Have you ever had dog for a meal? Well if you are ever interested, then you be sure to make your way to this part of the world to have a taste. It definitely has its share of interesting dishes and a unique way of displaying them to say the least. Have you ever wanted a brand new Rolex or a new pair of Gucci jeans, well for about 5 U.S dollars your dream can become a reality… of course they are not real but I must say the quality is unreal.

I was not expecting to stay in such luxury that week so you can imagine my shock when we pulled up to this palace they called Shangri LA Hotel. It’s the biggest hotel I have ever stayed in not to mention the most luxurious. You have everything your little heart desires right at a push of a button. I’m assuming Aleks felt the same way as I didn’t see her the whole week. We arrived the day the country was celebrating their 50 years of communism. The most incredible celebration you can imagine. Let me just say that the Chinese know how to throw a dam party. Just to make sure the 3 day extravaganza had picture perfect weather, they sent planes into the sky each night and sprayed some sort of gas which kept the skies crystal blue clear which is the complete opposite of what the norm is on a typical day due to the heavy smog and pollution from the 6 some odd million that live there. I’d like to point out that both myself and Aleks stuck out like two sore thumbs with our blonde hair.

The tennis facility was the brand new 2008 creation they had made for the Olympics. Needless to say this thing was incredible. The place could fit half the country if they wanted to. It catered to about 20 practice courts with 3 massive side stadiums and one main centre stage with two more in the works for next season. Aleks got to play on pretty much all of them. We had a great practice for a couple hours the first day on centre court which was just after a match had finished so their were plenty of eyes watching our every move that practice. She had an incredibly long and thrilling first round match against Rezai from France on Centre court 1 which she won 4-6, 6-2, 7-6. I had no more nails left after the match by the way. A couple days later she played on centre court 2 against another French girl named Cornet who is also a top 20 player and is not easy to beat by any means. Aleks played some tough tennis and was able to close this match out thank god in straights set’s 7-6, 6-4. She unfortunately fell the following match to a young determined Russian named Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-4 who had beaten Venus Williams the round before.

It was another solid week for us and took a lot of positives out of the week. Aleks has been making some great improvement over the last 7 months which I’m very proud of. It’s definitely not easy out here on the road especially towards the end of the season as we are in at the moment. You have to keep your head high and stay positive until the end because you just never know what can happen. Every result counts at this level especially when your goal is to be seeded at the First slam of the year, Australian Open We are back to Japan however it is Osaka where will reside for the week. Mmmmmm, Sushi.

Stay tuned…