Nuefchatel en Bray: Day 2

We get a great view of the sunset every night.

Just finished eating dinner. Frankie cooked up some sort of sausage thing. We thought we purchased some hot dog buns, but we actually got some sort of croissant buns. Used them as hot dog buns anyway. It was quite delicious.

Today was a little slower of a day. Frankie got up early-ish and went and trained with some of the other players while I slept in to rest for my match. Around noon we went to buy some groceries, but of course the grocery store is closed from 12:00 to 14:30. Gustavo says the French are very lazy, so we had better get used to it. At 15:00 we drove to Nuefchatel for my 16:30 match. I played a 2/6 ranked man named Julian who was probably in his mid 30s. We had seen him hitting at the club here in Rouen and yesterday, while he was playing a tournament match. He has an interesting style to say the least. He almost never hits topspin, preferring to hack at slices from both wings and employing an arsenal of drop shots and odd-angled chips. During the course of my match he also utilized the underhand serve.

The match began very well for me. I was playing solid and Julian was missing everything which allowed me to take a 3-0 lead in about 10 minutes. Julian buckled down a little bit, playing more and more of his slices to my still crippled backhand and was able to get back into the set 3-2. However, I settled down and ran off 4 straight games to win the first set 6-2. In the second set Julian became much more steady and was able to take a 3-1 lead. I had game points to tie the set at 4-4 but was unable to convert. Instead, he held at 5-3 to take the second set 6-3. Although the sets were not that close I could tell Julian was getting a little fatigued and starting to feel his legs tighten up. Nonetheless he took the opening game of the third set and had points to go up 2-0. But his fatigue started to affect his play and I was able to sneak away with a hold and then quickly broke him to take a 2-1 lead. For some reason this seemed to push him over the edge and he really had nothing left in the tank for the rest of the match. I ended up winning the third set 6-1 for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win. I wasn't thrilled with the way I played, but this guy is a tough matchup on clay so I was happy to get the win. My favorite part of the match was that the moment Julian stepped off the court he pulled out his pack of Lucky Strikes and starting having a cigarette. I now understand why he was so tired.

Tomorrow at 12:00 I play Daniel, one of the Columbians, in the round of 16. He is a good player ranked 1/6, however he sprained his ankle in a pickup soccer game a few days ago and is still recovering, so we will see how it goes.

Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures today. So you don't get much.

Until tomorrow,

-Max

The most expensive thing we bought was 'Kinder' chocolate. Go figure.

Gregario came back after losing the first set 1-6 to win in 3 sets.