July 29, 2007
Vanderbilt women’s tennis rising senior Taka Bertrand documents her experience in Europe this summer with Commodores Amanda Fish and Catherine Newman.
JULY 29, 2007
Vanderbilt fans,
A quick update from the road. After Amanda Fish fell in the semifinals yesterday, we watched Catherine Newman in the finals of a tournament in Monaco. It was Catherine’s fourth finals of the trip and she was once again victorious. Tomorrow we travel to Barcelona.
Au revoir!
Taka
JULY 28, 2007
Commodore fans,
I’m writing you from Nice, France where I am here with two of my teammates, Amanda Fish and Catherine Newman. I thought that you might be interested to know about what some of the tennis team is up to this summer.
We’ve been in Europe for close to three weeks now, and Amanda and Catherine have been competing in several professional tennis events throughout France. I am currently out of commission with a minor injury, so I’ve been playing coach to both of the girls and charging five percent of their earnings, but for some reason, I have yet to receive a dime!
Catherine has been playing great tennis, winning the first tournament in Annecy, a small city in the French alps. She has then finaled in the last two events in Bandol and St. Raphael. However, since she’s only a rising sophomore, she has been competing as an amateur; This restricts her from collecting any prize money in excess of her expenses.
Amanda, on the other hand, has graduated and is competing as a professional. She is on what she calls her “farewell tour”. But surprisingly, I haven’t had much difficulty finding a seat at her match! She lost in the quarterfinals of St. Raphael to a very tough player, but played well for her first time on red clay.
Both are set to play their first matches in Monaco tomorrow.
Until Next Time… Go ‘Dores!
Taka
