Okay so how not to repeat too much of yesterday’s adventures? A lot was similar, I tried to sleep in a bit today but my hostel room mates refused to let me. Because I was up later today all the shower cubicles were all engaged at once, as luck would have it I was able to get the one with the broken light again. I repeated my walk to the underground but this time I walked in the right direction. Dictated by hunger I had a Drop Shot Coffee and Cheese Crossiant by East Putney Underground Station. It was a little Drop Shot hut with two plastic stools by it. Robbie Koenig, the greatest of all tennis commentators recommends the main Drop Shot Cafe at Wimbledon and he’s right, the coffee is sexy, you may need to sell body parts to afford your breakfast there however. So straight to the tennis again, Patricia Tig is second on so there is time to play with. And it’s hot today, so hot! I am sun cream lotioned up and it goes in eye causing me great pain. I get a coffee and a deckchair in the shade.

I receive a message from Miri asking if I am on site, to which I respond, she asks very kindly if I can meet her by the players warm up area, I gather my belongings and wander over there, there is the Little Champ and she has a carton of strawberries and cream for me. Now Wimbledon have increased the price of strawberries and cream for the first time in 15 years so this is such a kind gift, I just hope she can still afford her plane back to Bucharest. We talk pleasantly about her and her tennis, I will not share the exact details but it was a good discussion, I’m still a little worried about her but I know she is going to do everything possible to get moving in the right direction again. As much as I love watching Miri play, the defeats hurt so much, when she lost to Katie Volynets in the French Open second round qualifying match in Paris last year it felt like my kidneys had been eaten out by wolves. Tennis players go to a dark place when they lose and leave the court like zombies. So to see Miri the next day after her match and know she was okay was special enough and her kind gift of strawberries was an added bonus.

So on to my first match, Patricia Tig starts my day as she did yesterday, it’s another good fight by the tiger but her race ends today, yet she can be proud of her effort in match two, especially her attitude throughout which was exceptional. I have nothing but respect for Patricia she is reaping the rewards for her sensational season last year where she dominated at ITF level. She is also a loving mother to a young daughter and still finds time to put her heart and soul on the tennis courts every single match. She is playing some of her best ever tennis at the moment, long may it continue and hope she continues on for a few more seasons yet.

There are a few spots of rain in the sky, I think it’s God crying because he is a Miri fan! But it’s still very hot and the rain does not come to anything, a little walk back to the coffee hut via the toilet then I see from the big screen Leonie is about to start so I hurry back to Court 11 with my legs very sore. Leonie had a tough opponent, the Australian Priscilla Hon, and she invested so much yesterday, emotionally and physically, she put in a few very promising games but could not sustain her level and could not hide her frustrations by the low first serve percentage which should not have been bothering her that much because she was winning loads of second serve points. But that is tennis, once something sneaks in your head it’s hard to make it homeless!!! But proud of young Leonie, I’m happy for her, she made it here this week and gave a good account of herself!

After Leonie was Ana Bogdan on the same court. Now I have watched Ana Bogdan for many years and you are lucky to get a short match when she plays! This was another cracker, she got the first on a dominant tiebreak, served for the second but was broken after a very long game, another tiebreak which she lost, she was down an early break set three which despite some thrilling tennis she was never able to recover. It was a marathon and one of the very last matches still playing in the early evening so the Romanian had quite the crowd! An excellent match, possibly the best of the week, I just wished I had a chair! My body was really suffering as I stood through that one. Of Ana it was some of the best tennis she has played this season yet she was on the wrong side of a long three setter as she had been a lot over the years, like the three hour forty minute marathon at the third round of Wimbledon two years ago which I was there for. In her 30s now and tumbling down the rankings, despite the defeat I was happy to see so much passion still there!

The Bogdan Battle meant I left the site quite late again for the long walk back to Putney station. I elected to stop for a Pizza Express on the way back rather than get back really late again and not eat. Back in the hostel now writing my Penguin Diary ahead of the final day of qualifying. Celine Naef is the only Swiss player left now, there are no Romanians left, you could count Raluka Serban who is Romanian but represents Cyprus. So I’ll give her a ‘Haide’ on behalf of the Romanians.