1st Tournament of the Year

Last week was my first tournament back held in Midland, MI. I'm pretty sure I stated that in my previous post, but I'll say it again just to refresh your memory. So anyway, I get to Midland in the morning of the 27th which was a Friday. Ended up leaving Knoxville around 6am with a stop in Detroit and into Midland's tiny little airport by 10am. Easy flight, easy trip, no issues there. A driver from the tournament picked me up and took me straight to the courts where I was scheduled to practice at 2pm. So in the meantime I ended up heading over to the gym and got a good workout in before getting my ass kicked in a practice set by another player. I couldn't get too upset over it though, fast courts take time to adjust to and it was my first practice so it wasn't devastating.

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....

Time to dust off this old typewriter

Hey strangers! I'm back! I just wanted to give you all an update. Yes I am still playing tennis. I currently moved back to Knoxville to train. I have a new coach, new fitness regimen and new goals for the year.

I ended last year playing some great tennis. I went over to Europe and played in a couple WTA's and won a few rounds, we also played doubles in the US Open which was awesome! We lost a close three setter to the #10 seeds 7-5 in the 3rd. Over the summer I made the finals a 25K in El Paso, and won a 25K in Fort Worth not long after. So overall it wasn't a bad end to the year for me.

So now I've set my sights on becoming a top 100 singles player. It's going to take a lot of hard work and some sacrifices but I've surrounded myself with professionals, from a coach who was a former top 20 ATP player, to a strength and conditioning coach who's trained many pro athletes, to even just being back at Tennessee where winning championships is a goal. So this whole environment that I've been adopted into is a competitive one, but the goal is daily improvement and pushing your limits.

I just recently started my new fitness regimen and I've already asked for the puke bucket and I am so sore I can barely walk. But every day that I've survived the workout I know I've improved in some way, whether that be in strength, in quickness, or mental toughness, and any improvement is progress in the direction of my goals.

After being in Knoxville for the last 3-4 weeks I finally have a tournament on the horizon. On Friday I get to go to freezing cold Midland, MI in the middle of winter. Yay! But this tournament isn't about winning or losing for me. It's about trying to implement all of the things we have been working on during practice. It's about trying to find a balance of hitting, managing my fitness, and recovery that will work best for me throughout the year. It's a tester of a tournament if that's easier to understand. This new 6 week fitness plan I'm on just started and Midland happened to be right at the beginning. So I will be playing my matches and then continue my fitness as best I can in between. Once Midland is finished I'll come back to Knoxville and get right back into training and prepare for my real season to begin in March. In the meantime I will try and post here and there to keep everyone updated on what's going on. Until then, peace.

Another week over

Another week here in Florida is over. Another week filled with such promise, gone. Tennis is such a cruel sport sometimes. You can practice for hours on end but once you get into a match it can be a whole different story. You can play the best match of your life but you can still lose. The outcome is uncontrollable. Someone must win and someone must lose. It's just tough going week to week not playing the way I am in practice. I'm too focused on results right now and that needs to change. Maybe the next go around I need to just think screw it, I'm going to go for it and I don't care what the result is. Nobody wants to lose, but playing not to lose can be detrimental to anyone's game. Case in point this weeks match in Orlando. I played a former teammate of mine. I get out to a good lead then back off by playing not to lose. And guess what happened I lost. But now that I've calmed down about it I realized what I did and I can only try to fix the problem which is something I can control. But here's a recap.

First set I was nervous the entire time. My legs were tingling the whole time. Somehow I was still able to move. My first serve was complete crap. I probably made 5 first serves the whole set. I guess my 2nd serve was effective though. I was playing my game plan but still didn't feel relaxed. Still felt like I was holding back. I won the first 6-3.

In the second I continued to play my game and found myself up 4-2 when she called a trainer because she fell on the clay. So I sat down waiting for the treatment to be completed and then that next game I was up 40-15 on her serve. I get a forehand return which I hit cross court, she hits it to my backhand I run around to hit a forehand inside out and went after it but missed it long. Then the next point she aces me out wide. Then lose the game. Now 4-3. And lose the next 3 games. Still getting treatment and moving her wrist back and forth in between points can really screw with your head too. But I don't think that had anything to do with my loss. 

Then in the third set we change ends at 0-1 and I asked the umpire for a bag of ice because it was hot and humid, I wanted to try to cool down during change overs. But as I'm asking some other official comes over and asks her "Just real quick, what do you want for lunch?" They go back and forth about what's on the menu and I just walk to the other side of the court... I didn't get my bag of ice until 2 change overs later. When I had to ask again on the first changeover. Like really?!  Don't worry about us players busting our ass out here. I hope your lunch was delicious though! But in the match I got broken and that was enough. She didn't do anything to hurt me, nothing at all. I just over played everything because there was no pace and the balls landed up the middle and I tried to do too much. I'm kicking myself now because it's something simple to fix. And I was telling myself in the match what was happening I just couldn't physically do it. I did everything right until the middle of the second set but just stopped doing what was right because I wanted to protect my lead and not really win it. I had an aggressive game plan but I had a doubtful mindset. I wasn't fully 100% commited to playing aggressive. Tennis isn't like any other sport. Without a clock you have to win the last point, you can't just run out the clock like basketball of football. And that's something I need to work on. That killer instinct to finish off my opponents. I'm near the finish line in my matches I just need to sprint to the end. I have another tournament next week and I'm barely in the qualifying so it's a tough tournament but screw it right? I've already lost early in the past two tournaments so what's the worst I can do, break even. Time to just swing for the fences and stay focused on each point. One at a time.