When we arrived at the tennis center yesterday, headed straight to the dubs sign in sheet. Our team, was in the qualifier, barely. Soon after, others we coming to sign up, late arrivals. Natalie connected with Florenia who is dubs ranked in the high two hundreds. They agreed to team up and try to get into the draw. Carolina was there, and understood the change of partners. This is done often, you can look at the list and determine prior to close of sign up if you need to change up partners.
Still tricky tho, for Natalie doesn't have a ranking. So their pairing is listed as ranked plus unranked. When they make up the draw it goes as follows:
Ranked and ranked
Ranked and unranked
Unranked and unranked
At first glance "our team" was the 11th team out of 11 ...in the main draw. But we still had an hour till the close of sign in. Tick, tick, tick. Sure enough, here came some peeps to sign up. Moving our team out of the main and first into the qualifier.
Now, just to be clear. Natalie and Carolina were offered a wild card. But, they refused it, in hopes of saving it. You see they have used two of the three for the year. They are hoping to get a third one at a "bigger" tourney.
Tick, tick, tick ....the clock seemed to crawl at a snails pace to high noon. With those around adding to the suspense by yelling out, "hey Nat only 8 more minutes". Or "hey Nat, only 4 more minutes". Or "hey Nat, 46 more seconds". Lol, yes too funny and crazy nerve racking.
Then finally, "hey Nat, you are in the main draw cuz a wild went unused which bumped y'all up to the main". WooooHooooo!
Truth be told, the room erupted with cheers for Natalie getting in, very sweet support indeed. A testimony to Nat and the other pros, that they do support each other when it involves someone coming back from injury.
So, Natalie and Florencia will play today, fourth on after ten. Which of course is code for 2ish. They will play the 4th seeded team of Gabueva(RUS) and Sotnkiova(UKR). Speaking for Nat only, she has been across the net on a dubs court,from both the opponents. The most recent being Sotnkiova, last week.
That's it for now, until that lil yellow ball begins to bounce....Love and Blessings...Sherry!
