Anne Keothavong's Blog by Anne_Keothavong

I have no idea what the date, day or time is anymore. Apparently, that’s what World Team Tennis does to you. I’m shattered but at the same time, I’ve been having so much fun. There are hardly any team events in tennis outside of Fed Cup and this event has made me realise even more how much I love being part of a team. Maybe I’ve been lucky to be on a team with fun people who are all around the same age as myself and we’re all like-minded or maybe it’s the concept of this competition that brings us together. Either way, we’re having a blast and it’s a welcome distraction to the day to day grind of being a professional tennis player out there on your own.

Our schedule was brutal in the first week of the competition, we were flying all over the place. Matches start around 7pm local time and usually we’re finished by 11pm as each match is first to five games, but it takes a few hours to come down after late finishes so no one gets to sleep until a few hours after the game. That would have been fine if I could sleep in, but we had a flight the following morning each time to be in another city by the same afternoon and play again that evening! I’ve been sleeping wherever I can and napping has become my number one priority. I don’t usually like to sleep during the day but I have no choice right now!

Pete Sampras made an appearance for our team the other night and so did former player, Taylor Dent. Pete doesn’t play too much tennis these days but he’s still pretty nifty. He said he spent more time on the golf course as it was easier for his body and after seeing him struggle to warm up during his match, it made me feel a little concerned for when I get older! Taylor was full of charm, he had a huge serve when he played and he still does now. He was super friendly to the rest of the team and so apologetic when he lost. Once you’ve been a competitive sports person, I don’t believe that competitive fire ever goes and despite hardly playing these days, he was doing whatever he could for the team.

Martina Hingis is another example of a competitive sports woman. She still plays quite a lot of tennis and could be top 20 if she still played. I had to play her last week and she still moves around the court so well and she was definitely up for it as the fist pump was coming out. Fellow Brit Katie O’Brien has been playing on the same team as her in New York and being Martina’s doubles partner isn’t the easiest job in the world! Right, I’m off to the beach now as it’s my first day off since I’ve been out here. The waves look pretty big and I’m not the strongest swimmer, so I’ll probably spend more time playing beach volleyball- something I can’t do when I’m home in London!