The travel from Bristol to Brasov was a day and a night, lengthened by the bloody Flixbus moving bus stops and making us miss it, forcing us to catch another coach to Heathrow and an Uber to Luton for a lot more money then we had hoped to spend. My party is Postivity Penguin and Adrian, an old school friend and seasoned tennis trip adventurer. We meet Oana Simion at Bucharest train station and the three of us travel to Brasov together on a pleasant train journey. Oana is alone this tournament as often lower ranked players find themselves on their arduous journeys and I am seconded as an unofficial coach for the week. A role I am to relish in so I can be offered the Billie Jean King Cup Captain of Team Romania to save them from plummeting in Poland. Furthermore, I am in regular contact with the Oana or the Wolf as I have nicknamed her, she has done a lot for my mental health struggles, illness, health scares and anxiety and has also helped with my diet and my tennis. I love the idea of returning the favour in kind. We always talk about her matches, before and after so to do this at a tournament and encourage her live at the tennis club is very exciting and I think Team Wolf can get this one on the shelf.

Brasov is a beautiful town and after checking into our guest house we rejoin Oana for dinner and a stroll around the market. Despite all the stress and travelling I still wake up 4 hours earlier then I hoped to and cannot return to sleep.

The next morning we walk to town via a cafe for a coffee and crossiant and arrive at the club for the second round of qualifying.

Our first match features the 15 year old Romanian sensation who smashed on to the scene at the Iasi Open this July, Guila Safina Popa. Whilst they was a lot to get excited about for the future ; her return game was very impressive, great endurance and decision making in the rallies, she seemed to be hindered by illness and perhaps was not firing on all cylinders today, she fell in a match tiebreak after a brave fight. There are no scoreboards, umpires or ball kids in qualifying, you have to follow the score yourself and the slightest distraction can put you off, such as somebody asking you what the score is 😮

20 year old Maria Sara Popa is next. We watched her in practice at the beginning of the day and she was striking the ball with such ferocious intensity, the kind of effort Nadal puts into a practice! I’m a big fan of MSP, as you may have seen from the other articles on this website, I felt she has worked so hard this year and playing so well, she had earned a Positivity Penguin, so I gifted her a replica PP and passed it onto to her father and coach to give her. Her match was excellent, her opponent only was able to chalk one solitary game on the board, the last one where Maria was serving for it and a little tight. It was hard to see if Maria’s opponent was playing badly or as the Romanian was so dominant. She’s striking the ball so well off of both wings and the forehand is again looking fearsome.

Finally is Briana Szabo who started nervously but ultimately recovered to win through in a tight straight sets battle with very many long games and some super long points, often points which both players deserved to win. Once Briana found her groove she eventually dominated the second set as her younger Romanian opponent began to crumble away and even coughed up a plethora of double faults in her final service game.

The rest of the day at the club is spent having a lovely chat with Tatiana Bojica, mother and coach of one of my other favourite young players, Stefania Bojica, who also deserved a gift of a Positivity Penguin. Stefi is practicing on the courts as Mummy Bojica and I sit on the bench and talk travel, tennis and council houses. It is now 4pm. Oana would like to meet for dinner at 730pm and my stomach still only has been treated to a crossiant. It’s too late for lunch and I do not want to spoil my meal. Mummy Bojica kindly gives me a large bread pretzel to munch on. I am grateful and it is very tasty. It starts to rain, gently at first then heavier. I make for the umbrellas over the tables at the club cafe where I find Adrian. Adrian and I stay at the club for a little longer and then walk to a sports bar before meeting Oana for dinner.

The Sports Bar has framed pictures of Roger Federer and the Lion Cub (Simona Halep) on the walls, my kind of place.

It has got so cold now, a million miles from the bright sunshine earlier, I am wearing shorts and a T Shirt and no jumper which I instantly regret. The Main Draw for Brasov is carried out, I know nothing about our opponent so I read up on her and you tube her matches to help Wolfy with stragey over a dinner and a lovely dinner of Calamari and Wild Rice.

After dinner we say goodbye to Oana and return to the Sports Bar to watch Newcastle and Liverpool and Gabi Ruse at the US Open at the same time!