Hello from the Netherlands

Hey everyone! I haven't written in forever, and I apologize for that. I WILL do my best this year to write more often. I promise!

It has been an excited year so far. I packed up my bags and moved to the Netherlands. I started working with Michel Lentjes, a coach who I have known for many years since playing at the Evert Tennis Academy 10 years ago. I am staying with him and his family as well as another player, a junior, Justin Roberts who is from the Bahamas.

I came over here the first week of the year and once I landed my first thought was I wish I packed more warm weather clothing. I think I’ve seen the sun about 5 times in a month and a half. It is a big change from training in Florida! It’s 75 degrees there compared to 20 here. Outdoor tennis to indoor tennis. English (well spanglish in Florida) to Dutch. All things I need to get used to but I’m fine with. I grew up in Massachusetts so I’m definitely used to the cold weather, I enjoy playing indoor tennis (it suits my game), but Dutch however poses a challenge, I know nothing of it. I do have a New Year’s resolution to learn a new language (it’s been ongoing for some years now) so why not try to learn Dutch, I’m here and I can learn firsthand and not from some book or CD.

But anyway so far things have been great. I’ve been practicing hard and the results have already shown. Last month I went to Coimbra, Portugal to play in two 10ks and in the first tournament I made it to the finals losing 7-5 6-1. It was a great way to start the year. However, I was a bit bummed because I hurt my foot in the quarterfinals and by the finals I couldn’t push off to run shots down so I couldn’t give it my best effort. Then I gave myself a day off before the next tournament to see if it would help reduce the pain but it didn’t. I tried to play but had to retire in my first round. It is always a tough decision to make but it was the start of the year and I didn’t want a repeat of last year where I was out most of the year, so I think I made a good choice.

Since then I’ve just been here in the Netherlands practicing and working out. My foot is pretty much healed so I’m happy about that. My upcoming tournaments are next week in Macon and Bron, France. Two friends of mine are playing in the tournaments, two former college players I might add, Kirsten Flower (GA Tech & Ohio State) and Rosalia Alda (Tennessee). It’s nice having people I know around and people who speak English. It makes it easier when looking to play doubles and warming up before matches. You don’t have to use over the top hand gestures and speak loud and slowly.. WOULD… YOU… LIKE… TO… HIT… TO… MOR… ROW? (for this reason I need to learn a language, multiple ones for that matter, or tennis players should just create their own.) But anyway I’m excited to get back to playing and hopefully build on the confidence I got while in Portugal. I hope to have some good practices this week, and then head down to France on Thursday. It should be fun. I’ll keep you guys posted.

P.S. If anyone reads this and wants to know something about the sport, travel, etc just ask. Yes, I am not at the highest level of the sport (yet) but I’ll answer if you have any questions. J