll and flowers whilst wearing their own Adidas jacket with the tournament logo on it. It was brilliant and something that much, much wealthier federations can learn from. We were then taken to a brand new hotel and restaurant were we all had a 5 course meal laid on for us for free.
The draw was completed at the restaurant at 6.15pm and then afterwards we were taken back to the hotel for an early night. Mia has a bye in the first round and so will not play until Tuesday when she will face 8th seed Hsin-Ping Cheng from Chinese Taipei.
