France - Dijon

The other week I was in Dijon, France. My journey started from Amsterdam and took a train straight to Paris Nord station, about a 2 and a half hour train ride. My next train was out of the Paris Bercy station which isn’t near Paris Nord. To clarify, Paris has three train stations. Paris Nord which is pretty much at the center of Paris, it’s the biggest. It has the fast trains, long distance trains, and the subway trains which they call the Metro. Then there is Paris Lyon which is in the middle of the three station and is only a few train stops away from Nord through the Metro. This station serves the Metro and fast trains as well but not as big as Nord. Then on the outer end of Paris there is Bercy. This station serves around the country but has the slower trains that stop a more stations. So from Paris Nord I decided to take the Metro instead of a taxi. So I took the Metro Line 4 towards Chalete where I needed to get off. Well I get on the train and the announcement said the next stop was the wrong direction that was needed. So I get off and walked around because I couldn’t find out how to get to the other side of the track. So after lugging my bags up and down some stairs I finally found the right track and direction that was needed. So I made it to Chalete and from there I needed to catch the 14 Line to Bercy. Once at Bercy it was about a three minute walk outside to the Bercy station. But after going through France’s subway system I don’t think France allows obese people to ride. The gates that you have to go through are so small I could hardly get my luggage through. The space is barely a foot and a half wide. It’s crazy. No wonder the French are all skinny.

Train Ride

Anyway, once at Bercy I get on the train and there is not a seat to be had. I went on about five different carriages and nothing. So I have up looking and just put my luggage and myself in the small hallway where the carriage doors are. It seemed to be a popular spot because I shared it with six others and their luggage. The only open seat was the toilet but I definitely wasn’t going to sit on that. The roof would have been a better choice. So we all stood around for about an hour and a half until a bunch of people got off at one stop. Then we all ran for the open seats for the rest of the trip.




Farmland

I got into Dijon at 4:30 and was disappointed because there was nothing that had to do with the mustard. So was bummed. I thought it would be like those Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing commercials but it wasn’t. Hahaha. But I took a taxi to the courts and it seemed to take forever, as I’m watching the fare raise even when we were idling. But there was nothing near the courts. It was all farmland. The courts were next to a fold course that was up in the woods away from the main road. But 30 euros later I was at the courts. I didn't think it would have cost that much so I only had 20 euros on me for sign-in when I needed 27. But they let me pay the rest the following day before my first round.


The site had three indoor courts but being in France it might have been outdoors it was so cold on the court. A few mornings when warming up you could see your breath. It was like playing Winter Nationals out in Arizona in Decemeber. When matches started at 8am so you were warming up at 7am playing in the dark dressed in your warmest clothes while all the parents were sitting in the cars with the heat on. So I guess I should have been used to it. Well in the first round of qualifying I played a French girl Enmer. I won in three sets 6-4,3-6,6-3. I didn't play the greatest but it was enough. The second set I missed a lot and she was hardly missed. She got a lot back and so I was forcing shots and it didn't work. Obviously. The third set though, I was relaxed and just out played her by being aggressive and not giving her anything for free.

Second round I played Lemmens, a Belgian. I won that match in two sets 6-3,6-3. It was a tough one. Every point was earned and most games had multiple deuce points. I played this match aggressively and smart. I moved well and I was lucky enough to win most of the key points. I think she was playing well enough that if I wasn't moving and hitting the way I was, even had a small mental lapse then she would have won the match. So the way the match really played out the score should have read 7-6,7-6. It was that close. But i made it to the main draw after that win, so something else to be happy about.

In the first round of the main draw I was up against another French player Cheli who was given a wild card into the main. Apparently, she wasn't sure she was going to play because she hurt her ankle before the tournament, but she played. She managed to only play a set. She retired when she was down 6-0,1-0. She couldn't run much so she just hit hoping to hit winners but she mostly just missed. I didn't realize she was stopping because her and the umpire were speaking in French and then the umpire said she's done. Then the tournament supervisor who always reminds me of my grandfather
 just in his stature came out and winked and nodded that she was finished. But good for me bad for her. I got my point and was moving on to the next round.

Second round I played another French player Arcangioli and won 6-3,6-3. Again it was a close match but I played aggressive, I moved well, and I was focused every point. I didn't give her a single free point. I ran every ball down forcing her to hit into smaller and smaller targets and eventually she made an error. So again it was another good effort on my part.

In the quarterfinals I was up against Kostova and lost 4-6,6-3,3-6. In the first set I found myself down 0-3 rather quickly. I was being pushed around the court and I was playing passively. Then from that changeover I was determined to just run for everything, look for an opportunity to take charge of the point right from the start, and to stand my ground and not let her pace knock me off the baseline. So once I did that I won four straight games and was up 4-3. Then she called for the trainer to get her leg rubbed out and well all my momentum I had came to a screeching halt. I lost the next three games and the set. But I was mad over the medical timeout so I wanted to beat her even more because I felt she abused the rules a bit. Like when players go to the bathroom. No one ever really has to use the bathroom. In women's tennis yes there will be times when it is an emergency, but that is rare. So when people go to the bathroom they really just go a stand there, some players take their water bottles with them, to make it sound more realistic, other wash their face. But the point of a bathroom break is to use the bathroom. Most players don't. Well anyway I don't know if she was really hurt but it was interesting timing. So the second set I just continued with the same gameplan. Being aggressive, moving, take control of the points. And by doing that I took the second set 6-3. I even came out of my shoe one point I was moving around the court so fast. And yes my shoe laces were tied tight so it wasn't like it was easy to get out of. In the third set we both were going at it. She would yell come on when she won a point, and I would yell come on when I won a point. We came to a point at 3-3 and I had a game point and I got cautious. I had a chance to take control of the point when I got a high ball in the middle of the court. I backed up and instead of hitting it to her forehand which was the weaker of the two groundstrokes and keeping me in forehand rallies which I wanted I changed my mind at the last second and floated my forehand to her backhand and she just cracked it and she took control of the point and won it.. Then after that she won the game and took control of the match. After that and in the final game I pressed a bit too much. Came to net too soon, or went for a bigger shot then needed and lost. But I competed until the very end. I save two match points but unfortunately not the third. But it was a great match. It was a great tournament. I competed. I was mentally tough. I moved really well.  And I gave nothing for free. So I was very happy with my result in Dijon.




The courts

 

Indoor

First tournament back

Last week I was back over in England at a tournament in Sunderland. It's in the northeast portion of the country near Newcastle and just south of the Scottish border. It's on the coast so it was cold and windy. Most of the nights you could hear the rain and sleet getting pelted against the window of my room. I was staying at a bed and breakfast maybe 200 yards away from the ocean but off of the main street, however from my room I could see the ocean which was nice, even though most days were overcast and rainy. I decided to book the room that didn't have a bathroom so I had to share with the other guests in 3 rooms on the floor. I didn't mind, but it seemed like my bladder revolted. Every night I had to get up. So that was wicked annoying. Also, on the day that I arrived it was sunny out and I needed to get something eat so I went for a walk. I stopped to take a picture and some creepy man slowed down as he walked past me, then he stopped, turned back and started to talk to me. He asked if I wanted to join him for a cup of coffee, which I said no. Then he pleaded, and I continued to say no. Then asked if I could keep him company. A definite no. He was maybe 50 years old, some kind of eastern European accent, looked like a drug addict, with blackening gums, and a gold canine tooth. Certainly not my kind of type. So I started to just ignore him and soon he walked off in the direction I needed to go. So I stood around hoping he would just walk farther ahead of me. And just as he was walking around the corner I started walking again. But again he stopped and saw me heading that way and came back. He was asking something but I didn't look at him and jaywalked across the street to get away. He creeped me out and made my skin crawl the rest of the day. A great start in Sunderland.

This tournament was my first in close to two months. I was supposed to play a few over in California but ended up hurting my wrist and hand, so I had to bag those. I didn't play for a week to see if that helped, which it did for the most part. Then I had about a week and a half of practice before heading over to Europe. I got here last Monday and I arrived in Sunderland on Saturday and play began on Monday. In my first round I was up against a Spaniard that I knew nothing about. I figured she would hit with more spin and run a lot of shots down, I was only right about one of those. She did like to run, but she didn't hit with much spin. Everything was mostly hard and flat. I started out returning and that game I had three chances to break but didn't convert. One break point she hit a winner and the other two I missed the return deep past the baseline. Then I held and so did she. Then in the 4th game I was serving and had two game points but double faulted on both. Another easy way to give away a game... So I was now down 1-3 but broke her right back and we each held serve until 5-6 and then I got broken. I wasn't upset about losing the set because I had about 5 more break point opportunities but just couldn't covert. I was more upset about the last service game, it was quick and she didn't have to work for the game. But it was a close set and it could have gone either way. The second set started off well for me. I broke her the first game and held so I was up 2-0. Then she held and I got broken by double faulting the game away. Again. But when the score was 3-2 after I broke her again, I was returning at 30-15 in the game I hit an inside out forehand that landed and good inch inside the line and out of her reach. She called it out and it clearly wasn't. But we didn't have an umpire so the call had to stand. I'm not saying my eyesight it perfect, but it should be because of my new contacts that were in, and I also filmed the match and it clearly was in. So it should have been 40-15 and I won the next point so I would have won the game to go ahead 4-2. Instead it was 30-30 in the game and I had another two game points that I didn't get. On the final game point I tried serving and volleying but missed the halfvolley. So now it was 3-3 and that was the closest the score would get. So I lost the match 5-7,3-6.

Some of the statistics of the match were in the first set I was serving at 67% and winning 61% of 1st serve points, but I only won 43% of my second serve points. I was 10 for 16 at the net. But I was -16 for winners to errors,  my opponent was -17. So it really was any ones set. In the second set though my level dropped a bit. I was serving at 60% and winning only 45% of 1st serve points, and 46% second serve points. I was 6 for 11 at the net. And again I was in the negatives with the winners to errors ratio at -10 compared to my opponents -5. I don't think I played poorly. My opponent played well, especially the key points during the match. She won a few more rounds beating some of the seeds pretty easy so she's a good player she just doesn't have the ranking to show for it, but she will soon enough. I thought I played well for not playing a tournament in a while. I just need to work on some things, like my second serve, or trying to find a balance between being aggressive with my forehand but keeping it in the court. All things can be fixed, just need to practice them some more and continue to play tournaments. Next tournament is in Dijon, France next weekend. Maybe I'll get some free mustard but a win would be even better. Until then.

Out with injury

The past few weeks I've been sidelined with tendonitis in my wrist. I was supposed be out west playing in two tournaments in California and another in Arizona but that's not happening. In the previous tournament and the days leading up to it I felt something in my wrist and thumb but I figured it was nothing. At the tournament the trainer didn't know what was wrong so she said I should get it checked out so I did. After an X-ray and a MRI one of the best hand specialists in the US said it was tendonitis. I was happy that they figured out what was wrong but felt a bit stupid because it was only tendonitis. I thought about going to the scheduled tournaments but decided to rest so that I would be able to compete the rest of the year and not make it worse. Also I wouldn't want to stop in the middle of the season when there are so many tournaments to choose from. So since the last tournament I've hit a few times but I've been mostly working out. Trying to get my strength and endurance up because I felt they were lacking. I head back to the court on Monday so I'm hoping everything goes well and I can start practicing more. Fingers crossed.

1st of the year

Last week I was down in Port St. Lucie, FL for a $25,000 tournament. It was my first tournament of the year and I was really excited to get back into the swing of things. (No pun intended) At the end of last year I took quite some time off and then started back up with the conditioning and tennis in November. I've been up in Massachusetts hitting with junior players pretty much anywhere there is an indoor court. From Weymouth, to Yarmouth, Scituate, and Hanover. But I got some good hitting in and that's all that matters. As the days got closer and closer to tournament time the more excited I got. What I really got excited for was to be able to record and watch my matches because for Christmas I got a camera mount. It's called the QM-1 (could've been way more creative with the name) but you hook it over the fence so you get a view of the whole court as your playing. My senior year at Tennessee I video taped all of the matches and watched them over and over and I think that is why I had my best year ever. You get to watch and critique. You get to see what you're doing wrong or right during a certain situations, or see that you only missed three forehands not a million and one forehands that I think I do. :) So I learned to not be so hard on myself because whatever I'm thinking on the court isn't even half as bad as it really is in reality. So it really is the best tool for improvement and I'm happy I got it and couldn't wait to use it...

So I get down to Florida and immediately start sweating. Being in 30 degree weather for months to 80 degrees is a big difference. Another big adjustment was me practicing inside on hard courts and this tournament was outside (obviously) and clay. I hadn't played outside since October or on a clay court since September. Not the best preparation but I heard it's easier to go from hard to clay, and I played pretty much all last year on clay so I figured I still knew how to slide.

The tournament was held at Tesoro Country Club and it quickly became known as the Club of Can't. You couldn't do anything in there. No outside food, no outside drinks, couldn't park in certain areas, players couldn't sit under the tent because it was the VIP area only. I mean I get the rules but the tent was empty, if it were the finals and they were full I totally understand. But it was the qualifying matches and no one was there. Eventually the players were allowed to sit up there so that was nice of them. And don't get me wrong, the tournament was run very nicely, the volunteers were amazing, and the club was very very nice, I just think everyone was a bit nervous because it was their first tournament so they wanted to stick to the script.

First round of qualifying I was up against Lee of America. I looked her up the night before and saw that she playing mostly junior tournaments, but was starting to play the circuit. She had some close matches with a few girls I knew so I thought the match should be interesting. I wasn't too nervous at the beginning of the match, it was more excitement. But at the start I wasn't really pressing my game. I was hitting shots but without a purpose so she was able to hang around. I got a bit frustrated because my timing was a bit off and I wanted to hit shots a certain way into a specific area and they weren't close. And I know that comes back with time and more match play, so I was ok with it. But my sister Meg was there and she had some words of encouragement to get me back on track. And like I read "A word of encouragement during failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success." Which is so true, so thanks Meg for being there!! You're let's go Cait! got me through. In the match we each held serve until I was able to break her at 2-2 and that's when I ran away with the match. I ended up winning 6-2,6-0. It was an okay match. Good for my first of the year. And thanks to my video I won 69% of my first serve points in the first set and 86% of them in the second set. However, my first serve percentage in the first could have been better, it was only at 43%. In the second it was 60%. I was -5 in the winner to error ratio in the first set - 9 winners to 14 errors and in the second set I was +2 - 7 winners to 5 errors. So overall not a bad start but could be better.

In the second round I had to play against a friend of mine Anamika who played for Pepperdine. We practiced together a bunch of times at the past few tournaments so we each knew how the other plays. We got started and right away this annoying sound kept coming from the court next to us. I don't know the girls name but her grunt was awful. If you've ever seen Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carey asks "do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?" this should have come out of his mouth. It sounded like a dieing donkey. Eeee-Yaaaaw every single shot. Even volleys which grunting is so not necessary. But it was wicked annoying and she had her "team" which were sitting in the far corner of the court yelling come on or some foreign language and talking to her in between points. Cheating is common at this level. Usually whoever is with the player sits down at the back fence furthest away from the official sitting in the chair, and the girls either roll the tennis balls to that corner or place their towel on the fence nearby. So after each point they have to get a ball or towel off and it is conveniently located near the coach who tells them in a whisper the game plan. So obvious and the umpires don't do anything about it. Anyway, back to the match because the girl on the next court was so loud I really just had to focus on my game plan and concentrate on the ball, nothing else. The first game I broke her even after being down 0-40 but the next game I got broken. So it's not really a break until you hold serve. After that game though I picked it up and won the set 6-2. I hit 61% 1st serves and won 64% of the points on my 1st serves. The second set got a little bit trickier. I found myself down 0-2 and a point away from 0-3 but I managed to hold, then break, and hold again so I was up 3-2. Then I lost my serve after a long game so we were back even 3-3. I broke right back and at 4-3 things got interesting. Well remember the annoying grunter on the next court? During a point she thought a ball was out, however, she didn't stop play and continued until she lost the point on the next shot. Then she told the official she stopped and circled the mark of the previous shot. The official ruled that she didn't stop play immediately and should lose the point. The girl put up a big stink and asked for the tournament referee to come out, which she did. They were arguing back and forth for probably a solid 5 minutes and me and Anamika were losing focus. Our points were horrible. Then her coach in the back corner kept yelling out to the referee and that was the side I was playing on. So after a point I lost I turned to him and told him to be quiet. Maybe not in the nicest way. But he turns and says "You shut up. What are you 15 years old?" After thinking wow I must be aging well I turned around and saw the crowd staring at me, our official looking at me, and Anamika who then told our official if he could tell him to shut up. I burst out laughing then told Anamika that I was sorry for starting that little mess, but her response was "no problem, I was having your back." Everyone watching heard the whole thing and was laughing and it took awhile to get focused on the next point. I ended up losing that game, but broke back and the girl on the next court got to replay the point because of all her complaining. The rules say you have to stop as soon as you hit the ball and she didn't so I don't know why she got another chance. But on positive note she lost the replay point too. (We were on a change over so we heard the whole thing) Then I managed to serve out the match 6-4. The second set had too many ups and downs but I still managed to pull it out. My serve percentage stayed about the same as the first at 62% but I only managed to win 48% of my 1st serve points. Luckily they were the important ones! The thing that impressed me that match was my backhands. I drove a lot of them and didn't hardly miss any. So I was very happy about that.

In the last round of the qualifying I was up against a girl from Kazakhstan. Again I was playing next to the donkey grunter and my opponent had her coach and family in the far corner of the court where she placed her towel and rolled the balls too...At the start of the match I came out a bit flat. My movement wasn't as good as it was the previous day and my forehand let me down big time. But the first set I was down 1-5 and brought it back to 3-5 and wasn't able to get that last break of serve back. So bye went the set 3-6. During the first set I was hitting 72% first serves but only winning 41% of them. Not good. Most of my errors were coming off of the second ball where I was going for too much. The second set was closer but again I got broken once and couldn't get it back and lost the set and that match 4-6. My serve percentage dropped a little bit to 64% but I won 59% of those points. I had break chances returning but couldn't win them. And this set my forehand was all over the place. I think if I could have made more forehands the set could have been mine. After watching the match I picked up on some things to improve on. My forehand being one, focus on making that second ball after the serve, taking more time away from opponent by cutting off the angles to the ball, and lastly having better serve placement because making your serve is good but having great placement is better for setting up the points.

So not the best ending to the tournament, but I walk away knowing what I can do better and I think it was a good start to the year. We'll see what the rest of the year holds. I hope good things.