During the last winter break, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Asia and Australia for international tennis tournaments. It was also an opportunity to experience what it is like to be a professional tennis player on tour and to be able to compare my level to the best juniors in the world. The first stop was in Shenzhen, China. Sitting on a plane for 11 hours with long legs and an obese man next to you isn't exactly the most pleasant experience especially if you want to sleep. But I fought through it. Shenzhen is a relatively modern city and was one of the first cities to expand significantly in China due to its economic growth. It now has 10 million people, even though it only had 30, 000 in the 1970s. We arrived on December 26th and I still had a few days to prepare for the first tournament. I was playing well, confident but at the same time nervous as the first match was approaching. I won my first 3 matches and got to the quarterfinals of the tournament. I was playing well and fighting hard on court to beat some good players. After the lost match, it was off to Jiangmen, still in China. We had to take a public bus and had some help from a Belgian coach and his players who translated for us at the bus station. On the bus, I quickly found out that Chinese people have a completely different definition of correct public behaviour to Europeans. One guy was snoring like a whale behind me; the other one spitting on the floor and so on. Jiangmen is considered a small city in China but still has more than 5 million people. It's also relatively poor and has an enormous amount of air pollution and "smog". The tournament in Jiangmen didn't go as well as I would have hoped as I lost in the first round. I didn't really like the tennis courts as the ball bounced extremely high and the balls were losing their speed extremely quickly which doesn't suit my style of play at all. I still managed to make some great connections with some fanastic players and coaches and trained well and a lot. What I found most surprising in China was the fact that most of the people there didn't speak a word of English. Going from one place to another was difficult without help, arguing with players on court was sometimes impossible and even ordering food was impossible. In one restaurant, spaghetti was marked as fishing line on the menu and pizza as a tuna sandwich. Besides, the Chinese don't differentiate breakfast from lunch or dinner which means that they eat noodles, rice, dumplings etc. for breakfast. But overall, China still seems like a great country and I was warmly welcomed as I was pretty much the only foreigner playing the tournament. After the second week in China, the final destination was then Melbourne, Australia. I had to leave my dad in Shanghai because I was joining my coach in Australia. After a very bumpy 11- hour flight, I arrived in Melbourne. It was hot and humid and I was happy to see a clear blue sky again. We drove to Traralgon (a small town close to Melbourne) where the first tournament was located. I was already nervous because I didn't know what to expect from all these unknown players who were all ranked in the top 100 in the world. I was really glad and happy with myself after a few days of training that I was able to keep up with those guys and even beat them in practice. I practiced a lot and was playing extremely well. Sadly, I didn't get into the two tournaments in Melbourne missing out by one spot each time. That was very frustrating for me because I felt like I was in great form and would be able to do well in the tournaments. I even wanted to come back home after I didn't get into the first tournament. But I decided that I would still try to get into the second tournament and take advantage of the good players there to practice with them and learn from them. I also got the chance to go to the Australian Open a few times to watch Gilles Muller and other professionals. We also went out to dinner with Gilles a few times which was a lot of fun. As a result of these tournaments and travels, I have realized that being on tour like a professional can be difficult at times especially during the bad moments. But it is something I enjoy and would like to do more often. I have also come to the conclusion that the players I thought were much better than me, are actually not unbeatable. They practice more than me and travel more as none of them go to school and get a lot of support from their federations and countries. They have more experience and that is why, in my opinion, they are better than me at the moment. I am happy that I was able to go on this long and exciting trip as I have learned a lot about myself but most importantly about other cultures and life on the tour.