England Recap

Well my England trip is over. I had a blast. I successfully navigated my way from the London airport, to the train station, to the hotel, to the courts, back to the train station, to the hotel, to the courts, back to the train station, back to the London airport, and finally back home. I did all that without getting lost, or getting on a train heading in the opposite direction. I am so proud of myself. Tennis went well. I won doubles at one tournament and played well in singles. I met people from Australia, Great Britain, Czech Republic, France, and Switzerland. I was known only as USA or “the American” by some tournament officials. I learned that the English are crazy drivers along narrow roads in their thin mini cars. I tried new foods like pork belly and curry, but not fish and chips because I am not a seafood person. I’ve drank enough tea for years to come. I realized that X Factor USA is better than X Factor UK. I am also amazed at the lengths some of the English went to help me out when I was in need. Now I head back to the States just when I was getting over my jet lag, looking the other way when crossing the road, getting into the passenger seat on the left side of the car, and understanding the English accents. Now I have to get use to it all over again the US. But it was a great trip. I feel like I grew up by being on my own and making decisions on my own. It was a great experience and I can’t wait to do it again. 

Loughborough, GBR - Round 2

Today I played the 6^th seed. A girl from Ireland and my first thoughts when I saw her was “Geez, what are they putting in their potatoes?” haha. The girl was huge. The next thing I thought was, “Well if she is that tall then she won’t be able to move around the court that well.” I was wrong. The girl reminded me of a race horse. Big, tall, and strong. I felt like Rocky Balboa when he was fighting the Russian, only I was knocked out in the 5^th instead of going the full 12 rounds. 6-2 6-3 I lost. It was an okay match. I didn’t play bad nor did I play great. The girl played better and I couldn’t beat her with having just an okay day. 

The start of the match went something like this…She served first. The first point she hit a slice out wide ace. Next point I get the return back into the court she hits a forehand inside out winner. Third point she hits a bomb ace up the tee. 40-0 I miss the return. Good game! I figured it was going to be a long day trying to return her serve, but I was up for the challenge. Then next game I lost. I had a couple of game points but she hit an inside out forehand winner on one, and on the another game point I missed a backhand. Then my opponent had an easy hold, so I was down 3-0 quickly. During the changeover I was thinking about what was happening in the match, and either I was missing, or she was hitting winners. But more specifically on the longer points she was winning most of them with her forehand on the run. So I felt like I needed to pressure her earlier in the point. So let’s say, instead of hitting a cross court after the return or serve I would go down the line. This would get her moving and it would be unexpected because she would be looking for the cross court. So if I went down the line, I was in control of the point before she was, which worked to my advantage more (sometimes). However, with this strategy there will be more errors, and in my case for the match there were too many. So the next game I was serving and I was trying to attack off of her return and looking to get into the net, where I am more comfortable. I was getting my 1^st serves in but either I missed my ground strokes, or I set up the point and hit a good deep approach shot but she passed me. Now down 4-0 I’m thinking just keep playing aggressively, try to figure out of way to break her and if I lose the set 6-0 just figure something out right now that I can use in the 2^nd set to tie it up. So the 4-0 game she is serving and I decided to change up where I was standing to return her serve. I took a few steps backwards, to give myself time to react and get a good clean hit on the ball. I do that and was able to pressure her off the return. I even hit a couple backhand return winners down the line on the Ad (left) side. So I ended up breaking her serve and taking the game. Next game I’m feeling good after finally breaking her, so I serve volley a bunch of times and take the game easily. 4-2. The next two games where I different story ha. Lost the set 6-2.

Next set I continued to try a pressure her quick in the points. And it was working. We both were holding serve easily, but we each got a break of serve early in the set. And towards the end of the set, my a hit a few too many ground strokes that didn’t have much on them, and she attack them for winners. I was also rushing my shots, looking to get to net too quick and making mistakes by hitting shots that I should not have gone for. And my opponent when it came down to crunch time, she made me play and she came up with some good shots. So she played well when she needed to and I didn’t. So it was I think my 5^th singles match back. I don’t have anything to get mad about. I was proud of myself for competing and challenging myself to stay in the match and figuring out ways to break serve. When I was down quick I was still in the match saying come on and making a fist pump after winning a point. Before I would have easily just given up or gotten mad, but I stuck with it and made it a more competitive match. I was a point away from being up 3-0 and 4-3 in the second. And if I were then maybe the outcome of the match would have been different. But that’s tennis. It’s all about getting momentum and taking it away from your opponent.

We also played doubles later in the day and it wasn’t good. We played the same team that I played last week in the semifinals. This time around, playing with a  different partner and they playing the opposite sides they did last week we lost 6-1 7-5. The first set was just a LOT of mistakes on our end. But in all honesty I didn’t really get the ball much. The one game we won was when I was serving, and the other time I served we lost it on a deuce point. There were two other games that were decided by 1 point and the rest weren’t very pretty. Well I guess they were because the winners our opponents hit were pretty nice. Haha I just didn’t want to be on the receiving end. But in the 2^nd set I ended up playing ¾ of the court and my partner stuck to her ¼ . haha. She didn’t seem to understand how doubles worked. Like for example, you need to move around the court like you and your partner have a rope tied between the two of you. So if I take 5 steps right, she needs to take 5 steps right. That way the court is covered. Well in our case I moved 5 steps right, she moved 2 steps left, leaving a humongous hole in the middle of the court that our opponents played over and over again like the Boston Pops play God Bless America every 4^th of July. Hahaha. Some points I was a ball hog and moved around the court like she wasn’t playing and we did pretty good. In the 2^nd set our opponents must have just got bored, and lost concentration because it was a close set. We even had a set point at 5-4, deuce but we lost it (as you could tell). But the 2^nd set was much better than the 1^st (again…as you could tell). Oh well. It was fun to play. It’s always interesting playing with people you don’t know haha. Always a next time. So that was that tournament. Now I don’t have anything else planned really for the rest of the year except training and making sure I’m healthy because I definitely DO NOT want a repeat of this year. J

Loughborough, GBR - Round 1

So today was a good day at the office. I managed to win both singles and doubles. Both matches were 6-1, 6-2.

In my singles match I ended up having to play a qualifier. Sometimes this can be good and sometimes bad. The qualifiers might be tired after playing 3 matches or they can be match tough and just come out swinging. So when playing them you are not sure what you're going to get. But in my case I think the girl was a bit tired perhaps, or I would like to think I just played better. hah. But anyway, this match I came out there really nervous, more nervous then last weeks match. This could have been because last week I had no pressure on myself because I was playing a seeded player and I had nothing to lose. So maybe this week I was supposed to win and maybe that is why I was nervous. But during the match I thought I came out not really moving the best, or swinging freely. My opponent was about 5 feet tall and moved surprisingly well for her size. But she got to a lot of shots and made me play, and it was a good first round match up for me. I went out there and tried to play the way I wanted to, which was to look for short balls to get to the net on, hit a high percentage of first serves, and to just play aggressively. I think I did it pretty well. The first set my opponent just made a lot of mistakes and I was holding my serve well. The second set was a bit closer then what the score was but I ended up playing more aggressively towards the end of the set and she started to miss passing shots, and rushing. I was surprised though with her serve because it was difficult to return. With her height the trajectory of her serve was very low over the net, and I ended up hitting returns below my knees. So I was struggling a bit with the return games. However, I did get to break a number of times somehow and hold my serve to take the match. But tomorrow definitely needs to be better. I need to not worry so much of the winning and losing and just play and have fun. I think today I was too wound up in the win and lose that I didn't get to swing freely. For me when I think of that my game drops, I don't move as well, my decision making is bad, and I am just not relaxed. So tomorrow the goal is to just go out there and play my game, have fun, and play aggressively. If I can do that then it's a win no matter what the end result is. But I play the 6th seed and I think it is going to be a good match. I'm excited to finally play in the 2nd round Wahoo!!

In doubles we won pretty easily. Our opponents just made a lot of mistakes in the match and that was it. This week I am playing with Australian Chantelle Rigozzi and tomorrow we are scheduled to play the 4th seed or Moore and Stephenson both from Great Britain. This is the pairing that me and Eva Wacanno almost lost to in the semifinals (down 9-6 in the 3rd set tiebreaker). So it should be interesting. Again, I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'll let you all know what happens. Until then...

Sunderland, GBR - Day Six

We played the doubles final today and guess what? We won!!! Yippy. Not bad for my 3rd tournament back. But we ended up winning 6-2, 6-4, 10-8 against Borecka (who I lost to in singles, and yes, revenge is a dish best served cold haha) and her partner Krejsova from the Czech Republic. It was a great match. The first set was pretty straight forward. We broke them a couple of times to take the set. But in the set I felt as though we were playing a lot more aggressive then our opponents. They were making more of the mistakes and Eva seemed to hit a bunch winners because the girl kept trying to cross waaaaay to soon, so Eva just hit her forehand down the line for a winner. And I seemed to hit a lot of volley winners. They tried to pass me down the line but I was covering it, or they didn't quite hit their cross courts just right and I was able to cross. So that pretty much was the 1st set.

In the second set our opponents played better. They didn't hit as many mistakes as they did in the first set. They also didn't try to pass me down the line. I think in the 2nd set they tried twice compared to about 10 times in the first. They also hit their cross courts a lot better. Instead of hitting it near the middle it was much closer to the alley, away from me at the net. But in the second I did miss about 4 low volleys that I shouldn't of and maybe that cost us some momentum but who knows. We ended up getting broken off of a deuce point that was about a 20 ball rally (crazy) and that was the set. We had opportunities to get the break back but again the deuce point was a let down.

Then in the third set tiebreaker we got off to a good start. We got up 4-2 and things seemed to be rolling along smoothly. We got up 7-5 and then things started to get a bit closer. We got up 9-5 when I completely miss hit my return and the girl at the net flubbed the volley off the frame of her racket and it went well wide. Then here is where it started to get a bit rocky. Then next point I ended up serving and volleying but I missed my low forehand volley. And what did I say in the previous post...make your 1st volley? Yeah I apparently forgot the rules. So 9-6 now. The next point both Eva and I got to the net and had our opponents backing up. Eva got an easy overhead, but I think had too much time to think about it because it sailed well long, like to the curtain long. hahah. 9-7. Disappointing but it was fine, we were still one point away and they were 4 away. The next point was about a 15 ball rally. Eva and I got to the net and our opponents were both on the baseline. They started hitting lobs and neither of us wanted to make another overhead mistake, so we were just hitting it back and not really going for it. So they ended up getting a lob over our head and Eva runs back to get it and I'm  still up at net and our opponents are still on the baseline. They hit about 10 balls to Eva and I'm just kind of standing there looking to cross but they were hitting the ball in the alley, and eventually Eva hit it in the net. 9-8. At this point we were a bit frustrated because we knew the match should have been over by now, but we knew we had to win this next point because once at 9-9 anything could happen. So the last point I hit a backhand return cross court and come forward. One of the opponents hit a lob over Eva's head, but I run over and hit an over back deep down the line and the girl pulls the next shot wide cross court. It was close too, probably an inch and a half out. And that was the match. Not a bad showing for the first time Eva and I played together. So I'm really happy. It's always nice to win something, no matter if it's singles or doubles. A win builds your confidence up. Now I'm off to Loughborough tomorrow for the 2nd and last week here in England. Until then. Cheerio

Sunderland, GBR - Day Five

Today was a good day, a bit nerve racking at times but it was worth it. I'm mostly talking about our doubles match this afternoon. We ended up winning a nail biter 6-3 6-7(5) 12-10. It was a crazy match. The first set was played pretty clean by us. We didn't need to do anything special this set, we just played consistent, played aggressively when needed to and our opponents towards the end of the set just seemed to not care really. We all were holding serve up until 4-3 us, and when we broke our opponents to go up 5-3 they kind of tanked (gave up) the next game to give us the set. Then the next set was more competitive. We ended up getting broken  early in the set and found ourselves down 2-5. To get to that point we were the ones making more mistakes. Trying too hard and missing easy shots that we shouldn't have. But when we were down 5-2 we started to play like we did in the 1st, consistent, being patient, and putting volleys away when we could. I ended up serving the next game and I ended up having my best service game of the match. One ace and 3 missed returns. Then I got a break because our opponents hit a bunch of second serves and made an early mistake in the point. But the key to playing doubles is make your first serve, make your return, and make your first volley. If you can do those things doubles will get easier for you. If you do all of these you automatically put pressure on your opponent, giving you a better chance of winning the point. So we are now down 4-5 and we end up holding just barely. We had a deuce point and they play no ad scoring, so the team that wins the next point wins the game. (I think it is stupid but rules are rules) But our opponents ended up hitting their volley long so we are now tied at 5-5 and again one of the girls seemed to give away the game, with 3 well long forehands and a well played point by us. So now we are ahead 6-5 and I'm serving. I hoped to of had a service game like the last one but nope, didn't happen. I made about 1 first serve that game and a few errors at the net cost us the game. So we headed for a tiebreaker. The first couple points our opponents got lucky. We won the first point, then I served and the returner hit her backhand late for passing shot angle winner. The next point the other returner broke her strings on the return and the next ball hits a slice forehand angle dropshot that hits and skids on the line. But oh well. So we ended up being down 4-2 came back to 4-3 and the next point we found ourselves both at the net and our opponents on the run, but they throw up a short lob right down the middle and both my partner (Eva) and I thought we were going to hit it, but at the last second neither of us hit it. Great communication there, I'm just going to chalk that up to the language barrier. hahaha. Oh well. Then the next point we lost it because I missed a high forehand volley. I got too excited and took too big of a swing and it sailed long. So we ended up losing one of the next 2 points and lost the set. Now it came down to the deciding 10 point tiebreaker. (I really wish the rules were play Ad scoring and keep the tiebreaker for the 3rd set. I don't mind that, but having them both isn't really fair because not always does the better team win. And they don't play this way in the Slams so why should us bottom feeders have to? Anyway, whatever.) So the third set tiebreak we found ourselves down 4-2 again. We didn't start off bad, they just had some good shots, they were playing better than us at this point. Then it was 7-5 them and then down 9-6. Then next point my Eva was at the baseline on the forehand side, and I'm at the net on the backhand side. She was hitting a bunch of forehand cross courts and eventually our opponent hit one close to the middle and I move over and hit a low forehand drop volley winner. 9-7. Then 9-8. The next point Eva and I were both at the net and she gets a high forehand volley that she takes a whack but is late and it looks like it was sailing out but somehow lands on the outside of the line. Our opponents were pretty much celebrating as the ball was in the air, but they never got the call. And we did have 3 umpires on our court (1 chair, 2 long lines) so he saw it in and we took the point. 9-9. The next point I can't really remember specifically what happened but I know we lost the point because I remember thinking I just need to make them play on their match point. So it was 10-9 for them I get my return in and get to the net and Eva puts the next volley away. 10-10. The next point Eva gets into another cross court rally and our opponent misses her forehand deep. 11-10 us. Match point, I'm returning. Before the point Eva and I discussed me going down the line because the girl at the net was looking for the cross court, but I just said I need to get it in and I'm going cross court, need to keep it simple and hit a high percentage shot. So the girl serves a kick serve to my backhand, I slice it low cross court, knowing the girl was going to cross and put the volley up the middle (like she had done throughout the match) so after I hit it I moved over a step or two towards the middle and I was right. The girl sticks a volley right down the middle and I was waiting for it so I ended up hitting a slice forehand deep cross court where the girl had to hit it backing up and hits it up enough for me to move up and stick a volley winner to win the match. Talk about a nerve racking. Eva and I were both shaking after the match because of all the adrenaline pumping in the last few points. But it was a great match, we had some great points, and I'm so glad we came back to win that. The finals is tomorrow. And we get to play against the girl I lost to in singles and her partner. So I hope to beat her this time around! I'll let you know how it goes.

Sunderland, GBR - Day Four

So today got off to a rocky start. My plan was to check out of my hotel and move to another one around the corner. Sounds simple enough, but not here. After packing up my room I headed downstairs to the reception and while I was trying to pay for my stay my Visa card wouldn't work. The first time they swiped it, declined. The second time, declined. I even went to an ATM and again declined. Then I asked if I could write them a check but halfway through writing it the manager came out and said they didn't accept foreign checks. Great! At this point I was about to have a nervous breakdown because if it didn't work at the hotel it might not work anywhere and I needed to check out of that hotel and move into the other one. So after talking to the manager I was able to give her all of the cash I had on me just to start the payment and show that I was going to pay for my stay. So after giving her the money I then had to give them a copy of my passport, you know just in case I tried to flee the country without paying them. Yeah right, my luck I would get stopped by the Bobbies (police) at the airport and spend the rest of my life in prison. Anyway so I told her I would be back at the end of the day, I just needed to get to the bank to figure everything out. So first I had to get to the courts to warm up my doubles partner for her singles match. And luckily she was 2nd on after 10:30 and our doubles was 4th on. So after hitting I had to go to Sunderland City Centre and find a bank and thank goodness the girl (Vicky) that drives the shuttle bus was able to drop me off in between runs to the courts and the hotel. So she dropped me off at Barclays which she told me was a major bank in England and I believed it seeing as though I've heard of it before. So I go into the bank and there is people everywhere. I think it was the busiest bank I've seen for a Thursday morning. Anyway I walk in and the tellers are to my left and straight ahead a guy in his late 20s early 30s was standing, and I smile just to be polite as we made eye contact. So I'm looking around with a confused look on my face and walk over to him and ask if he could help. I told him I'm here for tennis, and my card wasn't working and I needed to get money out to pay for this. So he informs me that banks shut cards off in case they feel as though they've detected fraud, and that I should have told my bank before leaving the States that I was traveling abroad (Remember that if traveling outside of your country of origin). So he told me that I needed to call my bank and tell them where I was and to turn my card back on. So he looked for an open phone in the bank and they were all in use, so he takes out his own cell phone and calls an international number. You know that that is expensive and calling a bank is going to tack on minutes because you never get a live person on the phone, you get press 1 for sales, press 2 for accounts, press 3 for lives sales rep and when you press 3 they can't understand what you pressed and you need to start over again. So after about 10 minutes finally some woman with a southern accent gets on the phone and asks a bunch of questions, and I couldn't even  understand what she was saying with her southern twang. I could understand the British guy better then her and that shouldn't be right. But finally after about a 20 minute phone call everything gets squared away, I just needed to wait about 20 minutes before taking money out or use the card. So I told the guy how much I appreciated his help, told him have fun in Florida in December visiting his parents (that's how long we were on hold). So then I had to hop back on the bus which was waiting outside with other players waiting to get to the courts. Dropped the players off went inside for about 10 minutes just to see that my doubles partner just got on the court and our scheduled court was still in the first match. The tournament director then finds me to ask if everything was ok because Vicky was looking for me to head back to the bank. And the tournament director was very helpful, said she could call the hotel to figure something out, or use my prize money to pay, she told me all the options. That was nice to hear. So a few minutes later Vicky and I head to the bank again, my card is working again. I get money out and on the receipt there is a lottery drawing to win Barclays Premier League soccer (football) tickets so I give it to Vicky. And I hope she wins because of all of the driving she did just for me. If she did she would send me a picture haha. So all of this took place in between warming my doubles partner up and our doubles match. It seemed like the longest day and I didn't really think about playing doubles until we got on the court. But doubles went a bit smoother then the morning that's for sure. We ended up winning 6-3 6-1. We played really well, didn't make too many mistakes, but we played smart. So we play the semifinals tomorrow against a team that took out the number 1 seeds in a 3rd set tie breaker. Should be a good match. Looking forward to it. Oh and after doubles I had to go back to the hotel, finish paying them, then head to my new hotel for the rest of the week. So now I can leave the country! yay! But it was a long and stressful day, I'm glad it's over. Now I get to sleep and be ready for doubles tomorrow.

Sunderland, GBR - Day Three

I finally got to play singles and doubles today and ended up 1 for 2 on the day. Won my doubles 6-4 7-5 and lost my singles 7-6(4) 6-3. In singles one break of serve cost me the match. I played well, I was going for my shots, but my opponent (the 6th seed Martina Borecka - CZE) won the key points in the match. Looking back on the match I don't feel I played bad but I think I was the decider of who was going to win or not. She didn't play me off the court. She had a great serve and steady ground strokes. It was a match were I blinked first.

The 1st game of the match I served and it went about 10 deuce points. I came out a bit anxious but calmed down and was able to pull out the game. My opponent's service game was another couple of deuce points but she hit some well placed 1st serves to hold. Then the next few games we each held easily. Both hitting big serves, deep in the box, and well placed to get a short return and the next shot was put away.  We both held up until 6-5 my opponent serving and I had played a good game, getting to the net often and finally I got a set point, but again my opponent hit a big out wide serve and I missed the return in the net. And that hurts because on those points you need to make your opponent play. The opponent might miss the next ball if you get it over. And in my case I didn't do that. So in those points you need to get it back and in the court. It doesn't matter how you do it, you just have to make them play. So I ended up losing the game and we were headed for a tie breaker. I start serving and hit a body serve right into her left hip but some how she hit it late for an angle winner. (Off to a good start.) Next point she wins. Down 2-0. Next point I hit a big forehand winner down the line after a cross court exchange. Down 2-1. The next few points I don't remember but it went like this, 2-2, 3-2 down, 4-2, 4-3, 5-3, 5-4. At this time she was serving and I know that I needed to win at least 1 point to try and stay in the set. But it's so much easier said than done. But at 5-4 down I ended up getting her on the run to her forehand side, I get into the net as she hits a floater to my forehand volley and what do I do? I botch the volley wide. Had the whole court and didn't hit the outside of the ball. Missed it by 2 inches. Her set point we had about a 10 ball rally. I got pulled out wide to my right, made a good running forehand cross court, she hits it down the line to my backhand and I slice it back deep up the middle, and she pulls me back to the forehand side and miss the next running forehand deep. Set done and over. Looking back on the set both of us saved about 15 break points and both of us had a set point. The only clear difference is my opponent won her set point. Plain and simple.

The next set my opponent starts serving 1st and holds easily. My next service game I get broken. I played a few bad points and rushed them. I didn't plan my points out. I tried to hit a big serve and follow it up with the winner, and that doesn't happen too often. I should have taken my time and really plan what I wanted to do in the point. But after that game, now down a break it is difficult to get it back indoors against an opponent who is serving well. It's like standing at the bottom of Mt. Everest looking up. The gray clouds halfway up with the hawks circling high above  and you're at the bottom need to get to 28 thousand feet (that's how I see it). It's not impossible it is just difficult. But the next game I had a chance to break back but missed my backhand slice approach deep. So now down 3-0. Then I held to 3-1. She holds to 4-1. Now I'm thinking I really need to make some thing happen to get a break back but I couldn't. The closest I got was a few deuce points at 4-2 and 5-3 but never a chance on my Ad.

So I'm happy with the way I played. I serve well, I hit big forehands and I got to the net plenty of times. She just protected her service games better than me. I wish I could have returned better but can't really do anything about it now. So there are things to work on (forehand volley and running forehands) but there should always be after matches. Now I have another chance next week to see if I can make those improvements.

In doubles it was a pretty good match. We got up in the first set quickly 4-1 then found ourselves tied at 4-4 until we held and broke to win the set. But our opponents were pretty good. One girl was a lefty so her slice serve out wide got me a bit, and the other opponent just hit the ball as hard and flat as she could. But the second set wasn't too exciting it was just holding serve until the end at 6-5 when we broke. But one thing that did happen was the lefty ended up hitting her partner who was standing at the net with her serve, and it sounded like it hurt. The girl pretty much crumpled to the ground almost in tears she got hit in the back so hard. I was in shock until I saw her partner laughing in back of her and saying "I'm not laughing at you! I'm so sorry" so I was giggling. I had to try and compose myself in the back of the court. After a couple of minutes we were about to continue the point with a 2nd serve but the one girl couldn't stop laughing. So the girl who got hit set up again at net and I guess saw smiles on our faces and put her racket down and said "Oh is it funny that I got hit? Go ahead and laugh. Get it out" I was shocked. I really wasn't laughing at her at all because I've gotten hit with plenty of overheads to the back and it hurts. I haven't fallen to the ground crying but it stings. I was really just laughing at her partner trying to say sorry with a straight face. But that was all the excitement for the day. We play doubles again tomorrow. Hopefully we'll do well.

Sunderland, GBR - Day Two

So I didn't get the chance to play doubles today like I said I would. We were scheduled to play this afternoon but one of the opponents we were supposed to play was still in her last round of qualifying at 5 this evening. So because they were playing so late and given that after the match she would get an hour and a half rest the tournament director decided to postpone it until tomorrow. I was excited to start playing but can't really do anything about it. Oh well I guess. But my doubles partner for this week is Eva Waccano from the Netherlands. We've never played before, we've never met before actually. We both have a pretty good doubles ranking so we decided to play together. And oddly enough we are seeded. But that's what happens when you go to tournaments when you don't know anyone. You just go around and start asking people. Then when you find someone willing to play you make sure both have a good enough ranking to get into the draw. If you don't, then you keep looking for a partner and get in, or you just don't play doubles. That's the way it works at this level. So tomorrow it's going to be both singles and doubles, probably going to be a long day. But I hope it goes well.

Sunderland, GBR - Day One

I made it to England! Today seemed to be an incredibly long day I feel like I should go to bed but it's only 8 o'clock here. Crazy. But I left Miami last night and I thought I wasn't going to be able to sleep on the plane but was I wrong. I usually have anxiety while flying so I can never really get a good sleep but I ended up taking some sleeping pills and they worked like a charm. I took them just as I was getting on the plane and I was asleep before the plane even taxied to the runway. I don't remember taking off, don't remember the little flight attendant emergency spiel, nothing. I do however remember waking up to look out the window to see if we took off but I could only see the reflection of the girl sitting next to me writing in her notebook and dozed off. Then I remember waking up to being asked what I wanted for dinner, and I am pretty sure I answered the flight attendant cross eyed and probably drooling haha. But the next thing I remember is putting the food on my tray table then waking up to find it gone without eating a bite. And another thing that was strange was I asked for water, I took a sip, then woke up to find it empty in the seat pocket in front of me with the napkin in it. Either I was drinking in my sleep or the girl next to me got thirsty and tried to hide it. And I'm really hoping I drank it because that would just be weird. But those sleeping pills carry a big punch! That has never happened before.

But after landing in Heathrow I still wasn't close to relaxing. I had to take the Underground from the airport to Kings Cross which took about an hour and then wait for a couple hours in Kings Cross until my train to Newcastle came in. But for all you Harry Potter fans out there they have a Platform 9 3/4 sign and trolley lodged into the wall on Platform 9 where Harry and the Gang head of to Hogwarts. Kings Cross also makes a damn good sandwich. A fresh baguette with mozzarella, basil, and olive oil. Delicious! You can't get that at Subway! But after waiting around I finally got on my 3 hour train ride north to Newcastle. (Saw the very pretty English Countryside, with the rolling hills, green grass, and lots of sheep. All the buildings here are small and quaint looking. Almost all neighborhoods seem to have the row houses. If you've seen the movie Billy Elliot or one of my favorite Christmas time movies Love Actually those are exactly the houses (and I would hope so because the movies where filmed here heehee). House after house after house connected to one another along the small streets.) But once in Newcastle I boarded the Metro south to Sunderland. I got driven to the tournament site and I have to say either they have crazy drivers here or everyone is very confident in their driving abilities. I'm not sure whizzing passed buses/pedestrians and going around roundabouts at twice the speed limit is normal but who knows. But finally got to the site and it's really nice. Has an indoor pool, 8 indoor courts, outdoor courts, fitness center, and cafe. The indoor courts remind me of my college days with the 4 courts seperated by stands high above and another 4 courts on the other side of the stands. It's like playing Mississippi or Michigan all over again! But the courts are nice, fast but not too bad, so I'm excited to start playing. But doubles starts tomorrow, so now I'm going to head to bed. After such a long day I don't think sleep will be much of a problem.

England

So I am excited to tell you all that next weekend I will be heading across the big pond to England. There are a couple 10s over there and I thought it would be a good place to play, rather than forcing my way back into playing 50s and 75s. Also playing indoors on a hard court suits my game rather well, so I'm hoping I can use that to my advantage. But as I've done before I'll tell you all some facts about England, and me being a geographer I like to learn about places. So buckle up your seat belts, we're off to the England.

England, if you haven't heard, is part of the United Kingdom which consists of Wales to the west, Scotland to the north, and Northern Ireland which is across the Irish Sea to the northwest.

England, Scotland, and Wales first formed to become Great Britain, and then Great Britain and Northern Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom.

Her Majesty the Queen is the oldest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She became the Queen at 26 years old and is Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms (Australia, Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas to name a few).

The Queen is not allowed to enter the House of Commons because she is not a member. (Funny how someone who use to rule the world is not allowed to enter.)

The land area of the UK is a bit smaller than that of Oregon.

The capital is London which has a population of about 8.6 million. That is a few million more than New York City, NY.

Palace of Westminster

The London Eye is the tallest observation wheel in the world (135 metres/443 feet), and it takes 30 minutes to make a full rotation.

Big Ben does not refer to the clock, Big Ben is actually the 13 ton bell inside the tower which is called St. Stephen's Tower.

St. Stephen's Tower is located in the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament where the House of Lords and House of Commons meet.

The UK has the 6th largest economy in the world.

The London Underground, aka "The Tube" opened in the mid 1800s and was the first deep underground electric railway.

Today, The Tube has about 150,000 passengers on average riding every hour.

So hopefully you enjoyed the ride. But most importantly I hope you learned something. I never knew some of those facts. But thanks to Google and all the UK fact websites for giving me the info. Now that I feel like I have a better understanding of the country I have to go make some calls to set up tea time with the Queen. hee hee.

Courtsider?

A courtsider (or court-sider)? Does anyone know what that is? No idea? Well, it's a new term for me in the tennis world. I learned this over the past week at Williamsburg that I thought I would share. I learned about it by overhearing the tournament director and ITF supervisor talking about someone with hands in his pockets and clicking and electronic device in each hand. So my friends and I thought someone was cheating, and us being curious asked what was happening. The ITF supervisor said that these 'courtsiders' are people who are paid a lot of money to go to tennis tournaments, watch matches while helping cheat the system of betting on tennis. Sounds interesting doesn't it?

Supposedly in the US it is illegal to bet on matches, but in other parts of the world it is legal. And you can only bet on a tennis by who wins and loses, so this 'courtsider' sits next to the court with a device in each hand, and when one player wins a point he clicks a button in one hand, and if the other player wins a point he clicks a button in the other hand. These clicks feed a certain person inside information on a live match, therefore giving him/her a greater advantage of picking a correct winner.

In addition to sitting and watching matches, they also have a room in the tournament hotel and when they see a player who is taped up or have ice everywhere, they asked the player what's wrong? if they are ok? are they going to play? just basic questions and the player doesn't think anything of it and says the truth, and the 'courtsider' takes this information and sends it to whoever is paying him, because that is more information that could determine the outcome of a match. So it is just crazy to think of the extremes people go to to bet on matches, and at a 10k? I mean really?! The smallest pro tournament! Isn't there the WTA going on in Asia right now? I just thought the whole thing was wierd. But now you guys know some inside info on what happens behind the scenes of tournaments.

Williamsburg, VA

So I finished my last tournament last week. Again I lost first round 3 & 3, but again I thought that I played well, my opponent just played better. I mean for my second tournament back I thought that I was hitting the ball well, I just don't think I constructed points well enough for the way my opponent was playing. That will come with time I guess, but I thought compared with my match from the previous week, I thought I played a lot better. I wasn't bailing out of points quickly like I said I did in my last match, the points were longer, I felt like I was moving around the court well. So I mean it's only a small step forward but it's a start. On the doubles side, myself and doubles partner Kirsten Flower made it to the semifinals. We played really well the first two rounds, playing doubles. A lot of girls seem to play singles when in fact it's a doubles match. What I mean by that is doubles is all about being aggressive, coming to the net, and finishing the point with a volley winner or overhead winner. Most girls nowadays don't like to come in to the net because they don't practice volleys or they just are not comfortable volleying. So when I say they play singles I mean they sit at the baseline, never coming into the net, and just hit cross court until someone misses. The way Kirsten and I played was serve volley, or return look to get to net, and finish with a volley or overhead. So that's what we did. In the semis when came up against two girls that were unpredictable. They played similar to how we played. So the score ended up being 3-6 6-4 (10-5) in their favor. We didn't play bad, they just hit some better shots on crucial points and that was the difference. So nothing to get mad about. I just now know to be a bit more attentive while at the net, because they caught me off guard a few too many times, and that's unacceptable to me. So I'll be sure to work on that for the next tournament.

Trivia Night

So I just wanted to tell you guys a funny story. Myself and Kirsten Flower went to go get dinner in the downtown area on Amelia Island the other night during a freak monsoon. We decided to try a simple Italian restaurant but when we went inside the patio the main door was locked. So the owner came out and said they were closed for the evening due to flooding. So we ended up deciding on the Irish pub called O'Kanes next door (didn't feel like walking in the rain). We get inside and the hostess seats us in the bar room and tells us that it is trivia night. Meanwhile, we could have cared less about playing trivia, we just wanted food. So the woman in charge of trivia (Angie) comes over asks us if we wanted to play and we just decided sure why not, it would give us something to do before our food comes out. So just to paint a picture for you, me and Kirsten were the youngest people in there, we were the only table of 2 players, and we had the stupidest name for our group (not going to say, involves tennis though). Other tables had between 4 and 6 players, both male and female players, and cool kick-ass names like Sparta and It's the Freakin' Catalina Wine Mixer (from Step-brothers for those that don't know). So we are already thinking we are going to lose. The rules were simple, no using cellphones to check answers, no going to the bathroom with phone to check answers, no phone-a-friend. Simple. There were 6 rounds of 3 questions the categories were movies, tv, music, geography, vocabulary, and sports. And for each question you either had to give yourself 1 point, 3 points, or 5 points, and you could only use each of them once in a round. So Angie said if you know the answer use a 5 if you have no idea about an answer but a 1. So simple stuff. Here were some of our lucky guesses.
Which Hollywood character has been played by Russell Crowe, Sean Connery, and Kevin Costner? Me and Kirsten just looked at each other like who the hell knows. And then while Angie was coming around to collect our answers I remembered that Russell Crowe just starred in Robin Hood so I put that down and we got it right. Lucky guess #1

Hawaii consumes the most per capita of what Hormel food product? Again we had no idea of the answer until I remembered in the movie 50 First Dates that they keep talking about Spam. "Why don't you choke on your spam!" And Adam Sandler is given a box of Spam and Reese's before sailing off to Alaska. So we put that as an answer and got that one right too. Lucky guess again!

In 1744 who created the first mail order catalog? By process of elimination (1776 was the whole Declaration of Independence so we tried to figure out who was around at that time, and who was old enough to be around during 1744.) We thought Ben Franklin was so we chose him, and again another correct answer.

There was a halftime question and that was to name the these artists best selling album in the U.S. Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, and The Police. We only got Thriller and Born in the USA. The others were IV and Synchronicity. So with these we got an extra 4 points. And at that time we were in last place.

Some other answers were blood, Puerto Rico, Baltimore, John Elway, and Ozzie Guillen. (We only got the first 2 right.)

Then the final question of the night came and you could wager 1-16 points, if you got the question right you got however many points you wagered or you could lose those points. We decided to just go all in for 16, we had nothing to lose because we were in last anyway. But the question was to put these Johnny Depp movies in order from the earliest to the most recent: Ed Wood, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Edward Scissorhands, and Donnie Brasco. As soon as the question was read Kirsten's face lit up because she knows all about Johnny Depp, she has see all his movies and has even read his autobiographies. It was Edward Scissorhands, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood, and Donnie Brasco. Perfect for 16 points!

Then when all the scores were totalled up Angie was read out all the scores and it turns out we came in 3rd!!! From last to 3rd. We were so excited and all because Kirsten knew everything there is to know about Johnny Depp. It was great, we even got a gift certificate to O'Kanes so we got a free meal. But Angie said it is very difficult for a group of 2 players let alone of the same sex to win in trivia. We felt like rockstars the rest of the night. hahaha.

Amelia Island 10k

So I finally played a professional tournament after a 5 month layoff. It wasn't the best result (lost 6-2 6-4) but I played a full match. I played and competed and it felt great being out there again. My goals for this tournament were to have fun, enjoy getting back into tournament play, and also just being able to compete against top ranked players again. Did I think I was going to win the whole tournament? no, but I just wanted to get out there, enjoy being out there, and to get some matches under my belt.

Stadium Court

My first round opponent was Tereza Hladikova (CZE), who I guess was top 200 a few years ago. So going into the match I knew the girl would be tough and knew how to work the points in her favor. We were scheduled to be 3rd on after 8am so you would think I would get on by let's say 11. Well not in this case. The two matches before me went 6-4 and 7-5 in the 3rd sets, and I didn't get on until after 2 in the afternoon. We also had to switch courts because the matches were taking so long. But I didn't really mind. However, I did have to warm up about 3 times thinking that I was about to play my match but ended up having to sit back down and wait for the match ahead of me to finish. That part sucked a bit. But on the plus side, I got to play on the stadium court which was cool because they use to hold the Bausch and Lomb WTA tournament at this same site for 20 years and that was the court that players like Davenport, Sharapova, and Schiavone played and won on. So that part was awesome.

Well anyway, we walk onto the court and it's like David vs. Goliath but David (aka me) loses. During the match I figured well she's tall so most likely she is going to have a big serve and indeed she did. It was like trying to return Isner's serve. I tried standing farther back from the baseline to try and get a good read on the ball but I ended up leaving too much court open and she would hit an ace or a monster serve far away enough for me to just get it back and she could tee-off on it with her forehand. Or I stood back and it would still kick up high over my head. All I could do was laugh at some of the serves just thinking they were too good. But a few games here and there I got good enough reads were I stayed closer to the baseline and just reacted to her serve and attacked the return and that worked a few times, enough to break her a couple of times. That helped my confidence a bit. I served ok during the match, but not good enough to hold every time, and when you play and opponent with a great serve the importance of holding is much greater. So I got broken multiple times and that did me in. I didn't play badly, I just was rusty. It was one of those matches were you're hitting the ball great but the ball isn't going exactly where you want it and need it to go. I also could have worked the points a little more, instead of bailing out and trying to hit a winner instead of rolling the ball back deep and starting the point over. But those things come with time, and a lot of match play and that's what the next few weeks are about. So I'm looking forward to my next tournament in Williamsburg, VA this week. :)

A walkway around the courts. So pretty! I had to add it.

Women's Open

In preparation for my tournament next week (first in about 6 months) I signed myself up for a Women's Open this weekend just to make sure I knew how to play and score a match. Now, it definitely wasn't a big tournament (only 4 entries) but hey, a match is a match right? The tournament site, was held in beautiful Palm Beach Gardens at the Ballen Isles Country Club. (Fun fact alert: Venus and Serena live there in one of the million developments there.) But the site was wicked nice. It has about 20 clay courts and some hard courts, a large club house, swimming pool, and golf courses spread throughout the development. So you get the point, it's nice. Anyway, back to tennis, in my first match I played a girl from the Bahamas. I've never seen or heard of her so I didn't really know what to expect. We both checked in at the tournament desk and the tournament director runs through the list of saying we play 2 out of 3 sets, tiebreakers at 6-6 the usual. Then I hear we'll be playing a Coman tiebreaker. I was like what? I have no idea what that is! (I found this hilarious because I was joking around with friends a few weeks back saying that I hope the rules and scoring hasn't changed since my 6 month absence. Well, apparently it has!) I don't know if it's new or I've just never had to play it, but it's just like a normal tiebreaker except you change ends after the first point and after every 4 points, which I have to admit is a bit lame having to change sides so often. But oh well I didn't have to play a tiebreak anyway. I won my match 6-2 6-0. I wasn't that nervous during the match but I could tell after not playing for so long my feel on the ball was off. (My drop shots were like lobs landing at the service line, and my hands at the net were like that of a brick layer's hands, not soft haha.) But as the match went on things seemed to settle down and I played pretty well for my first match in months. My next match was ok I guess. I won 6-0 6-0. The girl I played wasn't very good, so I guess you could say I practiced my serving and returning during the match. But I finally played some matches and that's all that matters. I can't wait for next week when I play a 10k in Amelia Island and another the week after in Virginia. Those matches will be much more difficult but I'm looking forward to playing again. For now it's just baby steps and like my dad says it's all practice until I get to the US Open. Haha. I'll be sure to write during Amelia Island, so adios until then.

Update 2.0

I need to apologize yet again for not writing. It's been about 2 months since my last post (sounds like confession). In my last post I was writing about getting back to practicing, but I had another setback. I was hitting for about 2 weeks when I did something to my back. I have no idea what, but all I know is that it was very painful. I could barely sit down, it hurt to stand up, walk up stairs, even sleep. So as you could tell I couldn't practice anymore. Now, I was depressed after I hurt my knee because I was starting to play great and I had to sit out 6-8 weeks but during my rehab I was watching matches I got excited to play again even though I knew it would be tough to get back into. Once I got to practice again I found a new enjoyment in playing. I was happy, smiling, excited to practice and begin tournaments. Well, that all abruptly changed when I hurt my back. I think I was in a severe depression then. Asking myself why is this happening again? I played all throughout college without many big injuries why now? Each week I thought I was getting better but then something happened and my back hurt again. It was like 2 steps forward 5 steps back. Each week I had to go online and withdraw from tournaments that I wanted to play. Each week my ranking would slip. Each week my cardio would fade. Each week off would mean triple the weeks needed to get my fitness back, my rhythm back, my mind back to playing again. Now this is the first week back that I am allowed to hit, and I'm hoping to get out there and nothing hurts, but I won't find out until I hit so keep your fingers crossed. I am hoping these past few weeks/months are the last of my injuries, and I can start to move forward in this sport. I just need to keep positive thoughts flowing. I know there will be a difficult few weeks ahead but I just need to keep moving forward and never give up. To do that I'll take a lesson for the US Women's World Cup Soccer Team. Down 2-1 to Brazil (best team with the best player in the world) late in extra time, they never gave up. Ended up tying 2-2 and won 5-3 in penalty kicks. Never give up and hope for the best, that's what I'll be doing in the coming weeks.

Injury Report

As I said in my last post (which was a long time ago) I mentioned that I hurt my knee. Well I've been out for the past 5 weeks. I didn't feel the need to write posts because it would get pretty boring, more like Groundhog Day, doing the same thing over and over again, and I'm sure no one would really care to hear the same boring thing again and again. But I've decided to write this one just to let you guys know what has been going on and my progress with my knee.

So first things first, my Celtics lost :( That was a bummer, but I figured that would happen. The Heat will probably win it all if they play like they did this series. But at least I can still cheer for the Bruins and Red Sox!

Back on a serious note, since my last tournament I took about a week off where I didn't do anything, just trying to rest my knee and try and settle down the inflammation. Then I started to do rehab 3 times a week, working on strengthening the muscles surrounding my knee that way I'll have more leg stability. So far it's been working. My knee has been feeling really good. This is my 5th week of rehab and we've been implementing cardio into my workouts so hopefully when I get to start hitting in a week or so I won't faint on the court.

Other than that I've just been watching a lot of tennis. A friend of mine informed me of a website (myp2p.com) where you can watch pretty much anything you want online. And seeing as though the States doesn't seem to broadcast tennis events happening in Europe besides Wimbledon and the French this is great. So I got to see the Final of Madrid both ATP and WTA and I've seen a few matches of the tournament in Rome happening now. I wish she had told me earlier because I've been wasting my time catching up on all the reruns of Desperate Housewives of the OC and NYC, America's Next Top Model, and Sex and the City. But I've made sure to watch the news each afternoon (I'm a fan of America Live on Fox News) to see what is going on the the world (which happens to be a little bit safer now that Bin Laden is dead). I've also cleaned the house numerous times trying to keep myself busy but that only goes so far. I even went out and bought the longest book I have ever seen or read...the classic Gone with the Wind and it is taking forever to read. It's good but way too many details that I don't care for, something like, "Outside, the late afternoon sun slanted down in the yard, throwing into gleaming brightness the dogwood trees that were solid masses of white blossoms against the background of new green." That's not too important to me but I guess it paints a picture in your head. I'm around page 400 and the book is 1450 pages. Crazy. So now that if I get bored with the book I can watch tennis now. Win win.

So I'm really hoping by next week I can get back on the court but we'll just have to wait and see with this weeks rehab. Hopefully the diagnosis is a positive one, if not I'll just have to wait another week or so. I've waited 5 weeks so far, what's wrong with another week if it's a beneficial one.

Jackson, MS

I'm officially back in Florida now taking a few days off after hurting my knee last week. But I just thought I would let you guys know what happened while in Jackson. So here we go.

Oh and know that I remember I don't think I finished letting you guys know what happened with doubles in Pelham, but we ended up losing to the number 1 seeds I think it was 6-7 4-6. But we played really well, we just made the mistakes on the big points, but the whole time we had chances but we just couldn't capitalized on them. Oh well you live you learn right?

Anyway in Jackson we got to play at this very nice Country Club and when I say 'nice' I mean white tables cloths everywhere, 5 star food, and even had white hand towels in the bathroom to dry your hands with, not paper towels or those air dryers that never work...So to me this place was wicked nice. But back to tennis. They had about 12 clay courts and 3 hard courts. The main court sat next to the club house where members could sit in the shade and watch some tennis while enjoying food and drinks. (I wish I took pictures to show you all, but I didn't, and I don't know why. Next time I'll remember to do so.) But the facility was great. If all tournaments were held at places like this one then I would sign up for each and every one.

The tournament started on Sunday but I was fortunate enough to receive a bye. So I spent my Sunday practicing twice and doing 30 minutes of cardio and after I got to watch a little bit of my opponent. Then I Monday I played my 1st round against a girl from Taipei who didn't hit the ball hard and didn't hit many winners either, she just ran down balls and didn't miss. But I got up an early break 3-0 and then my knee just went. I couldn't jump up to serve nor could I run to get balls. So at 3-2 I called the trainer over who taped it up and that didn't really do much of anything so I decided to give myself another game to see if the pain would go away but it didn't so I really though about retiring but I won that game so I kept playing. (Stupid me.) But the girl I was playing was dumber. She saw that I couldn't move but she just kept me in one corner of the court because that's what her coaches were telling her to do. (Yes they were coaching her, which is not allowed in tennis, so she was cheating.) So I didn't have to move much so I just decided to move her, but again she just kept hitting it to the same side and I just waited for an opportunity to hit my big shot to win the point. I ended up winning 6-4 7-5. Somehow I pulled it out without being able to move or serve, so I guess props to me. Haha.

The best part in that match was I had set point and my opponent was serving. As she goes to the line it starts to rain a little bit, but it's clay so you can keep playing. So she ends up missing her first serve, then looks and me and says and motions that she is stopping so she walks to her bag and is about to sit down. So I'm confused like 'what is happening?' so I find an ref and ask her if we are stopping play because it's raining and asked if the girl only gets one serve when we start up again because she stopped herself. The ref comes on the court and tries to explain to the girl that they didn't stop any matches so play needed to continue. But the girl wanted 2 serves again, and she tried to say I stopped so she needed two serves. I was like 'Are you kidding?' But the ref saw what happened and the girl lost her argument. She ended up double faulting the set away...

The next day I played a girl from the Memphis area. I knew how she played, hits big serves and big groundstrokes, but makes a lot of errors. I saw her watching the day before so I figured she would just run me around the court with my bad knee but she didn't. I ended up feeling pretty good that day after downing a bunch of Advil before the match so I could move around the court. I must have surprised her because I won 6-1 6-1. I was happy about it. I finally got into a main draw after about a 4 month drought. So I finally get to move up in the rankings even if it is a spot or two.

Then later that day Yasmin and I played doubles against Alex Mueller and Nicole Melichar and let's just say I'm close to 5'9'' and I was dwarfed by a good 4 inches. But big trees fall hard right? We won 6-4 6-3. It was a match that had only one break of serve so it was fun to play.

My first round match was against the number 6th seed from Argentina, Molinero. Just from knowing where she was from I knew she was going to be good on clay. I figured she would stay behind the baseline, running shots down, hitting with a lot of spin, well I was right. That is exactly what she did. She made my hit a lot of shots and in the end I made the mistake going after it trying to win the point. But you can't win if you miss. I lost 3-6 6-7. I had so many chances to break her. I think I had about 25 break points and only converted 1. So it was a match I could have won I just didn't. But the girl was good, I'm not taking anything away from her. I just lost it myself.

Later that afternoon I got my second chance to beat her, in doubles. Well we were close but again made mistakes when a big point was on the line. We won the first set, lost the second set, then lost 10-7 in the 10 point breaker that decides the match. Again all you can say is oh well. But it does suck to lose. Now I have 3 weeks until my next tournament so I'll just be practicing, working out, and getting my knee feeling better.

Gloomy Alabama

This week I'm currently playing in Pelham, Alabama for a 25k tournament. I came into the tournament feeling confident in my game seeing I was playing well the weeks leading up to this tournament. I figured if I played the was I was practicing it would be hard for someone to beat me. Well someone did, she just played better and I made a few too many mistakes. But that's how tennis is. You can play amazing but not always win, but there is always the next tournament soon after. So my first match I played a beginner, literally. I think I could have won left handed and blind folded. The girl was around 13 years old, she did have some good shots, but needs to practice more I would say. Anyway for me right now any win is a good win. It moves me one match closer to actually qualifying for the main draw. But the next day I played a former Florida Gator Alexis King and lost in a close 2 set 6-4 7-6(4). (I was 0-4 against Florida at Tennessee so I guess for the time being nothing changes.) It was the battle of the backhand slices and on clay it was whoever could keep the slice low. But that match I felt like I was in a position to win but made some mistakes on key points and didn't have a great 1st serve percentage (which by the way is a must). Overall I played well, set up the points well, competed, just the mistakes killed me. For now I'm still in Pelham playing doubles with Yasmin Schnack a former player at UCLA. We won yesterday against Nicole Robinson and Krista Hardebeck 6-3 6-1. We played well. We play again tomorrow. So I hope things go well.

The other day I also got to participate in a Pro-Am event with some of the club members. We played four 20-minute rotations of doubles and which ever team racked up the most games at the end won. I was partnered with a guy named Freddy who was from Panama. He was fun to play with because he was serious about winning but laughed at missed shots and lost games. So he made it enjoyable. Now when it comes to those things I never know if I should hit the ball hard or take it easy because it's tough to find a middle ground. But we ended up get out to a 3-0 lead on all the teams we faced and ended up tying when the time ran out. So oh well. He was just happy to play and it was fun for me to go out and have a good time. I'll be sure to sign up for the next one.

Anyway about Pelham, the entire time since getting here I have yet to see the sun. It's been cold and damp for the last 5 days. And today it has been raining all day. Thank goodness we weren't scheduled to play doubles today because it is the worst just sitting around all day waiting to play. All that happens is the tournament directors keep pushing the start times back, so you get prepared to play then it rains again so you just sit around read, watch tv, listen to music, then you think you're going to play again so you get ready and again then it rains...it's just not fun. But there isn't anything you can do about the weather. I've watched a bunch of movies this week, The Adjustment Bureau, Planet 51, Unstoppable, Megamind, REDS. So that keeps you busy wasting time. I'm just hoping they don't cancel the matches today or else it's going to be a long day at the office. But we'll see. I hope all goes well tomorrow.

Doubles Tour

I just was reading a recap of the Federer Djokovic match (which was great by the way) and there was a paragraph that said Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina won the title at the BNP Paribas by beating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy 6-0 7-5. Now just take a guess how much money they each took home...$118,500 each. Yeah, you read correctly. $118,500!! That is insane. I didn't realize that was how much they got. To make that for about a weeks worth of work, not to shabby... I've been told I can make career playing doubles, so after seeing how much they make I'm going to try and find myself a good doubles partner and get my ranking up so I can play in the big tournaments. For now of course I'm playing the 25k circuit. I am playing one next weekend in Pelham, AL, then Jackson, MS, and finally Osprey, FL. All are on clay (which should be interesting) and they are back to back to back weeks, so I'll see how the body holds up. The past few days I've been practicing on the clay and have been doing pretty well, so now I just have to continue to practice well this week and hopefully it will carry over when it's tournament time.

Japan Disaster

In the wake of the recent events in Japan I would just like to say my thoughts and prayers are with the victims affected by the earthquake and tsunami. I hope they will continue to find survivors among the debris. And I wish them all the best with the rebuilding process in the coming months.

Here is a link to Yahoo's page of Ways to Help if you wish to donate to the victims of this disaster.

I'll end with these pictures and videos of some of the survivors.


(Soldier discovering a four-month-old baby: AP)


(Photograph by Kimimasa Mayama, EPA)

UT Tennis Facility

So here are the pictures of the new tennis facility at Tennessee.


At the end of this picture above are the two courts that they added. And the farthest All-America banner to the right is mine! :)




This is what my banner up close looks like.


This is another area that they added. Farthest away will be the weight room that they are going to have. Then as you come closer to the foreground this is where the men's and women's locker rooms will be off to the right.


This is a continuation of the previous photo. The men's and women's locker room will be in this area too.


Another addition to the facility. This is the main entrance. There will be a lounge area with a tv and couches. There will also be a small kitchen and a Hall of Fame area as people walk in the main door.

When it is all finished it will look amazing. It will probably be one of the best college indoor facilities in the nation.

Driving

Yesterday morning I took off for Knoxville. I started in Boca around 6am and finally got to Knoxville around 6. It wasn’t too bad of a drive, it was just long and boring all by myself. All I could think of for some random reason was that woman from Houston who drove all the way to Cape Canaveral to stalk an astronaut who was about go up in the space shuttle. Now I don’t know why I was thinking about this, maybe because that’s like a 20 hour drive and she only stopped for gas. Or maybe it was because she was arrested with an adult diaper on so she didn’t need to make any extra stops. Hmm can’t remember why…

One thing that was exciting about the drive was getting passed by someone who had a Quebec license plate. Usually people from there I’m passing left and right. They go 20 miles under the speed limit…from what I’ve seen. So seeing that I was like whoa! Where did you come from? They must have had to go to the bathroom really bad.

Anyway, while I was driving I saw a guy in back of me who had an SUV get cut off by some idiot in a sports car. Well the SUV swerved and was practically in the gravel and the guy in the sports car didn’t even notice he did anything wrong. Well what the guy in the SUV did was flash his high beams at him, in the afternoon. Like what is that going to do? Scare him? I think not. He clearly wasn’t looking in his rear view mirror when he cut him off so what makes him sure he’s looking back after cutting him off. Now flashing your high beams I know people who have done it, I’ve done it once, but really what is that going to do? Nothing, it just shows that you’re mad but you can’t hit them with your car because that’s illegal and you car insurance would go up, so it sucks. Sometimes I wish driving was a real life version of Super Mario Kart so I could use a lightning bolt and smoosh all the cars around me, maybe throw a turtle shell and have the car in front spin out. If only…

And one more thing. Every time on my way up to Knoxville when I stopped at the gas station I always went over the desired amount that I wanted to spend by a penny. 3 times in a row $40.01, $40.01, $40.01. I mean I can get to $39.95, 96, 97, 98, 99 one at a time and then it jumps to 01. I let go of the handle for the same amount of time so I’m not sure why it jumps 2. I think the gas stations have the pumps rigged so they can suck more money out of you. No one wants to stop it on an odd number so of course people are going to pump till at least 10 or 25 cents. The gas companies are getting enough money as is right now so what the hell... But that was annoying.

Anyway I just thought I would write about those things, seeing they probably have happened to most people. But I got to Knoxville safely. I’ve practiced with the team the past couple of days. They’re looking good this year, can’t wait to see them play this weekend. I also took some pictures of the new indoor building so I’ll put them up later today.

Off to Knoxville

Well I'm back in Florida after Hammond. Didn't do so well. Lost to Great Britain's Melanie South first round then didn't get in to doubles seeing the cutoff was 530 (I know it's ridiculous for a 25k). I also didn't get in to the tournament in Clearwater :( So the plan right now is practice and do some fitness for the next couple of days. Then on Monday I'm going to head up to Knoxville to practice and watch the team play Vanderbilt and Kentucky over the weekend. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't been there since I graduated in May last year, and the University has made some big improvements to the tennis courts since then. They added two more indoor courts, they added banners of all the All-American players who played at Tennessee, they built new locker rooms and offices but not sure if those are done yet. They also built some new classroom buildings around campus and a new courtyard in front of the football stadium which I have yet to see. So it should be a fun trip. I'll drive up on Monday morning and get there Monday night, practice with the team all week until their matches on Friday and Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be sure to take some pictures to show you guys what the courts look like. Until then Auf Wiedersehen.

I'm in!!

I just heard that I received a wildcard into the 25k tournament in Hammond, Louisiana. This is great news. I get to finally play in a tournament. It seems like it has been forever since I last played but in reality it has only been about 2 weeks. So I'm excited. There are a lot of good competition in this tournament. The draws are tough so I'm excited to see what I can do. But heading over there tomorrow, and the qualifying draw starts on Sunday. I'll keep you posted. Until then wish me luck!

Common Courtesy

Lately I've been hearing and seeing a lot of pro tour players being mean to the ball kids. I saw Azarenka yelling at the ball kids, several players in lowel level tournaments I've seen yelling at the kids. So all I can say is why? They haven't done anything wrong. Maybe they didn't get back to their spot before you started serving but who cares, give them a break. Maybe they couldn't understand that you meant towel but they gave you the tennis balls instead. Who cares! They are just kids. They look up to the players and for the players to treat the kids badly it is uncalled for.

When I was playing a tournament down in Australia last year a player was yelling at a ball kid for something, but he was literally screaming at the kid so loud you could hear him across the site. It was ridiculous. I was playing on the next court at the time and as this player was going on and on about how bad the ball kids were I turned and told my ball kids that they were doing a great job, and the smiles that I got from them was something that was a way better than winning a match. No one likes to get yelled at, especially not an innocent little kid.

That aggravates me when players are mean to the kids. This sport is full of Divas. Kids look up to the tennis players as role models or look at them like it's their own superhero and for the players to yell at them is ridiculous. I've seen this going on for a while now and just thought I would share my feelings.

ATP Delray Beach

Today I got the chance to watch some of the men's matches over in Delray Beach at the Delray Beach International. This is the tournament Roddick withdrew from following his win over in Memphis. But I got to see the giant Ivo Karlovic play Janko Tipsarevic. That was an interesting match. Ivo is a huge compared to Janko. But the first set went the distance and Janko edged Ivo in the tiebreaker 16-14. Ivo had a bunch of set points but Janko got lucky with a couple returns, and Janko even hit a second serve ace down set point. Talk about being ballsy. But it paid off. Janko ended up winning the match in another tiebreaker 7-1 but he was up 5-2 in the second and on his match point at 5-3 he passed Ivo at the net and the linesman called the ball out but it clearly was on the line. But I have to say Ivo has a nasty backhand slice. That ball doesn't come off the ground at all. If only he could move... but that's what you get when you're almost 7 feet tall. Better luck next time.

Then I got to watch Mardy Fish take on Bjorn Phau (pronounced POW) but that wasn't too exciting Phau retired down 5-0. The guy couldn't move. I think they said he was sick or something. But it looked like it. He was missing by about 6 feet on some shots and shanking others. But that's a nice round for Fish. I wish I could play people who retire. I think in my 17 years of playing tennis I think 1 girl retired against me. It must be more common in the higher level pro tournaments. But who knows maybe I'll get a few in the future. Anyway some other players that were there playing were Donald Young and Kevin Anderson. I didn't get to watch the match but Anderson won 67(5) 76(4) 62. Seems like it was a good match by the score but who knows.

That was my afternoon, it was a good learning experience I guess you could say. Saw some good players, some good matches, got sunburned so all in all it was a good day... But I'm still trying to figure out where I'm headed next. When I figure it out I'll let you all know.

Practice, practice, and more practice

Another week has come and gone and I am still waiting to see if I'll get into the tournaments in the States. As of now they are still really tough to get into. The cutoff for the main draw is about 150 and the qualifying is under 300. I am about 30th on the alternate list for the tournament in Hammond and about 100 for Clearwater. So my chances of getting in are a little slim. I'm praying for a wildcard.

Since there hasn't been any tournaments lately all I've been doing is practicing and preparing as if I am going to get into these tournaments so nothing exciting has happened in the last week. But I did run into Chris Evert the other day. That was awesome. When I went to the Evert Academy a long time ago and one summer I got to hit with her almost every morning. I could see how competitive she was in practice so I could only imagine what she was like in her years of Grand Slam competition. But since the other day I haven't seen her or spoke to her in about 6 years. It's weird how time seems to go by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday we were hitting on the back courts.

So that was my week. It's not exciting when you aren't traveling and playing in tournaments. But you can't do anything about that until you do get into one. As of now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully I'll get some good news in a couple of days. I'll keep you posted.

Midland, MI

Midland, Michigan. Home to over 40 thousand of which about 4 thousand are members of the USTA. This place was called best tennis town in the national a few years back. Now it holds a 100k tournament in the middle of winter. A tournament where I did not fair too well. Losing to Alexandra Stevenson in the 1st round of qualies. I lost but so did the Steelers, so I can be happy about one thing. I saw some good matches and did some fun things like the tournaments Community Outreach Program where I went to a school and talked to a bunch of 10-12 year old kids. I showed them how to serve, hit forehands and backhands, and volleys. I answered some of their questions like 'Do you need to wear your hair in a ponytail when playing tennis?' or 'Have you ever played tennis sick?' So they were fun questions, nothing too serious. I made sure to use words and terms they would understand because I've made that mistake before and all I got were crickets sounds and little blank stares. But it was great they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I even got a few of the kids to come down and hit and as the kids got rowdier I just saw the Principal's face like 'what is she doing?' Oh well, they enjoyed it and so did I.

I also got to take part in a dinner for the sponsors and players that was held at the town's Country Club. That was interesting. I think I was the 2nd player to arrive and all there was was a sea of adults in their suits and ties, dresses and high heels, and I'm in my jeans and a sweater feeling way out of place. But I knew this when I walked by the open bar where all the adults were and I overheard "Return Investment" and "Real Estate Assets". I thought no comprende and walked the other way. But I ended up finding a few players I knew and sat with them for the evening. By the time desserts were being eaten all the players needed to go up on stage and say a few words. I thought 1) Crap I need to talk in front of this large crowd and 2) I hope my face doesn't look like the fat kid who just downed a chocolate cake! But it wasn't too bad. We were told we could just say our name and where we are from and if you wanted you could say whatever. But it turns out I had to speak last and everyone before me practically told their whole life story so I couldn't just say my name and where I was from. So I just said a little thank you to the sponsors for putting such a nice tournament together. And said I'll be back next year. So that was the evening. A little embarrassing and a few awkward turtle moments but it was a fun event, and I was glad to go.

Now I get to head back to Florida and thaw out before my next few tournaments in March, where I'll be looking to end my drought of not qualifying. So this will be an important couple of weeks, just practicing and staying healthy. I'll keep you guys posted. Ciao

Travel Days = No Fun

We all know what it is like to travel..the endless lines at the ticket counter, practically getting molested at the security check point, and the passenger next to you hogging the armrest. Well here is something else that just seems to make me upset when traveling by plane. It starts at your point of origin where you get a small delay. You think no worries I still have 2 hours to catch my connecting flight. Then that small delay turns into an hour delay and you start to sweat thinking you could miss your next flight if delayed any longer. Turns out your good to go. You board the plane, sit next to someone who captures your armrest before you could, or someone who falls asleep snoring while you pray they wake up so you can go to the bathroom. But that is fine because you know that you are going to catch your next flight. Well once you land it all turns to hell because you realize where the plane has just taxied in to. Like myself the other day I found myself at one end of the earth and needed to walk all the way to the other in order to catch my flight. I started literally at the last gate at the end of the terminal where I needed to walk all the way to the other end of the terminal and then some. And while walking I hear over the loud speaker that if you don't check in 20 minutes before the scheduled flight is supposed to leave then they can kick you off the plane. So once I hear this I'm panicking. At this point I'm thinking about jogging (or is it yogging, it could be with a soft j) but I say screw it I would look like an idiot with my big tennis bag. So I get on one of those moving sidewalks. Well one side says walk the other side says stand. But I think people can't read because we have people standing on the walking side, or elderly and their walkers walking on the walk side, people standing on the stand side with their huge pieces of luggage on the walk side so you can't get by. It's just a mess. I was about to scream as I saw myself nearing that 20 minute mark. Tick Tock Tick Tock. So I finally get the end of the terminal where I then needed to go underground in order to get to the smaller terminal. I had to walk underneath the runway where they had flashing lights and sounds to make it seems like a cool tunnel, but it wasn't. I was surprised not to see bodies flailing around on the floor from seizures at the other end of the tunnel the lights were so bad. Once at the end of the tunnel, once my seizures stopped, I made my way up the escalator and to my gate which I walked passed because it was not clearly marked...At this point I'm exhausted and sweating from the journey. Below I've even drawn out a little map to demonstrate the perils that took place in Detroit International Airport.



So that is another reason why I hate traveling. But I did get to Midland safely and that is all that matters...

What the...

I just looked up my tournament schedule and realized that I got into the qualifying draw of a 100k tournament but I didn't get into a 25k. Interesting. For those of you who don't know what this means I'll explain...

There is a structure that applies to WTA tennis tournaments. The lowest are the Circuit Events, then International Events, then Premier Events, and lastly the highest which are the 4 Premier Mandatory Events which also called Grand Slams (these are the ones you see on TV held in New York, London, Paris, and Melbourne). You start by playing in the Circuit Events to gain points and these points allow you to qualify for the upper levels of the tennis structure.

I am currently playing in the Circuit Events. Now the lowest of the Circuit Events are the 10k tournaments. The next is a 25k, then 50k, 75k, and lastly a 100k. So as you can see a 25k is lower than a 100k. This has got me wondering how on earth does one qualify for a 100k and not a 25k. Crazy. I guess everyone who is a tennis player in the U.S. is playing the 25k. Oh well. I would rather play the 100k and play well, which means you get more points and more money. There is also more highly ranked players, so the experience should be great. Well we'll see when I get there...

I'm on Facebook

You can now follow me on Facebook. Click the 'like' button on the top right corner of this page and voila! You will then have access to my fan page. This will give you updates from me directly on your Facebook News Feed. With this you can write anything on my fan page and I'll respond back to you. Looking forward to it. :)