Wednesday, April 29th
USA vs. Sweden
Our #2 singles player, Renata (Which I will be sharing my interview I did with her earlier today later in this blog!) played against Christina Marmolin of Sweden. Renata won the toss and picked the sunny side so her opponent served first. She used her heavy topspin to win the first game. Renata then lost her serve for 1-1. She broke for a 2-1 lead then held after being down 15-40 for a 3-1 lead. She broke for a 4-1 lead. With her awesome drop shots Renata then held serve for a 5-1 lead. At this point her opponent started to turn it on and won 3 games in a row. Now Renata was serving at 5-4 and won the game and set 6-4. In the 2nd set Renata broke for a 1-0 lead then kept her momentum going for a 5-1 lead just like she did in the 1st set but she did not let her opponent from Sweden back in and won the 2nd set 6-1. Great job Renata! USA up 1-0.
Our #1 singles player, Vesna, played Anna Sundmark of Sweden. Vesna lost the 1st game then held serve for 1-1. She then broke her opponent’s serve to go up 2-1. Vesna held serve for 3-1 then broke being down 0-40 to go up 4-1. She ended up winning the set 6-1 with great clay court playing!! In the 2nd set Vesna went on to defeat her opponent 6-1 using her awesome clay court skills to seal the deal.
Great job Vesna….you make your captain proud!! USA up 2-0.
In our doubles match, Rachel and Carolyn won 6-0, 6-0 against Sweden. They played very well together with great returns, good percentage tennis and using Australian doubles to throw their opponents returns off. This strategy worked very well. Great job girls!
USA wins 3-0!!
This means we are in the Semi-finals on Friday against the #1 seeds Italy. We have tomorrow (Thursday) off and we will be sightseeing together as a team. We may even check out Rafa Nadal’s apartment building. J
Interview with Renata Marcinkowska
Renata is the veteran on our team this year. When asked Renata told me she has been in 6 of these World Team Cup Championships:
2003-Germany
2004-Turkey
2005-Australia
2006-South Africa
2008-Turkey
2009-Mallorca
Wow, how lucky we are to have her on our team!!
Renata is an Independent Tennis Consultant. She dabbles in real estate on the weekends when she is not teaching.
Renata speaks several languages.
Are you having fun with your team?
Yes Maam! Everyone has been very friendly, supportive and genuine. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and really did not know each other before this event and we all get along great!
Is there any foods from America you miss?
No, all the food here is great!
I do miss my father and sister and animals from back home!!
We are very happy Renata is on our team this year and thank you Renata for letting me interview you!
:) Rachel Gale, Captain, 40’s Young Cup Team
Tuesday, April 28th
USA VS. SOUTH AFRICA
Our USA #2 singles player Renata played against Helena Mowatt of South Africa. In the 1st set Renata started off strong and was up 3-1 using her heavy topspin and crafty drop shots. This was a very effective strategy and she went up 4-2. Then the game played at 4-2 went to 15 deuces! Renata ended up on the short end of that very long game then the next game she held serve being down 15-40 for a 5-3 lead. She lost the next game and lost her next service game at love. Now the score is 5 -5. Renata broke serve and went up 6-5 then served very well to win the 1st set 7-5! This 1st set lasted 1 ½ hours. In the 2nd set Renata played very confident and went on to win 6-1. Well done Renata. USA 1 South Africa 0.
Our USA #1 singles player Vesna (who was interviewed today for this blog so be sure to read more after you find out our end result) who played against Ralene Buys of South Africa. Vesna started out her match with a service break then held serve to go up 2-1. From there on it was very tight getting tied up all the way to 6-6. In the tiebreaker Vesna held off a set point at 5-6 and won the next three points to win the tiebreaker with a 7-6 1st set win! In the second set Vesna it was tight till Vesna pulled up 4-3 then 5-3. Her opponent fought back to make it 5-5 then 6-6. Time for another tiebreaker! This breaker was tight all the way till the end. She won it 7-5! GREAT WIN VESNA!! USA 2 South Africa 0.
The USA secured the win over South Africa.
Rachel Gale and Carolyn Wei played doubles for the USA and ended up losing 6-0, 6-1 against a tough South African doubles team! Even with that loss the USA defeated South Africa 2-1. We play Sweden tomorrow.
Interview with Vesna McKenna our #1 singles player on the USA 40’s Young Cup team. I decided to ask each of our team players a few questions and share their answers with everyone reading this blog.
This is Vesna’s 1st time playing in the World Team Championships. She is a firefighter for Miami Dade Fire and Rescue. She was born in Argentina of Croatian decent. She speaks four languages: Croatian, German, English and Spanish. Her team mates are very happy for her fluent Spanish speaking skills!!!
How does it feel to be playing for the USA here in Spain for the 1st time?
"I feel Great, nervous, excited and happy. It is an honor for me to play for my country!"
Are you having fun with the players on your team?
"I am having a blast! We are a very diverse team. Each of us comes from different backgrounds yet we all interact with each other really well."
Are you missing any foods from America?
"No, I can eat anything. The food is all good here in Spain. However, I do miss my son and husband as well as my job!!"
Vesna’s birthday is on May 6th so I wanted to wish her an early "Happy Birthday!"
By: Rachel Gale, Captain, Young Cup team
Monday, April 27th our 1st day of matches.
Hello Everyone,
Sorry I could not get online yesterday and it was not my lack of trying. The phrase our team has now is "Are you in yet?" meaning have you gotten on the Internet?? Okay so the seeds for the 40's Young Cup are as follows:
#1 France
#2 Italy
#3 USA :)
#4 Great Britain
There are 4 different round robins. We are in a round robin with Slovenia, South Africa and Sweeden. Today we played Slovinia and here are our results:
Rachel Gale started us off at #2 singles and won 6-1,6-0 against Tanja Valiavec. She got the USA off to a great start! Then Vesna McKenna kept the ball rolling with a 6-0,6-0 win against Anja Zavadlav. Vesna played very well and stayed focused!
Our doubles team of Renata Marcinkowska and Carolyn Wei defeated Tanja and Anja 6-0,6-0. They had great hands at the net!!
We will go and practice this afternoon to be ready for our next opponent tomorrow!! We are on Italy's side of the draw.
That is all for today! Stay tuned for more results tomorrow (If I can get connected!!)
Go USA!!! Rachel Gale :0)
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40's Young Cup Team 1st blog:
Rachel, Vesna, and Carolyn arrived in Mallorca, Spain on Friday afternoon, April 24th and had a hit on the good old Red Clay. Renata arrived a little later in the day. We had a great dinner and get together with our team. On Saturday we were off again to hit on the Red Clay. We had over a 2 hour practice :) We are very excited to be here and are ready to leave it all on the courts we play on this week! I will keep everyone updated as best as I can each day if possible (and if I can manage to get on the wireless network at our hotel).
Go USA!!!!
Sincerely, Rachel Gale