the entertaining write-up! - United States Court Tennis

previous finalist, they were both “seeded” and could not face each other in the opening round. That left
ourselves and France to find out who would be cannon fodder for whom. Kris came out of the room
with a blank stare and looked a little pale. I initially thought all the travel had finally got to him, but that
wasn’t the case, it was the news that we were to play England in the opening round. The English team
consisted of Spike Willcocks (+5.6), David Woodman (+2.5), Jamie Douglas (2.8), and David Harms (7.1),
so we certainly had our work cut out for us! Under normal circumstances, we would have been up all
night formulating strategies, breaking down shots, watching video tape, and worrying if we would come
out of our singles matches all in one piece as Woodman and Willcocks both have devastating forces,
however we were spared such anxiety as jet lag took over and we went right to sleep.
Kris and I had decided to rent an apartment close to the club as it was a lot cheaper than a hotel. It was
a simple flat but had the basic necessities: bathroom, washer, fridge, a bed for Kris and a sofa for yours
truly. Now I didn’t realize it at first as I was so tired, but when I woke up in the middle of the night I
thought I was camping on the side of a mountain as my sofa “bed” (and I use that term loosely) was at a
45 degree angle. I later joked with Kris that I should put on my North Face jacket and take a photograph
to send in to the catalogue. The next morning came early as no one told us that the apartment also
came with an automatic alarm clock. The automatic alarm clock was a drill in the adjoining wall of the
neighboring apartment that started promptly at 7AM every
morning. Not very refreshed or rejuvenated, Kris and I started the
short walk to the club down Rue Lauriston. Now my French is
pretty bad, but I am fairly sure that Lauriston translates as
“minefield” because there were frequent “reminders” that this was
a dog walk as well. Angus Williams had been kind enough to warn
me about that the day before, but just as I was starting to relay the
warning to Kris, he stepped on a “black betty”. Hopefully this
wasn’t an omen of things to come!
This was our second practice day so we thought we would swing by the Boulangerie for some breakfast
as these two‐hour practice sessions required a lot of energy! As if it wasn’t obvious by the embroidered
American flags on our shirts, our attempt at ordering breakfast confirmed that we were the
stereotypical American tourists. We were told early on that we would be “treated like Kings” on this
trip, but in retrospect we should have asked which Kings as our loyal subjects looked to be less than
impressed. We practiced successfully on Day 2 and almost without incident. The Paris court plays in a
completely opposite manner as our home court in Washington. The main wall really grabs spin and
slings it towards the galleries. The cut doesn’t hold on the back wall and the balls bounce up fairly high.
Not to mention that the chase lines are measured in feet rather than yards, so this presents a whole
different way of marking chases that we would have to try and decipher over the course of the week.
Our team liaison, Fontainebleau Head Pro Angus Williams, was helpful in trying to explain everything,
but it, like everything else around us, was familiar and foreign at the same time. We tried to build our
confidence a little with the same force/volley drill that we executed during the first practice, but this
time Kris unknowingly thought he would try to use the side of his racquet to volley and my force
ricocheted off his racquet and hit him in the head. Remember, that we are only a two person team, so if