First Tournament Playing as a Professional

I guess my first outting as a professional went fairly well. Austin and I played a solid week of doubles but not without some challenges. In our first match against Phillip Simmonds and Raian Luchici we took the first set easily six games to two but dropped a closely contested second set 5-7. The tide turned against us in the second when Simmonds crushed a forehand nailing me right where no guy wants to be hit. After a 15 minute break and some ice we continued play and managed to turn around our luck in the third set. In the third set super breaker we jumped out to an early lead and held the advantage to take it 10 points to 5.

Our next match against Alex Kuznetsov and Filip Krajinovic was even tighter as we dropped the first set 6-4, won the second 6-4 and squeaked out the third 10-7. Winning that match gave us  a lot of confidence and we cruised through the semis 6-1 6-4. In the finals we played a tough Columbian team. After taking the first set comfortably 6-2 we had to fight back from a break down in the second to take it 7-6.

The next stop on the circuit was the Sacramento $15 k. I received a wild card from the USTA into the main draw of singles and drew Nick Monroe. I started out the match well and even got up a break. The tide shifted at four games all in the first when I was up 40-15 and missed a sitter forehand and a backhand volley on top of the net. He picked up his game from there and I let it get to me a little.

Overall it was a great two weeks in California. The weather was great and the housing I received from the Pinkerton family was amazing. I was unable to enter in doubles in the Sacramento future because the USTA wanted me to make the training camp which I am currently at.

First day of camp which is being held on clay was brutal. We had conditioning testing this morning and from there we went into an insane session of drilling. I made the mistake of walking onto Jay Burger’s court. He showed no sympathy for us as he ran us side to side. We have more drilling later this afternoon which I am fairly sure I am going to cramp in.