First of all, I wish all of you a very happy and successful new year! I have not written anything in a while now but I hope you are not too mad at me for this. I actually have been pretty busy, as usual, but at the same time had a wonderful Christmas and am excited about the upcoming season.
In my last entry, I mentioned that I was scheduled to fly to Herzo, Germany, the Adidas Headquarters to meet the wonderful designers of Stella McCartney and discuss the new 2010 collection. It is such an honor to work with these truly creative people. I have always liked fashion, and being involved in designing some of my on-court gear is exciting. The experience has been good, and I think that the 2010 Adidas by Stella McCartney line is simply amazing. I tried on several dresses, shirts, and the colors and fit is awesome. I cant actually wait to show all of you because it is the best line yet.
After returning from Herzo, I continued my off season practice. I worked very hard on some of my weaknesses, and I really think that all the hard work that I have done will pay off very soon. I spent several hours everyday on court, but we also made sure that I spent some quality time in the gym. I did some long distance running trainings, lifted some weights, and as my crosstraining, I did boxing. Some people despise running, I actually came to be okay with it by now. The most exciting thing to do was naturally boxing. I have done it a couple of times before but never this much. I had no idea it was this tiring. After each crosstraining, I felt exhausted. Funny thing is, I got hit on the nose once by a fellow boxer. It hurt a little but I thought it was hilarious. My partner was freaking out a little, but I was just laughing because I found it so funny.
I had a wonderful Christmas; in those three days, we cut back a tiny bit from training. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays because I get to spend time with my family and closest friends. This was not different this time either; we had a couple of friends over, and had tons of food. I love Polish food, and my Mom cooked one of the best dinners ever. It was very traditional: it is usually meatless, and we had tons of carp. We had dried fruits, and kutia (a dessert made from wheat, poppy sees, honey and almonds) as dessert. It is also a tradition that before the first star enters the sky, one has to fill her heart with all good wishes and thoughts to have a wonderful time. Anyhow, me and my family had a great time.
After Christmas, I was back to my hard core training, but I made some time to attend the pre-opening premiere of the new Spielberg movie, Avatar. I thought it was very good, I saw it in 3D of course, and I can only recommend it to everyone. It is a bit too long, but the experience is priceless.
Right now, I am in Hong Kong. I arrived a couple of days ago to participate at the 2010 Hong Kong Tennis Classic. It is an honor to be invited. Myself, my good friend Victoria Azarenka and Swedish tennis legend Stefan Edberg are representing Team Europe. We already played Team Americas yesterday, I actually played Venus. It is such a wonderful experience to be in the same team with Vika and Stefan. Stefan is one of the greatest players of male tennis, and I am honored to be able to play with him. We played a mixed doubles match yesterday against Venus and Michael Chang. The crowd loved every minute of our match, and I think all of us had tons of fun.
I always like being in Hong Kong; the people and the city are great. I like their food as well, it is healthy yet tasty. The exhibition is organized great, and I always like playing this exceptional event. I had some light practices, I ususally hit with my friend Vika Azarenka. We have been good friends since the juniors, and are also being represented by the same agent, John Tobias.I also went to the player’s party with her on Tuesday, and wore the most gorgeous Stella McCartney dress that I got for Christmas. Yesterday, Vika and I participated in a children’s clinic, and we played with some kids. I had fun, and I felt that the kids appreciated it very much. They were so thankful and cute. I am glad I did the clinic. I will not play today, so I will have some time to practice very lightly. I was planning to go shopping for a couple of hours but I was not feeling 100% in the past couple of days. Therefore, I think I will just try to rest. I am a little sick and very tired from all my hard practicing, so it might be better if I just tried to get perfectly healthy before the Aussie Open.
I have to go now, but I will try to keep in touch. Once again, I wish everyone a wonderful new year!
