Watching Matches

Today I watched a few matches including Filipp Krajinovic who won fairly easily, I believe 7-5 6-2 against someone I didn’t recognize. Tim Van Terheijden lost which is surprising, he did play the #7 seed Bradley Klahn, but I thought he could take him.

Mallory Cecil played Carling Seguso, two academy students and Mallory won in a third set tiebreak. Everyone was watching because it was two of the better girls from here in a long close match.

Ricardus Berankis of Lithuania lost in three sets to a US player who I believe is #3 in 18’s USTA. Berankis recently won the US open but has been having problems with his back so I guess he hasn’t been able to play as well.

I’m not sure of any other big upsets but tomorrow there will be some interesting matches and I think that a few players that have been on cruise control for their first two rounds will finally find some opposition.. 3/4 of the field is out and the level of play has just risen greatly, the rest of the field is entirely players that probably would do well in pro tournaments.

Some Matches

Ok, here’s an update on 18’s first round.

Filipp Krajinovic, a friend of mine, who is in my opinion the best 15 year old in the world, beat the ITF ranking’s opinion of the best 15 year old in the world today. The kid he played is from Australia, last name of Brutis, and he is ranked 20 in the world for 18’s and is only 15. They drew eachother first round and the Serbian Krajinovic won easily, 6-2 6-4. Pretty amazing.

Long time Bollettieri player Jason Zafiros was sent packing (well, back to his dorm room) when he drew Ricardus Berankis first round, the #2 in the world player.

A few kids in Pauls group, Joseph Cohen and Matteo Civarolo both lost. They played awful in my opinion, really letting the crowd get to them and being jerks (“This guy is SO bad!”) so the travelling coach Heath was pretty upset and left early. David Sofaer played well as usual and won his match in short order. One of the smarter players out there, despite his size.

The kid I played, Tim Van Terheijden beat Devin Britton, 16’s finalist of last year, 6-2 6-1. Every match he wins will further strengthen my bad luck in terms of draws. (I do believe I have had the worst luck of anyone)

Here’s how bad I run:

My first tournament, I lost in the final round of quali’s and 7 of 8 people got lucky loser spots. I was the only one who did not get one.

Second tournament, I played Michael Davis in points round, one of the better sponsored players here.

Third tournament my opponent changes the score of the second set and the umpire agrees with him. I am one of the four (out of eight) to not get a lucky loser spot.

Fourth tournament I play the kid who ends up winning the tournament in first round QUALIES.

Fifth tournament I play two quali’s matches on the same day and the second one is against the eventual finalist.

Sixth tournament I qualify and play the eventual winner in first round (points round).

Seventh tournament is an exemption from my bad luck, I lost a 3 setter to a polish kid in 2nd round quali’s.

Eighth tournament I qualified and played the #1 seed and eventual finalist in 2nd round, points round.

Ninth tournament they messed up the draw and I did not get to play quali’s and was stuck in Jamaica for four days.j

10th tournament my draw was such that I would have played the #1 seed and eventual semifinalist had I won my first round (which was against an unranked ITF player who was top 120 USTA)

11th tournament I played a top 50 ITF player first round who shouldn’t have even been playing the tournament.

End rant.

College Showcase

There was a college “showcase” today at 11:30, that Jakub Grzeslo told me about yesterday. But he told me to meet at the SPC (sports performance center) which is a sort of meeting area. So since it was in here, I knew that we weren’t supposed to bring our rackets or anything else, it would just be a sort of meeting where we learn some things about college.

However I went there today and he called me saying it’s at the adult clay courts and we were supposed to be hitting. It’s not a big deal because I am coming back next year and since I’m not going to college next year I really didn’t need to go.

What I did not do well in module 1 was prepare for the tests the right way. I think I can improve my test scores by working harder on my notes and being more thorough in making sure I understand the reading. If I make notes on general areas of the reading, and memorize the important specifics of the reading then I will do better on the tests because it won’t take me as much time to figure out the answers to the questions. I will already be very familiar with the material and my notes will just be there to refresh my memory on certain parts of the reading that I have not completely memorized.

Watching Some Matches

Today I watched some matches with a few guys in my group and there were some pretty solid players. Of course most of them will be noticeably worse than main draw players, but nonetheless they were more than just solid.

The guy I played yesterday really choked today. I couldn’t believe it, he was playing awful! I saw him call for a trainer because I guess his neck was bothering him, so maybe that was part of the reason. But he really gave away a match that I think he should’ve won easily. He lost 7-6 in the third set, in a close tiebreak 7-5. He didn’t seem too disappointed, he must’ve known that he had a very good chance of getting in the tournament as a lucky loser.

Which brings me to the topic of lucky losers. I’m going to go tomorrow and try to get in as a lucky loser. Here’s how it works- there are eight players who lost in the final round of quali’s, and they get the first spots. Some of them probably won’t show up, so probably 4 or 5 of them will take the spots of the people who don’t show up for Main Draw. Then, there are the people who lost in 2nd round quali’s. There are 16, but chances are none of them stuck around for three days to see if they can get luck and make it in the draw. I only know one kid who is for sure going to be there, because he is a full-timer here and lost in second round. So I am guessing if seven or eight people don’t show up, then I will make it into the draw. The odds of this are slim, I would probably say I have about a 1 in 3 chance of getting in. But I’m going to pretend like I am already in the draw and prepare accordingly.

Eddie Herr 2nd Round Quali’s

Today I played against a kid from the Netherlands named Tim Vanterjein or something, and he’s ranked 155 or so in the world. He’s been playing mostly pro events lately, all futures though. I thought I would give myself a good shot at upsetting him if I served well and really hung in there on his serve.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason I didn’t serve well and he didn’t give me a chance on his serve. I have to say, he was an exceptionally good player. I can’t remember the last time I lost this badly, only winning one game in the first set, and none (???) in the second. He looked and played like a pro, and did everthing he was supposed to.

I wish I had given him more of a match, it would’ve been fun to play at a higher level and get in rallies of a quality that people won’t see until tuesday or wednesday next week. I think that could have happened; we are both hard hitters, but I just could not get dialed in on the ground, or with my returns. I think he’s going to do well in main draw, I wouldn’t be surprised if he made it at least to the round of 16 or quarterfinals, there aren’t that many people in this tournament that I would favor over him. Tough luck, but playing players like this in a grade 1 is to be expected.

Eddie Herr 1st Round Quali’s

My 1200 or so rank was enough to get me into qualifying, and I ended up playing a kid from Russia who doesn’t play many ITF’s. The only one he’s played was last december, a Grade 3 where he won a couple rounds. I checked his results and he’s played a few pro tournaments, all Futures tournaments. A russian friend of mine told me that this kid was a pretty tough player, big serve and keeps the ball in.

Well, that’s pretty spot on actually. The kid had a real tough serve, he could slap flat balls pretty well, probably upwards of 130mph. I did a good job of locking them back however, and made him work for many of his serve games.

On the baseline I hit big, and I was being athletic and moving my feet. In my opinion, the biggest things for me right now are fine tuning my serve to the point where it doesn’t break down under pressure, and having the endurance to set up correctly for the ball. I think that often when I don’t play well it is because I am not being athletic and moving my feet, I am off-balance when I hit and I don’t have the proper rotation in my shots. My consistency is reduced, and the amount of power and “pop” on my shots is greatly reduced. I need to be able to keep up the high intensity that I am able to do in the first sets of most of my matches. Today I won the first set 6-4, not having much trouble holding, and constantly giving him trouble on his serve. Playing well from the ground, hitting good topspin and making him run for every ball. I was being athletic and my shots had a lot of pace on them.

But I let up in the second set for some reason; I don’t think it was nerves but I just think it was because I had something to lose, different then in the first set. Frustrating, but I ended up losing the second set 6-2. Regaining most of my confidence and hunger from the first set, I played hard in the third. He really was getting tired of constantly running, I would hit corner to corner almost every point and it was really starting to get to him. I closed the match out 6-3, four one-sided serve points gave me the match.

Tomorrow I play a kid from the Netherlands, who is ranked 165. I think this will be a real test for me, the way I played today shows me that there are not many juniors that will flat out beat me. So I’ll give this kid a match tomorrow for sure. I have nothing to lose, but I plan on really showing him that he’s going to have to play tough to beat me.

Thanksgiving

Well it’s Thanksgiving and I’m stuck at IMG. After dinner I’m just going to go hit with someone, if we can get a court. So many of the courts are taken by all the Eddie Herr kids that I don’t know if I will be able to get one. Two Australian short-time kids who are in my group training for 16’s Eddie Herr wanted me to hit with them this week so I’ll probably call them up later and see what’s going on and if we can hit for a while. Practice today was short and unsatisfying, this week and next week the full-timers [who aren't in Eddie Herr]are neglected and sent to Academy Park clay courts. Not fun. I don’t really want a break right now, I’m going home for Christmas break and I won’t have a chance to play much when I get back so I just want to practice as much as possible the next three weeks. Again, very frustrating.

Discouraging

I didn’t play well today. Tried a demo, didn’t feel good, went back to my racket, couldn’t hit a ball. Nothing felt right and I really am trying hard to remember what it’s like to play well from the baseline and hit like I know I can.

I’m not a cocky guy. But I am confident, almost delusionally so. But I think this can work in my favor if I use it right. I know that as discouraged as I am right now, the only real option is unrelenting practice. I think so highly of myself and of my potential that every time I step on the court I expect great things to happen. Imagining and expecting greatness betters one’s chances for it to happen.

I remember last year during a mental conditioning/strategy zone session, Angus (not the tasty meat, he’s a coach) talked to us about how important it is to imagine and visualize good things. He showed us pictures of a person’s brain activity while they are imagining hitting a tennis ball, and while they are actually hitting a tennis ball. There is almost no difference in the brain’s activity when imagining hitting the ball and actually doing so. I kept this in mind and try to visualize playing well… I think watching pro’s is very important because they do so many things right, if you can just remember what they look like it’s easier to emulate.

Getting ALL caught up

I’m finishing all my make-up work for Marine Science today. I am finishing up one more assignment and taking a test tonight that I missed. After this I will be completely caught up and everything I needed to do I will have done. I am going to take it easy in terms of school this week but really push hard with tennis, trying to work on my serve. I am going to sign up on Saturday as an alternate for the Qualifying, and hopefully I can get in like last year. I imagine I have about a 1 in 3 chance of playing. At least if I play I will get a tough match, everyone in qualifying is in the top 200, which is very very good, but nobody I can’t upset is playing in qualifying. We’ll see what happens but I will be preparing with the assumption that I will play this weekend.

Didn’t get the memo

That school starts at 1:15 today. Oh well, I’m here and it seems like a good time to post my blog entry for today. I think that these two days of school are a really good day to sort of make sure everything is going smoothly in all my classes. I’m going to make sure there’s nothing else I need to do or that I have missed, and make sure all my current assignments are up to date.

I’m still pretty frustrated that I blew the god-given draw that I had this weekend. My draw would’ve been: Tom Mitchell, German Sanchez, Harry Fowler, Michael Davis, Jason Zafiros. The first four I would have bet money on myself to win, and I think in a percentagewise perspective, I would not beat him. But I don’t think I would be that far behind and would have more than a fighting chance to wint he match.