One of the best things about being a tennis player is that you certainly don’t get stuck in a routine. It’s not the normal Mon-Fri 9am-5pm job. I am my own boss and no-one can tell me what to do. (perhaps except my wife) I often don’t even know where I’ll be in 2 days time. One slight problem that this poses is that sometimes it’s easy not to know what the date is. I’ve been sick this past week and so I spent a lot of time trying not to feel sick at home. One morning at about 10.30am last week, I was still lounging about, feeling a little sorry for myself when the front door bell rang – there was a guy delivering a package. So I opened the door and was asked to sign for the package. I took the pen, signed my name and then had to write the date. After a few seconds of the pen not writing anything, the guy said, “30”, so I wrote 26 down….then came the month….apparently 29 previous days of October was not enough for me to realise what month it was and so again the guy said, “10”. By now I was getting a little embarrassed and was thinking, “ok I’d better not get the year wrong!” but all I had flashing in my head was “08”. I circled the pen around a few times and fortunately “09” came to me. The guy gave me a look that could only have been “no wonder this guy doesn’t have a job….”

I’m sometimes amazed to see what some players eat at breakfast. I was sitting along side a top 10 singles player. (I don’t really want to give any names but his name does include the letters, SLILGE OIMNS) The only thing I saw him have were four croissants which were dunked into his hot chocolate before being eaten. I must say it made my bowl of healthy muesli (admittedly sprinkled with a few Coco Pops) look a little less attractice. With “OIMNS” having one of the best backhands in the world, I decided that perhaps I should have a croissant myself - sans hot chocolate. I wasn’t quite sure on the correct dosage as he has a two hand backhand (and me one)  but I figured one croissant per hand should be enough – I’m quite excited to see how my backhand is this afternoon…..

I’m not sure if that is better or worse than a rather famous Indian doubles player (you’ve got a 50-50 chance here) who was caught pouring chocolate milk into his Coco Pops – although that was not the “new + improved” athlete that is around today.

So it’s the final tour event this week in Paris with the top 8 singles players and top 8 doubles teams qualifying for the London Masters. The final spots in both events are still to be decided but I’m sure (at least I am) everyone is fighting hard for the final positions. Although, if I don’t make it I’ll be quite disappointed (for a day) before I’m officially on holiday and off to South Africa for the start of summer! No wonder many Europeans are prepared to spend another week away from home in search of beach and sun. This year Mauritius and South Africa seem to be a popular destination.

Yesterday I was practicing next to Roger Federer. I was very much marvelling at Federer’s shots until he started volleying. I’m surprised that the best player in the world hasn’t employed someone to teach him better technique on the volley. With his talent though, I reckon after a week he’ll be volleying much better. Perhaps with his forehand he probably reasons it’s not worth the effort for ten volleys a match.

Hope to write from the London Masters!

Wes