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March 19, 2009

Ashley Finishes Tournament In Rome-Pomezia

Hello again,

It was on the chilly side today and was supposed to rain, but it never did. I was able to sleep in a little bit today which was nice. I practiced with Maria-Teresa late morning at the courts that are kind of connected with our hotel which was convenient. I’m not really sure if we were allowed to play on them, but nobody kicked us off so I guess it was ok. They were in really good condition, much better than the ones at our tournament site. We had a pretty lengthy, solid practice. After that I grabbed a salame and cheese panini for lunch which is very common here. Then I headed over to the site to wait for our match. I got more food in the cafeteria because I was still hungry after my panini. Then I warmed up with my partner right before our match. Our doubles did not go as planned…we lost pretty badly 1-6, 2-6. I had a high energy level and stayed positive from beginning to end, but I didn’t exactly receive the same effort level from my partner. That makes it tough to win matches. However, our opponents did play very solid and put balls away every chance they got. They didn’t give us many free points or leave the door open for us to come back. We had a few deuce/no ad points and lost them all, had we won those who knows maybe it could have been a different outcome. I think it’s time to put this week behind me and look forward to playing great tennis next week!

I’ll be practicing with Maria again tomorrow morning, planning on playing a couple sets because we both need it! The transportation guy this week has been very good, he picks us up on time and takes us wherever and whenever we need to go. He’s nice enough to drive me, Maria, and her coach to Latina tomorrow afternoon. Latina is where the next tournament is and it’s about 40km away. He’s doing me a huge favor because otherwise you would probably be hearing about another train/bus/walking adventure tomorrow haha. The next tournament will start Monday just like this week, so I’ll be practicing hard over the next few days. I’m interested to see what the hotel, club, and town is like in Latina.

Alright, it’s time for me to check espn.com and get the scoop on the big dance games that started today. I’m doing a NCAA Bracket Pool with a few of my friends. I do it every year and it’s always fun to see how the bracket turns out…usually nothing like the one I chose. I’m feeling pretty good about my picks this year though. My Wahoos failed miserably to make the tournament so it’s UNC all the way now! I’ll talk to you guys from Latina, maybe in a day or two. Ciao!

Posted by Jack Newman at March 19, 2009 5:03 PM