Yesterday I came back from Dubai. A place from which I come back with mixed feelings. I was really looking forward to go having heard a lot of exciting things but my enthusiasm was dumpt when I saw the hotel prices which where unbelievable high. We arrived there on Wednesday and in the first four days we changed in three different hotels. Finally we found one with a reasonable price and with walking distance to the tennis club. It was a Hotel Apartment which we, Dave and I, shared with a French girl. Funny though a day later when the draw was done we found out that we would play first round against each other.

I started the tournament well; I won the first two matches playing well. Then in the last qualies round I played a Russian girl. I feel ashamed having lost the match the way I did because on that day I was striking the ball better then ever, but mentally I wasn’t switched on. I had game balls and break balls in the first four games but didn’t win one of them. 

Tennishead: Gotta love modern technology, eh? OK, we’re thinking of a question…

Anna Fitzpatrick: Haha… a parcel just arrived!

Tennishead: OK, that can be our first question… what’s the parcel?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Good news… it’s for me! Bad news… it’s the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour 2008 year-end player mailing, whatever the heck that is!

Tennishead: They’re probably wondering where you’ve been for the last four months. On that subject, how’s the foot?

Anna Fitzpatrick: It’s not too bad. I stopped wearing the big boot thing about three weeks ago, and for the first two weeks it was pretty stiff and uncomfortable to walk around. Then the pain subsided and it felt fine for a few days, but then last week I got a bit of pain again.

Tennishead: So how close (or not) are you to hitting a tennis ball?

Anna Fitzpatrick: If the pain in my foot is only ligament-related, then I should be able to start hitting balls next week – just up and down the middle though, not a lot of movement involved.

A memorable tennis year ended on Sunday with the underdogs Spain beating Argentina and it was a great 3 days of tension packed tennis. Working for Sky Sports we follow the World group of the Davis Cup through its entirety and have been fortunate that this year we’ve been to a variety of places with different cultures. We started in Moscow in the 1st Round where Russia beat Serbia (with Djokovic), the 2nd round took us to Winston Salem in the USA (the home of Crispy Crème donuts and they were good) where the defending champions USA beat France. After the hectic period in the summer the semi final resumed and in Madrid, Spain beat the Americans in the bull ring with 20,000 passionate Spanish supporters, they were as loud as I’ve ever experienced, similar decibels to the big football matches.


The day after the Masters Cup final we left a very cold London on Monday 17th November for the Davis Cup final between Argentina and Spain in Argentina. On the trips to Davis Cup the Sky team consists of 2 commentators, Barry Millns and myself, a producer and a sound technician. To get to Mar Del Plata from Buenos Aires for the final it was 5 hours by coach or 40 mins by plane. We all thought it was a great decision by the ITF (who run the Davis Cup) to take the plane until we pulled up to it. After 10 years on the circuit the small planes were the ones which used to terrify me, and nothing has changed. There were 14 people crammed on the plane (and I’m looking terrified on the left as I look to Barry Millns who is always a nervous flyer anyway, Photo to follow). I was almost on my hands and knees to actually get in the plane and sweaty palms were had by all of us fearful we wouldn’t arrive in 1 piece. Thankfully we survived the journey and after nearly 24 hours of travelling we arrived on Tuesday afternoon in Mar Del Plata a picturesque city on the coast.