Best of Belgium we left for the United States immediately. It was nice
to see the family again. This first holiday didn’t last long though, as
we had to go over to New York soon to play games for the WTT over there.
After that short period of resting without my racket at hand, I had to
get adjusted again. That’s why I was quite nervous. As the ‘star’ of the
team they expect you to actually win games there.
I had to, or better said, I had the opportunity to play doubles with
John McEnroe. It was my first time on the court with him, but it was
great! It was all very playful and funny. But Big Mac is still a very
good player. His volleys are incredibly precise! He still moves well
too, you know. But it’s funny to see how his style of tennis is not
practised anymore nowadays.
Luckily, my next matches (a doubles and the singles against Martina
Hingis) already went a little more smoothly. With a large part of the
family watching, it could only be a great day! Afterwards we immediately
returned to our home in New Jersey. We had a lot of family and friends
over to catch up on things. Just some chairs in the garden and something
to drink or eat. Jada gets to see her cousins again and as you can
guess she is always excited about that. Every year we have pictures
taken of the three of them. They don’t get to see each other that often
and that way the grandparents and the rest of the family have something
nice to remember them by.
This year Jada went to summer camp for the first time. It is like
kindergarten during summer, right next to the club where I train. She
loved it and her English has improved a lot. We have also been cycling a
lot over here. There is a cycle path that goes straight through the
woods, where you can see deers right next to the road. Or we go to one
of the many public sports complexes to play soccer or basketball. When
we do that it’s mostly in the morning, it is very hot over here.
I also kept up my physique the entire time and two weeks ago I started
tennis training again. In the beginning that was hard. The
disappointment about Wimbledon lingered for a long time. Only after
talking about it a lot with Brian and Wim and taking the time I needed, I
was able to turn that page over. We have focused a lot on
competition-specific details and my serve. These last few days we have
been playing sets, and everything is as it should be again.
So now I’m looking forward to the Cincinnati tournament. We will be
heading there soon. The next few days I will be training with a few
other girls in order to find the right rhythm again. And then: bring
those games on! You have to have been playing some matches in order to
reach your best level.
Enjoy the rest of summer!
Kim