Lithuania- The second week
I'm now back in Luleå in Sweden at my parents house after the second week of competition in Vilnius.
Once again, I had to pass through qualifying to make it to the main draw. After winning two matches in straight sets on Saturday and Sunday, I could enjoy a rare day off from playing matches on Monday. Just like in the first tournament, the random draw put me against another qualifier.
It seemed like Vilnius got hotter fort every day. Sleeping at a hotel without AC was a struggle.
I got off to a great start of my first round match against Irdoja from Estonia taking a 5-0 lead. Although he broke my serve back once, I managed to win the first set 6-3 and closed the match by winning the second set 6-3 as well.
In the second round I faced Sabeckis, the Lithuanian player I had had a match point against in the first tournament. I am not sure whether he played better than last week or if I didn't have the same edge, regardless of which, I lost 1-6, 1-6. Vitas Gerulaitis memorial was over for me for this time.
I left Lithuania the same night and felt relieved to get back to "safe ground" again. As a last reminder of the crime in Lithuania, my last 20 Litas bill proved to be false as I tried to use it at the tax free in the airport right before boarding.
Coming from a country where theft, and counterfeiting are less common and where taxi drivers not instinctively try to fool tourists, it is easy to judge Lithuania and its people. I try not to. I believe these aspects of Lithuania are products of a far rougher society and lack of social wellfare compared to Sweden. As conditions in Lithuania become better following the economical growth, one can hope that crime and fraud will decline. Jeffrey Sachs, the world renown economist dedicated to estinguish extreme poverty world wide and an idol of mine carefully made an important point in his book "The end of Poverty". He suggests that corruption (which can be compared with fraud and theft) is a product of poverty, and as conditions improve, corruption will decline.
I am not sure whether I will return to Lituania. Hopefully, if I do well enough on th tennis court, I will no longer play future tournaments in a year from now. If I do get back, I won't leave any of my belongings out of sigth for even a second and check every bill I recieve.
As a whole, the trip was a success. I fulfilled my primary goal which was to get back on the ATP world tennis ranking.
In a few days I'll be leaving for Gotenburg to find a place to live and to train for my next tournament, a $10 000 tournament on clay in Finland starting in two weeks from now.
Once again, I had to pass through qualifying to make it to the main draw. After winning two matches in straight sets on Saturday and Sunday, I could enjoy a rare day off from playing matches on Monday. Just like in the first tournament, the random draw put me against another qualifier.
It seemed like Vilnius got hotter fort every day. Sleeping at a hotel without AC was a struggle.
I got off to a great start of my first round match against Irdoja from Estonia taking a 5-0 lead. Although he broke my serve back once, I managed to win the first set 6-3 and closed the match by winning the second set 6-3 as well.
In the second round I faced Sabeckis, the Lithuanian player I had had a match point against in the first tournament. I am not sure whether he played better than last week or if I didn't have the same edge, regardless of which, I lost 1-6, 1-6. Vitas Gerulaitis memorial was over for me for this time.
I left Lithuania the same night and felt relieved to get back to "safe ground" again. As a last reminder of the crime in Lithuania, my last 20 Litas bill proved to be false as I tried to use it at the tax free in the airport right before boarding.
Coming from a country where theft, and counterfeiting are less common and where taxi drivers not instinctively try to fool tourists, it is easy to judge Lithuania and its people. I try not to. I believe these aspects of Lithuania are products of a far rougher society and lack of social wellfare compared to Sweden. As conditions in Lithuania become better following the economical growth, one can hope that crime and fraud will decline. Jeffrey Sachs, the world renown economist dedicated to estinguish extreme poverty world wide and an idol of mine carefully made an important point in his book "The end of Poverty". He suggests that corruption (which can be compared with fraud and theft) is a product of poverty, and as conditions improve, corruption will decline.
I am not sure whether I will return to Lituania. Hopefully, if I do well enough on th tennis court, I will no longer play future tournaments in a year from now. If I do get back, I won't leave any of my belongings out of sigth for even a second and check every bill I recieve.
As a whole, the trip was a success. I fulfilled my primary goal which was to get back on the ATP world tennis ranking.
In a few days I'll be leaving for Gotenburg to find a place to live and to train for my next tournament, a $10 000 tournament on clay in Finland starting in two weeks from now.
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