On the road

On my arrival in Amsterdam, I took a train to Rotterdam where I was picked up by a lady whose three children played tennis and the family is very passionate about the game. She had cooked an elaborate dinner and made me feel very much at home. Slowly, my negative feelings about the whole trip began to melt away and I started to get into the groove.

The way club tennis works in these parts is that each foreign player is sponsored by one family with whom the player stays and that’s how I am where I am. My club fixed it up and the family is really terrific.

I am in Rotterdam to play for a local club this house will my base for the next couple of months, so I have a place to come back to in between tournaments and also train. The coach Rob Mentik is a renowned coach in Holland and also coaches one of my best friends on the Tour, Lubomira Bacheva, presently ranked 86.

During the weekend, we drove around 50kn to play an inter-club event. When we got there, I was surprised to see some familiar faces from the Tour like Noelle van Lottum, Petra Kamstra and Marese. Noelle and Petra have not played much on the tour recently, and I have heard they are planning retirement soon.

A little before our matches began, Marese, a South African, came to our locker room. Not bothering with any pleasantries, she confronted me with a question that made me feel very uncomfortable. "Hey, so you guys busted our captain, eh?" She was obviously referring to Hansie Cronje. So I replied, "Unfortunately, yes." She went on to say unpleasant things like Indians cannot win matches and are only good at busting people. I had no intention of having a bathroom brawl just before my match, so I let it pass.

The format for the club matches is like this. Two women’s singles follwed by two men’s singles, the woman’s doubles, men’s doubles and finally, two mixed doubles matches. We ended losing 6-2 at the end of the day.

Though I did not play all the matches, it was good match practice because this was my second day on claycourts this season.

What I’m trying to say, is that it’s really no wonder that Europeans are doing so well in the international tennis scene. France, Germany, Spain and Holland have these matches week-in and week-out all through the summer and there are different levels in this. This constant practice obviously makes a major difference when you’re on the Tour.

The other day, for the first time after getting here, I got down to cooking some Indian food and boy! It felt great. In my experience, eating native food takes away a bit of the homesickness.

I recall the time Leander (Paes) and I went hunting for an Indian restuarant during the Japan Open in Tokyo, and were really glad to find amasala dosa for dinner. That’s also why I guess, many Japanese and Thai players carry rice cookers with them on the Tour.

In the next couple of weeks, I might be playing a Challenger in Portugal and hopefully, the French Open qualifiers. I shall keep you posted. Till then, goodbye.

Nirupama Vaidyanathan, India’s top women’s player, will write a fortnightly column talking about life on the road on the women’s Tour