Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens are two talented up-and-coming Americans who are in Brno, Czech Republic with the U.S. Fed Cup Team as Future Fed Cuppers for the opportunity to practice with the team and help it prepare to face the Czech Republic in the semifinals.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Hey Everyone!
We had another early start yesterday with practice beginning at 7:30. It was a lot of fun because we got a chance to do some doubles drills with Liezel. She was so open to giving us tips and pointers, which was really nice of her and greatly appreciated! We practiced for around two hours, and then headed back to the hotel to shower and get some food. There is always an official draw ceremony the day before the matches start, so we headed off to that with the whole entire team at around 1 pm. It was pretty cool because we were escorted to the City Hall of Brno by police cars. The room in which the ceremony was held in was beautiful and the whole atmosphere was really exciting. The mayor of Brno presided over the event, and there were even media taping the whole event live for local television. Eventually the player nominations were announced, and it was decided that Bethanie was going to play first on both days.
After the ceremony we rushed back to the club because it was already our practice time, and since there is only one court every minute is crucial. We played a set against each other for a prize from Walt, but unfortunately we have not received it yet! We all met later for dinner in our team room, and we were so pumped to find that Walt had ordered some pizza nearby which tasted just like back home. The best part of the day came afterwards though when we all played an extremely intense yet really funny game of Charades. Mary Joe and Bethanie were unstoppable. Anyways, we need to get some sleep now so we can be ready to cheer our teammates on tomorrow. We'll keep you posted on how things go tomorrow! GO USA!!
Christina and Sloane
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Hey Everyone!
Today was another long day. Since practice time is really tight, we had to be over at the club at 7:30 a.m. so we could get a good hit in before the Czech team got there. The court is quite fast and gives off some weird bounces at times, but besides that we had a good practice with Ola and Mary Joe. At around 8:45 we came back to the hotel and ate an unbelievable breakfast with the team. The plain yogurt with honey on top was amazing! The rest of the team headed back to the courts for their practice, but we stayed at the hotel to do some homework and get some rest since we are still not completely used to the time difference.
Later in the afternoon we headed back to the courts with the rest of the team for another practice. We got a chance to practice our cheering while the others were practicing, so it was quite fun. We have been given the job of finding some good pump up songs for before the matches so we have some work to do over the next couple of days.
We were running a little behind schedule, so we had to rush back to the hotel and shower before leaving to dinner. One thing we have noticed is that the bread here is incredible. Getting our actual meals though took quite long so we didn't get back to the hotel until 10:30 p.m.!! We have really been bonding with the team, especially Alexa who is now not only answering more than 'yes' or 'no' to a question, but she's even elaborating! We also have had a lot of fun with our hitting partner Kaes learning about all the manly James Bond things he plans on doing in the near future.
Now we are ready to go to sleep so we'll keep you guys posted until tomorrow!
Sloane and Christina
Monday, April 20, 2009 Hey Everyone!
Our names are Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens, and we have been given the amazing opportunity to accompany the U.S. Fed Cup team in its tie against the Czech Republic. We had a long day of traveling yesterday, but we finally made it to Brno, Czech Republic. After landing in Vienna we had to drive two hours to the hotel with Mary Joe, Melanie, Bethanie, and Walt. The other two players on the team, Alexa Glatch and Liezel Huber, had already arrived a day earlier.
We couldn't wait to eat some food when we got to the hotel, but more importantly get some sleep. It was only 12 p.m, however, so we couldn't go to sleep right away but instead we had a chance to get over to the courts and practice. The site only has one indoor stadium court, so practice time is crucial. The goal during practice was to just hit a lot of balls, get a feel for the court, and try to stay awake!! Since we were all pretty exhausted from traveling we just ate dinner downstairs in the hotel lobby after we got back from the courts. Yesterday seemed like the longest day ever, and we could not have been happier to finally get to bed! We'll keep you guys posted!
Sloane and Christina