The multi-week X-Bionic Summer Tour, held in beautiful X-Bionic Equestor Sphere in Samorin always offers great equestrian events. This year for the first time in Slovakia, the CAI2*-H4 Combined Marthon took place over several days. A grand finale with 6 carriages took place on July 28th. My photos are from July 21st and July 28th. If only the weather was as great as is the norm in Samorin…
On April 20 – 21st, Team Slovakia played against Team Brazil during the 2019 Fed Cup Play Offs. The winning team would secure the position among top 16 Tennis teams of the World. It was also the last Fed Cup tie for Dominika Cibulkova. She decided to retire from Fed Cup and other team competitions in front of the home fans after playing in Fed Cup for 14 years.
Results: Dominika Cibulkova : Carolina Alves – 6:1, 6:1. Viktoria Kuzmova : Beatriz Haddad Maia – 6:3, 6:3. Dominika Cibulkova : Beatriz Haddad Maia – 7:6, 6:0, Viktoria Kuzmova, Rebecca Sramkova : Carolina Alves, Luisa Stefani – 1:6, 3:6.
On February 1st and 2nd, the new format of Davis Cup was played for the first time with 24 teams competing for a spot in newly established Davis Cup Finals held in Madrid. The Canadian team led by rising star Denis Shapovalov and playing captain Frank Dancevic faced Slovak team for the first time in almost 22 years. Bratislava saw 5 high quality rubbers played on clay over the two days with Felix Auger Aliassime securing the win for Canadians in the deciding 5th rubber against Norbert Gombos.
Results: Filip Horansky : Denis Shapovalov – 4:6, 5:7, Martin Klizan : Felix Auger-Aliassime – 7:5, 6:3, Martin Klizan, Filip Polasek : Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov – 3:6, 7:5, 6:3, Martin Klizan : Denis Shapovalov – 6:7, 4:6, Norbert Gombos : Felix Auger-Aliassime – 3:6, 4:6
Photogallery from 2018 Viessmann Cup Round 1 in Osrblie, Slovakia. Around 90 biathletes in 11 categories competed in sprint on December 29th, 2018.
Personal notes: Sometimes you go in with the best intentions and things just… don’t work out. Despite the nice early afternoon weather, at times I found it more difficult to shoot than last year’s “blizzard edition”. Not much (capture-worthy) was happening on the track, the scheduling was way too tight so moving around was difficult at best. And my gear’s ability to produce decent results was a no show as well – probably still finishing the Christmas dinner leftovers. As they say: on some days, it’s indeed no picnic.