Rd1: P Gubenco [Can] [4] bt A Fulford-Jones [GB] 6-2, 6-1
Amadeus isn't having a particularly good time at the moment in the Americas. He wasn't able to beat an unranked wildcard last week and this week he got drawn against a player ranked 400 places higher who's just won a doubles futures title.
However, at least Amadeus' stay in Guadalajara hasn't been as evenful as Jamie Baker's stay there this time last year [see article below]:
Jamie wrote:
The outward flight that Keith, my coach, and I took went like this: Heathrow to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Mexico City and Mexico City to Guadalajara. We were told at Heathrow that our bags would be checked all the way through to Guadalajara and we would go through immigration at our final destination. This seemed normal procedure to me.
After 20 hours of travelling, we arrived in Guadalajara and followed the signs through the terminal for baggage reclaim. No sign of immigration. We collected our bags, went through customs and suddenly we were in Mexico. We were free to walk out of the door but then we realised our passports had not been stamped. Strange.
We asked for immigration but were sent back to the airline staff. Eventually we were told that our passports should have been stamped in Mexico City and there was no way they could be stamped in Guadalajara. Not only that, we were advised just to walk out of the door into Mexico illegally.
We realised we had a large problem on our hands. After two hours of phone calls to various immigration offices and the British Embassy we were given the address of the Federal Palace in Guadalajara where we had to go to attempt to enter the country legally. Our problems didn’t end there.
We arrived on a Friday, so we had to wait three days before the palace was open. Finally, the following Wednesday, after filling out six forms each, photocopying every page of our passports and proving that we could afford to leave the country, our forms were stamped. So, Mum and Dad, don’t worry, I am no longer an illegal immigrant. And all that before the tennis started.
