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.