Then on Saturday I had scheduled two practices, one with my doubles partner and another with a main draw player. The first hit was more of a let's get used to the courts, long rallies, just trying to get a feel and get our timing down. It was a solid hour and we both felt pretty good with our rhythm. Then in my next hit we ended up playing a few games in which I was winning. I think 4-2 but it doesn't really count because it's practice but it left me feeling good about my game, especially winning against a main draw player who was seeded in the tournament. After that practice I had signed myself up for a pro-am event. So for an hour I hit with a family who were members of the club and they were so excited to play with me. For the rest of the week they came to my matches and cheered from the stands which was really nice of them.
Sunday was match day. First round of qualifying began. I ended up being the #1 seed in qualies so had one person from the main withdrew I would have been in. Turns out that a player did withdraw on Monday but whatever, I needed the matches. So first round I was up against a very good ball striker from Canada. I played her last summer in El Paso and grinded out a 4 hour win after saving 9 match points. So it was a tough match going in. I knew I needed to play well and aggressive in order to give myself a chance. During the match I was up both sets 2-0 so you can't start off any better then a break and a hold, but after that it all seemed to go downhill. I was trying to be too aggressive, going for winners on shots that weren't there for the taking. I missed a bunch of forehands by a few inches every time and I couldn't seem to wrangle them in. I thought I was moving great, I wasn't winded after points, I felt like I was hitting the ball cleanly, I was just making too many unforced errors and she took advantage. I don't think she beat me, I think I gave her the match. It is unfortunate to lose a match that way but it happens. Hopefully it will be the only match to lose like that this year.
Monday I ended up getting up early and headed over to the courts before everyone else to get in some on court fitness, then another player and I played a practice match, which of course I made every forehand... always happens that way. But it was still good to get out there and get some more match play in. Then in the afternoon we did a community outreach program and went over to an elementary school to speak to the kids about tennis and our lives. They all were wicked excited when we showed them how to hit the ball back and forth. It was as if they were seeing magic for the first time.
Tuesday and Wednesday nothing exciting happened. Just more practice and we went to another elementary school.
Thursday we finally got to play our first round of doubles. We were scheduled to play around 4pm and before that the tournament director asked us to speak at the Rotary Club. For those who don't know what that is the best way to describe it is like a town hall meeting with business leaders getting together to create opportunities to better the community. Their motto is "Service Above Self". So we spoke to a crowd of about 100 people or so and at the end we were given a coin representing our service to the Midland community through the tournament's outreach program which was neat. We finished up there and went back to the courts to warm up for our doubles match. We played very solid from start to finish. Our two opponents were both young and heading to college in the fall. So we tried to take advantage of that. We had the experience to help us on the big points and it all worked out in our favor. We won 6-2, 6-0.
Friday night we played our quarterfinal match. We were up against two very good 20 year olds (give or take a couple years). We ended up winning 6-2, 6-2. We felt like the match was much closer than the score. I believe we won a bunch of deuce points so had we not things may have gone a bit differently. However, Ashley and I played basic solid doubles. We played aggressive when we could and solid when it was a neutral ball. Nothing more you could have asked for during that match.
Saturday we had our semifinal match against the #3 seeded team. Both players are top 100 in singles and both have seen top 100 in doubles, so it was going to be a challenge. One of the girls won the singles last year and is 6 feet tall and can hit bombs for serves. So going in we decided that every time she served we were going to swing away and not worrying too much if we didn't break her. Our sole purpose was to hold serve and try to break her partner. Our plan ended up working because we won 7-5, 6-3. We broke them a couple times and again we played solid tennis. We tried to take advantage of the middle and make them come up with the hard angles in order to beat us.
Super Bowl Sunday our final was scheduled for 2nd on after 1 and the only thing we hoped for was that the singles finished quickly so our match could finish before the Super Bowl. And of course that didn't happen. The singles final ended up going 3 sets and 6-4 in the 3rd. Our match started around 3:30 or so and from the first point we knew we were up for a challenge. In all honesty we had watched our opponents play the previous day and they were making mistakes so we hoped the trend continued. In reality they played lights out. One girl was ripping forehands, the other teeing off on the cross court. So we kept having to adjust our game plan mid-match. We were trying to be very observant as to their patterns and what our strengths were at the time. So after each point we were poking and prodding trying to see what they did with certain balls and what shots they were hitting. In the end it was just enough to squeeze out the win 7-6(1), 6-3 for our first ever 100k title and I don't think I've been happier. (We even got back home in time to watch the 2nd half of the game, but at that point I was more excited about our win then the game. But that ending did make the day even better.) All week our tennis was phenomenal. We served great, drove our returns deep in the court, we took advantage of the middle ball when it was there, and we didn't give away many free points. So it's not bad to win our first doubles 100k after deciding to play more singles....
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