Our first tournament of the year took us to Chennai, India. It was our first time in India and we were unsure how the week would go. We collected our luggage and proceeded to the arrivals lounge to be greeted by half of India, or so it seemed. Thousands of people were waiting for their loved ones to show their face. It was an amazing sight but also very scary if you werent anticipating it.

We headed to the hotel and it was a really Westernized four star hotel. We enjoyed the food throughout the week at the hotel but refused to venture out to see the sights. I was more than happy to stay indoors where I felt good. Preventing delhi belly at all costs was my first goal. I was fortunate to achieve this throughout the week.

The tennis courts were nice and had everything we expected. We noticed lots of flies and a good amount of humidity during our first practice. All the matches were scheduled in the evening which made life easier regarding sweat but playing under lights were tough. Everyone seemed to struggle with their service percentage throughout the tournament. We played a solid first match and that set up a big match against the national heroes of Bhupathi and Bopanna. We ended up playing on the main outside court due to the singles matches taking too long on Centre Court. We started the match about 30 minutes after midnight. We played a good match and we ended up winning in a 3rd set MTB (match tiebreak). The semi final was against Ventura and Granollers. It was on Centre Court at around midnight. We got off to a great start but ended up losing a close 3rd set MTB.

(after each event i will rate the event on a few things out of 10)

Hotel – 8

City – unknown

People – 9

Tournament Site – 7

Crowds / Atmosphere – 7

Organization – 7

Overall – 7