On 20 April it was time to leave for our third tournament in Vicenza, Italy. I was feeling very sick and it was a gruelling 45 minute bus ride to the train station. A few hours later I was able to finally check into our very nice hotel. I was feeling horrendous though so Simon (Rea) took me to the hospital to get myself treated.
We were sent straight to the waiting room but after waiting an hour and a half or so I was becoming very impatient. Simon noticed and found a doctor who took a blood test. I got sent back to the waiting room for another hour and a half. Eventually I was treated and went on three different drips. At 10:30 pm, after being stuck in the hospital for six hours, it was time for Simon and me to leave. I was feeling slightly better afterwards, however I still couldn’t eat for another 20 hours and then it was only plain bread and dry biscuits. Therefore, I couldn’t play the tournament.
I had a few days off before getting back into training. Time had passed quickly and before I knew it, we were coming to our final week of part one of the European tour. Sanremo was the destination and it took five hours by train to get there. Sanremo was very nice as it was on the coast and we were staying along the beach.
Andrew Whittington and I shared a tiny little room with possibly the worst shower! The one positive about this hotel however, was that it was right next door to the courts. The tennis club was very nice and had a lovely restaurant. I had two practice sessions that day and the courts played quite nice even though I was striking the balls quite averagely.
However, I got better each day and Saturday came around for me to play my first round of qualifying. I was really looking forward to getting out there and competing. Despite it not being my best tennis, I won 6-3 6-3! I had my second round the next day and won 6-3 6-2. On the Monday I played my match to try and qualify for the main draw. I played an Italian and lost 2-6 6-7. I was incredibly disappointed with the way I played and the fact that it was the last match of this tour.
On reflection, I have learnt many things to take back home with me to work on and to improve on the practice court before returning back to Europe in three weeks time.
Two days Andrew and I caught the train back to Milan before jumping on a few planes back to Australia.
Andrew Harris, Andrew Whittington, Alex Bolt and their Coach, Simon Rea, were in Italy as part of a four-week Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) tour.
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