LaffiesWorld

Fritz in main draw.

2010-02-02T04:17:00.000-08:00

It was a great start to the year for Fritz Wolmarans when he qualified for the SA Open on Monday. Fritz who has struggled with injuries in 2009 was back to his best. His powerful serve is a real weapon in the high altitude. Fritz will have to be at his best today when he gets the opportunity to win his 1 st Tour event singles match.

It was a heartbreak night for SA no 1 player Rik de Voest. He lost a close match to Rajeev Ram in 3 sets. The match that was scheduled for 7pm was delayed by several hours due to the rain they had earlier the day.

Izak van der Merwe and Raven Klaasen play their 1 st round matches today on centre court. Both of them need to take charge of their matches and use their knowledge of how to play at high altitude.

My event in Miami has gone very well. I have met some very influential people and crazy tennis fans. We had a dinner last night at the Delano Hotel on South Beach. Everything in this Hotel is white and there is candles all over the place. If you a romantic this is definitely the place to entertain your love one.

I fly back tonight to South Africa and are not looking forward to the BEAST. 16: 45 minutes in a plane is not my way of having fun.

When I arrive back tomorrow afternoon I will have to be ready to run because I need to be at the launch party for the Industry Awards at Emperors Palace 1:30 after I touched down in JHB.

Thursday morning I will be at Monte casino to do some TV work for Supersport until the end of the week and are really looking forward to that. I will keep you up to date with all the tennis and fun things.

Welcome to Miami

2010-01-31T07:29:00.000-08:00

I left South Africa on Thursday night for a quick trip to Miami. The reason for my trip is a corporate Tennis event for the company Trading Technologies. Roger Mills a friend from junior tennis who is the CFO of the company invited myself, Ellis Ferreria and commentator Jason Godhall to the event. We will play and exhibition match, do clinic's and work with the clients on a one on one basis. These guys are very keen tennis players and I am really enjoying every minute of the event.

The trip was a beast. My flight from JHB-Atlanta was 16 hours 45 minutes. I had a first experience when I arrived in Atlanta I was asked by the customs officer to go into this small room to be asked some questions. When I arrived in the room I realised that we where 10 South Africans and a few Nigerians in the room. Something about been a male and travelling on your own.

I was very lucky to make my connecting flight to Miami.

The last 2 days have been really good and I have met some great people. The event is at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Key Biscayne . It is a beautiful hotel on the beach with 11 clay courts.

The SA Open kicks off tomorrow at Monte casino and I am looking forward to a great week of tennis. This is a great opportunity for our local tennis fans to watch some world class tennis.

We are all very excited about the fact that Geal Monfils is here to play. He will have tough competition from Davis Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez. From a South African point of few our hopes are on Rik De Voest, Izak van der Merwe and Raven Klaasen. Rik has a tough 1 st round against Rajeev Ram from the United States. Ram is a big guy with a serve and volley game that will be very effective in the high altitude. Rik is back playing great tennis so it will be a tough encounter. Izak is up against a qualifier and Raven plays David Guez from France.

I must say I am very disappointed with the decision of the tournament not to give WC's to our top juniors in the qualifying event.This is why we have tournaments to help our own players. Hernus Pieters, Renier Moolman, Warren Kuhn and Marc van der Merwe really would've benefited from the experience. The decision to give WC's to retired doubles player just doesn't make sense and the fact that there was also open spots in the qualifying event make the decision even more questionable.

I really believe that the SA Ope will be a great event this week and wish Ian and his team the best off luck for the week.

2010-01-24T00:45:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a long travelling day for me. My pick up was at 6:30 to get to the airport in time for my 8:35 flight to Perth. Melbourne -Perth is a 4 hour flight. When you arrive in Perth you have to change from the domestic to the International terminal. The Perth -Johannesburg flight is 10;40 min. I was lucky to get a bulk seat that gives me a little bit more leg space but it is still not fun for me to fly. I was very happy on Saturday afternoon when the plane touched down at OR Tambo airport.

It will be a very busy week for me. I leave for Miami on Thursday night for 4 days so have lots of things to do. I have some exciting new players at my academy and we are busy working on a new website and finalizing JL'S Tennis. I will give you all more info once everything is in place.

The tennis fans was again treated to some great tennis at Melbourne park yesterday. Hewitt got a free pass to the rnd of 16 and will now face Roger Federer. It will be very tough for the Aussie but at least he will have the home crowd behind him, well lets hope so.

It was not a great Aussie Open for the SA players when you look at the results, but there is some very positive things that everyone can take from their performances at the Open.

Hernus Pieters or only junior in the draw unfortunately lost in the 1 st round but he learnt some valuable lesson and got exposed to the best juniors in the world.

The heat is back in Melbourne

2010-01-20T03:53:00.000-08:00

My day didn't start to well with the transportation showing up late for my pick up. We had a 8 am practice and when the car didn't show up at 7:30 I new something was wrong. The Australian Open has the best transport of any of the Grand Slam. I must say there is lots of things where they are the best. The atmosphere around the courts are electric and fans really get into it. Today they had a record crowd with 66 000 people watching the tennis. The doubles event started today and Wesley and Rik was up. Rik played with Scott Lipsky and they won 7-6 in the 3 rd. Wesley played with Michael Youzhny and it was very tough for him because he only finished 12 pm last night beating Gasquet of France in 5 sets. He was back on the court and played really well. Wesley and Michael unfortunately lost 6-4 in the 3 rd. This after they had 3 match points in the 2 nd set.

Like all Grand Slams there was again a big upset today. Justine Henin who made her comeback this year took out the no 5 seed Dementieva. It will be interesting to see who will win if both Henin and Clijsters who made there comebacks to the womens game meet in the quarterfinals.

The match of the day was between James Blake and Jaun Martin Del Porto. James really has a good game to match Del Porto and he pushed him to the wire. This was a classic battle with both players calling for the trainers towards the end of the 5 th set. Del Porto eventually won 10-8 in the 5 th set.

Jeff is up tomorrow and will be interesting to see how he will play with his old partner Roger Wassen.

Until tomorrow.

2010-01-18T03:26:00.000-08:00

When I woke up this morning it was like been at Wimbledon, It was cold and rainy. This was the 1 st day of the Main draw and not the weather organizer wanted. I am staying with Craig Tiley the tournament director and driving into the tennis this morning he had to take many calls about the start of the tournaments and what impact the weather will have.

Melbourne weather is a lot like Cape Town. If you don't like the weather just wait 20 minutes.

Today was like that. It rained, there was wind, the sun came out for a few minutes and at one stage we had everything at once. The great thing about the Rod Laver arena is the roof. Weather can't really delay centre court action. The rule with the roof is that if it rains they close the roof and it will stay like that for the whole match, after the match the officials will look at the weather and decide if they will open the roof or keep it closed. Today it stayed close the whole time.

With the rain practice was crazy. Everybody that had practice courts on the outside courts had to move indoors. The problem you have is that there is 19 courts outside and only 6 indoor courts. You where very lucky if you got 30 minutes.

Kevin was up 3rd on Rod Laver. He had a tough task against Andy Murray. Murray is one of the favourites for this tournament and is playing well. Kevin tried hard but Murray was to good. I was sitting in the players box and was just amazed at how well Murray covers the court. He is a great athlete and I am sure he is very close to winning his 1st Slam.

Tomorrow is the last day for the doubles players to prepare before they start on Wednesday. We have 3 guys and one girl in the main draw. Wesley, Rik, Jeff and Natalie Grandin.

I will keep you up to date with there progress.

Hit for Haiti

2010-01-17T03:51:00.000-08:00

Today was very special when 8 of the top players in the world came together to raise money for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Federer, Nadal, Djorkovic, Hewitt, Williams, Clijsters, Roddick and Stosur played in two teams of 4 against each other. The tickets for Rad Laver arena was $ 10 dollars and it was packed. It was awesome to see that people came out to watch the best players in the world and at the same time raised money for a good cause.. Federer, Nadal, Djorkovic, Roddick, Clijsters and Williams entertained the packed stadium with some brilliant tennis but the crowd also saw a different side to these players. They where joking with each other and making everybody laugh. It was a privilege to be there at court side. I was seated next to Rogers dad Robert, what a lovely man and a very proud dad. We had a nice chat and he told me about their 3 week trip through Botswana, he just loves the bush.

Tomorrow is a big day for Kevin Anderson. He will face world no 5 Andy Murray on Rod Laver Arena. We spent 35 min on Rod Laver today just before the Hit for Haite exhibition with lots of people already in the stadium so he had a taste of what to expect tomorrow. It was great for me to be out there again and brought back so great memories. The last time I was out on the centre court was in 1997 when I played with Larisa Neiland in the finals of the mixed doubles. Unfortunately we lost 7-5 in the 3rd set.

The rest of the South African guys will only start doubles on Wednesday.

There is lots of activities and parties going on the weekend before a Grand Slam. All the companies have their product distributions, this is where the players get all their clothes, rackets, shoes and bags until the next Grand Slam. I am still very fortunate to be sponsored by Prince. This year is my 21 st year playing with Prince. They are celebrating their 40th Birthday this year. What a great company.

Well I can't wait for tomorrow. This is going to be a great Grand Slam.

Anderson vs Murray

2010-01-16T00:12:00.000-08:00

It was a happy day for Kevin Anderson when he won his last round qualifying match against Simon Standler of Germany and moved into the main draw of the Australian Open for the 3 rd year in a row.

Unfortunately Rik De Voest lost in a very close match to Xavier Malisse 61 46 75. Rik was down 4-1 /0-40 in the 3rd set and came back to level the score at 5 all. He got broken at 5-6 to loose the match. It was very disappointing for him but the one positive thing is that Rik is back and is playing great tennis again.

Kevin just loves Melbourne. The last 3 years he stayed with the James family and they really look after him. This will be his 3rd straight year in the main draw. He has been playing really positive tennis from the 1 st round. He looks fit and are playing the way he did 2 years ago when he beat Novak Djorkovic in Miami. He is up against another top 5 player named Andy Murray Monday afternoon on Rod Laver Arena. This will be a great match for Kevin. When he finished his match today and I walked up to him he said bring me Andy Murray!!! He is definitely ready to battle.

Tomorrow after noon there will be an exhibition match on Rod Laver Arena to raise money for the victims of the earthquake in Haiite. This was initiated by Roger Federer, what a good man. Most of the top men and women will take part in this event.

We had a good laugh today when the young 17 year old Ryan Harrison from America lost a bet to Andy Roddick. He had to walk into the main dining room of the Australian Open with only his towel and badge on, and had to order lunch for Roddick. The poor kid was so scared security will do something and off cause the security was in on the deal and took him away. I have never seen a kid so scared. Welcome to the Slams boy!!!!

Main draw is waiting

2010-01-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

Kevin Anderson and Rik de Voest are one match away from qualifying for the Australian Open. They are both playing 1st at 10 am Melbourne time tomorrow. Kevin plays Standler from Germany and Rik plays Malisse from Belgium. If Kevin qualifies it will be his 3rd straight year in the main draw.
The draw was done today by John McEnroe and Roger Federer has a very tough draw. He will faces Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals. Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal are in the same side of the draw.
On the women's side there was no surprise but Justine Henin will be the dark horse because she is unseeded.
The South African doubles guys are training hard and they will only start playing on Tuesday. Jeff Coetzee is playing with Roger Wassen, Wesley Moodie with Michael Youzhny and Rik de Voest with Scott Lipsky.
The tournament director of the Australian Open is Craig Tiley and he is a South African. Craig has done a great job since he arrived in Australia in 2004. He was appointed as the Director of Player development and 8 months later he was asked to become the tournament director.
He has putt a great team together and the development of Australian players are in good hands.
Some interesting stats for you.
In the last 2 years the following has happened: Participation has jumped by 18%, $ 134 million was spent on tennis facilities, an increase of 27% in top level tournaments for aspiring players, coaches membership has grown to more than 2300 and have 5 world class academies. the junior world rankings are packed with up and coming Australians.
Great job Craig

What a final!!

2009-07-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Lasers arrived in Washington on Saturday with a huge task at hand. They where up against the Kastle in the finals of the World Team Tennis Championship. The Kastle's would have home court advantage and we knew there would be 3 000 screaming supporters.

On Saturday night the 2 teams had a welcome function where we introduce our teams to the media and Billie Jean King.

Like in every match we played this season I knew if we can get 6-8 games from the 2 men's events we had a shot. Liezel and Vania was the leading doubles team in the competition and Vania the leading singles player. We started with men's singles and Raven lost 5-3. Mixed doubles was 2 nd and we lost 5-4. The men lost 5-4 in doubles and before the women's event we where down by 4 games. Liezel and Vania went down 3-1 but turned things around and won the event 5-3. We where only down by 2 games with Vania to play. We where very confident because Vania was playing well and Olga Putchova had her fare share of problems this season. Vania started of shaky but pulled herself together and with her leading 4-2 we where on the brink of becoming the new WTT Champions when Vania had 3 match points. She was unfortunately unable to convert and ended up loosing 5-4. This gave the Kastles the Championship.

It was very frustrating that we came so close. Vania gave her best and she is the one that got us into the finals. Sport can be very cruel sometimes, but it makes us all stronger.

This was the best WTT season I had. We went 12-2 in the regular season, made the finals and we where involve in 3 super tiebreakers, great excitement. Thank you very much to John, Harry, Bob, Tom and Judie who is the people that makes everything work at the Lasers. You guys are great people. THANK YOU.

I fly back to SA tonight and can't wait.

We are in the finals!!

2009-07-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

After 2 losses in a row we had to re group for the semifinals that was due to start tonight at 7 pm. We lost to St Louis Aces with Kim Clisjters in their team and then the following night to The Washington Kastles with world no 10 Nadia Petrova playing for them. Their owner Mark Ein got Petrova to play because the Kastle's needed to win their last 2 matches to qualify for the playoffs.We where up against the Newport Beach Breakers. We played them twice in the regular season. Our 1st match was in Springfield and we won in a Super Tiebreaker after Vania King our no 1 women won 8 games in a row, 4 of them in overtime to clinch the match for us. The 2 nd match was in Newport and we won 23 -18.I knew that our women were our strength and their men were their strength. I knew if the men could get 6 games in the men’s singles and men’s doubles we will win. The match started well for us with the men winning 5-2. This was great for us. 2nd up was Raven against Ramon Delgado who is the top singles player in the league. Raven lost twice this season to him 5-2. Raven played well and was very unlucky not to break Delgado at 3 all, but Delgado's experience pulled him through 5-3. So we got 8 games in the 2 men’s events and now our 3 strongest events were to come. Liezel and Martin played great and served for the match at 4-2. If they won that game we would've had a 4 game lead but unfortunately they lost serve at 4-2 and only won 5-4 in a tie-breaker. We had a 2 game lead going into the women’s doubles. The girls won 5-3 and we where up by 5 games with Vania to play. She has destroyed the Newport Beach girls every time we have played them and we where all obviously very confident that we will win now, but this is team tennis and anything can happen. Vania played the worst match of the season and the other girl played out of her shoes. She beat Vania 5-1 and because the match was tied we had to play a Super tiebreaker. A Super tiebreaker is a 13 point breaker with the 1 st player to get 7 points the winner. Vania played like we know her and won 7-3. We where all so happy. We where through to the finals, Sunday in Washington.We will play Washington in the finals. They beat the New York Sportimes 21-20 in overtime.I was very honored today when I was named the World Team Tennis Coach of the year for 2009. I also received the award in 2007. My record in charge of the Lasers is now played: 30 won 26 lost 4.

Kim Clijsters ready for comeback

2009-07-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

Everybody was very excited to see Kim Clijsters play tonight. She is planning to make a comeback and her 1st match would be in World Team Tennis. Martina Hingis also used WTT to see if she was ready to play on the WTA Tour again. Kim is probably the nicest girl out there. You would never say that she was the number 1 player in the world. There is no fuss or ego with this girl. She was out of tennis for more than 2 years. Got married , had a kid and took time away from tennis. I was very surprised when I saw her tonight. She is in great shape and looks very strong. Her trainer told me she is fitter and stronger now than when she was playing on the tour.

Tonight was the 4th time we played against the St Louis Aces in the season. We won the last 3 times but with Kim playing for them we knew it will be a new ball game. Martin and Liezel won the mixed 5-4. Women's doubles was next and the girls have not lost this season. They where up 2-0 but lost it a bit and lost the match 5-2. Men's Doubles was next and played solid. With the score levelled at 4-4 it started raining and we had a 1 hour delay. The boys came back and won the tie breaker 5-4. Raven started off great but at 3 all he played 2 loose shots and got broken. He lost 5-3. Kim was up next against Vania and we all knew this was going to be very tough for Vania. I thought she played great. Kim was really hitting the ball great. She moves well and she has really improved her serve. It is a weapon now and won lots off free points tonight. I think she will be a force to reckon with and she will be back in the top 10 in the world.Vania lost 5-4.

Tonight was our 1 st lost of the season. We are off to Washington tomorrow where we play the Kastles. They have decided to get Nadia Petrova to play 2 matches for them . It will be a difficult match tomorrow.

7 Out of 7

2009-07-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight was our last regular season match at home. We where up against the Washington Kastles. They are at the moment 2nd in the Eastern Conference and it was a big match for them because they want to clinch a spot in the playoffs.

They are a very good team with Leander Paes and Renee Stubbs in there team. Between them they have won more that 10 Grand Slam Doubles titles.

It was a very wet day and we where not sure if we would be able to play outside.

We are very lucky because the Cooper centre has 12 indoor courts, so it takes us 15 min to go indoors and finish the match if we need to.

Raven was up 1 st and went down 3-1, before he made a good come back and eventually lost 5-4. During the tie-breaker it started raining and we had to move indoors.

We had a 30 min delay because they had to setup the sound and get all the people into the indoor facility. Mixed was up next and this was going to be a great match. Paes/Stubbs and Liezel and Martin are the top 2 teams in the league. This was quality tennis we witnessed. The lasers went down 3-1 and was down 2 break points before making an awesome come back and won 4 games in a row. The score was now 9-8 to the Lasers. Raven and Martin stepped up to a higher gear and won 5-2, this was by far their best match of the season. 14-10 Lasers. Liezel was very fired up for the women's doubles because there is no Love between her and Renee Stubbs. Well liezel got what she wanted and won the match 5-1. Vania stepped on court with a 9 game lead, This was the 1st time this season that she started with such a big lead. She was playing a young Russian Petchkova. This girl hits the ball so hard and clean. It is just a pity that she has no confidence in her serve. She beat Vania 5-4 in a tiebreaker and then Vania won the 1 st game in overtime.

We are off to St Louis next where Kim Clitsjers will make her 1 st come back. Really looking forward to watching her play again. I always loved watching her and she is a great Lady.

3 In a row

2009-07-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

This year there is only 10 teams in the World Team Tennis league. We are divided into 2 conferences, Western Conference and Eastern Conference. The Western Conference consist of the following teams:

Sacramento Capitals

Newport Beach Breakers

St Louis Aces

Kansas City Explorers

Springfiled Lasers

Eastern Conference:

New York Sportimes

New York Buzz

Philadelphia Freedoms

Boston Lobsters

Washington Castles

Each team plays 14 matches in the regular season. The top 2 teams in each conference will then play each other for a place in the finals. This year the semifinals is hosted by the winner of each conference and then the finals will be played in Washington DC.

Our team the Springfield Laser has already clinched the Western Conference and will play Friday night in Springfield. Our opponents has not yet been confirmed. It will be between the Newport Beach Breakers and the Sacramento Capitals. In the Eastern Conference the New York Sportimes has qualified already. The Lasers has a 11-0 record so far in the regular season and we are trying to only become the 2nd team in history to go through the season with out loosing a match. In 2007 in my 1 st year as coach we had a 13-1 record.

We have a long week ahead of us. Tomorrow we play the Washington Castles, Tuesday we play in St Louis, Wednesday in Washington we have Thursday off and then the play-offs Friday night. If we play well we will have the big finals on Sunday night in Washington.

Last night we beat St Louis 23-16. This is the 3rd team we beat then this season.

I received bad news on Thursday when I heard that Fritz Wolmarans hurt his back and will be out for 6-8 weeks. He has played some great tennis this year after been out with a knee injury for 6 months. Hopefully he will recover quickly and be ready for the last part of the season.

I will name the Davis Cup Team that will play India in September in this week.

Home semifinals!!

2009-07-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

The New York Buzz are this year partly owned by the USTA( United States Tennis Association). The team only consist of junior players that is part of their Development program. This is an amazing opportunity for these young juniors to play every night against world class players. World Team Tennis has been the place where a lot of young tennis stars have made their 1st impact on professional tennis. Sharapova, William sisters, Davenport just to name a few. Tonight we met Sloane Stephens. a 16 Year old girl that beat Venus Williams the other night 5-1. This girl is a great athlete and I have not seen a 16 year old hit the ball that hard and clean. If she gets the right coach and guidance she will be very good.

We did the basics well tonight and the juniors had no answer to the quality play of the Lasers.

Martin and Liezel started of with mixed and won 5-1. Liezel and Chani was next and they won 5-2. Chani is really starting to play great tennis. If she can improve her movement and serve she will get into the top 100 in the world. Vania was on next and she found her match tonight. Stephens matched her shot for shot and after saving 4 match points won 5-4. The match was so close that 8 of the 9 games they played was won on a sudden deaf point. Raven and Martin destroyed the young guns 5-0. Raven was playing the last match and just needed to win the match. He played Alex Domijan who made the quarter finals of junior Wimbledon this year. Raven lost 5-3 and because the trailing team won the last match the match went into overtime. Domijan held serve in the 1 st game of overtime and they moved 1 game closer to us. We where still ahead with 1o games and was going to take the biggest come back in WTT. I knew that was no going to happen. Raven held serve and the Laser won 24-14.

With this win we have clinched a home semifinal play-off and the team we will play will be Newport Beach or Sacramento. Newport Beach need to win 1 more match to make the play-offs.

Tomorrow morning we leave at 5 am to the airport. We play St Louis tomorrow night in Springfield.

Raven spoils the party

2009-07-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

20 Years of World Team Tennis for Martina Navratilova, that is what everybody came to celebrate at the Ferncroft Country Club. Matina was in town and will there ever be another women that will achieve what Martina has done in her career. Martina has been a big supporter of World Team Tennis. I was very fortunate to play with her on a team for 5 years. She is a great team player and always put the team first. We played together for the New Jersey Stars in 1994 and we won the Championships.

It was a long day for us because we had to get up at 4:40 this morning to catch a flight through Chicago to Boston. On these flights you have to sleep because it is the only rest you get in the day. We arrived at 2:45 at the hotel and had 1:30 hours to rest before we had to go and warm up for the match.

The Lasers needed 2 more wins to booked a place in the play-offs and a home semi-finals. The Lobsters didn't have a great record but was a team that could light it up when they wanted. We started tonight with mixed doubles and Lizl and Martin had a great opportunity to win 5-1, but couldn't convert on any of their breakpoints. They had 6 and ended up loosing 5-3. Women's doubles was next and I had Lizl and Chani play together. They showed their class and won 5-2. Men's doubles was the 3rd event and the boys lost 5-2. Vania was the 4th event and she struggled tonight. She was down 4-2 and came back to win 5-4. It was 3 crucial games she won at the end and we went into the last match with only 1 game down. Raven played Jan-Micheal Gambil who was ranked as high as 14 in the world when he was at his peak. Raven played the match of his life. He beat Jan-Michael 5-4 in the tie-breaker to level the score and forced a super tie-breaker. He used all his athletic ability to win the super tie-breaker 7-5 and clinch the match for us 21-20.

This was a big win for us because it means that we have now qualified for the play-offs.

We have 2 conferences with 5 teams competing in every conference. The top 2 teams of every conference will play in the semifinals with the winning teams going through to the finals in Washington. If we beat the Buzz tomorrow we will have a home semifinals.

It was great to see Martina play again, and at 52 she can still play doubles better than most women on the tour. Long live the LEGEND!!!!

Vania does it again!!!!

2009-07-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

Everybody in the Lasers franchise was very excited because Lizl Huber the no 1 women's doubles player in the world was making her debut tonight against the Sacramento Capitals. The Lasers record against the Capitals was not very good,
but we where on a 7 match winning streak. Today was very hot with temperatures reaching a 100.The weather forecast was 60% chance for rain but we where lucky and was able to play outside.

With Lizl and Martin playing mixed doubles together I was really positive that we will have a good start. They played great and was up 4-1 with a match point in no time. Martin made a great return and Mark Knowles came up with a halve volley lob that landed on the baseline, Martin was not able to get the lob back and the Capitals where back in the match. They won the next 3 games and levelled the score at 4 all. We won the breaker and took a 1 game lead. Raven was up next and it was important for him to get a good start. He lost the last 3 matches and needed to get on the board. He has had a lot of chance but have not executed well on the big points. Tonight was the same with him creating opportunities but not executing. He lost 5-2..Men's doubles was next and the guys lost in a tie-breaker. With the 2 women's events to come and we trailing with 2 games we still had a shot. Lizl and Vania went down 3-1 and we got lucky with a call that changes the match. They won 5-3 and then Vania had to finish it off. We where down by 1 game when she started the singles. She lost serve at 1 all and then broke back straight away. She ended up winning the match 5-2 and the Lasers winning 21-20. It is 8 in a row.Tomorrow night we play in Boston against the greatest women's player ever, Martina Navratilova.

Super Tie-breaker

2009-07-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

The season is getting long when you wake up in the morning and feel like you can sleep for 2 days. I felt like that this morning. Your sleeping and eating habits are so bad during Team Tennis. You eat at 11 o'clock at night and then you can't sleep before 1 am. Normally you have to get up by 6 or 7 am to go to the airport and catch a flight. You do this for a month and you are buggered. Our match against the Kansas City Explorers started at 6:30 so we had to move from St Louis. It was a 4 hour drive but took as a bit longer because we went through a thunder storm and there was 2 accidents on the way. We only got to Kansas City at 3:25 and our practice was at 4 pm. This is where you have to learn how to quickly adapt to new courts and surroundings. The team had a 45 min practice and we where ready to play.

The explorers played in the Plaza that is in the middle of the city between all the hotels. You can basically sit in you room and watch the match. The court is surrounded by 5 hotels.

We got of to a flyer with the girls winning 5-0 in doubles, Vania won 5-2 in Singles. The men lost 5-3 in doubles and Martin and Chani lost 5-4 in mixed. I knew that we had to go into the last match leading by 7 games otherwise we could be in trouble. Raven was playing against Michael Russel and lost 5-2 to him in Springfield. Russel is a gutsy player and I knew he was capable of winning 6 games in a row. Raven has struggled this season against the baseline players. Russel played solid and won the match 5-1. Kansas City was behind by 1 game and because they won the last event we had to go into overtime. Russel held serve and the score was levelled at 18 all. The crowd was loving it, as their boys was coming back from a 6 game deficit. I couldn't belief this was happening. A Super tie breaker is a 13 point breaker , so the 1 st player that gets 7 points win. We got lucky with a let cord at 5-4 up to give Raven 3 match points. Russel saved 2 and it was now 6 all. It all came down to 1 point. It was match point for both team. I was tense, if we win this we keep our unbeaten record and go 8-0 for the season. Russel played his 1 st loose point of the match and hit a backhand long. We went nuts. The team was thrilled. this format is more emotional than a marriage. We have 2 days of and then we are back in Springfield Wednesday. See you later

Anna is in Town.

2009-07-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

We hit the road this morning at 10:30. It was a 3:30 hour drive to St Louis. The St Louis team decided to drive back last night after the match and only arrived back in St Louis at 3:30 this morning. They where in a party bus and the battery went flat 10 min from the hotel. The guys in the team had to run to the hotel and get the cars to pick up the rest of the team.

It was nice for me to be back in St Louis. I played for the Aces for 2 seasons and they where very good to me. It was another sold out crowd that showed up to see Anna Kournikova. Even if see was not playing people was there just to see her. She had a clinic with the Boys and Girls club of St Louis, photo shoot with the sponsors, interviews and signing autographs.

The Aces decided on the line up and started with mixed doubles, Last night we lost 5-2 but we turned it around tonight and won 5-3. Vania was on fire and won 5-0. Raven was up next and lost 5-0. At the break we where only leading by 2 . Women's doubles was the 4th event and the girls won 5-0. We where leading by 7 going into the men's doubles and with Martin and Raven winning the doubles 5-3 last night i didn't have any worries. I must give credit to the aces they won the doubles 5-2 and forced us into overtime. Raven served 1 st in overtime and held serve and we won the match. We keep our unbeaten record and head to Kansas City tomorrow morning to play the Explorers tomorrow night.

I played for the Explorers for 4 seasons so can't wait to see all my friends again.

Girl Power

2009-07-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

Thunder storms are something that is not unusual for the people of Springfield and this morning we had a big one. Growing up on the Highveld in South Africa, we have the privilege to see some of the most spectacular thunder storms. Tonight we where playing the St Louis Aces and Anna Kournikova was in their team so they where expecting a big crowd at Cooper Stadium. With the thunder storms they where scared that it will keep the supporters away but we where wrong. There was no rain and lots of people. It is amazing to see how people still show up to see Anna. She is retired and don't play a lot of tennis anymore, but spend her time now helping with the Boys and Girls Clubs in America and doing lots of charity work. She is one of the most popular female athletes in the world. She was suppose to play 4 matches for the Aces but hurt her wrist 2 weeks ago and had to pull out. The franchises that payed for her to come to their cities, was not happy but Anna committed to still come and do of court photo shoots, clinic's and entertaining the sponsors. Well Anna was a hit with everybody and she did a great job with the kids.

The Lasers was on a winning streak and we where not planning to do anything else than win our next match. The Aces on paper is not the strongest team in the league but they've had 2 wins already. We where very slow out of the blocks and lost the mixed 5-2. Raven was up next and played a good match. He is improving every match and I really think this will help his tennis. He served at 4-3 to clinch the match but lost serve and lost the breaker 5-4. Men's Doubles was next and Raven and Martin produced their best match of the season winning 5-2. Raven was on fire with his returning and made it easy for Martin at the net. With women's doubles and women's singles our strongest events I am always very confident going into the last 2 events even if we down by 3 games. The girls did the job again and won 5-1. Vania was up next and with a 3 game lead I had no worries, but the biggest mistake you can make is to relax in WTT. She went down 2-0, before she started playing the way we know. She won the match 5-2 and we clinched the match 21-15. After the match we had to sign autographs and with Anna with us it took a very long time. It is not always nice to sit and sign, but when you see how much it means to the kids it is really worth it.

Tomorrow morning we will hit the road to St Louis. We play them tomorrow night it St Louis. Another night with Anna.

Road trip

2009-07-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

If you asked anybody about World Team Tennis the 1 st thing they say is that the travelling is a killer. We had a great start with 5 days at home, but that was not going to last. On Tuesday morning at 7 am we where on our way to the airport for a 9 am flight. One thing about flying during WTT is that you never fly direct to a place, it is always via somewhere. I can understand that it cost a lot of money for the owners to host a team, and they want to get the cheapest ticket available. We had to fly through Dallas to Orange County in California. The weather was amazing when we arrived. Driving to the hotel you could see that you are in a place with lots of money. Ferrari's, Poshes, BMW and Mercedes Benz was the only cars we saw on the road.

We stayed at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa, and we saw the same cars in the parking lot. We had the night off because Newport Beach was playing in Kansas City. These guys was on a road trip of Hell. The last 4 nights they played in these cities:

Sunday- Sacramento-West coast

Monday- Springfield

Tuesday-Kansas City

Wednesday- Newport Beach

Hopefully they have a few days off before the next match.

On Monday night they totally outplayed us before Vania made an unbelievable comeback and won the match for us.

We knew that tonight Vania would not play last, but the men's singles would be the last event. This is their strongest event. The home team decides on the order of events, and you want to put your best event last, because in WTT if the trailing team wins the last event you go into overtime. In overtime the leading team only needs to win 1 game then the match is over, but if the trailing team keeps winning games and tie the match you play a super tiebreaker. I knew that we had to give Raven a good lead tonight going into the men's event. Martin and Chani started of well and won 5-3, Vania won 5-2, the men's doubles was next and the boys lost 5-4 in a tiebreaker. The women's doubles was the next event and our last chance to build a good lead. They did the job and won 5-1. Raven started the match with a 8 game lead. Delgado played well and won the set 5-2. The total score was now 21-16 and we went into overtime. So if Delgado wanted to win he had to win 5 games in a row, tie the score at 21 all and then win the tiebreaker. Well I knew this was not going to happen tonight and I was right, Raven held serve and we won 22-16. We are know 4-0.

Tomorrow morning it is back to Springfield. With the time change it will take us the whole day to get there. We leave Orange County at 9;15 in the morning and arrive in Springfield at 5;45 tomorrow night.

Today we heard that Brandon Klein, The Australian player that called Raven a F***ing K....R

in Eastbourne received another $10 000 dollar fine, this on top of his 10 000 Euro fine and was suspended for 6 months by the ATP. Go ATP. That was the 2 most expensive words that kid will ever say in his life. Hopefully he will learn from his mistakes.

Vania is " KING "

2009-07-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

Vania King made her 1st appearance on Sunday night against Kansas City Explorers and played solid to give us a win in Mixed and Women's doubles. Nobody knew that she will have such a big in pact in our team like she did tonight.

We where schedule to play Newport Beach. They had to fly from Sacramento where they played last night. When they got to Chicago they realised that they where book to fly to Springfield ,Illinois and not Springfield Missouri. There are 14 Springfield's in The United States. They had to make different plans and only arrived at 7pm in Springfield. The match was supposed to start at 7:05 but they where given extra time to warm up and the match started 45 min late. We started of well and the men was leading 3-1 at the 1st change, but things changed quickly and they lost 5-4. Next Raven played Ramon Delgado that was ranked as high as 53 in the world in his playing days. Ramon is retired but plays WTT every year and this guy is still playing great tennis. Raven was out played and lost 5-2. Mixed was next and Newport continued to produce great tennis. We lost 5-2. I still had hope because the girls was up next and they have been very strong in doubles. Surprise!!!! Newport was unstop able and won 5-3. Well with 1 set left and we trialling by 8 games I knew that it was possible for us to come back, but Vania will have to play unbelievable. In 1997 I played for the Kansas City Explorers in Men's Doubles with Wesley Whitehouse. We where trailing by 9 games against Richie Reneberg and Brian Macphie and made the best come back in the history of Team Tennis. Winning 9 games in a row and also winning the super-tiebreaker.

Well Vania just did that. Winning 8 games and also the super tiebreaker.

It was just amazing, what a night. We stay unbeaten and play Newport again on Wednesday, but in Newport. Stay positive, Later

I really feel for Andy

2009-07-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

Andy Roddick stepped onto the centre court of Wimbledon today and he knew that if he wants to become Wimbledon Champion, he will have to beat a guy he had lost to 18 times before this match. Anybody else would think this is not possible, but over the years we have got to known Andy Roddick as a very positive guy and one thing stands out" He believes in his own ability". Wimbledon is the one tournament that have evaded him. With one of the biggest serves in the game people thought that he will definitely with Wimbledon. He came close on 2 occasions before loosing to the King of Grass Roger Federer. I was really surprised how well Roddick was playing. He was a man on a mission. After winning the 1st set and up 6-2 in the 2nd set tiebreaker we all thought it was Roddick's day. That backhand volley he missed will haunt him for the rest of his life. I must take my hat of to him that he didn't fall apart after loosing the 2nd set. He stayed composed and played some awesome tennis. At 8 all he had 2 break points and that was his last chance to break the Federer serve. Federer couldn't ask for a better place to win his 15th Grand Slam title and become officially the greatest player ever to play this wonderful game we call tennis. Wimbledon was his backyard and with Sampras, Laver and Borg in the stands, it was meant to be his day.

The Laser's was up against the Kansas City Explorers tonight in our 2 nd match of the season. The Explorers is also in the Western Conference so was very important for us to win. They where without one of there women's players and had to fly in a substitute. She was a 15 year old, Eugenie Bouchard. She is ranked 85 on the ITF Junior rankings and the no 2 u/18 player in Canada. With the young player in the line up I really thought that she will be the weak link in the Kansas team, but was I wrong. We started with men's doubles and won 5-3. Raven was up next and started really well taking a 2-0 lead, Micheal Russell picked up his game and won the next 5 games to win the set 5-2, Explores leading by 1 game 8-7. Next it was the mixed doubles and with Martin and Vania we have one of the best teams in the league. They didn't let us down and won 5-3. Now we where leading 12-11 with women's sigles and women's doubles to come. I was very positive that we had the match. because we have 2 great players in Chani and Vania. Chani was very nervous and played a horrible match loosing 5-3. Now we where down 17-16. I was still very positive but that quickly turned into an horrible night for us. The girls went down 3-1 and Chani was down 3 break points to go down 4-1. They suddenly started playing and end up winning the set and match for us. I was so relief and happy. We played horrible and had no business winning but we did. This is World Team Tennis for you!!!!

Cricket vs Baseball

2009-07-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Friday was a rest day for the team, and we got to go to the Baseball game and watch the Springfield Cardinals. They are the local team and play in the AA League. They made it very special for the team, introducing us to the crowd and we got to pitch the 1st pitch and hit signed balls into the crowd. People say cricket is boring but nothing comes close to baseball.

On Friday I was running around trying to find out where we can watch the 3rd test between the Boks and the Lions. I was not going to miss this test match and Raven and Myself went to John Cooper our team owner's house to watch the game. It was so disappointing to see the Boks play below average rugby. It is such a talented group of guys and it is a sin for them to loose. I compare it to a coach that shows up at Wimbledon coaching Federer, Nadal, the Williams sister and Roddick and can't win one title. I can't see how we can beat the All Blacks playing like that.

Tomorrow night we play our 2 nd match of the season against the Kansas City Explorers. Vania King our doubles specialist will play her 1st World Team Tennis match . It will be nice to play again after we had 2 days off. It is suppose to rain but we are very fortunate that they have great facilities at COOPER stadium with 12 indoor courts. I will be back tomorrow.

Chani brings it home!!

2009-07-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

We played our opening match against Philadelphia last night. It is always very important to win your home games and the opening game of the season. The crowd at the Cooper Stadium have been really great and very supportive of the Lasers Team. The great thing about World Team Tennis is that it puts the players on stage every night, and you are out there playing for your team and not yourself. Here is a quick run down of a match night and some rules:

2 Men and 2 women in a team

5 Events are played, men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles

The scoring is different from normal tennis. You play 1 st to 5 games with a 9 point tie-breaker at 4 all.

No ad scoring, at deuce the returning team can decide which side they want to return from, and in mixed Doubles Gender serves to Gender.

Before the match every player gets introduced to the crowd, and they play the national anthem.

The most important thing is that it is about the total amount of games and not matches that you win. The home team decides on the order of play. Last night we decide on the following order.

Mixed Doubles, Men's singles, Men's doubles, woman's doubles and we finished of with women's singles. I like to finish of with Chani because she is really good in this format and had a good season for the Lasers in 2008.

Martin and Chani started well and won the opening match 5-2, Raven played awesome tennis in his 1 st match of the season and won a close tie-breaker 5-4 (total score 10-6), At this stage I was very relaxed because I knew that if we can go into women's doubles with a lead, we had a good shot of winning the match. Martin and Raven come out and played 2 loose points and suddenly they where in trouble, and lost the match 5-1. Suddenly after been up by 4 games and cruising the total was now tied at 11 games all. I was getting nervous because our women's doubles on paper is one of the best in the league , but we where missing Vanis King who was still at Wimbledon playing in the quarterfinals against the Williams sisters. Our sub for the night was Blair Henley a college player who was now coaching at the local club. This was going to be very tough. The beauty about women's doubles is that you never know what is going to happen. Well Chani decided that it was going to be her night and she stepped up and produce a awesome display of doubles skills. the girls won 5-4 giving us a 1 game lead going into the final set. She carried on with her great performance in doubles, and won the singles 5-3 and clinching the match for us 21-17.

This was not the only excitement we had yesterday. In the afternoon Raven and myself where very lucky not to get injured in a car crash we where involved in. The owner of our team John Cooper took us to get our sponsored cars when some idiot came out of a side street without looking to the left and we hit him. He only realised we where there when we landed on top of his car. Thank goodness we where driving in a big SUV.

We have 2 rest days and play our next match on Sunday night against Kansas City.

2005 all over

2009-07-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

Can this be a repeat of 2005 for Wesley Moodie. Who will ever forget the qualifying team of Moodie and Huss,who took out 5 seeded teams on there route to become the 1st qualifying team to win a Wimbledon Doubles title. Well this year he didn't have to qualify and came into this tournament with 2 finals and 2 wins under his belt in just 4 weeks. Yesterday they where up against Mahesh Bhuphati and Mark Knowels. This would be the 3 rd time that Moodie and Knowles would meet in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, each of them getting a win. The previous encounters was very close and they did't disappoint yesterday with Moodie-Norman winning 6-4 in the 5th set. This was the 2nd day in a row that Wesley and Dick played 5 set.They are now up against the no1 seeds The Bryan Brothers who they beat in the semifinals of the French Open a few weeks ago. Go Wesley.

Last night we had the introductions of our World Team Tennis Team to the people and sponsors of Springfields. It was a nice function and was good to meet all the people who makes it possible for us to play in this great competition.

I will keep you up to date with each match we play. Our Season opener is tonight against Philadelphia. Go Lasers

Moodie on a roll

2009-07-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

The Moodie- Norman show continues with another thrilling win at Wimbledon yesterday. One of the exciting things at Wimbledon is that there is now 3rd or 5th set tie-breaker. So with the modern game of Powerful serves and forehands it is no surprise that we have seen a lot of men's doubles matches go the distance. I had to sit through a few this year. Poor Jeff Coetzee lost 9-7 in the 5th in doubles and then 15-13 in mixed doubles. Wesley Moodie lost his mixed doubles 11-9 in the 3rd. On paper Moodie and Norman was the favorites against Pavel and Tecau but the standard of mens tennis is so high that nobody has an easy match these days not even Roger Federer. They showed great character to win 14-12 in the 5th set.

Channel Simmonds our no 1 junior player unfortunately lost 64 in the 3rd set. She was part of the ITF Squad and it really helped her tennis. She got to play 6 weeks in Europe on the clay, get exposure and also compete with the best juniors in the world. It is a great opportunity that the ITF gives these kids and hopefully they will continue doing it. She had some great results on her trip. She made the quarterfinals at the French Open and the semi finals of the Bank of England Championship.

Yesterday was a travel day for me and I am in Springfield at the moment. The World Team Tennis season starts on Thursday night with our opening game against Philadelphia. This will be an exciting 4 weeks. The team I coach is the Springfield Laser. Every team has 4 players, 2 men and 2 women, our team is Martin Damm, Raven Klaasen, Vania King and Chani Scheepers. We will also have Lizl Huber for 7 matches.

I will keep u up to date on the season.

Murray lights up centre court

2009-06-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning with a bit of sadness but also a lot of excitement. Today would be my last day at Wimbledon. I am off to the States tomorrow morning for the start of the World Team Tennis season starting on Thursday night. But my 1st priority was to get Wesley and Dick ready for their 2 nd round doubles match. It felt like a week ago when they played their 1 st round. The 2 nd round opponent Igor Andreev's 3 rd round singles matches was delayed on Friday night due to bad light and he had to finish on Saturday. It is bizarre that Wesley played on Wednesday and then only the next Monday.

Wesley and Dick played a good match and won in 4 sets. 76 36 76 64. They are really starting to become a great doubles team. They are definitely the tallest team in the draw. Wesley is 6’6 and Dick 6’8. They are now into the 3rd rnd.

The over 35 and 45 event starts tomorrow and it was great to see all the old faces. I had a long chat to Billie Jean King, she was very excited about what we where doing with my Foundation in Diepsloot. She came to visit in December. We feed 850 kids everyday and also provide them with education and life skills. She is very keen to get involved with the program. South Africa has 3 players playing in the over 45 event. Kevin Curren and Johan Kriek are playing together and Danie Visser is playing with Robert Seguso.
Gary Muller who use to be a player and coached Jonas Bjorkman also popped in to say hi. The SA Boys had a great chat in the Springbok corner about the rugby on Saturday and who had to be in the team for the 3rd test. Kevin Curren and I really got into it. We share the same passion when it comes to rugby.

Today was the 1 st time they got to use the new roof on centre court. At around 4:30 play got suspended for about 30 min because of rain, and when play resumed they never opened it again. Andy Murray and Wawrinka who was playing a 3 rd round match produced some brilliant tennis and only finished at 10:45 last night. Murray the winner ( 7-5 in the 5th) and keeping his and a Nations hopes alive of winning the title. A match has never finished so late on the centre court of Wimbledon.

The next time you hear from me will be from America.

Going Nuts at Wimbledon

2009-06-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday the 27th was for most South Africans a big day. It was the 2nd test between the Boks and the Lions. 12 Years ago it was horrible to be here at Wimbledon after we lost to the lions but I was confident that it will not happen again this year. After the win in the 1st test we got all fired up in the locker room about the 2nd test. From early on today there was a lot of trash talking between the South African players and the British players and staff at Wimbledon. With kick-off at 2pm local time I was shocked to find out that Wesley had booked practice from 1-3 for us. What was he thinking???? I made it clear to him that I was only available for an hour and then he was on his own. How could I miss this big game.

With the oldies event starting on Monday some of our stars from the past was also with us to support the Boks. In the north locker room we have our own corner called SPRINGBOK CORNER. 5-10 years ago we had between 12 and 18 South Africans playing but this year there was only 4 men in the doubles draw and 1 lady in the women's doubles. In 1997 there was 32 South African men and women competing at Wimbledon. We where all shocked when Schalk got the yellow card after only 30 seconds and thought this was it. Poor Kevin Ulleytt had to go and play mixed doubles and it was my job to text him the score during his match( You are not aloud to have your phone on during a match, but who cared this was the Lions against the Boks) I was so fired up that I forgot to text him. It is a pity that it took our coach 140 min to realize that Morne Steyn is the answer. I felt very sorry for Ruan because he is an awesome rugby player but not in the same class as Morne when it comes to goal kicking. It was so loud in the locker room during those last 10 min I wonder what the people on the outside was thinking. Johan Kriek, Danie Visser, David Nainkin, Jeff Coetzee, Kevin Ullyett, Roger Anderson , myself some Americans and Aussie totally went bananas when Morne made the final kick. Now that was BMT for you. Today proved again that you pick inform players and not players on there reputation. Heinrich Brussouw was brilliant.

I was mentally so drained after the rugby, but had to rush of to court 9 where Nicola Scholtz our top SA junior was playing against the no 4 seed. It was great to see his Mom and Dad there. His mom hate flying but made Nicola a promise when he was very young that if he played at Wimbledon she will be there, she kept her promise. He really played well but only experience cost him the match 67 64 75. Next it was Chanel Simmonds and she played great to win 64 62.

My JL's Mixed kids went back to SA tonight so it is very quite in the flat. Tomorrow is a rest day at Wimbledon and I can't wait to sleep it.

Heart breaker on court 4

2009-06-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Friday was another glorious day at Sw19. Since they have put up the roof for this years Championship the rain has stayed away. How ironical. You spend millions on a roof and then you can't use it. With the beautiful weather it gives all the thousands of tennis lovers the opportunity to watch their favorite players until 9:30 at night. I found myself sitting next to court 4 at 9:15 watching Jeff Coetzee and his partner from the States Jill Craybus battling it out for some extra pounds. It was a match where Jeff and his partner was always fighting from behind. Their opponents served for the match 3 times, but in the end Jeff lost another long match at this years Championship 15-13 in the final set. At Wimbledon there are no tie-breakers in the 3rd or 5th set. I thought Jeff played a good match, and I was very surprised how he moved because on Wednesday after his doubles that they lost 9-7 in the 5th, he could hardly walk. He still has problems with his hip after the car accident he was in a few years ago. My foundations kids had their last day in London and they took the town by a storm. The girls went shopping (no surprise) and the boys did all the tours. I must say it was a very impressive performance by the boys. They hopped on a bus and visited all the soccer stadiums in London, London Eye, The Palace and Big Ben. This was the 1 st time that the winning team stayed with me in my apartment and it was so much fun. After a long day it was so refreshing to hear all their stories off matches they watched, pictures they took, players they met and also players that disappointed them by their attitude or unwillingness to pose for a photo. It was really nice to hear that Wimbledon inspired two of them that I know can become pro players and play at Wimbledon in a few years time. After experiencing their joy and excitement every night I know that this trip was successful!!!!!

Wimbledon as very few get to experience it...

2009-06-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest perks of being the JL's Mixed Winners, is the opportunity to see games on Centre Court and Court 1 as well as visit the Players' Lounge and the Players Area at Aorangi Park. Seeing one of the big games on these courts is certainly something one will never forget. Seeing local hero Murray play today only emphasized this.

Experiencing players in their lounge, recouping after games or waiting the time out before they play, certainly gives you another take on your favourite player. Seeing them eating and socializing with other players or their families contributes to this.

Another benefit is seeing players warm up. Some joke around, other gets highly frustrated with their hitting partners and most let rip with some particular shots, produced by the freedom that practise-sessions brings.

Getting hold of tickets is sometimes one of the challenging aspects of one's week. Players get a certain amount of tickets each day to give to family and friends. But some days they don't use them and then they give them to other players who in turn give them to people they know. Today I broke my all-time record, getting 8 tickets for today's Murray-game on Centre Court.

But we all know its all about the photographs. Whether cornering them at Aorangi or stopping them on the steps near the lounge, this is the pictures one will return to in years to come. All in all, Wimbledon behind the scenes is certainly a rich and fun experience.

In terms of South Africans playing today, Jeff and his partner lost in five sets in the Men's Doubles. Jeff had a heartbraker today, again losing after dominating the match early on. The exact thing happened with them at the French Open. Wesley lost in the Mixed Doubles, losing the third set 9-11. Rik also lost in the Mixed, going down 1-6 in the third set. Channel Simmonds today went out in the Semi-Finals of the Bank of England Tournament.

Wesley still has to play his Second Round Match in the Men's Doubles (where they are seeded 9the) and Jeff his First Round Match in the Mixed Doubles.

Wimbledon is quickly picking up pace, everybody is settling in nicely and it will be interesting to see how the draw pans out. I am here till Tuesday before leaving for World Team Tennis in the US, where I will be coaching the Springfield Lasers. The JL's Mixed Kids are leaving on Saturday - one of them back to the US where he plays college tennis and the other three back to South Africa. Seeing the way they enjoyed this week and drew inspiration from it for their own careers only energizes me!

What a day!

2009-06-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends think being at Wimbledon is pure fun, and for the biggest part they are right, but then there are days where I have to be at three places all at once, juggling my time between coaching, supporting and moving through the masses of supporters. Today was such a day.

Let me give you a glimpse:

9:15 Quickly checking in at Elys to see if my blinds have arrived. Unsuccessful.

10:00 Jeff picks me up at the flat.

11:00 Starts practising with Jeff and his Doubles Partner, Jordan Kerr, at Aorangi.

12:00 Kevin Anderson starts his First Round Match at Court 17. Watches all four sets.

15:30 Interview with Hendrien Grove for Supersport.

15:45 Watch Natalie Grandin in her First Round Match. Only two sets. Enjoyed this with the South African Fed Cup Captain, Greer Leo-Smith.

17:15 Wesley Moodie starts his First Round Match. Watches four sets.

19:45 I move on to Rik de Voest's Match, with one set already completed.

21:45 Leave the grounds at the completion of the match. Lovely 20 minute walk home, starting with the 'small' hill in Church Street.

But this doesn't even cover half of what I experienced today.

Jeff practised at Court 22. It forms part of the six practise courts that is outside the Wimbledon Grounds. It is normally used by doubles players. But this is also the perfect venue for Murray to get away from the media frenzy that surrounds him this year. He arrived at the courts with his two fitness trainers and coach for his fitness session. He did all of the various exercises wearing a 7kg weight jacket. On the other side we noticed the paparazzi in and behind the trees, trying to capture tomorrow's front page. It all made me realise again that being in the public eye robs you of all of your privacy and freedom to move around freely.

All of this will only intensify for Murray if he succeeds to reach this year's final. And speaking to some old players and coaches, all of them are of the opinion that it's a two-man race this year: Federer and Murray!

I watched the Anderson match with particular interest. We are playing against India in September to gain entrance to next year's Davis Cup World Group. In this match I got to see both India's Nr 1 Singles and Nr 1 Doubles players. I certainly made some mental notes.

At the end of Day 3 only Wesley and Jeff is still involved in die Doubles Competition. Wesley, Jeff and Rick must all still play their First Round Matches in this year's Mixed Doubles Competition.

At this point I can share with you how players get together for the Mixed Doubles. Firstly, they don't play Qualifiers. The crucial criteria is that your combined ranking must be inside the top 48 teams to be accepted into the draw. Players do form partnerships over the years, but some of the lower ranked players sometimes have to make last-minute changes to improve their combined ranking.

In the past this competition had more room for some fun and informality. Some partners only met each other on court just before their first match. These days however, with more prize money at stake, things are more organized. In 1997, the year I played in the Semi-Finals of the Mixed, I approached my partner, the teen prodigy Martina Hingis, at the French Open. Having no relationship whatsoever, I asked her after my good friend Michael de Jongh enquired me about my choice of partner for the upcoming Wimbledon. Walking down the stairs, seeing Martina at the bottom, I replied "her" to him. He thought I joked and adamant to show my intention, I proceeded asking her there and then. She said yes and we went on to play together. That year she went on to win her first Wimbledon Singles Title at the age of 15. More about our time together later...

I must mention that Channel Simmonds, our Junior Girls, is through to the Semi-Finals at the Bank of England event. This, coming on the back of her Quarter Final appearance at the French Open, only bodes well for next week's Junior Wimbledon. Good luck Channel!

Tomorrow Jeff plays Doubles in the first match of the day and will want to take revenge, having lost against Zelenay at the French Open. Wesley will make his first appearance in the Mixed Doubles in the second match of the day and Rik is also on, but won't be playing before 16:30.

All of this means another full day for me. But listening to my JL's Mixed Winners at night, telling stories and sharing their highlights of the day, I just realize how privileged I am to be part of something this special. May this never change for me.

Schedule is out!

2009-06-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

It is 12:15 and the schedule is out for tomorrow. All the South Africans except Jeff is playing tomorrow. Kevin is up 1st at 12. Then it is Natalie 3rd on after 12 and Rik and Wesley are on 4th match after 12. It will be a very busy day for me running around between warm-ups, Practice and watching the matches.
Channel Simmonds our top junior girl is in the quarter-finals of the Bank of England junior tournament. This is a warm up tournament for Junior Wimbledon. She has been in great form and hopefully she can go 1 better than her quater-finals result at the French Open.

Andy Murray made a solid start to his Wimbledon campaign. He has lots of pressure on him to perform, and with Rafa out he is the man who will have to try and take the title from Federer. He is in great shape and playing great tennis. Roger was very relaxed on the practice court today. He made jokes with his supporting team( 5 of them) and even tried a few cricket shots.

Tomorrow like Monday will be very nice to face all the English players and staff working at Wimbledon. They all know I am a true Bok supporter and I will have the right to say a few things after the Emerging Boks played to a 13-all draw at Newlands. Now that is what I call BMT Willem de Waal. Well done boy!!!!
It is time to go to bed because at 4:40 am the suns comes up in this place.

JL's Mixed Winners 2008 arrive at Wimbledon!

2009-06-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I saw something I will not forget soon: five South Africans, climbing the hill towards my flat, dragging their baggage with them, speaking in what could only be described as a long-haul flight infused volume. Eight Months after winning my annual JL's Mixed Tournament, the team of Waterkloof High School arrived to attend the first week of this years Wimbledon Championships at SW-19. They are the 9th winners to attend.

To win my tournament, they had to outscore the other teams in the following categories: tennis (based on the World Team Tennis Format, Challenges (singing, dancing, putt-putt, cycling, netball, tenpin bowling and ball kicking) and Team Spirit. And judging their current enthusiasm, their spirit only grew since winning.

On Monday this years Championship started with near perfect weather. South Africans who are competing this year is Jeff Coetzee, Rik de Voest, Wesley Moodie, Kevin Anderson and Natalie Grandin. Jeff was the only one to play on Monday, playing his First Round Match with his Doubles Partner, Jordan Kerr of Australia. They went on to win 6-1 6-2 6-4 against Spaniards David Ferrer and Marco Lopez in what could only be described as a perfect display of grass-court tennis, with only four unforced errors from the Coetzee-Kerr team. They are certainly on the right track. The other South Africans must still play and I wish them all of the best.

Wimbledon - The Place where dreams come true!

2009-06-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, now I am also a citizen of this crazy, wonderful world that is Blogging!

I've just realised this is my 20th Wimbledon in a row. And still I get goosebumps everytime I walk through the gates. It all started in 1989 when I showed up as a 16 year old from Ermelo, South Africa, chasing my dream of becoming a professional tennis player. And suddenly I am at the point in my career where I am looking back whilst still contributing to South African tennis as the current Davis Cup Captain. My single most cherished memory is qualifying for the Men's Singles Event in 1992 as a 19 year old. It even surpasses playing in the Final of the Boys Doubles in 1989 and 1991 as well as the Semi-Finals of the Mixed Doubles in 1997 and the Men's Doubles in 2000. In the next two weeks I will be sharing more of my memories of this wonderful place as well as my thoughts on this year's event. After that a whirlwind three months lies ahead, including World Team Tennis, the US Open and then our crucial World Group Qualifying Davis Cup Tie against India. But for now another day ends in LaffiesWorld!