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. :)

The Hard Life

I've just come to the realization that I have no money. It just set in. Well I realized it a week ago but I just thought about writing it now. So the past couple days I've tried really hard to not spend anything. But guess what, that didn't work. Gas in florida has reached $3.29 a gallon, I've ran out of string and my college coach got me hooked on probably the most expensive string, so thats about $30 a racket, plus $15 for stringing. I have doctors visits another $50 or so there. Next week I have a flight to Midland so there is the ticket and another $25-50 for luggage. So this blows. And the worst part is that it's not even my money its my parents. So I feel 10x worse. Whoever said money can't buy you happiness was lying. Without it life is very difficult, especially when you live in a town like Boca where everyone drives a BMW, Mercedes, or Porche. So this upcoming tournament has a lot of money it in, so I really need to do well because if I don't start producing soon this journey is going to end, abruptly. This is the true life of a struggling tennis player. (Maybe I should rename this blog with that.) Anyone know of a sponsor?????

1st 100k

The past few weeks I've learned the hard way that in order to do anything successful you need to work hard and prepare to best that you can. Well, the last two tournaments I played I had little preparation which made for a bad couple weeks. I knew going into the tournaments that I wasn't going to do great but it was good to still be in a competitive environment. Anyway I don't feel so bad because the Pats lost too. Now I can just relax and watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials instead of watching another nail-biter that finishes with a field goal...
Back to tennis. I've just gotten back to Boca and I've been practicing for a more consistent basis so my game is feeling better. I also just saw that I got into the qualifying draw of the 100k in Midland, MI. Wahoo!! It's going to be very cold, and I don't own a winter jacket. Well I do but it's in storage in Knoxville, TN so that's useless. But I'm excited. It's indoors and it should be a great experience. The highest ranked player there is about 75 in the world. So I'm hoping to play her to see what I can do. So I am looking forward to it. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Plantation

Oh plantation i have missed thee. the place brings back many great memories... Not. Every memory I have of it was all bad. Junior tournaments were always held there and I never did well. I actually played awful just about every time there. But now, years later I found myself back in that hell I like to call it for a 25k. Now don't get me wrong the place is nice it's just a park that has rows of tennis courts as far as the eye can see. I've never played well there so that's why I don't like it. But anyway, moving on. The tournament was my first one of the new year and first after taking 2 weeks completely off after my Australia trip that I would like to forget. So from that I wasn't expecting much out of myself and to play a tournament after not being able to feel my arm after a long week of practice. My expectations were about as high as the freshly cut grass on the green of the 8th hole on the neighboring golf course. But anyway I managed to win my first round in a third set tiebreaker. But the next day it was all down hill. I couldn't serve and trying to hit groundstrokes passed the service line was impossible. So I decided to throw in the towel in the second set. Now i hate retiring from a match. I think the last time I retired was out at winter super nationals near Phoenix when I was 16. But this time I think it was for the best. It's the first tournament of the year. Why make things worst At the start. So I think my decision was a good one. But now I'm in Lutz Florida for another 25. My arm is doing a little better so we'll see what happens.

Too much is a bad thing

After yesterday's tennis marathon I woke up this morning feeling like everything was going to be ok. Boy was I wrong once I got to tennis. First we had an hour of fitness testing. Felt fine while doing all the tests but once actual tennis came around I thought my arm was going to fall off. For most of the day I couldn't feel it especially while serving. (Now I know how Isner and Mahut felt during their 3 day tennis match last year at Wimbledon.) But I managed to play pretty well today. I even served really well for not having a full functioning arm. Surprising. But there is hope for tomorrow. Just when to my deep muscle/chiropractor which hurt like hell and I bawled my eyes out. But tomorrow I should be feeling better and the day after that I should be feeling like a million bucks. Just in time for the tournament.

Long days ahead

Howdy ho! Just letting you all know that I'm in a tournament this weekend which is a little scary seeing I am just coming off of a 2 week break of not doing a single thing. :/ But oh well. I am actually hitting really well for such a long break off. (Before my 1st practice I got there early and hit on the the wall for a few minutes just to make sure I could make contact with the ball. Was stressing out the night before. Wasn't a good feeling.) And turns out that today I played tennis for a total of 6 hours. 2.5 hours of drilling in the morning then 3.5 hours of playing sets. And some where in between was an hour of lifting. So right now I'm a little tired. I thought towards the end my arm from shoulder down was going to come off as I hit a serve. That would have been a pretty site. ha. But right now the USTA is hosting a couple of college players for a mini camp...it's weird how last year that was me. But I got to hit with them, so it made me feel like I was back in school again (but I don't miss it). Anyway so that was what was happening today. Tomorrow and the rest of the week should be about the same. I believe it is 4 hours of tennis and an hour of fitness so I should have plenty of practice before this tournament :) Hopefully I'm not too tired...