After finally arriving in Eastbourne, a day late, after two-day delay in Barcelona, due to our flight being cancelled, Stacey and I checked into our hotel, then made our way to the courts to watch the tennis.

Despite a lengthy rain-delay, eventually the time came for Magüi’s first round doubles match. Partnered by Marosi-Aracama, they took on Australian teenager Alicia Molik and her partner Katarina Srebotnik.

After a tight first set, which Molik and Srebotnik took 7-4 on the tie-break, Magüi’s team fell to a 6-4 second set defeat. The match had been close, but the opposition had always appeared the stronger team. Still, Stacey and I had had fun clapping and cheering as loudly as we dared, in the quiet atmosphere of an outside court at the Devonshire Park complex!

As she was leaving the court, Magüi thanked Stacey and I for our support, and then signed Stacey’s Spanish flag, (this amazing flag has on it the autograph of just about every current Spanish player!), and then asked us if we would be going to Wimbledon. She chatted to us for a bit, while she borrowed Stacey’s pen to sign autographs for several other people, telling us how she had pulled out of the singles in Eastbourne, as she had sustained an ankle injury at the tournament in Birmingham the previous week, and wanted to rest it before Wimbledon. She also told us she’d be staying in Eastbourne to practice until that Thursday.

Some children then asked for her autograph, and said, “can you print your name in capital letters underneath, please?” Though at first she looked confused, after they repeated their request, she did what they asked, which prompted Stacey to remark, “don’t you just love it when people don’t know who you are?!?”, to which Magüi just laughed!

For the rest of the time she was in Eastbourne, Stacey and I, together with Mel and Paula, with whom we had met up earlier during the tournament, watched Magüi’s practice session’s, as well as some of the other matches of the tournament.