BlackRock blog: Tom Gullikson

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 15:04

Some of the biggest names ever to play the game are in London this week fighting it out at the American Tom Gullikson

I have had better flights getting to a tournament! I left my house at 12:30pm for a 2pm flight but due to horrendous weather my flight was delayed and I only arrived in Atlanta when my connection was leaving for London. So my 5:30pm flight turned into a 9:30pm flight and I had to spend four hours in Atlanta airport watching American football (proper football, no sissy soccer stuff).

I finally arrived in London 24 hours later on Monday morning, jet lagged and very hungry airline food sucks. I was picked up and taken to the Millennium Copthorne hotel, near where Peter Flemings favourite football team, Chelsea, play. Financially speaking, I am very happy to be back in London compared to last June as the dollar is doing much better against the pound that makes my Starbucks coffee much cheaper.

I reckon Sampras could still be top 20 in the world if he wanted to be

The tennis here has been marvellous this week. I played against Fleming and Mansour Bahrami yesterday with Anders Jarryd, which was very entertaining. The singles especially has been stellar, adding Pete Sampras to the field has really added excitement to the event his match against John McEnroe was great last night.

I was very impressed with McEnroes performance for an almost 50-year-old and I reckon Sampras could still be top 20 in the world if he wanted to be.

The only thing Petes really lost is a bit of hair so he could do with a Rogaine (hair replacement) and hes wearing golf socks instead of serious tennis socks what is that all about, no serious tennis player can wear socks like that.

I havent gone out much yet, they keep playing me third match on in the evening. Mind you, its so cold outside and I am not used to this weather having just been coaching in Hawaii with Robby Ginepri, Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu.

Im going back home to Florida to spend Christmas with my family, including my two daughters. Last year we went skiing in Vail, Colorado, but there was far too much queuing for me and instead I am are just going to relax with my family with a nice glass of red wine.

We are winding down the Gullikson Foundation, which funds care and support programmes for brain tumour patients and their families and has raised over $6 million over the 13 years it has existed.

Going forward we are very excited about our merger with the Paediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and look forward to many more successful years working with them.

Have a lovely Christmas and a happy, healthy and success filled year in 2009. To all my English fans I wish you good weather, a little more sunshine and maybe the next time I come over you will all have a suntan!

Tom

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