From: http://www.lusciousmontenegro.com/sarahmore.php?id=9

Sarah Borwell on her week in Sunderland:

What a week!! I went into the Sunderland $10 000 with only 5 matches under my belt for the start of 2006. Thankfully, I have now managed to double it and also gain confidence and insight into how I want to play. I wasn’t supposed to play at Sunderland, I had in fact been scheduled for the $25 000 in the Gran Canaries, possibly a nicer setting:) However, due to the cost of the flight and the risk of once again not getting enough match practice, I withdrew late, paid the $75 fine, and requested a wild card for the qualifying rounds in Sunderland. Obviously the major benefits of this decision were; I got to stay at home with my family and it would be cheap! Being a tennis player based in the South, I never get to see my parents or to sample my mums cooking, so this week was certainly needed. I began playing my first match against Laura White, a young girl based out of Sutton who I had in fact trained with the week before. It was a comfortable and kindly accepted opponent, helping to settle my nerves and to remind me what winning felt like! My final round of Qualie's was against a young girl, who I hate to say is far taller than me, called J. Rae. I had watched her the day before and she had a very impressive result against a tricky left hander from Belgium. Playing youngsters and being in England I find quite nerve racking and if you watched this match, you would have thought so to. Rae started off great, brilliant serve, big forehand, and good awareness of the court and perception of where the ball was landing. I hung on in, knowing as a youngster she would hopefully become slightly fragile as the neared the end. Thankfully she played one sloppy game, and my experience allowed me to dictate from there on. Great player, and with it being one of her first Professional tournaments, she did a great job. Unfortunately, the following match didn’t quite start out as I had hoped, however I have taken a lot from it! In the game of tennis, many situations are happening in a player’s life which causes you to question certain performances! I won't elaborate on that, but it is enough to make people hopefully realise that sometimes we do have issues and instead of leaving them off court, we manage to take them on with us. I for one, well I'm terrible at compartmentalising (what my best friend says anyways;) ) so after going 2 -0 up quite easily, I managed to have a slight mental breakdown for the next 6 games, and to be honest for the rest of the match! I’m sure when you watch matches like these, you wonder what is actually going through our heads, well I’m afraid too say, I do too:) Nevertheless, I made it through, and was paired up to play an in form player M.Berry. Melissa is highly talented, she has a great backhand, difficult serve to read and can put together points which show that she should be ranked a lot higher. I played a controlled, intelligent match, winning it with a break in each set, and never feeling overly threatened. This was probably the first match of the year, where I felt good and the things which I have been working on with my coach were being put into good use. I was excited to play the next opponent, once again another in form player, and to be honest probably one of the most improved English girls out there at the moment. Sarah Coles has been having some great weeks of tennis, pushing some top players and steadily moving through the draws. I thoroughly enjoyed this match! I felt it was a great battle, with some brilliant cross court rallies, which hopefully impressed the crowd. I felt that if I could only get a head in each set I would come out on top, and luckily I managed to do that in the last 2. The first set, my serve let me down, which was disappointing. However, I hung in there and started to notice ways in which I could beat her. It may have taken me a set and a half, but I realised in the end and managed to put it to good use. Today’s match! Well, I have a thing about lefties! It doesn’t suit my game too well, and I struggle with the different swings and movements of the ball. Widmer played great, few errors and unfortunately many winners. Although I’m disappointed with the score line, I have no complaints and feel that I battled hard and tried to work out ways in order to win. This week was a great success. I would have loved to have been in another final, but I got the match practice I needed, and some added confidence to hopefully repeat or improve upon it next week. I now have a Sunday of relaxation, and my mum's cooking to look forward too, which should prepare me for Sheffield!!