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By Jamie Baker

March 2005:

THE Algarve. Warm temperatures and sunshine. What a fantastic place to play a couple of $10,000 tournaments in mid-March, I thought. Unbelievably, though, the most vivid memory that I have of this part of Portugal is rain.

I arrived on a Friday ready to play my first round of the qualifying the next day. One of the features of events in Spain and Portugal is the qualifying draw of 128. It felt as though the whole of Portugal had turned up to play in this particular tournament.

I played my first match at one of three clubs being used. Transport to and from these venues is provided. My match was a fairly uneventful, comfortable victory for me. There were no umpires for the qualifying rounds and, in some cases, there were disputes over line calls. I watched one match where an American player walked off because he felt he had been cheated. As an onlooker, that sort of thing can be extremely funny.

Then came the rain. I did not complete my second round of qualifying until the next Friday, six days later. Dealing with the conditions is just another factor of outdoor tennis. In the space of those six days, we went to five different clubs to try to find some dry courts. I was lucky to be blessed with a copy of The Da Vinci Code to kill some time. Martin Weston, my coach, had to do some readjusting to all the hanging around as a normal day for him is spending seven to nine hours coaching at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.

When it was time to play again, I realised that I had not coped with the delay very well. Although I won my next match, by my standards I put in a flat performance against Florent Scaccianoce, from France. Disappointingly I lost 6-3, 6-2 in what was only the third (out of four) rounds of qualifying.

The good news for me was that because the first tournament was so far behind, I actually started the second one the very next day. On the first day I came through two comfortable matches, which took me into the last round of qualifying.

I played a really good match and beat a low-ranked German 6-3, 6-1. I played so well that by the time I was two breaks of serve ahead in the second set, he started withdrawing effort. It is a satisfying feeling to take all hope away from your opponent. I was in the main draw and earned myself a little bit of prize-money at last.

To read the full article go to : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1542203,00.html