I had a tough week in Turkey, where I decided to go play a 10K on outdoor clay during the season of indoor hard court in Denmark.  I have had tons of team matches on hard cort lately, so it was not a easy to make that transistion from two so different surfaces. 
 
Neverthless I won the 1st round 61 60 against a great Russian girl, Emiliya Gadzhieva, but it was not a easy match.  I was a little tight and still struggled to get used to playing with a little more margin (height) over the net and  patience from baseline. Unfortunately, I lost in the 2nd round to Nadya Kolb 7-5, 3-6, 6-7(4) where I had tons of chances, but ended up being to passive and didn't execute my game.  If I had done a better job of executing, as I should have in order to improve and in the end having much better chances for winning the match. It was a tough loss, but I learned a lot: Where I must work on focusing more on my execution on the court, playing aggresively regardless of the score.

Since I came back from Sweden, I have been playing a ton of clubmatches for my club in Denmark. I have been winning all my matches so far, and have been playing fairly okay.                                                                                                               However, it's not always easy for me to play those matches and play my best as there is always a lot of pressure and expectation for me to win easily.  I mostly play against lower ranked players and juniors (that are top level). So, it's a mental challenge always for me to play those clubmatches, as well, as keep focusing on my things that I worked with Ryan in China, like playing aggressively and trying to go to the net more often. 
 
Little bit about how a Danish club match works and looks like:)
A danish club match consist in total 9 matches - and we are 2 girls and 4 boys - so it's 3 doubles (2 boys and 1 girl) and 6 singles (2 girls and 4 boys). So everytime I'm playing a club match, I'm playing a double first, then a single.  I'm playing #1 singles for my club, so I'm always playing against the #1 singles player from the other clubs.  
 
My next tournament is a 10K in Turkey which is starting next week:) 

An Update from the ITF Circuit for the week of 10/17/11
- Karen Barbat (Denmark)
Last week I was playing a qualification $75K in Barnstaple, which is a little east of London, England. I really did not have any expectations, but felt more confident with my game – which has been improving a lot since I was with Ryan in China – but I still and always will have a ton to improve.

In the 1st round I had to play against a girl from Mexico (Carolina Betancourt) with a slightly higher ranking than me.  It was a steady performance on my part and I won 6-0, 6-0;  Though I was feeling quite nervous from the beginning. The same day I had to play a seeded Romanian player around 200 in the world (Iona-Raluca Olaru), which was a mental challenge, as we always play one singles match at a day. But I ended up winning 75 76 (2).  The match was much closer that it needed to be, but after a little bit of struggle and unnecessary drama – as I was leading 5-2 in the 2nd set – I came out on top. On a personal note, there was absolutely no need for dragging this match any further, but I was just not applying pressure enough to break her down before the tiebreaker.

The next day in the qualification final, I unfortunately lost 5-7, 2-6 to the #1 seeded Kristina Kuclova.  She is currently ranked 194 in the world.  It was really pity, as I was leading 4-1 and breakpoint (1st set) and just wasn’t able to pull it off. As I started to notice that I was leading (and that I might have a chance to win) I felt more willing to win, than willing to focus on my game and executing. It made me play more defensive, giving her too much time and opportunities to put me under pressure and hit winners.  If I had stuck with my game plan, it would have been the opposite.

I learned a lot after this tournament. What you focus on is very important – and even more importantly, that you apply pressure in order to break down your opponent – especially when you play against better players!!!

My next tournament will be a $10K in Sweden, which will start Tuesday.  Hopefully, I can take the lessons I learned from this tournament and apply them there!   - Karen