Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
On May 30th, we started our journey to Santo Domingo, DR. Living in Tampa, FL has made traveling to different countries much easier and fairly cheaper. We were able to land in Santo Domingo in less than 6 hours and it was still the same time zone.
Unlike the other tournaments we had played thus far, there was no all inclusive resort. Each tournament offers a tournament hotel, however, it is not required for you to stay there. We found it to be much cheaper ($55/night) and convenient to rent an apartment right across the street from the ocean and a short 8 minute drive from the courts. Driving in the Dominican Republic is an experience that can be described in one word, chaos. For this reason, we could not rent a car and were left ubering everywhere. The price of the Ubers were extremely cheap ranging anywhere from $2-$5 each trip which helped keep our expenses low.
Before the start of any tournaments, we were able to celebrate Madison’s 24th birthday on June 3rd. We celebrated by exploring the town and eating dinner in a cave. It was such a cool experience and a great place to celebrate a birthday!
We had the opportunity to play 2 W15k’s while we were in the DR. With our new world ranking of 1500, we were able to get into both of the tournaments without a wildcard. Playing in the Dominican Republic in June is not for the weak. It was 90 degrees and 85% humidity leaving many players cramping and heat stroking. Thanks to our time in Florida, this weather felt like any a normal day to us.
The first tournament we played a non seeded team in the round of 16. We felt confident in our games and pulled out the win 6-1, 6-3. In the quarter finals we faced the first seeded team from Mexico and Bulgaria ranked 300 in the world. We started the match off firing and were playing extremely well. When the realization hit of how well we were doing, we began to feel some nerves and blew the lead. We ended up losing 6-2, 5-7, 6-10. We were frustrated with how we let our nerves get in the way, however, it was hard to be mad after seeing all the progress we have been making. When we pour so much money that we don’t have into a tournament, it is hard not to put so much pressure on ourselves to win. This is something that we are learning to work through and will come with more experience.
In the 2nd tournament we played a team ranked 1553 in the first round. Again, we came out the gates strong and took that match 6-2, 6-1. After this match, we had quite the experience. If you know anything about us you would know that our love for animals is like no other. Seeing all of the stray animals on the streets in the DR was extremely difficult. Upon finishing our match, we witnessed a man dump a 2 week old kitten on the side of the road. Hearing the cries of this kitten and watching it chase the guy to his truck was beyond heartbreaking. We couldn’t physically leave this kitten alone on the streets when it was too little to survive on its own. So what do we do? The only logical thing of course. We grabbed the 1lb kitten, stuffed it in my sweatshirt pocket, and got into the Uber.
We clearly hadn’t thought things through. We now had a kitten in an airbnb that didn’t allow animals, we were heading home in less than 4 days, and we had a match the next day. We called around to numerous animal shelters, however, not many of the workers spoke English leaving us struggling. We scavenged for food and anything we could give this kitten but it looked like she would be spending the night with us. The next morning, our match preparation was spent walking to the grocery store to get her food and toys. When it came time to leave for our match we made her a home in the airbnb bath tub with a blanket, litter box and kitten food.
Leaving the kitten at home, in the quarterfinals, we faced the 2nd seeded team from India ranked around 700. Once again, we started the match off strong. When they raised their level of play, we struggled to compensate once again. After a 2 hour grueling match, we lost 6-4, 1-6, 9-11. We were extremely frustrated that we blew the lead against a better ranked team once again. If we want to make it far, we are going to need to learn how to control our nerves and the pressure that we put on ourselves.
Upon returning to the airbnb, the kitten was extremely happy and had begun eating and going to the bathroom on her own. Before our match, we found one shelter that was able to post pictures of the kitten on instagram to help us find her a home. After our match, we had numerous messages from interested people. Luckily, a sweet mom and daughter reached out wanting to adopt the kitten. Later that night, we met up with the family and handed her over. The 7 year daughter was ecstatic to finally have a kitten. The next couple of days we received numerous photos of the kitten at her new house with a bunch of toys and enjoying her life! To this day, we still receive photos of the kitten thriving in her new home.
This was definitely an eventful trip and these loses obviously hurt. However, our level of play had increased tremendously in the last few months and we put ourselves in a winning position. We were overall very happy with how this trip went and we were heading home with 6 WTA points to help our ranking. We put ourselves in a great position heading into the busy summer!
Toal WTA Points Earned: 6
Price Breakdown:
Flight: 2 x $480
Bags: 4 x $35
Lodging: $998
Transportation: $325
Groceries: $400
Tournament Entry Fee: 4 x $20
Total Cost: $2,903
Total Prize Money: $296
