LA Monday, July 23, 2007

This week we started our hard court season or our "Road Trip," as the US Open promotional campaign states it. We first formed our partnership here a year ago and made a run to the finals.  Obviously we were hoping to do the same and get a rematch with the victors in '06, the Bryan Bros.

We had a delightful invitation to participate in an exhibition on the Sunday before the tournament for a local hospital trying to raise money to fight diabetes. Now, I am always looking to give back, do whatever I can to help those in need. So, the fact that the event was to be held at the Playboy  Mansion, did not change my mind that I was very excited to help.

The event was quite cool and I was told by one organizer, Harold Foonberg (no, that actually is his name, he gave me his card), that this event was the "most profitable charity tennis tournament, ever." Hmm....ok, fine, happy to be here! We proceeded to play a set of tennis on a beautiful court with a row of bunnies sitting in the first row cheering us on! Then, post match, Jamie, Hugh and I retired to the pool for a swim, then lounged around in "the grotto" with about 25 playmates.

Anyone jealous???? Well, that didn't happen. What did? We took about 50 photos with people I didn't know, ate some food, saw the monkeys, played our set of tennis and caught transport back to the courts. We did manage to meet a few people, and by that I mean, bunnies, and the experience was cool.

Back in our reality, we had to prepare for our first hard-court event in quite some time. The grass courts while low bouncing, actually play quite slow and the balls are very heavy. So, it was no surprise to me, that after hitting about 10 forehands off the fence in my first 10 minutes of practice, I would need to raise the tension in my rackets by about 10 pounds.

We broke the new clothes this week, with some sharp new "Booty and Stretch" shirts. However, it led to a first round exit to Lipsky-Martin, an American team that is really on the move up the rankings this year. Tennis is a funny game, looking back logically over the past month or so, Jamie and I won 2 rounds in Queens, won Nottingham and won 2 rounds at Wimby. Yet, after our loss yesterday, I was really doubting our ability to ever win a match again. Tennis is such a funny game like that. It's one of the reasons I have such respect for a team like the Bryan's. They show up every week, they rarely, if ever, take bad losses. With the new scoring system, this is even more impressive.

See you in Indy,

Booty