14th May 2010

Its 3:30 am and before the alarm rings,I am already up.I have never been a good sleeper. Insomnia runs in my blood. On tour, there were days when I could not sleep without popping a sleeping pill. The time differences and jet lag were not helping either.
My flight to the East Coast is in 2 hrs. I took a long look at my baby, sleeping in her bed. I feel a pang, a sense of sadness to leave my sunshine for a few days. Then I tell myself " Its just 4-5 days until I see her again".
While Sanjeev was driving me to the airport, my mind is racing over the checklist of things that have to be done with my academy.I send a few texts and some e-mails from my phone. As my plane soars, I start dreaming of competing again. That is the one thought that keeps a player going, the excitment and the adrenalin rush one feels before a match. To go there and give it all you have....
I have been training for a few months now. My training regimen is very different from what it was 10 years ago. I play tennis about 4 days a week and each session is not more than 2 hrs. I lift weights to stay injury free and run long distance for stamina about once a week. My main aim to come to the best of my game and stay healthy and injury free.

My last competitive match before my comeback was in 2003 US Open qualifying.I was done, burnt out from the travel and tired of playing with a sore shoulder every match. That seems eons ago.
I played a 50K in Pune last year and faired decent.I had a good win against a Slovenian ranked in the 400s before losing to Tamarin Tanasugarn. The redeeming factor in that match was that I had lost to Tammy in Fed Cup by the same scoreline a decade ago, like nothing had changed.
Back to present- the 10ks are the tournaments you start with when you have no ranking. The bottom rung, the first step of a tennis pro ..... and here I am in the qualifying draw of a 10k in Pennsylvania. In US, the draw sizes are humungous, with 3 or 4 rounds to qualifying into the main draw. So if I were to win this tournament, I would have to get past about 8 matches in a week. 8 matches in a week........one step at a time baby.