Liezel's blog from Fed Cup tie in Brno

 

Sunday, April 26th 2009

GOOD EVENING! HEY! I'm so excited I feel like yelling, as you can see!

 

 

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

U-S-A...U-S-A...U-S-A...

Friday, April 24rd, 2009

Hey!

 

It's official! I am the worst Charades player of ALL time! I'm just going to accept it. It's not easy to accept, cause I am competitive with EVERYTHING! I hate to lose more than I love winning... I just had to make that confession before I started my blog...

 

 

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Hi! Me again!

I even skipped Charades tonight to get my blog done earlier, so I could get my much needed sleep... It's 11:30 pm again...

My mom and I are having so much fun that I lost track of what I was SUPPOSE to do... yes, blog :-) We ended up turning the room upside down looking for a pair of shoes that I swore I had packed and now can't find... I'll let you know in a second how I found out they were 'missing'. Anyway, I messaged my husband and he went through my closet and 'found' them. He then took pictures of all my black flat shoes (3 pairs of them), but it wasn't any of them. Now I am not sure if he did that on purpose and is joking with me... I haven't heard back from him, as he had to go to work. So I started looking AGAIN in my bags, drawers, the closet, under the bed, you name it... You know sometimes you can't think of something and then it bothers you? Well, it's the same thing. I was sure I packed the shoes and now I just want to know for sure that I left them. I want closure :-)

Now I will tell you why I needed them... Tonight was the official Fed Cup dinner. Team USA looked awesome! Great job Anne Marie picking out our outfits! I'll try and get a picture for you'll. I just can't wear normal shoes. My feet are so used to being in tennis shoes, that when I wear anything but tennis shoes, I get blisters and my feet ache! I had packed an evening gown with high heel shoes for the ITF Champions dinner in Paris. My plan was to wear the shoes that evening with my gown and then when I sit at the table, I would take them off (don't tell anyone). Tonight I had to wear them as they were my only black pair of shoes... Ouch! The dinner was delicious. We had a lot of laughs and now ready for the games to begin!

Tomorrow is our last day of practice. I think we are as ready as we will ever be! Most of us will just hit once. Today we had another great morning practice. I played doubles for 2 hours with Alexa. We beat up on Christina and Kaes.( sorry for misspelling your name the other day Kaes ) This afternoon I did my gym work-out. No, I didn't go back to the MEAN gym, I improvised in the hotel's mini-gym. Well done Erin, Rita and Jennifer for working out today!

Oh before I forget. It's tradition for the two nations to exchange gifts. I love gifts! Team USA gave the Czech Team very cute pink Coach clutch bags. Nice! They gave us a crystal display piece (for my study) and lovely pearl earring/bracelet set. Very cool!

My mom's luggage arrived at 2 pm. What a joyous moment. My poor mom had to tuck my warm-up pants into her socks cause they were so long on her... I wanted to take a picture, but I couldn't... My mom looked lovely tonight in her own clothes at the dinner. Anne Marie gave my mom a couple Fed Cup sweaters and a long sleeve shirt. She said she is saving that for match day!

I do get VERY nervous during Fed Cup. Not just for my match, but it feels like I play every ball with our team mates when they play. It's so tense! I cheer so loud, that I get sooo exhausted, but I love it! Like I said, we are ready and can't wait. Tomorrow is Friday... Saturday we play! Go Team USA!

On that high note, I HAVE to go to sleep. It is midnight... Early morning again and ready to beat the young ones at doubles. Hope Sloane and Christina bring their A-game...

Night you'll.
Until tomorrow.
xoxoxo
Liezel

 

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

 

Wow, it's late! Good evening everyone! I am going to write my blog in record speed tonight... it's 11 pm and I have to get up for an early practice tomorrow... Anyone who knows me, knows I need my sleep or else I am very cranky... and that is putting it mildly... My husband would say to stay clear of me...

I am watching CNN right now. South Africa voted today and I have been waiting to see how it went and if they have an outcome. I know my brother and father both voted today. Don't tell anyone I told you this; My dad said the lines were so long, that he took a crutch with him (my mom had had foot surgery some years ago and this was one of her crutches). They let him into the 'pensioners' line and it only took him 40 minutes to vote! I just HAD to tell you, cause I thought it was very smart of my dad! he he he

My mom's luggage has yet to arrive. Never fly with Air France! It's been two days now. I think my mom is getting very sick of her jeans. She is going to have to wear some of my stuff tomorrow! My mom is only 5"6 and I am 5"10... I am going to have to take a picture of her in my clothes.... he he he

On the court is was a very successful day for Team USA. The first practice started at 8 am and the last one ended at 7:30 pm. Long day for the coaches and for our hitting partner, Kas. It's going to pay off though and we will be sharp as anything on Saturday. I also did a bike ride in the gym and some sprints. I don't have a naturally thin or a toned body, so I have to work extra hard at it. My coach gave me a program for the week and I have been sticking to it and enjoying it! It is a lot easier when he is with me to push me and help me. So far so good. Tomorrow I have to lift weights.

We went out for our team dinner tonight. I took a picture of us all. It was awesome. The food was delicious. We had to wait a while for our meal and that is the reason why I am blogging at 11:15 pm... Never the less, it was well worth it. Thanks everyone!

It seems like the days are flying by. Tomorrow is already Thursday. How sad. I love my team!

I am going to answer the questions I received so far. Thanks for them.

Lastly, we had some very bad news today. One of our students at Huber Tennis Ranch, 12 year old Craig Buckenham was diagnosed with Leukemia. He started chemo on Saturday. He is very ill this week. Craig is a great player and we will miss him on the court! Don't tell him, it's a surprise; I contacted Andy Murray who is going to send him something autographed just for him! Andy is his favorite player. If you can think of anything else that can cheer Craig up, please let me know. Huber Tennis Ranch is having a tournament this weekend named in Craig's honor and the money raised will be given to his parents. Just wanted to tell you. We always forget how good we have it.

Good night friends.

Until tomorrow,
xoxoxo
Liezel

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Hey everyone!

Goodness, how time flies when you have fun! It's almost 10 pm.

Well, my day started with my alarm going off. You see at home I am awake between 5 and 5:30 am every day with no alarm. I took a Tylenol PM last night to make sure I would sleep through the night. It worked, which I am so grateful for, but it was tough to wake up. My alarm went off at 8 am, then 8:15, 8:30, 8:45 and then when it went off at 9 am, I was pretty disgusted with myself and made myself get up! My husband wouldn't believe me if I told him that I slept until 9 am!

I showered and went to breakfast. We have a banquet room just for Team USA. That's where we eat most of our meals. I think that's one of things I enjoy most about Fed cup week, is socializing around the table. This week the tables are smaller, but in Arizona and Russia ties we sat around big round tables and always added more chairs! At night we would play games and get silly! I must say that I have a disadvantage in the games (yes, I am mostly on the losing side), cause I blame it on English not being my 1st language growing up. That's my excuse. he he he Why I say excuse, cause it's not the real reason... English is my 1st language now... I am just BAD at games and can't play Charades to save my life! I look forward to revenge this week.

Coach MJ arrived this morning and so did the rest of the team. My mom also made it here safely. Now if only Bethanie and my mom's luggage will arrive...

Alexa and I had a good practice this morning. It seems so long ago, I can't remember what we worked on. If it wasn't good I would've remembered! We went to the courts an hour before our practice. There is a supermarket nearby and we wanted to get some snacks and drinks. We browsed more than anything. Looking all all the things they have in their supermarket. I took a photo inside the store of Derek (works for USTA), Alexa, Kevin (Alexa's coach) and Kas (our left handed hitting partner)*. I bought cereal, pretzels and Coke Zero. Anyway, we had fun! After practice we came back to the hotel and had lunch together in our room. It was great seeing everyone. I introduced everyone by name, to my mom. It felt great, cause this is my new family. People I didn't know a year ago and who I have had such great memories with my past three Fed Cup ties. They are so great and do such an amazing job with each tie! Thanks you'll!!!

I went to the gym at 4 pm. Our team doctor, Jennifer also felt like working out,so she came with me. What an experience. Firstly, we had to pay $20 each. Considering you can join a gym for $20 a month, I wasn't too impressed. My mom was sitting on a bench reading her book and my racket bag was by her feet. An employee came to her and told her she couldn't have regular shoes on in the gym. Then he said that no bags are allowed. They are scared we will steal stuff. That's their policy. Then he saw my water bottle and said that no outside drinks were allowed. We had to buy drinks from them! If that wasn't enough he approached me a few minutes later when I was doing my bench press. He said he didn't want me to be upset and that he was only doing his job. He also added that I am breaking another rule... I needed to do all exercises on my towel. He then went to Jennifer and yelled to her about her not using her towel... The good news is that we got our work-outs in and felt great, and the better news is that we are going to find another gym to work out in for the rest of the week!

The evening practice was fun. We end up playing doubles. Bethanie and I partnered up and didn't do too bad for our first time together. I also partnered with Alexa and we were on fire! There is only one court for us to practice on. We share it with the Czech Team. In Arizona we had 3 or 4 courts to use during a practice. Now coach MJ has some serious calculations to do to make sure we all get to work on what we have to in the time period we have the court. I know the young ones are going out for an extra session tomorrow at 7 am... That's dedication!

We ate in the hotel tonight. I think it was just easier, as we finished late with practice. We pretty much ate and came back to our rooms. Every one had a long day and are jet lagged! my mom is already sleeping...

When my family comes and visit me they always bring me something... he he he Sometimes food from home or jewelry (if my birthday is coming up) or a CD with Afrikaans music. Today my mom brought me some recipes! My brother visited a couple of weeks ago and he must've told them that I need recipes! Just kidding, I can cook just fine. It will be fun trying them out one day, as they are for desserts and I really can't bake. Now the truth comes out. I can cook, but I can't bake!

I am going to be disciplined and say good night. I want to get on the time change.(without the help of Tylenol PM) For the ones who wonder about anti-doping, YES I can take Tylenol PM! I see we have a doping office set-up at the stadium. Joy! I didn't think we could get tested any more than we have been... o,well I was wrong... will get tested again this week!

I look forward to you'll sending me any questions you might have**. I thank www.blackandhuber.com , www.wtatour.com and www.usta.com for posting my blog and getting you'll fired up for Team USA's semi-final clash with Czech Republic!

Off to bed. Miss you Tony and the dogs and the cats!

Until tomorrow
xoxoxo
Liezel

 

* check for the pictures posted by Liezel on www.wtatour.com or www.usta.com

** send your questions to postmaster@blackandhuber.com

 

 

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Good evening everyone!

I wanted to blog this week as I just love the Fed Cup experience! I thought it would be fun to share my amazing experience!

I hope your week has started as great as mine... I am not a fan of Mondays' cause it means back to work. If we are in a finals, we travel on a Monday and more than likely hit once we arrive at the next place. Or if we hadn't made the finals, it means we are practicing even harder for the next tournament. If we are not on the road, Monday's mean we had Sunday off and it's the start to another hard week's practice... Monday's are never just relaxing...

My Monday started by getting woken up at 7 am local time... MIDNIGHT HOUSTON TIME!!!! The air steward woke me for breakfast! Of course I ate! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day... even at midnight Houston time!

My husband drove me to the airport on Sunday at noon. I always like to get to the airport in plenty of time. I ate my last meal on US soil; you guessed it: Mexican! I did a bit of shopping. I bought some magazines and books for myself. I bought my father is golf shirt. I also got some Texan souvenirs for my team mates. All and all very relaxing!
The flight went by quickly. I watched a movie and 3 episodes of "House". I had to force myself to go to sleep. he he he

I flew into Vienna. Was told it's an hour drive from Brno, Czech Republic. It's a hike and took us over two hours. The driver did awesome and can't say how fast we were going... we would be breaking the law... Don't worry, we made it safely to the hotel. Alexa Glatch and I had a nice short hit this afternoon. I also did a little bike ride in the gym. Nothing too crazy, just getting used to the time change and hopefully the exercise will make me sleep well.

We ate at a local restaurant. The food looked different than we expected, but all and all pretty tasty.
Now back at the hotel, the time of day I dread to be alone. Tony won't be joining me until Rome. Roger, my coach, comes to Stuttgart. So I had a brilliant idea and asked my mom to join me these 2 weeks. I don't get to see my family often and plus I need the company, so it's going to be perfect. My mom arrives tomorrow morning! Safe travels mom.

I am hoping to post some pictures this week too. I have one of me with my two dogs when I was home, then another of this evening sitting in front of my computer and the last of my gym work out today... I hope to take some shots of my team mates!
Tomorrow I will tell you more about my team mates, our captain,etc. We have a whole week to chat! How exciting!

Lots of love from Brno
xoxoxo
Liezel

 

 

Cara's blog from Brisbane

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

 

Hi Everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We have just arrived in Brisbane for the start of our 2009 season. We are very excited to be here as it's a new tournament this year combined with the men. They have built a brand new centre with a massive indoor centre court and about 20 outside courts, so it should make for a good week of tennis and hopefully lots of fans!

I have had a fantastic holiday and off season training. I spent two weeks at home in Zimbabwe and then had a great holiday in Durban, South Africa with all my family. Moose was in heaven surfing and i boogie boarded alot, went running along the beach, read books and had good quality time with my family. You really appreciate those times so much more when you are on the road because you never get to see your family so we love it.

Anyway after the holiday was over it was time to get back to work and get practicing again. I had a great time hitting with my brothers and trying to beat them but even though they are retired now and a few kilos heavier I still couldn't beat them!! :( Oh well I'll have to keep trying. We also had a great time water skiing and lots of mountain bike riding.

My mom and I then left for Melbourne where we joined Moose and his family for Christmas and New Year. It was very special and I got very spoilt. So here we are now in Brisbane getting ready for the start of another year. Last year was an incredible year for us so we are very motivated to try and replicate it or even top it! But most of all we are so glad to be here happy and healthy to start the year again.

I would just like to thank everyone for reading and supporting us and hopefully we will give you some good entertainment again this year!
Will speak to you all again soon,

Cara

 

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Liezel's blog from Houston

Monday, December 29th, 2008

 

Hey everyone!

I hope you are happy and healthy! We have had a nice break and hope you have enjoyed the holiday season too!

I thought I would write you as this is our last day at home.... That is always a sad day... cause I will be missing my puppies and I won't be sleeping in my own bed for a while... In the same breath though, we love our jobs and want to get back to it! 

Roger, my coach, came to Houston beginning of December. We have been practicing hard and spending many hours in the gym. It's been mostly fun, except for that first week when I was very sore from lifting weights....

All and all its been a very nice 6 or 7 weeks. We had a lot of visitors and did a bunch of fun stuff. I wish we could start the holidays all over again!

I better get back to packing my bags...

Looking forward to sunny Brisbane!

Lots of love, Liezel

 

 

Cara's blog

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

 

Hello everyone,

Sorry I have not blogged for such a long time. Anyway I wanted to tell you all a little bit about the last few months which have been very exciting.

I will start with the Olympics in Beijing which was just amazing. Unfortunately there was noone for me to play doubles with from Zimbabwe but I was very lucky to receive a wildcard from the ITF in the singles event. I had a tough match against Jelena Jankovic but it was great to have all my countrymen there supporting me. The Zim team was really awesome, we had 13 athletes, so it was pretty small but we all got on really well and had alot of fun. Brett came with me as my coach for the tennis so it was really incredible to share such an experience together. The opening ceremony was the absolute highlight, walking into that stadium with a hundred thousand people cheering, it gave us goose bumps. we also got to go and support alot of our team mates in other events, so we got to watch a lot of swimming (where our girl Kirsty [Coventry] won a gold and three silvers), athletics, rowing, diving and hockey.
Staying in the village was such a buzz aswell. It is really exciting walking around and sharing meals with ten thousand other athletes and swapping pins with them. I think we got about 90 pins in total!

Anyway straight from Beijing we headed to New York to start our US Open campaign. Liezel and I had a great few weeks and we really played well. It was unfortunate that we had to play each other in the mixed final but there again it was a great match and we both played well.
The last three doubles matches we played were really great. Of course we had lost to Ruano Pascual and Medina Garrigues in the semis of the French and we lost to Raymond and Stosur in the semis of Wimbledon so it was really nice to be able to come out and win those matches at the Open. We were so thrilled when we won, we have worked so hard all year and had been so close in every slam so it was really great to pull the last one off.

We have just had three weeks off now since then and really had a relaxing time. We are off to Moscow next for our first indoor tournament which we are really looking forward to.
It's not long now till the end of the year so we are charged up to hopefully finish it well. We have definitely had another great year and winning the US open has been the highlight for us so far.

Will speak to you all again soon, thanks for reading,

Cara

 

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Liezel's blog from the US Open 2008

 

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Hi from New York!

It sure has been a whirlwind of a year... Can you believe it's already US Open time! Where did the year go? It seems like just when we celebrated one birthday, then before we know it it's the next birthday... I have decided that I am not going to be celebrating my birthday anymore. I want to stay young forever! Thanks for all the birthday wishes I received. I really appreciate it. Remember though, no need for it next year :-)

This year has been hectic. I am not complaining. I wouldn't have it any other way. I am so grateful for everything. If I had it over again, I would do exactly the same. Since middle of March until we get home after the US Open, I would only be home 12 days. I miss sleeping in my own bed, eating my own food, wearing clothes out of my closet and of course playing with my dogs! That's what I am looking forward to after here. 

Cara and I are very focused for our last Grand Slam of the year! We were extremely jet lagged last week in New Haven and almost happy for the rest. Well, we didn't quite rest...we practice a lot! We are ready for our first round opponents! I am hoping we will be on the schedule tomorrow. Like I said, we are ready to go and anxious to get started!

In the mixed doubles, Cara is partnering Leander Paes and I am playing with Jamie Murray. They are both extremely great partners to have, so hopefully now we won't be playing each other!

I stayed in the tournament hotel for the first few days. We stay there every year and really enjoy it. I just couldn't stay in another hotel. I am so burned out of restaurant food and hotels, I suggested we look for an apartment. We got very lucky and found a very spacious two bedroom  / two bathroom apartment 3 blocks from the tournament hotel! It's so much more relaxing... I am so happy!

I am not sure of our schedules over the US Open period. Hopefully lots of tennis! I just wanted to say hi and thanks everyone for ready my blog and of course thanks for all my birthday wishes!

Thanks for cheering us on. We love it!

Bye for now,

Liezel

PS.I ended up with 120 pins... The only two missing, that I really wanted to get and didn't, was Namibia and Lesotho! I'll just have to make sure I play in London 2012, that I can go back and get my missing pins! 

 

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Liezel's blog from Beijing

 

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Hey everyone!

It's been more than 24 hours since I've updated my blog... I promise it wasn't on purpose! You see we lost our quarterfinal match last night. Our scores were 57 76(6) 86. If you looked at the total points won, I am sure it was very even. The match was that close! We never had any match points, but came within two points of winning... Obviously we are very disappointed and would love to have gone further, and maybe win a medal, but it wasn't in the cards.

As you are reading this, I'm on the flight to New York! Right now we're in the airport. We've cleared customs and immigration and are waiting to board. I'm leaving Beijing with great memories. I had the best 10 days ever. Yes, the scheduling could have been better and yes, I would have loved to have a medal in my suitcase; but all in all, I'm very grateful for this experience.

We didn't get back to the hotel until 1am last night. I had room service again and hung out with the team. I don't like to pack! I procrastinate when it comes to packing. I ended up only sleeping four hours, because I hadn't packed. Now, sitting here, I can't wait to get on the plane and sleep!

I want to say thanks to all of you for reading my blog. It's been real! Thanks also for all your support. Please do keep cheering us on, as the year is far from over. Please come and visit us in Houston at Huber Tennis Ranch too!

I will say my sad goodbyes now, as we embark on our 22-hour journey. It has been an honor to share my Olympic experience with you! Go Team USA!

Lots of love,

Liezel

 

 

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Hello again everybody!

I got up very early today... I'm not sure if I even got six hours of sleep! Then it was off to the beach volleyball game. I grabbed a croissant and an OJ on my way out. Normally I call my husband in the morning but this time getting to the game on time was the priority! Team USA beat Denmark quite handily - well I don't know anything about volleyball, but it looked like it was a convincing victory. Afterwards we got to see the players when they came through the tunnel. My teammate knows one of the volleyballers so we got to congratulate them. I took a picture of two of their young fans, which you can see just above this paragraph :)

We all came back after the volleyball game and I took a nap for an hour and a half or so. I can't remember ever sleeping in the middle of the day unless I was sick, but it was so good! Then we went to the village for dinner and, of course, some more pins... I have so many now, I'm actually writing down the ones I get. I'm treating this like a business now. I'm happy to report I finally got South Africa! I'm very happy, that one obviously means a lot to me. I also got a second Qatar pin - often times, countries will have more than one pin, and this one is really pretty. I also got Ethiopia, Cyprus and the Philippines. I got a Luxembourg one too, but I think that's a double too. I still haven't hooked the Cook Islands one I got yesterday onto my strap. I don't know if I'll even take it out of the plastic it came in!! I tried to get Namibia again today; I saw some people from Namibia and I started talking to them in Afrikaans, which is my first language, but they looked at me and joked that I looked lost - I was covered in Team USA clothing so I don't blame them for getting confused! Anyway, they didn't have any pins on them, but said they'd bring me one next time. Hopefully I'll run into them again.

I have to tell you a funny story about yesterday... I wasn't supposed to be pin swapping but at lunch I was dying to get the Angola pin, so I asked my teammate if I could go to the next table and ask for it, and they let me. Anyway they said they didn't have any pins on them and said I could go back to their place and get one, but because I didn't really know who they were, I was hesitant to do that! So I told them we had to get back on the bus, a little white lie I guess :) Well anyway, today I watched China playing Angola in basketball and I saw my friends right there on the TV! Haha... hopefully they'll understand!

I'm really not like this normally. All my life I've never collected anything... except for tennis plates. I like to collect antique tennis plates. They can be as old as 1880 and upto 1980 even. They can have any sort of tennis design on them, but I'm a bit picky about the quality of them. I don't want a million of them. I usually just get one or two per year. I'm always looking on eBay, going to antique shops and meeting tennis memorabilia collectors. It's fun! There's this lady - her name is Jean and she lives in California - and she gave me the book she wrote about antiques. She has plates, racquets... you name it, she has it. I've never been to her house but if I have the opportunity sometime, I'll be there in a flash. She's well aware of my tennis plate affinity! I was playing the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and I told her if we won, I'd trade the trophy for this particular plate she has, which has the picture of the Wimbledon semifinal ticket on it. Normally I hate clutter though, and that's why I'm questioning myself on these pins... Like what am I going to do with them when I get back? Of course they'll bring me amazing memories, but they'll probably end up in a drawer somewhere in the house. Maybe one day my kids will stumble upon them. I think this is why I've been slacking the last few days, because I'm starting to realize this is a bit of a phase, really. Or maybe I feel like I've already got the most pins and the competition is over. But I know there's really no competition, it's all in my mind! I don't know how to explain this :S

A friend of mine just sent me a message to say congratulations on how we've done so far, and that as well as it's going here, it's also going well at home. They gave me an update on my dogs and everything. One thing we don't get asked about much is what it's like being away from home so much; I can tell you it's always hard being away from home. I miss the dogs, my family, I even miss my bed. It was very thoughtful of them to send me an update - thank you! One funny difference is that at home, I always read the USA Today in the morning; here we get it at night, so I read it before going to bed. Sometimes I'm not sure which day I'm on :)

My doubles partner just messaged me too, asking if I'm watching the match on TV now, which one of our teammates is playing. I'll try and find it for sure, and I hope she wins :) I almost never watch TV though. I don't even know how to work a remote control properly! Whenever me and my husband go to hotels, the first thing he does is switch the TV on. I was brought up in South Africa when we never watched TV. I just like the peace and quiet. Sometimes we'll have the TV on but I keep it on mute. But nowadays in the US, TV is on all the time. Meals, before going to sleep... when I have kids I'll have to lay the law down!

Earlier in the day, another one of our male teammates had an amazing win over the world No.1 to reach the semifinals. He had never won a set off of him before but today he won two of them to beat him for the first time. It was phenomenal. I was right there in the stands, screaming so much, so if you heard me - probably something along the lines of "Come on, you can do it!", then that was probably me. And I have the hoarse throat to prove it now!On another note, you might be wondering why I named a single person by name all week. It might sound odd reading me call people "teammates", "doubles partner", "world No.1"... It's because the International Olympic Committee has official guidelines stating I can't refer to any of the other athletes competing here by name. But hopefully it's pretty obvious who I've been talking about all week!!!

China wrapped up a lot of medals today. That's not good news for Team USA! It seems like the Chinese are good at everything. They knew they were going to host these games for a while and I think they really prepared for it. From fencing to swimming to table tennis, it's just amazing how every time I look at the medal podium, China is getting a medal. It's remarkable that they can be this good at absolutely everything. And I doubt this is going to be a one off. But it's obviously inspiring to play in your home country. All I'll say is 2016 - go Chicago! I gave someone a USA pin this week and they went to give me a Madrid 2016 pin, but I said it was okay and they could keep it... I'm for 2016 Chicago!

I'm amazed they got any tennis in tonight. We all thought the whole day would be cancelled because of the rain. When we left the courts there was still a bunch of matches to go on. It's now 11:15pm - they'll go until 1am or 2am, for sure. But it's really fun. The atmosphere is great. They'll probably be shooting for Sunday finals now though; they originally had some finals on the Saturday. Finishing on time seems impossible now.

We ended up not hitting today. After yesterday's tough match it all sort of caught up with me - the flying, the activities, the jet lag - and so today was a nice break. We know our quarterfinal opponents now - the Spanish team won their second round match today - and it will be a tough one, so I'm happy we'll be fresh for it. My regular partner and I played them in the semifinals of Roland Garros and they played incredibly and went on to win the title. But this is a different surface and we're an aggressive team, so hopefully that will give us a bit of an edge. I have a partner who is very powerful and I believe in her 100%; I'm sure she believes in me 100%. We'll compete hard. We're so close to the medal round, we're going to fight so hard. We're just thinking about the first point, the first game...

For now, I got the chicken sandwich again... I'm terrible. I feel disgusted. I'm so off the sandwich by now that I can only eat half of it. We had dinner around 6:30pm so of course I got hungry now. But like I've said before, it's a good sandwich. I don't know how many more I can eat this week though! I can't wait to go to New Haven next week. They have this restaurant program where you get a free meal at one of the Top 25 restaurants in the city. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. So I can get skinny this week on half-chicken sandwiches because next week will make up for it! They have this competition too, where the player who goes to the most restaurants in New Haven wins a prize. I've won it the last two years. In 2006 I won World Series tickets and last year I won a really nice handbag. I'll probably get there a bit late this year so someone else might take my title... but I can't get too greedy. First tennis then pin collecting, now the restaurant competition? I think I need to take a step back :)Goodnight and talk to you tomorrow!

Liezel

 

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It's 1am and I just got back!

Our match was fourth on after 4pm today, so it was a pretty late one. I just came back to the hotel, had a shower and ordered a sandwich. It's rough coming back at this time of night; hopefully I can get to sleep soon! I also hope I won't fall asleep with half the sandwich in my mouth. I guess we'll find out tomorrow...

All in all, it was a great day. We won our match tonight and it feels like we won a Grand Slam! It was a very tough one. We won 6-3 in the third set. Really, it was only a point or two that made the difference; luckily, it was in our favor. When the draw came out, we knew these could be tough opponents. I have a lot of respect for one of the girls we played in particular; she's one of the true up-and-coming players out there, and while her singles ranking is pretty high as it is, she should probably be even higher. We were broken right off the go. Actually, there were a lot of breaks throughout the match, but we just hung in there. By the end of the match we felt really comfortable and were able to get the crucial break. As soon as we finished I called my husband from the court to tell him! We were all so happy - me, my partner, our teammates, coaches... It was a tough match but when you're playing with a new partner you go through these stepping stones. As a doubles player, I know how positive our attitudes were today. I'm very proud of how we came out and fought through it. One nice thing is that we don't play tomorrow - because we don't even know who our quarterfinal opponents will be - so we'll have some time to recover for our next match.

This morning seems like so long ago. I slept in quite a bit - I think I slept for 10 hours - and then we went to the courts around 11am. Other mornings have been a rush here, but today's was a very easy one. We hit from 12-1pm then, of course, it was time to go to the Olympic Village! Originally it was just to get food, because we've decided not to do pin trading until after our matches each day. But I did sneak a couple :) Cameroon, Saint Lucia, Botswana... Actually, Botswana was the first pin I got that I didn't get myself. My friend had an extra Botswana pin and asked me if I had two of anything so we could trade them, so I gave them one Cayman Islands pin for their Botswana pin, but in this deal I also asked that they get me another one I don't have yet. So I look forward to that! Today wasn't such a great effort for pin collecting but I'm at over 100 pins now. I know it's only half of the countries out there but I'm working on it...

One of my teammates just came in with another pin for me, from the Cook Islands! I've been after this one. She went to watch some other sports tonight and I gave her one of my USA pins, asking her if she saw a Cook Islands one to get it for me... and she just came to me with it - MY DAY IS MADE! Oh my God. It says "Cook Islands, Beijing 2008" with the running symbol and rings on it. It's beautiful. This one is worth a lot. Here I am, 1am, sitting in my night robe in my hotel room, and I've scored a Cook Islands pin!!!

We didn't get to meet any presidents today, but our time at the Village was fun. We went for lunch, saw some of the swimming recap on the internal TV, watched some tennis (we can watch anything at the Olympics and we watch tennis... go figure) and went for dinner. You can't eat too much before a match but there's lots of fried rice here so that was nice. We didn't go on until about 9:30pm and when we were done there were still some matches going on. It has been a long day for everyone, but the dream is still alive. None of us are complaining. We're working very hard to play our best and hopefully get a medal!Some of our teammates have started going back home already. They're done here - either they're out of the competition or their event is over. It's sad - the more, the merrier. I was thinking, if we had lost early, would I stay or go? You're torn. You do have to get back to your business, but I think I would probably stay. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I took some time out today and just watched all of the people going by, and I realized I'm just so proud to be here. I used to think this would be my last Olympics, but now I'm not so sure. I really want to do it again. I don't know if my health will keep up for four more years, and it's such a strong nation to be selected for, so who knows if I'd make it onto the team again, but now I really want to do it again. Hopefully I'll be able to go to London in 2012. It'll be on grass. How awesome would that be? My favorite surface :)

Now we'll be going to sleep and probably only get about six hours of sleep, because we're going to watch beach volleyball in the morning! All week I've been saying I'm going to watch other sports, but I've been so focused on tennis I haven't been able to. One of our teammates is friends with the top beach volleyball player in the world and got us great seats. I'm so excited! I've never seen a volleyball match, let alone a beach volleyball match. I'll dress in my Team USA clothing for sure. You know what though... I'm not even sure how they score the game. I'm going to have to learn while I'm watching. Do I need to wear different shoes because it's on sand? I'm sure my team will tell me if I'm not dressed appropriately. One time I put on boots and a checkered shirt to go to a country western bar with my friend in Houston, and he said, "Okay, you need to change your shoes." I told him they were the only boots I had and he said they don't wear those anymore. But he said nothing about my shirt, and when I got there I knew I was dressed pretty lame. Hopefully I don't have another day like that tomorrow! I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb. But that's just life sometimes... I usually just use the excuse that I'm a foreigner if it happens! I'll be watching the volleyball tomorrow but my eyes will be looking around for pins...

Now I'm going to say goodnight, then eat this chicken sandwich. I will let you all know that I've had this same chicken sandwich all week. It makes me feel at home! And I'm not very good with chopsticks.Talk to you all tomorrow :)

Liezel

P.S. I've attached a photo of my doubles partner's son, who is at his very first Olympics... We're starting him early with the team spirit!

(check for that picture of little Jagger on www.sonyericssonwtatour.com )

 

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Finally we got to play! The waiting is done. We expected to play well and we did - we won our first round match, 62 61. It seems straightforward from the score line, but in tennis that word doesn't really exist. I actually started off with an error, which wasn't great. I have high expectations of myself. My regular partner and I always use the phrase "ride the wave". Because I'm No.1 with my regular partner, people always come out against us with nothing to lose; I feel it's the same situation with my partner here, because people look at us as one of the teams to beat. It was pretty even at the start, but then we just rode the wave. We began playing to our strengths and to their weaknesses, and before we knew it we were shaking hands. We were so positive and energetic, and I had goosebumps because it was our first match of going for the dream.

I thought I was tired the other day, but right now I'm exhausted! When we came off the court we were sopping wet, and we weren't even out there that long. We couldn't have asked for the umbrella to be opened any faster! Afterwards I went on the bike for a bit then did our press commitments, then, of course, it was time to go to the Olympic Village to collect pins!!!

I now have five straps on my pass. Today I got Mexico, Luxembourg, Suriname, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia... some of these I'm not even sure of... that's bad! Honduras. I tried to find Angola because my grandfather was born there, but I couldn't. My effort was pretty poor today, compared to previous days. I just began talking with everyone and sometimes wouldn't get pins. I'm a little off my game. It's easier early in the week when basically everyone you see you haven't gotten pins from yet; now I have so many it's hard to spot the ones I don't have. Zambia. I may have lost a little bit of my competitiveness today, but it was probably because I was tired from the match. I'll just rest well tonight and get ready for our next match... and finding some more pins, too!

I have to tell you about what happened right before our match. We were in the player lounge and the match that was on before us was at a set and 4-all or 5-all, and I went outside to warm up (because I couldn't warm up inside with the air conditioning!). I came running back in and our manager says to me, "I've been looking for you, 41 is here!" I didn't get it. Then she said, "You don't understand... the 41st President!" And I saw it was President Bush and his daughter, as well as some secret service members. I actually met him the other night but I told him the exact same thing this time: "Hi, I'm Liezel Huber from Houston, Texas!" And like the other night he said, "Yeah, baby!" I don't know if he does that every time someone says they're from Houston or if he just remembered me, but it was great! He wished us the best. For him to come and wish us support was very classy. All of these people are coming and congratulating us and encouraging us, but really it's we who are honored. This experience gets more and more elating.

The bruise on my arm is pretty. My back is fine though. This is all from the self-inflicted injury I suffered yesterday! I kept waking up in the night to check on it, because I want to be at my best here - not just for me, but also for the team. But I'm happy to report it's okay. Yesterday was a tough day for our team, as we lost three players; today has been better, which is a great turnaround.

Now I'm back at the hotel. It's about 9:30pm and I wanted to get to bed before 10pm, so I'm on target. Tomorrow the matches don't start until the afternoon, so I'll be able to sleep in a bit. Today was a bit tough because we got back so late last night then had to play pretty early. As tennis players we have to be flexible with playing times, conditions and everything. What we need to remember is that it's the same for everybody; it's all about who can adapt to the situation better. Anyway, I ordered room service. I have a fruit plate - I'm not sure what some of this fruit is though! I normally don't order room service. Two nights ago I got "Chef's Special Chocolate Cake with Ice Cream" with one of my teammates, but by the time it came the ice cream was more like soup. This fruit plate was supposed to come with yogurt and honey - which is what drew me to it - but they aren't here, so it's just the fruit. When my husband travels with me we never get room service. He says it's overpriced and when the food finally gets to you it's cold. But I've been having it every day here. It's easy, and I don't have to dress up and go out. All in all, I'd much rather have dinner with my husband though!

Speaking of my husband, he's back home right now at a barbecue. I'll bet he doesn't mind missing out on my room service! I talk to him just about every day, even with the big time difference here. I'll wake up 15 minutes earlier so I can call him in the evening his time. But I always manage to call him during a meal. Conducting business is tough, but other than that it's fine. I use Skype, which saves so much money. I wish I had invented Skype, I'd be retired by now!

I've been using Facebook a lot here. I have my own personal account, one for the Huber Tennis Ranch and one called "Go Liezel, Go USA", which is for people to support me during the Olympics (a boy who takes tennis lessons at the ranch created it for me and it's fantastic!) I'm very new on Facebook. I got it about a month ago. It's already one of my Favorites. I'm not sure if I fit the age range it's most popular with, but that's okay! The reason I joined it initially is I was looking for a friend of mine from kindergarten - another Liezel, actually - and I managed to locate her! It's almost like we never lost touch. I'm so happy, I'd been looking for her for so many years. So that's one of the benefits of Facebook, as well as posting pictures and exchanging messages. I really enjoy it!

Nothing else to report, really. My main thought is that I'm disappointed with my pin collecting effort today. I'm starting to get soft. I've been giving away my USA pins when people ask for them, but then not even asking them for any back. I think it was probably just an off-day today. Tomorrow I'll definitely make sure to be greedier - on and off the court!

Goodnight!

Liezel

 

 

Monday, August 11, 2008

A very busy day in Beijing!

We began the day with a big breakfast at the hotel. It's my favorite part of the day! We had eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, cereal, OJ, cappuccino... I ate for an hour. It was like I wasn't going to see food the rest of the day! We really got our money's worth. And it felt just like home :) We went to the site at about 11am; I wanted to go there early because they said there was a 70% chance of rain, and I didn't want yesterday to happen again. But we got an hour and a half of practice in, which was fantastic. And then it was off to the Olympic Village!

Actually, before going there, I had a bit of a run-in with a divider... When you're coming back from practice, there's a dividing screen near the open door, so people won't look in. And there's not much room to walk by with your bag... Anyway, my bag got caught on this 8-10-foot screen, and it just came down on me. It was pretty heavy and had sharp edges, and it hit the back of my arm and my back. My wonderful teammate saw me bent over and in pain, and when you're initially in pain we all know the last thing you want to do is talk because it's such an initial shock. So she just said, 'Liezel, let's go to the trainer.' I actually started crying because it was hurting so much :( Then I stopped off at the sink and told myself to get a grip! I ended up having two blood scrapes on my back. There was nothing on the back of my arm at first, but about an hour later it really started bruising. Hopefully the swelling goes down for tomorrow, which is our first match. One of the girls joked I probably wouldn't be good at childbirth - pretty funny, and probably true! But the trainers did a great job in patching me up. I'm trying to stretch the area all the time so it doesn't scab over. They gave me ice and anti-inflammatory cream. So everyone, please watch out for that screen!

We had lunch soon after getting to the Village but I wasn't very hungry, probably a combination of the big breakfast and how hot and muggy it was. I had a piece of bread and fruit. Of course, by afternoon I was starving again. Anyway, I am happy to report it was a very successful day for my pin collecting! I've had to add more straps to my credential, as I've been putting them on there (you can see them all in the picture I've put up!) Today I got Malta, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Andorra, Argentina, Paraguay, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, New Zealand, Estonia, Russia, Tajikistan, Nicaragua, Grenada and Bolivia. There's a lot I still have to get so I'm not satisfied! Although my main goal is playing tennis - and because of the rain, we might have matches every day, given we keep winning - I'm still excited about collecting pins and meeting athletes from all around the world.

In the Village, Team USA gets internal television in their places. There's a sport on every channel. We get a daily program telling us which sports are being shown at which times. They bold the medal rounds, so that helps us pick which ones we think might be the most important to get a glimpse of. During the lunch break we went back to the apartment and watched a recap of how our team was doing. We sort of knew the results but it was still making me nervous because I hadn't seen any of it yet! A funny thing also happened as we were walking around... I saw five athletes in a row wearing the exact same shirt and shorts. They were five good-looking guys. Then a sixth one was following right behind them. I didn't have the guts to ask what they do but I did ask where they were from, and it turns out they're Icelandic. If I was single again maybe I'd go there! If any single ladies are reading this, I think there are lots of good-looking men in Iceland!

We also headed to the administrative offices for Team USA in the Village. On the second floor there are a bunch of athletes just on the computers and hanging out, relaxing. You can go there and mingle or just do your own thing. I spoke to some of the volleyballers, who I'd first met on the plane or at the Opening Ceremony. It's like a large extended family. We're not just a tennis team, really; we're a team. It's very cool. It's so much different than every other week of the year.

This is mainly an individual sport but we've been watching each other's matches, trying to make it as much of a team sport as we can. I think we all appreciate it. Some of our players win and some lose, but we're all supporting each other.

I had dinner at the courts. It wasn't my first choice but because there were so many matches pushed to today's schedule, one of the matches I was at ended at about 9:30pm, and I couldn't wait to get back here to have something to eat! And to think they still had two matches to go on that very court... this is what rain will do to a schedule! Right now it's 11pm and I'm hungry again, but I can't justify eating this late. I won't get to sleep until midnight!

I'm hoping we're not playing early in the morning tomorrow, because it's so late right now. But if we are I'll be ready. I'm excited to play. We're healthy. We've also been preparing for this for a long time.

Goodnight and talk to you'll again tomorrow!!

Liezel

 

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Hello again everybody!

Today was long. There's really no other word to describe it! We left for the courts at 9:30am; before we left we had been told it was raining and we had a choice to stay or go, but in those situations I usually go because I don't want to worry if it has stopped raining or not. It was tricky but we made the right decision.

We watched some of our teammates play and cheered as loudly as we could for them. The main stadium of the Olympic Green Tennis Center is beautiful inside. It would be even more amazing on a sunny day. And it was packed - I believe the remainder of the Olympic Tennis Event has been sold out, actually, which gives us players a very nice feeling, like the people here really appreciate tennis. Of course, the bad news today was that we had rain delay after rain delay...

It was a constant drizzle throughout the day and it doesn't take much for the lines to get slippery. I had practice courts booked but they kept getting pushed back: my first one was from 1-2pm, then it was moved to 4-5pm, then cut down to 4-430pm, then moved again to 6-7pm and 7-8pm and again cut down to 7-730pm. We finally moved it voluntarily to 8-9pm because we didn't think the court would be dry, then we just decided it was over. They cancelled all of the matches and sent us all home at about 7pm. We came back and got room service... and spent some time admiring all of the pins we've gotten!

That's one of the great things about today - I got a lot more pins! It actually tired me out looking around to see which countries I could find... I had to stop and tell myself to just relax. But it's just too fun! Today I got Nepal, Bahamas, Brazil, Venezuela, Slovakia, Ukraine, Latvia, Denmark, Croatia, France, China, India, Sweden, Great Britain, Japan... I couldn't be as picky as I was yesterday, when I was looking for all of the smallest countries, because we weren't in the Village today. I just saw I also got Portugal, Czech Republic and Austria today... So today it was all about quantity. By the end of the day it got harder to chase after them. Some of the players from countries I didn't have yet had run out of pins. Togo is supposed to bring me one tomorrow. Some players already have American pins too, so they don't need mine. We'll see how it goes tomorrow though - I'm hoping to go into the Village. This is serious business! Although for me, the fun is in meeting the athletes from all of the different countries, not necessarily just getting any pin I can. I remember who gave me every pin.

Again, I won't mention any names, but I saw someone's collection today and he has the Cook Islands and Lesotho. Lesotho is a country completely surrounded by my home country, South Africa. I've always found it remarkable to have a country that has no other neighbour or coastline even... I grew up knowing about Lesotho and I'd probably trade all of my pins for that one! Maybe I can make him feel sorry for me... hehe. I've got a lot of days left though, so I hope I'll get it.

I also went to the gym today, which is lucky, because as I mentioned we never got to hit. The gym was packed! There were even some fans taking pictures through the opening in the greenery. I have no idea how they figured out they could get pictures from there, but there were lots of them out there!

Speaking of trading and finding things, the market was great yesterday! We got such bargains. Here, it's all about negotiating. The vendors will give you a price and if you play your cards right, you will pay much less. I paid about a quarter of the original price for a shirt yesterday. I started walking away from the vendor when they initially wouldn't drop the price, and they did end up dropping it. One of the coaches had actually bought that same shirt for much less earlier in the week and I told her that I wouldn't buy it for any more than that, and after she wouldn't drop it any more I began walking away again, and as I turned the corner she did. So I got the shirt! I ended up paying $7 or $8 for a shirt that was priced almost $30. I hadn't bought anything for my coach and housekeeper for a while so I ended up getting two more as well! It's easy to get caught up in the chase, but all of the haggling is draining. You don't want to rip them off but you don't want to get ripped off, either. It's how they do business though!

Right now I'm just surfing the web. I'm reading up on the medal count and how awesome Team USA has done in swimming. I'm wishing for more and more medals! We had dinner just now too. I got a sandwich. I don't normally eat a sandwich for dinner but I've been having so many noodles with chopsticks the last few days, I had to get something new! It's not the noodles I was getting tired of really, it was probably the chopsticks. I always give up after four or five bites! I had a Diet Coke too... I always like to have one at the end of the day. Normally I eat a lot more food during the day, but this sandwich was filling.

I also have to report to you we got some more Team USA gear today. I've been sporting it all day. The highlight of my entire experience is proudly wearing it!

The plan for tomorrow is going and watching one of my teammates play if it's early, but I have practice later in the day. I'd also like to squeeze in watching another sport if I can. There's volleyball at 12:30pm, which would be great; our basketball team plays at night too, which will be unbelievable. I'll see when everyone is playing and work my schedule around it. It's important to savour the Olympic experience and support the other athletes!

I'm going to read some USA Today now... It was great talking to you all and we'll do it again tomorrow!

Liezel

 

Saturday, August 8, 2008

Hello from Beijing!

I came here directly AND indirectly... I finished the doubles final in Montréal last Sunday just before 5pm, did the trophy ceremony then ran into the tunnel and to the locker room. My husband then met me outside, gave me a kiss and told me my bags were in the car and it was waiting to take me straight to the airport! I got there by 5:30pm and we took off at 7:30pm, arriving in San Francisco at 1am. From there I was driven to San Jose and got to sleep around 3am.

San Jose was where all of the American Olympic athletes did USOC processing (USOC is the United States Olympic Committee). It's an ambassador program that lasted all day - 8am to 6pm - and teaches us how to handle ourselves during the Olympics. We were treated to some really great speakers, one who held the record for the long jump and one who was a silver medalist in water polo, then finally we got our uniforms. That was a highlight for me. They look great!On Tuesday at 7am we went back to San Francisco and flew out to Beijing. So the journey that began in Montreal at 5pm on Sunday ended on Wednesday at 2pm, Beijing time. It was a whirlwind. I don't remember sleeping that much but the adrenaline kept me going. I was so excited and honored to be in that whirlwind.

My husband, Tony, is not here with me. He was given the opportunity to come and we definitely considered it, going back and forth on it, but we ended up making a personal decision on it. The regular season is very individual, but this is more of a team event. He travels with me everywhere and he's my coach, but it's important for the Olympic players to bond with the coach we have here. I should be fine without him for just this one time. I can't wait to see him when I get back!

We arrived in Beijing with our luggage right there, then we were taken straight to our hotel. There was just a zillion people everywhere, which you'd think would be chaotic, but they are SO organized here. Everything worked out perfectly. Your credential acts as your visa, so we showed it and we were on our way. I had packed extra clothes just in case my luggage got lost, but they're so efficient here so it's all with me! After we got to our hotel we went right out and practiced, just to get a feel for the conditions. We hit for an hour and a bit, from about 7pm to 8/8:30pm. We weren't looking for a gold medal performance that day, just trying to get a feel for everything. And it worked - the next day when we came out to practice, it went great. It's funny how just a little bit of getting used to conditions can help down the road. That night we all slept heavy though!

I actually stayed at the Olympic Village the first three nights - the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It's so clean and pretty, and the landscaping is lovely. The food is great too. This is only my second Olympics - I competed in Sydney - and it was so great Down Under I didn't know if anywhere could top it, but I think they've done that here. But now that competition is about to kick off, I decided to come back to the hotel starting tonight, Saturday night. There are so many distractions in the Village, and we tennis players are so used to maintaining focus throughout each day leading up to competition. There are so many athletes there, all I can think of is where are they from, and look at their muscles! I was also coming home at 11pm each night when I normally go to bed around 10pm. It's just amazing how so many of the world's athletes can be concentrated there though. I'll definitely go back for some meals and socializing with some of the new friends I've made, but my top priority is focusing in on a medal!

The opening ceremony was amazing. Team USA met at 5:15pm in the Village. It was amazing to see everyone dressed up in our Ralph Lauren outfits, including matching hats and scarves! It was really hot though. We were all dripping and fanning ourselves, but it was worth it. We looked so stylish. We were then escorted to another stadium, which they use for fencing I believe. We weren't sure what was happening - I thought it was for a big group photo or something - but it turned out we were all about to meet the President, George W Bush, as well as a few others - former President Bush, current First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter, too. The two Presidents congratulated each and every one of us and wished us the best of luck. The tennis squad also had a picture with the current President. It was fantastic. That alone was worth this trip, it was such an honor.

We were then taken to the stadium right next to the main stadium, which they use for gymnastics. We all waited a while to be led out for the opening ceremony (since the United States was country No.140 on the list because it's so far down the alphabet!) They gave each of us a food bag to hold us over during the wait, which probably meant they had to hand out thousands of them... another detail they took care of really well. We all just mingled during the wait. At 8:08pm they started showing the ceremony on the big monitor, and at about 9:45pm they called us out. We were all chanting "USA!" in the tunnel. I got goosebumps. I'm so fortunate to be representing the nation that has adopted me. Now I can say I'm an Olympian, but also for the US. At the time I was on such a high I didn't really get emotional, but I can tell you the day leading up to this and ever since, it's easy to get teary-eyed. Anyway! By 10:30pm we were all on the field.

I have started collecting pins. I have about 50 of them so far. My goal has been to get pins from the smaller countries. I already have Micronesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Iran, Cayman Islands, Kiribati (I had never even heard of Kiribati before!), Mozambique, Virgin Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Syria, Oman, Seychelles, Trinidad & Tobago, Zimbabwe, Qatar, Sri Lanka... for me it's so exciting! And we're getting another 100 pins tomorrow so I'll definitely be going into the Village and preying on people ;) It's not just about collecting the pins, but also meeting the people. We met so many nice people last night. We saw Americans taking photos with Kuwaitis. Sports brings the world together.

I didn't get to sleep until about 2am last night and woke up at 6am today! I'm not used to doing all of these activities and I've been completely knackered since I got here, but we're all so excited to be here. I've been telling myself to slow down, but it's tough. Tonight we're going to go to a market with air conditioning - and I'm very excited about the A/C! We've been saying it's hot here so many times that it's getting old. But it's true. I can't put lotion on my face because it just drips off. Anyway, the market has clothes, jackets and bags, and I hear you can haggle the prices, so I'll see if I can bring out some of my haggling skills :)

I don't play on Sunday but I'm looking forward to watching my teammates play.

Oh and one more thing... I'm not going to name any names, but I think there are other players in competition with me for the pins... it's getting quite competitive!Talk to you all tomorrow!!

Liezel

Blog also available on www.sonyericssonwtatour.com

 

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Blog by Liezel from Paris

Wednesday, May 28th 2008

Coucou de Paris!

After Rome, Cara and her husband went to their apartment in London for 6 days. Tony and I came early to Paris. Cara and I arranged to start practicing here in Paris on Friday. So that's what we have been doing the last week... We have worked hard on and off the court. Now if only the rain will stop, then we can get to play our 1st round match!!!!

It's felt like Wimbledon in a way; the same matches being on the schedule day after day...
 
I know Cara enjoyed being home for the week. She travels so much; in between going back to their family home in Zimbabwe, Australia (that's where he husband is from) and her apartment in London. Her brother, Wayne and his wife and their two kids live in London. She loves spending time with all of them! 

Tony and I watched a lot of qualifying matches during our first week here. I think one day we watched 5 matches! I loved it! I of coursed cheered for all the South Africans and Americans! When they played each other (it happened twice), I just clapped for good shots on both sides :-)

Obviously we are anxious and looking forward to play our 1st match here! We also have other exciting things happening over this two week period... We have been invited to attend the ITF Awards dinner on Tuesday, 3rd of June. We will be receiving the 2007 Womens' Doubles Team of the Year Award. That's very cool and what an honor! It's a black-tie event, which means we get to dress up!!!!!!  Cara and I have been talking about our outfits and our hair and our make-up and our accessories.... Now that's fun stuff and we look forward to getting all dressed up for the big occasion!

This morning it is looking very gray outside...Not good! Yesterday we only did fitness and didn't get to hit due to the rain. If it is going to rain, I hope it rains after 1 pm. We have a practice court at noon :-)

My husband left for the courts at 7:30 am! He is coaching Chanelle Scheepers too. She lost in the 2nd round qualies here. Now she's preparing for the grass court tournaments. They have had to hit on hard courts and with this rain, they need indoor courts. Their best bet has been to go very early and get on the courts before the others. Chani is an extremely hard worked and also very talented. She is a great player and I know her results will come. So watch out for her!

We are renting an apartment in the heart of Paris. We are so lucky! We usually stay near Roland Garros, but this year we decided otherwise. Chani and I enjoy walking the streets and window shopping! I can't buy anything until we win some matches! Keep fingers crossed!

By the way, I have been cooking quite a lot. Tonight though we might just have to go out...

Have lot of fun watching the matches here in Paris. Hoping for better weather of course and lots of luck! 

Bye bye  Au Revoir!

Liezel

 

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Blog by Liezel from Russia

 

Sunday, April 27th 2008

My 6th day on Team USA!!!!

How sad that this wonderful week has to come to an end...Like they say, all good things come to an end...It's been incredible and I am taking away great memories....

Let me tell you about today! Vania lost in 3 tough sets to Vera Zvonareva. Vania played her little heart out and almost had it! So close! At this point we were down 3-0 and Russia clinched the tie. If anything, Team USA was even more fired up at this stage! Ahsha came out firing and serving like we have never seen her serve before! She beat Elena Vesnina in straight sets! I am so happy for Ahsha. She is so talented and this win should give her the confidence she deserves to have more top 50 wins! At this point I took a little nap. The cheering exhausted me...

Last match of the tie is always doubles. Although it was the last match and a dead 'rubber', it was as important to us as the first match! I was nervous! I didn't tell any of them. I mean after all, I have to be the strong one and the leader.... :-) They knew though and didn't say anything... Vania and I hit it off and 'jelled' very nicely. We moved together, communicated well, planned our points and kept encouraging each other. It was incredible for the first time playing together! We won in two tough sets against Vesnina and Kuznetsova! My first win as American on the Fed Cup Team! A day and a week to remember forever!

I feel so lucky to have had this chance. I feel every bit an American now!

Although we don't get to advance to the Fed Cup finals, we are all winners in my heart. We came to Russia with a young inexperienced team and we gave it our best. We worked extremely hard and we learned something new every day. We took pride in representing our country and we did it well !!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow morning we are leaving our hotel at 8 am. They are all flying back to the States and I am heading to Holland to visit my twin sister. It's going to be sad to say goodbye...At the same time, I can't wait to spend 4 days with my sister!

I thank you all for reading my blog. It was very important for me to blog. I wanted to share this special time in my life with you.

God bless you all and God bless America.

xoxoxo
Liezel

 

Saturday, April 26th 2008

My 5th day on Team USA!

Wow, what a day! We might have lost both singles and starting tomorrow down 2-0, but today was an incredible day! I am still the proudest American I know :-)

Vania and Ahsha played good tennis and fought hard. It was tiring watching and 'playing' every ball with them. It was nerve wrecking! We cheered as hard as we could. We jumped up with excitement at every opportunity. In the end, the Russians were just too good today. I am so proud of Vania and Ahsha for giving their best and fighting for the team.

Tomorrow we have another fight on our hands...We are ready and may the best team win. I can't wait to play my first Fed Cup match for my adopted country! GO TEAM USA!

As you can tell, I am still on a high! I am still so happy to be here! I cheered so loud and so much today that I am losing my voice....It feels like I am getting sick, but it's just my throat that is scratchy.... It's all worth it!!!! I am enjoying every second!!!!!

I have been on Skype all week with my family. It's the greatest thing ever, talking for free to each other... I don't get to speak to my twin sister in Holland that often, due to the time change. Of course now we speak every night! I have also spoken to my parents a few times since I have been here and just spoke to my husband. He is going to watch our Fed Cup matches at 7 pm on the Tennis Channel. I am sure he wishes he was here and I miss him! He is working hard at Huber Tennis Ranch though!

I need to get to sleep earlier tonight...I need all my energy for tomorrow. Our work is cut out for us. I know we are going to give it our best. Fingers and toes crossed!

Go Team USA!!!!

xoxoxo
Liezel

PS. We have had a moment to go sightseeing. We went to the Kremlin and Red Square at night. Truly amazing! I am sorry that I have been soooo preoccupied with telling you all about Team USA that I have forgotten to mention the other things! :-)

 

 

Friday, April 25th 2008

My 4th on Team USA!

I wish this week would never end....It's been the most amazing week! I feel like I have a new extended family! I have met the nicest people and made a lot of new friends. They have made me feel so special and have warmly welcomed me as American! I cried today...but I will tell you about that in a little bit...

Today we had another two productive practice sessions! I feel great and ready to play the doubles on Sunday! Vania and I played against Madison and Wade. We 'jelled' a lot better than yesterday and our games seem to compliment each others' nicely. Vania is more comfortable playing at the back and I am used to having a partner, playing at the net. It's been a big adjustment, but we figured it out. I will be playing a bit more aggressive than usual, which is a good thing for me too! Watch out Cara, when we play in Berlin I am going to be a different player!!!  :-)

This afternoon I practiced a lot of serving and returning. I don't think I can ever practice enough of them! Later in the practice, Coco, Alison and I did some drills. They did great and we had a lot of fun! All and all, a very successful day on the practice court!

In between practices we had the draw ceremony. All the press was there too. Afterwards we did TV interviews and a press conference. Although our team consists of young players, I must say, you wouldn't say so when you hear them speak! Awesome job team! They handles all the questions beautifully!

Well, now about the part about me crying.... Both teams got seated on the court during the draw ceremony. I was sitting and listening to the speeches. Then they drew the names for the line-up and I saw my name on the board. My heart was pounding and I became emotional... The thing is, I realized again what an incredible opportunity this is that I had been given and how privileged I am to be an American. It finally sunk in and I felt it...I am an American! The proudest American I know! Well, I couldn't stop the tears. I am sure that there will be tears tomorrow during the National Anthem. Afterwards Mary Joe came and gave me a huge hug.

Thanks Team USA for making this the best week of my life!

Fingers and toes crossed for our matches tomorrow. I know Vania and Asha will do great!

Got to get some sleep, because I plan on cheering lots tomorrow!!!!!!!

xoxoxo
Liezel

 

 

Thursday, April 24th 2008

Day 3 on Team USA!!!

This morning I was already eating breakfast at 7:30 am. We alternate practice times with Russia and today we had the earlier slots!
 
All went well though. Asha, Coco and myself had a great session. We did two-on-ones, which makes it tough for the person alone. We ran a lot and hit a lot of balls. Zina and Mary Joe stayed on top of us...just when we thought we could relax or we got lazy, they were there! We appreciate the help, especially coming from them! It is so much fun practicing on Team USA! We are encouraging towards our team mates and try to stay positive all the time! I love it!

The 2nd session was a doubles practice again. Vania and I played against Wade and Coco. They beat us! I think they just got lucky, so tomorrow we have a rematch! It definitely feels weird playing with someone else, besides Cara. Cara and I know each other's games so well and know what shot is coming next or who is taking the next ball... The tough thing playing with someone new, is that you have to learn those things and get a feel for each other. BUT that's the fun part too. It's challenging and I love challenges!

Tonight we had the official team dinner. It was at a restaurant near our hotel. Team USA wore black pants, a very cute black and white blouse and a little white sweater! I though we looked beautiful! Madison, Alison and Coco got dressed together and did their hair and make-up together. Great job girls! It was fun and we laughed a lot at our table! We were honored with the presence of Mr.Francesco Bitti from ITF and Ms. Jane Brown Grimes, the USTA President! They both gave very nice speeches and both personally welcome me, as a new member of Team USA!!!! I feel so honored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is our last day of practice before our Fed Cup tie starts. I am praying for good health and that we can all play our best. I am on an awesome team and know they are capable of doing great things! GO USA!

I will let you know how the nerves are feeling tomorrow....

Bye for now,
Liezel

PS. Because I am one of the rookies of the team, Zina made me give a speech to the team. It was very emotional for me. I thanked them from the bottom of my heart, as I am so grateful to be given this opportunity. We feel like one big family now! I tried not to cry, because I had make-up on for tonight's dinner! It was tough to do....  

 

Wednesday, April 23rd 2008

My 2nd day on Team USA went great!

It was difficult waking up this morning. I just came from the East Coast, where there is an 8 hour time change. In other words, wake-up time is the time we usually go to sleep...It only takes a few days to get used to. It helps having a long day like today and then I will go to sleep earlier tonight...

We had two practice sessions today. This morning I hit with Madison Brengle. She is from Delaware and is 18 yrs young. This Summer we are playing together on the Delaware Smash team during World Team Tennis. So we will get to know each other even better then! She has had great results in the juniors and definitely a player to watch out for, as she starts her pro career. I think I am this tired tonight, because we played singles points and she made me run a lot! Don't worry, I hit one or two winners against her!

Before our 2nd practice, we had a press conference. They mostly asked our captain, Zina questions. I think it was a good press conference, in the sense of Team USA being really positive and illustrating we are here to give it our best! GO USA!

The evening practice was a doubles practice. The USTA has a program for young "Fed-Cuppers". At each tie, two up and coming youngsters are invited for the week to hang out, practice and experience the event. This tie we have Alison Riske and Coco Vandeweghe. They are both lovely girls and great players. This afternoon, the two of them, myself and Wade played sets. It was great for me getting used to the courts and of course great for the girls, as they got to brush up and practice their doubles skills.

We didn't get back to the hotel until after 8 pm! A friend of mine from Houston, Glenn, came with me to Russia. It's always nice for me to have a family member or friend with me. I thought Glenn and I would grab a bite to eat, but his stomach is upset and not feeling so well. He is from Houston and I think he is only used to eating Mexican food and Barbecue! His stomach can't handle the Russian food! I ordered room service and now just got done eating! I feel a lot better :-)

My eyes are getting heavy and my bed is calling. Tomorrow we have an early start. Team USA has the early practice time. I can't wait for another day on Team USA!

Until tomorrow....good night.

Liezel 

 

Tuesday, April 22nd 2008

I thought it would be fun blogging this week...After all, it is my 1st Fed Cup playing for the U.S.A. and what an experience it is going to be!!!!
This has been a dream of mine for a very long time AND NOW IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!!! I am an American and on the Fed Cup team! I feel like jumping up and down, I am just sooooo excited. Whoopee! Hooray! Yeah!!!!

For you that don't know, our Fed Cup tie is against Russia in Russia. I arrived here this morning from Charleston. I had a nice light practice with Wade (our hitting partner). Tonight we had a team dinner in the hotel at the Japanese restaurant. It was fun socializing with my team mates and the rest of our organization. It feels like I have known all of them for a while, because I already feel like family. It's going to be a great week. Win or lose. A very memorable week indeed for me! I will be wearing my USA jacket with pride!

Tomorrow I will tell you more about my team mates and how my 2nd day on Team USA went!

Good night you'll

Liezel

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Cara's blog from home in London

Monday, March 3rd 2008

Hi Everyone,

Well it has been quite a busy few weeks...a lot of travelling and a lot of matches. But that's what we like! We are really happy with our success in the last few weeks. It all started on my Birthday in Antwerp! It was Sunday the 17th of February and Liezel and I were preparing for our first final of the year. I was so nervous that day because I wanted to have a good result for us and also to win on my Birthday would be amazing!
Anyway we ended up playing a great match against Sugiyama and Peschke and we won so it turned out to be the best birthday present I could ask for. The best thing was when the whole crowd, a few thousand people started singing Happy Birthday to me...that was really special. (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eJWI-kl2Aw)

We love playing in Antwerp, it is a really great tournament and they take such good care of the players so we had a great week there. I got very spoilt for my birthday, Liezel gave me a beautiful blouse and makeup, I got snowboarding stuff from my husband Moose, Stef and Jojo [our webmasters] gave me lovely smelly soaps and creams and a diamond racket...haha and lots and lots of flowers.

Anyway after Antwerp we caught a flight back to London that night and spent the night in our freezing cold flat. At the moment my boiler is broken so we have no heating or hot water so it was a pretty cold night! We managed to survive and made our way to Doha the next day. We had another great week there losing in the final; I think it was awesome considering the fact that we hadn't really played our best tennis that week but we still managed to get to the final and lose a very close match. We also celebrated Moose's birthday in Doha. We had planned to go and rent a jet ski and have some fun on the beach but when we woke up the morning of his birthday there was a huge sandstorm that lasted for four days so we were not able to do much. Anyway we still had a nice dinner with Tony and Liezel that night in the hotel.

From Doha we went on to Dubai. We really love playing in Dubai and managed to win ourselves another title there this year. We played a great match in the final and were really pleased with our week. We also did some great shopping as you do in Dubai, so that was nice. We are back home now in London and will enjoy a week off here and then ten days of snowboarding. We are really looking forward to that! After boarding we will meet up with Tony and Liezel in Miami again to start our first tournament in the States.

Thanks everyone for reading and continuing to follow our success we really appreciate your support.

Till next time bye from us for now,

Cara

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Liezel's blog from Sydney - On our way to Melbourne!!!!  

Tuesday, January 8th 2008

Hey Everyone!

We trust you'll have had a happy holidays and a great New Year so far!

Cara and I are doing great. I arrived in Gold Coast last week being very sick. The day before we left Houston, I started my symptoms... Considering I spend almost the entire week in bed, it was a great effort to be able to compete in the tournament. By our second match I was feeling so much better. Cara however had caught a cold that was going around. Needless to say, by our third match we were both absolutely exhausted and gave it all we had, but it wasn't enough.

Here in Sydney we are both back to our normal selves, except for some coughing and sinus... We have been unable to practice last week and this obviously took it's toll on us today. We started out fine and then they picked it up. Of course we aren't happy to go out this early in any tournament and especially not before a Grand Slam!

Our plan is to work really hard this coming week and come out firing in Melbourne! We will practice another 2 days here in Sydney and head to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon.

Thanks for cheering us on! We are looking forward to the challenge this week of working very hard and of course looking forward to reliving our great memories in Melbourne!

Gotto get some sleep....we're practicing early in the morning!

Bye for now,
Liezel

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Liezel's blog from Madrid

Monday, November 5th 2007

HOLA from Madrid!!!

It is so exciting being here! We work all year to be the top doubles team and here we are! It's great!

We had a nice break in London. For a couple of days we didn't do anything. On Wednesday, Moose worked us hard in the gym. On Thursday we ran in the park and did some speed work. We were so lucky, cause it never rained and it wasn't too cold either, which is a miracle for London. On Friday and Saturday we practiced at The All England Club! They had invited us to use their facilities and even invited us for lunch! It was strange seeing the Wimbledon ground not like we know it. They are hard at work with the new covered roof. Lots of cranes etc. Yes, we had to wear all-white clothing!

We arrived in Madrid late Saturday night. Tony and I had a good hit yesterday! The courts are great! I love the speed and the altitude is just right! I am sure you'll will be able to see the court colors on TV. I think it's very cool! Bright purple and an even brighter green!

Today we are going to be tourists! We need a day off after 5 hard days of work and to stay fresh for the weekend! Tony and I are going to take it easy. We are going to have breakfast in our lovely hotel! It's one of the nicest we stay in all year! Then we might go and explore the city. I love bus tours, as you know!

My parents arrive this evening! We don't get to spend much time together and this December I am not going back to South Africa. It's perfect that they came here and hopefully they can bring us the same luck as at Wimbledon this year!!!!

Hope you'll entered our quiz! If not, don't wait another minute!

Adios from Madrid!

Liezel

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Liezel's blog from Linz - What a great day!

Sunday, October 28th 2007

Just wanted to let you'll know that we kicked some butt in Linz!!!!! We are so happy and excited!!!!!
We had a great week here in Linz! The organisation was terrific and think that helped us playing good tennis...
Today's match was great. It came down to a couple of points in the tie-break,but I think we felt very much in charge the entire match. We did what we had to. We worked hard. We put a lot of balls in play. Ran hard and stayed positive!!!

Please check out the pictures of us with out trophies!!!! We love trophies! We are working on getting another one next week in Madrid!!!!

We are flying to London in the morning. We will take a couple of days off from tennis. On Wednesday and Thursday we will do fitness. By Friday we will feel like hitting some tennis balls again! We will head to Madrid on the weekend.

That's that. Just wanted to say how happy we are and grateful for a great week here in Linz!

Thanks for cheering us on! Now go and enter our quiz!  :-)

Bye for Austria,

Liezel

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Latest news from Linz by Liezel

Thursday, October 25th 2007

When our web site started, I don't think the idea was for Cara and I to be writing you'll every week...BUT it's been soooo much fun and we love our web site, that we can't help but get excited!

So here I am letting you know how this week's been...

I got so excited that I forgot to say hi!

Although losing in a very close match last week, we had a great week! Laetitia and Stephanie, who are our great web site designers and fans, came to watch us play in Zurich! Thanks ladies for all your hard work and of course great cheering! We came up with some awesome ideas, so stay tuned! Please enter our quiz, you might be the lucky winner of a signed tennis racket of Cara or I!

As you know we are playing in Linz this week. Austria is beautiful and the train ride from Zurich was so scenic! We don't get to take the train very often, but glad we could. It's cold here too, but no snow.   

Cara and I are in a very good situation. It's the end of the year, which means our 'break' is nearing. We will finish the year as the number 1 team and will share the number 1 individual doubles ranking position! We are playing this week for match practice and to be sharp for Madrid. We love competing! We are really relaxed and happy to have had such a successful year! 

On the home front, construction on Huber Tennis Ranch is moving nicely along! The concrete work will be done by the end of next week. It means we will have 11 tennis courts when we get home! Thank you for everyone's inquiries and support. 

That's it for now. Be safe and keep cheering us on! Cara and I love it!

Bye for now,
Liezel

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Cara's blog from Zurich

Tuesday, October 16th 2007

Hi Everyone,
 
Just wanted to give you a quick update on my behalf, sorry I have been so slack! Anyway it's great to be back on the road again after a really nice long needed break. My husband Moose and I went back to Australia for a month after the US Open. We had an awesome time and having such a long time off really enabled us to do a few trips around Melbourne. We drove to Phillip Island one day to go and see the World famous Penguin Parade. I really enjoyed that, they are so cute! We also did a trip along the Great Ocean Road to go and see some relatives. It was a really beautiful drive and I highly recommend it if you are ever in Melbourne!
 
Well it was good to see Liezel and Tony again after such a long break! We had a great week in Moscow and of course winning was awesome. We had a lot of tough matches throughout the week so for us to come out on top was very satisfying. I'm sad to say that we were very bad tourists though, not visiting anything this time. I feel a bit guilty about that but we were quite busy during the week and the weather was pretty cold. Moscow actually got its first snow of the season on the last few days, it was really beautiful to see!
 
After a day of travel yesterday we are now in Zurich where it is a nice 20 degrees!! Hopefully we will play our first round here tomorrow. I'm looking forward to starting our week here and having a good time! I will speak to you all again soon, and thanks for popping in!

Cara

 

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Liezel's blog from Moscow

Sunday, October 7th 2007

Let me first say how much I miss home and my dogs and sleeping in my own bed….Let me also say how GREAT it is to be back at work!!!

We arrived in Moscow on Thursday evening. Cara and her husband from Australia ,  and us from The States. I am not sure how, but we managed to have two practices on Friday! It was great! Today we had another two good practices. Tomorrow we will double-up again and hopefully get to play on Monday! We are very eager and have truly enjoyed our time at home, but now it’s back to business! We want to end the year strong and already looking at our schedules for next year. With as many matches as we have played this year, we will have to be a bit smarter with our schedule. We will keep you posted!

The doubles sign-in closes at 12pm tomorrow. Like I said, we are very eager to play and hope to have a match on Monday!

Moscow is a beautiful city. Just very expensive! Everything is expensive. The breakfast buffet in the hotel is $50!(per person) They do have food all day at the courts, so that’s where we will have our meals J

When we left Houston it was in the 90’s.(above 30 celsius) Here it’s no more than 15 celsius, quite a shock to our systems…I remember years back it was snowing,  I am not complaining, it could be a lot colder!

We hope to work very hard this week and give it our best.

Thanks for cheering us on!

Liezel

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Liezel's blog from home in Houston

Wednesday, September 26th 2007

Cara and I have had a good rest so far! Cara's been in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, Moose. Moose has a 5 acre property right on the beach! I know they have been surfing lots and probably cooking out quite a lot! We have been in touch a couple of times about our schedule and when we will arrive at our next tournament...and of course we chatted about what we have been up to at home! I know we will both be very rested and anxious to play again!

We have played a lot of matches this year. No excuses, but it probably being the main reason why we went out off the USOpen so early. This rest has been very much needed! We have had a great year and definitely looking forward to continue with our success!

Our first tournament will be in Moscow. We love Stuttgart and sad to miss it this year,but thought this schedule would work better for us. We will play Moscow,Zurich and Linz. Have a week off in London and then The Championships! How exciting!

I have been on an eating plan and it's been good for me(and Tony)! We have also been working out in the gym. Yesterday I started practicing again too. It was pretty good considering I hadn't hit a ball in two weeks! That doesn't happen very often. I mean that we don't hit a ball in that long. Maybe in the off season it does, but like I said we really needed the break,so thought I would put my rackets away for a little while.

I am just about to go and practice again. We either have to hit very early mornings or late afternoons. Can you believe that it is still in the 90's here! It is incredible hot and humid! We had a lot of flooding this Summer and now we haven't had rain in two weeks... Anyway, it's almost 3pm and I am heading to practice.

We are busy with construction on Huber Tennis Ranch. They are behind schedule due to the rain this Summer, but very busy right now. There are 9 huge trucks on the property right now! We can't wait for it to be finished! Hopefully when we come back from Madrid!!!

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has visited our site. We look forward to seeing you in Europe and bringing you some more good results!!!!

Bye for now,
Liezel

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Cara and Liezel's blog live from the US Open 2007

 

Wednesday, September 5th 2007

Hey everyone!

Yes, I am quite relaxed as I didn't have to hit any tennis balls today...That doesn't happen very often, that we have a day off...My vacation has started and what better place than in New York City!

Today was very low-key. We did a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Nothing too exciting, sorry!

Now, tomorrow is going to be awesome! We are waking up when we wake up. That doesn't happen very often either. I'm looking forward to having breakfast at the diner up the street. Then we are going to take the red bus tour! I'm not sure where all it goes, how long it takes or where it stops, but we will be on it! I also would like to go up the Empire State building. You see, tennis players only get to see the hotels, tennis courts and the airports. When you are done with a tournament, then you are off to the next and when you are done with a trip, then you want to go home. We had the option to leave and go home today. I knew I would be resting either way, so why not stay in New York another couple of days! In Rome we had lost in the semi's and we had the next week off before the French Open. That Sunday we took a bus tour and walked the ancient ruins. Now you are probably thinking: why the bus tour? It's relaxing and you don't have to walk. Walking is tiring and we exercise enough as it is :-) O,yes, the middle Sunday of Wimbledon we also took a bus tour in London. It was an open double decked bus. We were very lucky it didn't rain that day!

We plan to have dinner early and at p.m. we are going to see the Broadway play Hairspray! It's going to be a fun filled day and a great way to end our trip in New York.

I'm watching the end of Jankovic/Williams right now. What a match! They both deserve to win! Hopefully in my next life I can play like them!

Seriously though, it's been a pleasure for Cara and myself to blog. We appreciate all of you supporting women's tennis! We hope to have a good rest, so that we can start the indoor season strong and bring you'll good tennis!

Keep following us. We love it!

All the best,
Liezel

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Tuesday, September 4th 2007

Good evening again!

It's about the same time as when I wrote last night....but tonight I have no bedtime...we lost!
 
It's just too bad that someone had to lose. All three sets were decided by tiebreakers! We gave it our all and we came up short....As with any other loss, it's tough to swallow...

As promised Alysia is blogging tonight. If you have any comments, please let her know, after all she is majoring in journalism! hehe...

Although today was my last match here at the US Open, I will be writing my last blog tomorrow.

Enjoy Alysia's experience on the Tour...Good night you'll

Liezel

 

Hello, my name is Alysia.  It’s nice to meet you.  J  I have been travelling with Tony and Liezel this summer, stringing racquets for Cara and Liezel, as well as about 80 plus players on tour.  It has been a pretty amazing time where I have met and seen many people and places around the world.  It truly is a unique experience.

It all began with my job in high school, working at the Copperfield Racquet and Health Club in Houston, Texas.  It was here where I met Tony, as he would occasionally taught juniors when he wasn’t on the road with Liezel.  I worked the front desk, and since I couldn’t sit still when the club was slow, I made the pros teach me how to string racquets so I could pass the time with something productive.  It has really worked to my advantage as Tony and Liezel observed my good work ethic and positive attitude and offered me this great opportunity to travel with them on the road stringing racquets.  Being a poor college student, it was hardly an opportunity I could pass up, and being a tennis fan as well, I looked forward to being right in on the action of the pro tennis circuit.  Last summer I travelled on the US Open tour, and this summer I did the same, along with travelling abroad to Rome, Paris, Birmingham, Eastbourne and Wimbledon.  Then I took up some US tournaments in San Diego, New Haven, and now I’m finishing up my adventure at the US Open.

At every tournament, Liezel would get me a credential badge as a player guest.  I got to hang out in the player’s lounge during the day or watch some matches if I chose.  In the mornings, the tournament transportation would bring me from the hotel to the playing site.  I enjoyed being outside during the day and hanging out.  Then, in the evenings, I would get to work, stringing away into the wee hours of the night if I needed to.  At the majors, including Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and here at the US Open, I would often be awake until 4, 5, sometimes 6 in the morning stringing racquets, stenciling the appropriate logos and finally bagging them all.  My days would turn into nights, but this would only last for the beginnings of the tournaments.  Liezel would bring the racquets to the courts in the morning.  Tony always helped when I was overloaded, and Liezel can never sit still, so she often helped with stenciling and bagging before her bedtime.  I never like for her to stay up too late because her priority is always her own matches. It was really a team effort. 

I enjoyed doing this work because I know it is important to the players to have their racquets fresh and ready before every match. Over time, I got to know and remember each player’s tension and string type.  They are very specific on what they want and need done.  Some use all one type of string, some use a blend of two types.  Some use a natural gut, some pre-stretch, some don’t, some prefer four knots, some prefer two.  My job involves a lot of paying attention to detail and being consistent while stringing.  Tony always says, it’s not about speed of stringing a racquet, it’s about the quality although I’m pretty good at both, I think.  J   My fingers have taken a toll from the work.  To those who don’t know how to string a racquet, you must weave every string on every cross string and pull each string to the correct tension.  My fingers have taken a toll, and come the end of this tournament, I could really use a manicure.  I have hang nails like crazy!  But, it’s all worth it in the end.  I’ve earned good money and I walk away with many memories.

When I wasn’t working, it is always interesting to wander around and see what’s going on.  I’ve gotten to meet many players, coaches, and other characters along the way.  Some are friendlier than others, but I don’t have any sour encounters.  Most players travel with their own support groups_ it is what we refer to them as.  This includes their families, coaches or friends that they travelled with.  I like to watch the players I string for, in hopes that they win, because that means more business for me!  It’s a small world, the tennis world.  It’s funny.  It’s like a school of fish that travel together.  You go to the different cities where the tournaments are hosted, and although it’s a different setting and different atmosphere, the people all tend to stay the same.  It’s nice too, being recognized in this group.  Most of the players are pretty down to earth, and all of them work really hard.  It’s really a job that goes day by day.  For example, Liezel finds out when/if she plays in the evening, and given that, she decides when to practice or warm up and plans her schedule around that.  It takes a lot of discipline and hard work to maintain a strong, competitive game in this career.  It includes working out in the gym, doing footwork drills, hitting often and eating properly.  That’s definitely something I admire in every tennis player I’ve met.

Today was my last day at the courts.  I watched a bit of a champions match and then waited for Liezel to go on for her mixed match.  Unfortunately they ended up a bit short.  It was very close, and a great match to watch.  There were so many good points and everybody was playing their hardest.  I’m heading back to school tomorrow at Marquette University.  I’ll be away from the tour and back to the books.  I have one semester left before I graduate in December with a degree in Journalism.  I’ve made good money while doing this gig, enough for rent, and any college student can appreciate that!  J   I’ve been pretty spoiled as well.  Tony and Liezel have been nothing but generous to me.  Paying my accommodations and feeding me well along the way.  It’s been an opportunity of a lifetime for me, and I’m only grateful for my experiences.  Tonight is ending like any other day.  We all ate some dinner together and now I’m going to string some last racquets before I pack up my bags.  It’s been great

 

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Monday, September 3rd 2007

Good evening everyone!

It's almost my bedtime, so tonight I can't write long... There are two things I know for a fact that makes me cranky(and I need), it's sleep and food! Those are normally the first two questions my husband asks me when he senses something is wrong...I am getting better at listening to my body. I do need 8 hours of sleep...

Today was great! Jamie, my mixed partner, was on fire!(and maybe I was a little bit too) :-) We beat the Polish duo who Cara had lost to in their first mixed match. Cara, I got them back for you! It seemed like we couldn't put a foot wrong. We broke them both and held convincingly to make it a quick 6-1,6-2 victory! We are now in the semi-finals. What is bazaar it that we are on the schedule tomorrow. It's a Thursday final I just found out, so now it makes sense. We play late afternoon against Shaughnessy and Paes. Hopefully we can play as well as we did today and then it will make for a good match!

Today there was a few more upsets. Like every tournament, upsets are great and also not so great. Let me explain. It's great for the person or team who caused the upset, but not so great for the top player/team who got upset. I have been on both ends. I applaud the underdog, but I do favor the other too. Today in women's doubles Raymond and Stosur lost in a very tough match to Mirza and Mattek. I am good friends with Sania Mirza and so happy for her. On the other hand, I think Lisa Raymond is one of the best doubles players of all times and would have liked for her to have gone all the way. So, I am happy and disappointed. The on the men's doubles side, The Bryan brothers went down. I love them and they are so awesome. Our mixed match followed their match. We were anxious to go on, but I would gladly have waited for them to play a 3rd set and squeeze it out...They are so great for the game of tennis and I am so sorry they couldn't win a title here at the US Open.

I have asked my friend, Alysia to write part of the blog tomorrow. You see, she is a journalist major at Marquette and think this would be good 'practice' for her. Seriously though, Alysia has been traveling with us for a few months this year. She does all the stringing. I just thought it would be nice to hear an outsiders opinion about life on the tour! I am sure she sees things differently than we do. It should be a lot of fun hearing what she has to say!!!! I will be commenting on what she thinks...This is my blog and I have the last word!!!! I am sure Alysia will be working on her blog all day tomorrow...Thanks Alysia!

I haven't heard from Cara yet. No news is good news. We haven't decided on our schedule 100% yet. We need a good rest. As soon as we have decided we will post in on our web site. I hope you'll have had a look at it. A lot of work went into it and we thanks our fans for doing such a wonderful job! If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to let us know!

Now it is really my bedtime. Fingers crossed for tomorrow....until then....
Good night,

Liezel

 

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Sunday, September 2nd 2007

Hey everyone!

Here I am sitting in my hotel room with NOTHING to do.... It's 5pm and we just got back from the courts. I always have something that needs to be done. I can't sit still...and here I am trying to think what I can do next. My husband says it's a good exercise for me just to do nothing sometimes. I don't agree :-)

I moved the States when I was 15. I came to train at Van der Meer Tennis Academy in Hilton Head. I was suppose to stay for 6 weeks and here I am 15 years later, an American citizen! Since a young age I have been responsible for me. I made mistakes and learned fast. I think that has a lot to do with how I am today and I am grateful for that! Being the leader, being organised, being tidy- all those qualities are an asset, but in my case it can also be my downfall. I try to do everything. I purposely give my husband things to do and remind myself that it's okay if there something that I didn't get done today. So now I am trying to relax and talk to you'll :-)

At the US Open they have several events going on besides the regular draws. There are juniors, seniors(invitational) and wheelchair. It makes for a lot of matches during the second week. Today my husband hit with Ilana Kloss for an hour. She is playing the seniors and her partner is Vilas. It was such a nice day out, that I sat on the chair on their court and also picked up balls! Last year it rained for many days on end, which made it frustrating for the players, spectators and of course the organisation. We couldn't ask for better weather this year!

Talking about the weather...The forecast doesn't look good for the next hurricane. A couple of weeks ago Hurricane Dean caused massive destruction in Central America and Mexico. Now I see Hurricane Felix is heading the same way...Not good. I have a non-profit foundation- Liezel's Cause, that has helped the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Now we are helping 3 families in Belize to rebuild. Their homes were badly damaged during Hurricane Dean.  The Red Cross has been providing food. In the next couple of weeks we will get clothing to them. Now my worry is that they have been working hard trying to rebuild and get back into their homes....and now the next hurricane is on it's way....I haven't had time to put the pictures of their homes on my web site yet, but will do when I get a chance. For now though if you want to donate to them, please visit my web site at www.liezelscause.com . Thanks so much!

Jamie Murray and I hit today for 45 minutes. We don't have opponents yet, they only play late today. He is a great player and of course a very nice young man. It's a lot of fun playing with him. He says that I am too serious and never smile. I guess I never realized that, I am just trying to play very hard and win! Tomorrow I will try and smile more Jamie!

The shops will be open for another half an hour. I am going to take a walk down the street!

Enjoy your evening.

Bye for now,

Liezel

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Saturday, September 1st 2007

Good evening all!

What a difference a day makes! Tony was right. Winning our mixed match today, definitely eases the pain from yesterday's loss...

This morning however I felt aweful and sure Cara did too! I was replaying the points of our match. Going over it in my mind, again and again. Talk about being hard on yourself! I had a good warm-up and then Tony and I had a nice talk about what he expected of me during the mixed. Going out there though I was nervous. The match after a bad loss is always difficult. You are your own worst critic. Anyway, I was slow out of the blocks and then came around. Jamie Murray and I won 7-5,6-4. It was a bittersweet victory....

You see, we beat Paola Saurez and Kevin Ullyet. Kevin and I have played a lot of mixed together and most recently, Wimbledon. We grew up together and are good friends. We'd rather cheer for one another and not have to play against each other! What was even more emotional was that Paola would announce her retirement here at the USOpen. I had no idea until just before the match. When we had our first match point I found myself getting teary-eyed. Then Jamie missed the ball and it was my turn to return. I told myself to try and stay focused. Unfortunately we won the point and that was the last point of Paola's tennis career... She will be missed! She is one of the nicest girls and a true champion and great ambassador! (and of course one of the best doubles players of all times!) We had champagne and a little get together for her on the court afterwards. The crowd stayed and cheered and she deserves it! Paola, we wish you all the best for the rest of your life and you will be missed by so many!

There's so many hours in the day,but yet still not enough. I am a very organized person.(as most of you know) Well, I have things that need to be done and I just don't get it done. It just seems like we spend so much time going back and forth to the courts. There has been times when it has only taken us 30 minutes to the site, but lately it seems like it's always an hour and a half! It's terrible! I will say, of all the Grand Slams, this is the Slam that we have to commute the farthermost. It's great to be in the city though and enjoy all the great restaurants and shopping. It's just that we are here for tennis and that's the priority. Maybe New York's Major can build a tennis center in the city!!!! (maybe on top of the tall buildings!)

We came back late again. I have to see Dr Parra for laser treatment shortly. All my aches and pains I had when I got here have disappeared. Dr Parra leaves on Monday, so I am just getting my last couple of treatments. The next time we will see him will probably be when we go to his studio in Italy. Hoping that that won't be necessary, cause that means I am healthy :-)

Today was great. I had so many friends at the courts. It is Labor Day weekend and people don't have to work on Monday. We had friends from Houston, Atlanta, North Carolina and Boston. It was an hour before I got to shower after the match!

Cara and Moose are on the flight right now back to Australia. Rather them than me...hehehe...Traveling together is a lot better than traveling alone. The only bad thing is that one of us has to take the middle seat. And I love my husband so much, that I usually take the middle seat...

There was a couple of upsets today. It shows there is a lot of depth in the women's game. And of course my friend Julia Vakulenko is through another round! Go Julia!!!! You can do it!

I'll be back tomorrow
xoxoxo
Liezel 

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Friday, August 31st 2007

Hey everyone!

When we were asked to blog (by the WTA Tour), I think they assumed we would be in the tournament until the end...And so did we...

Today we lost against Camerin and Dulko. We went up 6-1,3-1 and then it all went BAD! Credit to them though, they were the better team and too good today. It is a tough loss for us. Our worst result has been a semi-final this year. It's been unbelievable. We have played over 70 matches, which probably is too many and that we now realize. We learn from our lessons and know this is a good lesson we learned today. Life goes on and we are motivated to end the year on a high note!

Cara and Moose are heading back to Melbourne. Hopefully they will be able to get out tomorrow. I know they are anxious to get home, cause Moose has lawn to mow and Cara needs to go car shopping! They have been using Moose's 1969 Mercedes when in Australia. He won't let Cara drive it...She has now convinced him that they should get another more reliable vehicle! Happy car shopping Cara! 

I am still playing mixed doubles here. It's been a disappointing result for us today, so I will be trying to make up for that in the mixed. I remember one year at Wimbledon Laura Montalvo and I lost 1st or 2nd round. Tony sat me down and said that I would feel a lot better if I have a good mixed results. He said it would take away the pain. Mike Bryan and I made it to my first Grand Slam finals! The pain was less...
So that's my plan of action :-) I would love to be home right now, but not just yet. I would much rather still be competing here at the USOpen!

I look forward to seeing my dogs! They are my babies. Female tennis players careers get put on hold for a while, when we decide to have babies. That's why most players wait until they retire to have kids. For now we have dogs. (and we spoil them!!!) Our first dog, Sam, was a gift to us from Martina Navratilova.  It's amazing what a great friendship we have formed all because of a dog. We are family now! Sam used to travel with us. He is a great traveler and loved chasing the tennis balls at the courts! Since we got him brothers and sisters, none of them travel, unless we go by motorhome... I will tell you about our RV tomorrow :-) Anyway, we have a housekeeper that looks after them. Like I said, they are very spoilt!

We moved onto a 10 acre ranch in March. We are in the construction vase of Huber Tennis Ranch. It's very exciting! We have always wanted to have our own tennis center. We are having 8 outdoor hard courts and 3 kids courts built. In time we would also like to ad 4 indoor courts. Completion is October 12th. We are looking forward in seeing the progress when we get home!

I am sure we won't be sleeping that well tonight. That is understandable. We will replay the match in our heads. But it is what it is. We didn't do as well as we would have liked to. We do thank you'll for your support and continued support!

Until tomorrow,
Liezel

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Thursday, August 30th 2007

hi guys,

Well yesterday was a long day out at the courts, so we followed it up today with a very quick visit out there. We had a great doubles match, unfortunately Marcin and i lost our mixed. I think i have figured out what happened though. Marcin is Polish, our opponents were  Polish, our umpire was Polish and so was half the crowd....i was playing in the Polish Championships!!! No wonder i couldn't understand a word out there!! Anyway thats the way it goes sometimes.

After our hit we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then i got a massage and a little physio therapy. We have an amazing group of physio and massage therapists who travel with us and take care of all our needs 24/7. So we are very lucky to have them keeping our minds and bodies together and healthy. Speaking of which i had a near accident a few weeks ago. After playing in San Diego we took a week off and i went to stay at Liezel and Tony's ranch, The Huber Tennis Ranch, aka South Fork in Houston. I had an awesome time apart from when they tried to feed me to the dogs!! It was a pretty hot day, so Liezel was out hosing down the dogs to keep them cool. Anyway Ace, the big one is a little scared of the water so Liezel says to me, " Cara can you just run towards me a little and he will follow you?" So like a good partner i do what she tells me and i start running towards her. The problem was that Ace is so big, once he gets going he can't stop. So there i am running around the garden being chased by a 190 pound English Mastiff and the next thing i feel this huge big mouth close round my left ankle! So i fall on the ground and Ace is all over me thinking he had won the game...as it turns out my ankle was fine and  old Ace is nothing but a big gentle giant, he was so cute! So be careful when you visit the Huber Ranch you never know what could to you!!

Well done Julia again today! She played so well and is now through to the third round. Also some great news from home. My cousin who does cart racing in South Africa has qualified for the World Championships which will be held in Itlay in October. I hope this is just the start for him to pursue his dream into Formula 1. Well done Ru!

The best thing i love about New York is the hotel where we stay. It is a small quaint hotel in Manhatten and they have like a little common room downstairs where we have breakfast and every evening between 5 and 8 they have cheese and wine. So thats where i'm headed right now! Unfortunately i can't really tuck into the wine at the moment, but the cheese and crackers are pretty good!!

Anyway as far as Moo Man and his revenge on Tim...well nothing to report yet but thats not through lack of trying. Will keep you posted though, don't worry!

good night everyone,

Cara

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Wednesday, August 29th 2007

Good evening or shall I say goodnight!

Yes, it's almost past my bedtime. We left the hotel at 8:15am and only walked into our room at 10pm! In any job, that's a long work day! It's been a very successful day though, so no complaints :-)

Cara and I played against Jill Craybas and Laura Granville 2nd match after 11am today. It being our first round of a Grand Slam, we both felt a little bit of nerves. Usually we like to warm-up very well before the match. We run and break a sweat. Today though it was extremely hot and humid. Our shirts were soaking wet half way through the first set! I thought maybe people would be sitting in the shade and not be sitting in the stands...It was great and we appreciate all the fans coming to support women's doubles! It was a well fought match by both teams and we were lucky enough to pull the match out in straight sets 6-3,6-4.

We showered, had lunch, did press and then waited for our mixed doubles matches. Cara went on before me. I still don't know how she did, cause I finished after her. Our match was great. It could've gone either way...I am playing with Jamie Murray from England. When he speaks he doesn't sound like he is from England. I mean people confuse me with my accent being from England...and Jamie and I don't sound anything alike...I think he has a Scottish accent!!! Very strong and I have to pay very close attention when he is saying something! Seriously though, we had a lot of fun and he is a terrific partner. Not just a great player, but fun to play with! We beat the number 4 seeds Mara Santangelo and Paul Hanley 7-6,7-6.

Now I am waiting for room service. I love having room service, cause it means I don't have to dress up and can eat my food as fast as I can! My husband on the other hand dislikes room service. He says that it is never as good as it is suppose to be. So when the opportunity arises, like tonight and it's late and we have had a long day....I suggest room service or for him to pick us up some food. They are having burgers and sandwiches and I am having a salad and noodles. Can't wait!

Before I say goodnight(my food just arrived), I want to let you know that we are still laughing about Moose's incident yesterday, where Tim Henman pulled his pants down on him....I am sure we will still be chuckling for the next week about it! You see Moose is the funny guy and always makes jokes...and now we got him!!!

We will be cheering on our friend, Julia Vakulenko, tomorrow. She is an awesome player and know she can cause some more upsets in the draw! Also, I am supporting all players over 30 years old in the draw. That brings me to Nicole Pratt who beat Jamea Jackson, who is 14 years her junior. Go Nicole!
 
It's our off day tomorrow. I have a lot of plans for the day! Who knows when our next off day will be....so gotto take advantage of it :-)

I am off to eat my supper. It's almost 11pm.

Good night,
Liezel

PS. It's my first wins at a Grand Slams as an American! I am so excited and of course, if you can't tell already  , a very proud American!

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Tuesday, August 28th 2007

Hi Everyone!

This is Cara here! Liezel told me that it was my turn to blog today, so I am following orders! I have never blogged before, so I was a bit hesitant at first...then I agreed to us writing the blog because I figured Liezel would write most of it!!

That’s kind of how our doubles partnership works, we have a really good understanding of one another and I believe that’s why we have had success. Our doubles partnership is like a good marriage. We communicate well, compliment each other and have 100% trust in one another. We have the same goal and we support the other in good and especially bad times. We are great friends!

We hope to share our good/bad experiences, our ups and our downs and of course the fun stuff with you during our stay at the US Open! So here it goes...

Today was a pretty relaxed day. I love to sleep in, unlike Liezel who is up at the crack of dawn everyday doing a million things. So I got up at 9 and had some breakfast with Brett (my husband, more commonly known as Moose or Moo Man!) Then I got on the computer and googled Swarovski binoculars...Moose and I love to go out into the bush when we are back home in Zimbabwe and we especially love bird watching. A friend of mine told me about a particular pair of bino's just for that, so I found what I was looking for and put my order in.

We headed out to the courts around 12:30 and had some lunch with Liezel and Tony upstairs in the players' lounge. It’s always crazy the first few days of a Slam, but we eventually got our food and I got my favourite dessert...they make the best yogurt, granola and fruit parfait mmm really good.

The funniest thing happened today when we were waiting around the practice area to get our balls and stuff. As we were standing there just chatting away, Tim Henman came round the corner and quickly whipped Moose's shorts down around his ankles!! Well it was the last thing anyone expected...so there was big poor Moo Man standing there, bare bum and all in the middle of the room with no shorts on! Needless to say he scared off a lot of people and we were all just in hysterics for the rest of the afternoon. Anyway Moose is still recovering from his traumatic experience today but he's already plotting his revenge, so LOOK OUT TIM!! There is nothing like getting caught with your pants down, right?

We had a great practice session this afternoon. We were just fine tuning a few things before we hopefully start playing tomorrow. We play against Jill Craybas and Laura Granville so we have a tough match first up. After our practice we did a few footwork drills just to make sure we are sharp and ready to go. Playing at the Open is quite a lot different than all the other Slams. There is so much going on around the outside courts, besides all the matches you've got live bands and gigs going on, so it creates quite a buzz around the courts which makes for a great atmosphere.

One of our good friends Julia Vakulenko had a great win today over Daniela Hantuchova. So we are very excited and proud of her! Well done Julia!!!

Well it’s time for me to sign off now but I hope you will enjoy reading our blog over the next few weeks. Speak to you soon,

Cara 

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Monday, August 27th 2007

This morning started early.

I had to make a run to the courts. My husband has a stringing business. They string for a lot of the players all year round. How I am involved, is that I have to drop the racquets off in their lockers... So every morning starts the same for me. I get up at 7am and have a car booked for 7:45am. I get there, do my drop-offs and then head back to the hotel. I am back at 9:45am and then grab a bagel and juice at the local deli.(and of course breakfast for my husband)  

The Italian Tennis Federation has their team doctor at all the Grand Slams and a few other big events during the year. Dr Parra treats all the Italian players. I have a contract with him for treatments too, so that's what I do next. He travels with a physio too, so I will see Alexcio after my laser treatment for soft tissue work. I am fortunate I don't have any big injuries or too many aches and pains at the moment. It's more maintenance work. Every player knows their body well. For me, I have to treat an ache or a pain right away and then I can recover quickly versus waiting for it to go away or get better by itself. We compensate if something hurts, so then you are more likely to get another injury because you didn't take care of the first injury. It's all about prevention!

We have figured that we would play our matches later in the day. So we got our practice court from 2:30-4pm. The courts are great and think the speed of the courts are very suitable to our game! They are a bit faster than we have been playing on this Summer. With our serve and volley games, it's going to be goooood!!!!! 

Cara wanted to hit a little extra, so I hit the gym. We like to pay attention to our on-court stuff,but off-court is as important to us. Cara's husband, Brett is in charge of our fitness routine. He trained Pete Sampras for many years! Later in the week I will go more into detail on our fitness regime. What we do and when we do it and the reasoning's behind it :-)

Prince, my racket sponsor, was shooting commercials. Just as I was about to leave the courts at 5pm, they grabbed me and we did what we had to! I wouldn't say that I can act or knew what I was doing....but it was a lot of fun! 

I am on the player's council. Which means I represent the players in a certain ranking group. Anyway, I also sit on a some committees and last night one of them had their quarterly meeting. The committee is called Code of Conduct. It deals mostly with fines and appeals from players. I enjoy it, cause it's something different and we have a good group of people on the committee. It went smooth and we got to everything on the agenda! I walked into my room at 8:15pm!

What a long and busy day. I think what really threw me off was the fact that I lost my cell phone.... Well it got taken. I am not happy about it. Now my husband is my secretary! I am not sure when I will have time to get another....Maybe the day we don't have a match?

I will report about the first round results tomorrow! Now that I am US citizen I am really cheering my fellow Americans on!!!!

Until later,

Liezel

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Sunday, August 26th 2007

Hellllooooo all tennis fans!!!!!!!

It is so exciting for Cara and myself to have the opportunity to blog the next couple of weeks!!!!! I mean, we are sooooo excited!!!!!

We really appreciate tennis fans, that's why we wanted to give you a glimpse into our lives on the tour....

The day before a Grand Slam is as hectic as the first day of the event. Everyone needs a hotel room, everyone needs a practice court and everyone needs transportation. Not to mention that it's tough to find a table to sit at while eating lunch. It's all in good fun though, cause everyone is wanting to do their best at such a prestigious event!

Cara and I played the finals in New Haven late Saturday night. We drove through early in the morning. We decided to have the day off,seeing our first match would only be on Wednesday. So our day was quiet a bit different from the other players, although we still did what we had to do. Like laundry!!!!

Prince (my racquet sponsor) had a party. It was awesome, cause there was more than 40 Prince players present! Although it is part of the job, we do enjoy dressing up in clothes other than our tennis clothes!

All Grand Slams are hectic. There's a lot of people, a lot of commitments and of course a lot of stress you put on yourself. I will comment on that during the fortnight... Mostly we wanted to let you in on our routine and what keeps us sane- all with the hopes of raising the US Open trophy at the end!

Like they say in Texas- you'll come back now, you hear!

Liezel