Tournament #1
I was quite surprised when my tutor coach Sergio caught hold of me last Thursday and told me I was going to play a tournament come Monday.  "Are you sure I'm ready?"  was my hesitant, indefinintely reluctant reply.  I'd been plagued with a hacking cough and flu for the past two weeks, and my performance had been as sticky as the green goo I was hacking out :S

Sergio only blinked his eyes slowly and shrugged his shoulders.  "Yes, I think you can play this one."  It was going to be held on S-C grounds, with players both from the Academy, and around the province of Catalunya. 

Here's the receipt I got after being surprised-slapped with a EUR25 entry fee at the registration counter (ouch!).

This is in Catalan.  According to Google translate, it reads:
"Have received from Sarah Pang, the amount of EUR 25 registration fee for Monty Tour tournament to be held in the Catalonia Open Sports Club facilities between days 02/11/2009 and 06/11/2009"

I played my first match on Monday and it was ridiculousy windy.  So much to the point that balls 30cm out would've been blown back in, and vice versa!  But what to do?  We kept playing and I had to concentrate super hard on my ball toss.  In the effort to just keep the ball in, I was guilty of serving like a pondan at times.  I won the match 6-4, 6-0 but walked away knowing I had to work on moving my feet more, adjusting more quickly to the flight and bounce of the ball.

Today's second round match was against the #3 seed, and I beat her 6-4, 6-1.  She was a skinny, gaunt girl  with strong groundstrokes and an aggressive backhand, and she charged ahead 2-0 in the first set (my nerves gave her one game FOC with four double faults!)  On the whole though, after I got past my jits, the game went considerably well.  I was playing better than I did on Monday, more agressively, and with greater fluidity in my strokes.  My feet were moving faster too, and that helped generate more power and pace in my strokes.  The next thing to start working on is keeping my game more consistent(ly agressive).

I play the #1 seed tomorrow, am going to give it my best shot.