Krista and I had a fantastic time in Guadalajara for the Seniors Social Tennis tournament. The Guadalajara country club is said to be one of the most beautiful and prestigious clubs in all of Mexico. This is a private club with 13 clay tennis courts, 2 hard-courts, paddleball courts, a beautiful golf course, Olympic size swimming pool, gym, spa, equestrian centre, soccer fields, restaurants, ballroom, etc. The ladies locker room is the size of all three tennis courts at Global. We had to ask where the showers were amongst the lockers, steam rooms, beauty salon, and coffee lounge area. I understand that it is not only an expensive club but one must belong to the appropriate family to be a member here.
The tournament opened with an elaborate welcome party with food, drinks and of course tequila.

The red clay courts are pretty and you can view every court from the central two storey tennis building. The games have referees and ball boys and our names up in big letters. Krista and I entered the top league (thanks to the advice of Rob and Rob who had been here before) which is much too strong for us. This level 1 also turned out to be an open division with no age classes.
Our first match was quite humbling but we were far too nervous to play our best. Our usual sure footed speed is dampened by these slippery clay courts and the high altitude and pressure-less balls are a new challenge. Our opponents were a home team including the tennis director of the club and needless to say they crushed us 0-6, 2-6.
It's very fun though and everyone is super friendly. We play a round robin format with 6 teams. We hoped to win at least one match.

We were lucky enough to play our second match under one of two covered courts which was good because there was a torrential rain storm.
We played through thunder and lightening. The umpire had to come down from his high chair to court side because he was getting wet.
We started off with lots of fans because the other games were canceled but when the stands started getting wet Peter was our only die hard fan.
It was a good match once we figured out the nasty spin serves. Our nerves calmed down and we played with nothing to lose. Krista and I prevailed in the third set tie breaker. Yippee!

The tournament concluded with a formal dinner dance and trophy presentation. We ended up 4th out of 6 in our division but we were awarded the best prize of all, "for our performance and spirit on and off the court". Our trophy is written in Spanish but is the equivalent of most sportsmanship team. We were very honoured and thrilled to receive it.