Judy Murray in America

It’s been a busy old week for me in the US of A. Touched down in Miami last Sunday and spent a couple of days with Andy before joining up with the GB 14U girls squad who were in town preparing for the Orange Bowl.

Spent Monday watching Andy train and reminded me just how long and hard he works every day. It went something like this....

7.40am breakfast.
8.20am physio - stretch/massage/toes taped.
9am drive to Crandon Park (former home of USTA - now based at Evert Academy in Boca).
9.30am warm up.
10am-12.20 tennis with Oli Golding and Jamie Baker ( mostly 2 v 1 - with Andy always the 1) in 80 degree heat and yuk humidity.
12.20 cool down.
12.35 - drive back to apartment via Publix for a cooked chicken :) shower, lunch, half hour chill.
2pm drive to Crandon.
2.20pm warm up.
2.35pm tennis with Golding and the Fabulous Baker Boy. Mainly playing points but ended with some torture basket drills a la Ivan the Terrible which had Oli doubled up pretty darn quickly.
4pm RollerBall challenge. That's like bowling a tennis ball from one outside tramline to the other. Closest to the line - without going past it - wins. Mr Lendl a natural.

RollerBall - end of session challenge. Roll the tennis ball to the far tram. Closest wins $1. Hey big spenders! Mr Lendl a natural.....:)

4.15pm drive back to apartment and straight into gym.
6pm shower, physio, ice bath (gross).
7.30pm out for dinner.
9.30 lights out....

Long day. Almost a full 12 hours. I was knackered. And I was just observing :)

Dinner by the way was at Grimpa. That's a Brazilian resto where u choose your side dishes from a buffet and the waiters come round with different hunks of meat every few minutes and carve them for u at the table. Eat all you want. Perfect.

Tuesday was my first day with the juniors - Maia Lumsden, Gabi Taylor, Anastasia Mikheeva and Katie Swan. And coaches Helen Reesby and Iain Bates. Did two tennis sessions that were designed to help the kids get used to the surface - hard, high bouncing - and the conditions - hot, humid and breezy. We had three days of prep and two days of matches v USA at Crandon before the weekend. Tourney main draw started Monday.

Marcus Walters and Gabi Taylor - official samplers of Sharapova's Sugarpova range. Lemon chewy tennis balls. Sweet.

Tuesday was quite a tough day. Everyone, including me, was flagging by 5pm. Jet lag. So we pepped ourselves up with dinner at the Cheesecake factory. I mean if that doesn't keep you awake, nothing will. Have you seen the size of those slabs?? Yeah yeah we shared. Don't panic folks.

Wednesday was more of the same but greater emphasis on serve-return and point playing ... getting ready for the big friendly match!!!! Dinner at Wholefoods. Healthy option. Brilliant store. I could easily move in there. Yes, of course it does cakes ... :)

Early start Thursday to get on site for 9am warm up. Traffic on US1 a bit of a nightmare. Had to laugh at sign on toll barrier at Rickenbacker Causeway.

Made me laugh. "To honk" in Scottish is "to smell bad". Hahhah.

Hot, humid and itchy over on courts C and D which back onto a swamp. Way too many wee bugs flying about for my liking. Slapping on the spray all day. Ooft. 3-2 for USA after day one with two of our losses being in match tie-breaks.

Maia Lumsden ripping it v USA on the stadium court at Crandon Park.

Jazzi Plews joined the squad but wasn't able to play because her finger had swollen up. No, it wasn't the bugs. Apparently it was the tendons and it was caused by playing golf for the first time ever (with Jay Clarke and Marcus Walters) the previous day. Fascinating reminder that if you use your body in a completely new way, there's a good chance it will react badly.....

All sorted though thanks to Andy Irelands bag of magic tricks.

Dinner at an Italian in Dadeland Mall followed by a visit to Santa. Yep, making a list, checking it twice, gotta find out who's naughty or nice....and I know they are 13-14 years old but Santa's real, right? Well this one was. And a might big knee he had too!!!!

On to Friday where there was a mess up over courts and we ended up using the stadium court for matches. Now picture Arthur Ashe stadium and it’s not far off that size. Masssssssive. And quite disconcerting to play in an empty stadium and on a court that has vast spaces at the side and back of the courts. Takes a bit of getting used to. We had big boss Roger Draper in the crowd - well, I think it was him. Might have been Clark Kent???

Well, we got two matches in (almost) before the mini monsoon that had us running for the squeegees.

All part of the job! Hahha.

So we ended up 3-3 and one match at a set all. So an honourable draw!!!!!

Car Wars. Miami style. All a bit much if you ask me.....

Drove (well Iain did) to Bradenton. Just the 4.5 hours. There was a cold sweat moment where we almost ran out of gas in the Everglades aka Alligator Alley. I mean, you just don't need that. Swamps r us. No sign of life (except crocs) for miles. Made it though and spent some time with Heather Watson and her team at IMG Academy. What a set up they have there. Love that place.