June 30th 1:00 pm

I lost to the 7th seed Qiang Wang 6-3,7-5.

The conditions today were different a bit from the past few days. It was sweltering heat, on court temperature was about 98-100 degrees f. Humidity was 90%. This was at 10 a.m. It only got hotter.

I also didn’t get much sleep last night mainly because of my asthma. It affects me very rarely when I am either exhausted or in cold weather. But I do not attribute this for my loss today.

Today I started out rather poorly and that cost me the match. I got broken in the 4th game of the first set and soon she was leading 4-1. I also took a Motrin for my groin which was starting to bother me very early on. I held my serve twice after that, but could never break her in the 1st set.

I was starting to feel drowsy in the 2nd set, possibly because of the motrin. Every long point we had ,felt like I was running a 400m sprint in 100 degree weather. Of course, I knew at this time it was more mental than physical. So I decided in the 2nd set that even if I go down, I will at least fight hard. By then I was down 1-4.

I had gone to the supermarket yesterday and had bought some baby powder. That was so useful today when my hands were so slippery from the sweat and I could barely hold my racquet. For the first time in the match, I broke her serve and held mine to level the match at 4-4. I was definitely in better position, but still couldn’t hold my serve at 4-4. I broke her serve again to level it 5-5, but was too spent to hit my usual serves. Whenever we had long rallies, both of us needed at least 25-30 seconds to recover. She did serve better throughout the match, while I was just serving to keep it in.

All in all, it was a good experience. But the crux of the matter is if my intensity had been better in the 1st set,I might have had a better shot at her. I don’t think under these conditions,I could have lasted a 3rd set. In my favour, though, I felt I was on par with this girl and tomorrow if I played her- the outcome maybe different.