First day in Cancun was just a nice practice session and drenched clothes. Traveling here was a bit of a struggle for me, since I have absolutely no Spanish vocabulary. Luckily my coach, Blake, and his wife, Aline can speak pretty well so I basically stand in the background as they take care of the traveling and communicating with everyone here. So far the only word I feel confident enough to say is gracias! Hopefully in a month my vocab will expand. I’m trying to work on numbers next.
Anyways, it was an exciting first day of tournament play in Cancun! I won my first match in the qualifying draw 6-2, 6-2. The weather is extremely hot and humid here so there is a lot of sweating.... a lot. My second match of the day was a tough one. I won the first set 6-1, and we went back and forth in the second. In the second set tiebreaker, it was 1-1 when my leg started cramping and spazzing. I tried an underhand serve because I couldn’t jump, then my second serve just tap it in but I double faulted. Trying to move to the other side, I couldn’t walk so I had to sit down on the court and a trainer came over to stretch me out and massage my leg. I got back on my feet and droppshoted nearly every shot to luckily win the 6 points and the tiebreaker 7-2! After I shook hands I tried to walk to the side but my legs were cramping so bad I just sat down on the ground while my calves were full on cramping. I laid there for a while, and Blake laughed at me.
These two wins get me into my first main draw match so I’m excited to play!! Luckily I had a day of rest today, and I’m quite sore but resting and drinking lots of liquids. Stay tuned to hear about my match tomorrow!