The Beasts are Unleashed

With day two of the tournament beginning, team USA was fired up for the tough matches to come! With some breakfast, (or in Haley’s case, chicken tenders) in our stomach’s, and a light hit on court, we were all ready to take on our opponents for the day. Fiechter and Chu both started the day off well with comfortable wins against their opponents. Next up was Sobhs who wasted no time in her match, easily beating her Hong Kong opponent in less than fifteen minutes. The afternoon matches were tougher with Liv B, Maria Elena, and Beans all playing at the same time. While Liv kept the 3-0 winning streak alive against her Hong Kong opponent, Beans and Maria Elena unfortunately fell to their higher seeded players in three. Last USA player on court for the day was Haley who was playing against 5/8 seed Tamika Saxby from Australia. With the crowd behind Haley’s back each point of the match, Haley played like a beast, cracking hard low drives into the back and moving around the court like a gazelle, managing a well deserved 3-0 win! Only did Haley realize a few minutes after the match, with an ice pack on her neck to cool her down and an ecstatic coach congratulating her, that she was the third USA player to make it to the round of sixteen.

With some of us showered and some of us sweaty and smelly (coaches included), we decided to head out for a huge team family dinner at Wagamama’s… yummm. While we ordered heaps of energizing carbohydrates and muscle refueling protein, a showered Haley met up with us, only to walk in with bright neon blue tights and a white shirt. Since she won, we decided not to poke fun of her outfit too much. After a fun dinner with some of the families, we all headed back in the USA van only to continue with our nightly rituals of ice baths, showers, and poor attempts at school summer reading. As the team headed off into a deep sleep, or an odd dream, we were only looking forward to unleashing the beasts that Nat and Jack have created inside us in tomorrow’s set of matches.

Amanda Sobhy