Wed afternoon, Nov 11, 2009

Hugh and I won our first round of doubles yesterday, so we’re into the quarters tomorrow against the tough Aussie team of Terry Smith & Alan Gooch.

I won my round of 16 singles today against the tournament’s #6 seed and Great Britain’s #2 player Richard Tutt 6-2, 6-3.  I get Aussie #1 and the tournament’s #5 seed Terry Smith tomorrow in the quarterfinals.

I served first against Tutt and knew after the first couple of points that I was seeing the ball big, moving well, and felt that my constant net attack was a problem for Richard.

He missed a couple of shots that I’m sure he normally makes, and things simply went my way today.

Richard is a top world 60s player and there is no question that it was a big win for me today.  I’m hoping to carry it over to my match tomorrow with Terry Smith.

We shall see…

OK what did I learn today?  R e l a x …  Stop thinking so much about how to make things to happen.  Just find the ball visually, commit to a target, and take your time with your stroke mechanics.

Get out of your own way and good things just might happen.

Another afternoon of watching Mai boogie boarding in the Indian Ocean as I tried my best to stay out of the sun.  I must have looked like an idiot on the beach all covered up with towels and t-shirts, but what the hay, watching your bride enjoy the surf is worth it…!

More tomorrow.  Here’s the link to the tournament website:

http://www.92computing.com.au/catsuperseniors09/cat.htm

Once you get there, click the PDF icon on the right for the singles draw.

Brent

Well, after a couple of days, the let down of losing to Spain in the team finals has turned into a much more realistic perspective of we played well against a really good team.  Came up just a hair short and we have a lot to be proud of…

For my first team experience, as you now know, I learned so much about my game, felt like I contributed not only as a player in matches when needed, but just as satisfying, as a practice partner, on court coach, and major cheerleader on and off the court.

The team event, just like doubles, isn’t about you, it’s all about supporting your teammates in any way you can.  I felt like I did my job and I couldn’t be more proud of our guys and the way we prepared and competed.

I’m honored to have represented the USA, and I know that Brian, Armi, Hugh, and I conducted ourselves in exemplary style on and off the court.

I still get this awesome feeling when I put on the jacket that says USA on the back.  Enough of the love fest here, it’s time for the individual tournament.

I played my first round of singles yesterday (I’m seeded #13 in singles and #5 in double with partner Hugh Thomson) and played Norway’s #1 player from the team event.

Despite the fact that this artificial grass is different from anything I’ve ever played on (footing isn’t really that great once you have to come to a quick start and change directions), I got off to an early lead with my serve and volley style and was never seriously threatened as I won 6-2 6-2.

My opponent, Jan Kise, clearly a clay court player, kept mentioning that he felt he had no time to set up to play his shots, that I was forcing him to hit passing shots all of the time.

Really nice guy, a bit too chatty for my liking during the match, but since I felt in control, I didn’t mind engaging with him from time to time when he made comments.  Maybe if the match had been closer it would have been a different story, but engaging with your opponent no matter what the score is can be dangerous.

I came away from this match knowing that I really want and need to play on different surfaces to get more used to the different footing and to develop a better understanding of different angles and depths that I know will eventually translate well to my hard court play.

Next singles match is tomorrow most likely against the #6 seed Richard Tutt from Great Britain.  We shall see…

Hugh and I have our first round of doubles today.

The draws are posted over at:

http://www.92computing.com.au/catsuperseniors09/cat.htm

That website is a bit funky trying to navigate, but be resourceful over there, and you’ll get the information you want.

Mai and I moved out of our apartment that was next to Robertson Park Tennis Centre where we’re playing, and we have taken up residence at the Ocean Beach Hotel at Cottesloe Beach (close to Fremantle) with a spectacular view of the Indian Ocean.  (Get outta my way as we now have a rental car and I’m severely challenged trying to drive on the left side of the road).

The Indian Ocean water here is a tad bit chilly, but doable without a wet suit, with some nice waves for body surfing.

Mai’s performance yesterday in those waves was great entertainment for me as I sat on the beach relaxing and just soaked in what a great experience this has all been so far.

Hope you’re well.  More tomorrow…

Brent

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Sunday morning Nov 8, 2009

I still think I’m going to wake up with a different result from yesterday, but the reality is still there, we lost to the team from Spain 2-1 in the finals.

Spain def. USA 2-1

Armi started us off playing some big baseline tennis and completely overwhelmed his oppponet at #2 singles 6-2, 6-1.

Armi’s forehand groundstroke is just a monster, and when he sets up on it, you have absolutley no clue as to which corner he’s going to drive it to. And even if you do have a hunch where he’s going with it, forget it, it’s coming in with sound, I swear you can hear the ball humming through the air just before it chews up and explodes through the bounce…

This is a big time weapon he’s got, and we’ll have to spend some time in the near future looking at it and dissecting the pure fundamentals that we can copy and model.

I got to sit on court again as coach and have the honor to watch Armi put his game onto his opponent and see how he never once wavered from who he is on the court. His opponent was not a happy camper early on in the match, complaining about the windy conditions, and almost looking for a reason to lose.

His only complaint should have been that he caught Armi on one of those days that I don’t think many, if any, players over 60 in the world could have handled Armi yesterday.

We were off to a 1-0 lead and I’m thinking inside that we’ve really got a chance since worst case it’ll come down to the doubles and I really liked our chances in doubles.

Brian got off to a quick lead with a service break early in the first set, was up serving at 4-2, and then the wheels slowly but surely started to come off. Again having the honor to sit on the court with Brian, it was rough to see this great champion struggle with his game, make some uncharacteristic errors, and allow his opponent back into the match.

Guess what, as Tom Stow always told me, even the great ones are human on some days…

And I’m not taking anything away from his opponent, clearly the world’s #1 60s ranked player, but I just felt Brian’s game on the artificial grass would match up really well.

Brian lost the first set 6-4, went down an early break in the 2nd, and then all of sudden caught fire and broke back to level the 2nd set at 3 all.

The Spaniard however was not to be denied as he played some brillant sharp low angles, never seemed to miss a return of serve, and I think got a bit into Brian’s head where Brian began to serve and stay back, not his usual serve and volley style tennis. The Spaniard broke right back and eventually closed out the 2nd set 6-4 and the match.

I haven’t mentioned that Brian tweaked a calf muscle early in the 1st set, never complained about it, but I kept wondering if that was a possible reason he stopped his steady diet of serve and volley. We’ll never know for sure because Brian would never try to take anything away from his opponent’s hard earned victory.

OK, so in my mind, no sweat, we’ve got the doubles coming up, and Armi and Brian are normally a lock against any team in the world.

Not on this day as the Spanish team played incredibly well, got a huge percentage of first serves in, rarely missed a retrun of serve that was either a cross court slice or feathered a perfect lob to constantly put pressure on us when we aere serving. It was over pretty quickly 6-4, 6-4 and the celebrating for them was off and running.

It was tough to sit there and watch them celebrate but it was also an enormous honor to be the finalist.

I’m really proud of our guys, so incredibly gracious in defeat, and knowing that there will always be another day. Yesterday simply wasn’t our day…

I don’t really have the writing skills to be able to tell you what a great honor this has been for me to not only represent the USA, but also to be able to hang around these great champions, Brian, Armi, and Hugh, and to just soak in so much of their experience, wisdom, and overall love of the game.

Finalists - Von Cramm Cup Medal Presentation (Hugh was attending his niece's wedding & had to miss the presentation)

I know over the next few weeks and months that I will realize and much more clearly understand all of the things I’ve learned from my teammates and this experience and how those things will benefit my own game, and maybe even I will be able to articultae it to you in ways that will also help your game.

OK, off to find a wifi connection, argh, and get this posted up on the blog for you…

Next week is the individuals world tournament. I’m seeded #13 in singles, have a bye in the first round and don’t play until Tuesday, and I’ve heard from Hugh that we’re seeded somewhere between 5-8 in doubles.

I have a very rough first round singles match against the #1 player from Norway. I’ll definitely have to be locked and loaded with my A game if I want to have a chance. We shall see…

Thanks so much to all of you who have written emails to me or posted to the blog in response to these updates. It’s been so great to hear from so many of you around the world, but impossible for me to respond because of the lack of available time with an internet connection. I’ll hopefully eventually be able to say thanks…

Brent

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