Heartbreaker

Another drama filled, exciting day of tennis in Mallorca! I woke up early to warm up with Mary and Fran. Phil decided to spend some extra time getting his body loose, especially his back. Mariana had an early singles match, so after warming up I stayed to watch her play the girl from France that beat me. Mariana fought hard and lost a three setter. By then it was time for Phil to go on. Matches were running late again, and by the time he went on, the ITF decided that in order to catch up time wise they would send some matches to Na Taconera, and of course one of those matches was my doubles. I hated that I couldn't stay to watch him play. Jim stayed behind to watch Phil and Trish came to Na Taconera to watch us.

Mariana had a tough loss, but was pumped and ready for doubles. We were playing the number two seeds...two Australians that played doubles for the teams last week. I was truly expecting a dog fight. I thought they'd be real aggressive and take the net. They were a good team, but Mariana and I played very well. We won 6-3, 6-4. Jim came about half way through the match, but I didn't want to lose my focus by asking about Phil's singles. I knew he wouldn't come over because he and Tom still had doubles to play. I found out from Jim afterwards he lost 7-5, 6-3. We walked back down the hill to Font de Sa Cala and I quickly found Phil. Despite his loss, he felt good about his singles play. It's the first time all week that he's thought he played well, even though he lost. He was so excited that I won and would be in the doubles finals tomorrow. Now we had to get Tom and Phil through their doubles semis against the number one seeds.

Tom and Phil came out playing unbelievable. They broke quickly, in fact they won the first 5 games. Those guys didn't know what hit them. After taking the first set 6-1, Phil and Tom continued to dominate the first couple of games of the second set. Eventually the other team stopped missing, and our guys were not quite as sharp. We lost the second set 6-3. On to a third set. Everyone held all the way through the set, although there were some break points, no one was able to convert. At 6 all the match would be decided by a tiebreaker. My nerves once again were shot. It got to 5 all in the breaker and the other team won the point to have the first match point. Tom and Phil came up with the shots and were able to tie it up to 6 all. The next point went to Tom and Phil....a match point with Phil returning. The German player came up with a big serve that took a funny bounce and Phil missed the return. Back to 7 all. The next two points went the other guys and the match was over. So exciting but so disappointing! I really thought they were going to pull it out.

Phil had a great attitude after the match. I know he was so very disappointed, but I was so proud of the way he played and competed. More importantly he was too. We have another all American final tomorrow playing Fran and Mary. It will be a fun, hard fought match. I never dreamed of being able to make the finals two years in row. We play tomorrow at three. Sunday will be a rest and recover day before starting our long journey home on Monday.

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