Recapping Greece

First, I want to apologize for being off the grid these last few weeks while I have been in Greece. It was an amazing experience and I continue to learn a lot about myself on and off the court. I have to admit as I am writing this, I find myself quite mentally drained from these tournaments. Whether it is preparing in the gym, practicing on the court, or simply just repeating the same routine day in and day out for the most part, it can start to get to you (or at least for me that is). I continue to believe in what I am doing and genuinely feel I am closing the gap with some of my competition. That said, there is still plenty more work to be done, but I am excited that I am gaining much more clarity on the adjustments I have to make. 

While in Greece, I was with my closest friend from the tour, Rayne Roselt, a South African player I met this past fall while I was there competing.  I cannot emphasize enough how important this friendship and camaraderie has been for me. We constantly push each other whether that is in the gym or on court and also enjoy lots of stimulating discussions off court too. I believe that we both share a similar mindset and goal: We do not want to just be the best players we can be, but we also want to use this experience on tour to gain a worldly perspective to help us off the court. I think a lot of players on tour become so concerned with their individual goals and results that they do lose sight of the process and day-to-day enjoyment of it all. Stepping back, I continue to not let wins and losses dictate my experience because I know that I am becoming both a better competitor and more importantly a better person. As I said after the San Francisco Challenger, I continue to trust the process and recognize that results will come as long as I focus on what I can control on my side of the court.

Rayne and I exploring Heraklion on a day off!

Greece Tournament #1:

I was lucky enough to receive a Main Draw Wildcard for both singles in doubles in the first two tournaments I competed in. I did not have to play the Qualifying tournament and automatically had chances to get my first ATP pro points.

My first doubles experience was valuable in that I played with a Serbian guy who had a ranking, but there just did not feel like there was a solid chemistry between us. Moreover, I did not realize until we were in the midst of the match, but he also had a temper like I had never seen before. Throughout the match he was yelling at the referee and just losing it, so I tried my best to manage my even keeled demeanor while also handling this totally unsportsmanlike behavior. After playing for Paul Settles at CMS while in college, I learned the importance of carrying yourself the right way whether you were winning or losing and that has stuck with me as I have carried on playing on the tour.

We lost this match to a very solid player from Montenegro as well as a Serbian player, the #1 seed in singles and doubles who is ranked in the top 250 in the world. After the match, I was quite disappointed, but I knew that I needed to find someone who I had real chemistry with regardless of rankings or countries.

The following day, I played singles in the Round of 32 against a very talented Russian player, Markos Kalovelonis, who was ranked as high as 445 in the world a couple years ago and now is around 700. Coming into the match, I found myself feeling too calm, for some people may not sound like a bad thing. For me, I think that I need a little bit of nervous energy that I can use to help get me fired up and dialed in. Reflecting back on the match, I had a lot of chances in the first set to win some big points that I had set up nicely, but I found myself making unforced errors on short balls / easy points at net that are cannot miss opportunities. I give my opponent a lot of credit as he was able to dictate the baseline and punish me for leaving neutral balls slightly too short in the court putting me on the defensive a lot of the time. Additionally, he executed his game extremely well throughout the match and came up big on some crucial points.

Considering this was my first main draw experience and he has played over 250 matches in main draw, I am proud of the way I competed and carried myself, but was frustrated that I was not able to convert a lot of the opportunities I had. At this level, sometimes all you get is one break point or one chance to hold.

I have included a video of the second set of our match below:

Greece Tournament 2:

Coming into the second tournament, I was excited to build off my first week and took the time to review film from my matches. I gained a lot of insight and felt confident about some of the technical changes I needed to make.

This week I decided to play doubles with a U.S. player I met here who is currently unranked, but an extremely talented player, Jeremy Sonkin. Right away, I felt a lot more comfortable with my partner as we had built some chemistry practicing together and grabbing some meals as a group. Moreover, I could tell that he had a stable court presence, which is important especially considering the prior week. Our first match we went up against another Wildcard team from Greece, (I have included a video below to part of the match). We managed to gut out the first set in a 7-point tiebreaker to go up 7-6, but our intensity dropped a bit in the second set and before we knew it we lost that set 6-3. In doubles, instead of a full third set, a 10-point tiebreaker is played to decide the match. Jeremy and I both looked at each other and knew we needed to dial in and make a lot of first serves, volleys, and returns in play. Quickly we jumped out to a 5-2 lead doing just that and then we stayed the course and won the breaker 10-4. We just looked at each other, smiled, and were soaking up the moment, as this was our first Main draw win! Quick aside, in doubles you need to win 2 rounds to receive ATP points unlike singles where you just need to win 1 round to get points. So we had not yet gotten a doubles ranking with this win!

Here is a video of some of our match against the Greek WC team!

The following day, we faced the #4 seed in the Quarterfinals. Coming into the match, the energy I had was just different. I almost felt a bit lethargic and I knew that this was really just my anxiety manifesting in that feeling. We came out a bit tentative and almost in a dazed state, we quickly lost the first set 6-1. The other team could not be more confident thinking that this would be a walk in the park. At the set break, Jeremy and I both looked at each other and said, “let’s just go have fun and play the way we know how”. We came out and got a quick hold and then got two crucial breaks along with a couple routine holds to go up 5-1 and the momentum had completely shifted. We took that second set 6-2 forcing a 10-point tiebreaker.

In the tiebreaker, Jeremy and I came out of the gates fast and went up 3-0, then it was 4-2. As we are changing sides (in tiebreakers, you change sides every 6 points), we felt in control, but there was a bit of a nervous energy there too. We were so close to achieving our dream of getting an ATP ranking, but those thoughts serve no value-add in these moments as they distract from the process and staying in the moment. The next 4-5 points we played quite well, yet each of us missed a couple points at net, most of which where not extremely difficult shots. I think these missed opportunities came about because we were rushing after being up 4-2, had thoughts in our heads that were distracting us from staying truly present, and also were not always closing forward, but sometimes stuck in place. Before we knew it we went from being up 4-2, to down 7-4. We proceeded to lose the next few points, which felt like an absolute blur and soon enough we are shaking hands in a bit of shock as to what just happened to that tiebreaker. We both sat in our chairs for about 30 minutes on court soaking up the last few days together. Even though we did not get the outcome we wanted, we could not have been happier to be competing alongside one another. We both agreed that considering it was our first couple matches together, that there could only be good things to come and we are planning to play with each other later this spring and summer in more Futures together!

I must say that playing doubles with Jeremy was one of the major highlights of my time in Greece and something I look forward to building off of.

Now, what are the odds that I play the same exact opponent from the previous week? Extremely unlikely… yet that is just what happened. This time around, I felt a lot more confident as I had time to prepare, watch film from last week, and have a solid game plan with my coach. Ironically, not only did I play the same opponent, but also I lost two weeks in a row with the same exact match score. This match was probably my most disappointing match during my time in Greece because I had over 6-7 different break point opportunities as well as numerous games where I had game points to hold serve. However, I simply could just not seem to get any break points or hold points to go my way for the most part. I give my opponent credit because he came up with a couple big serves, but I also had a lot of chances to capitalize in these points. The biggest themes of this match were: nerves and hesitation. Looking back, I was tight in some of these moments and my racket head speed greatly decreased leaving my balls short in the court so he could attack. At this level, players are too good and you will be punished for that. Even though I had moments where I was hesitant, the flip side is that when I did attack, swinging free, playing my style of tennis great things happened.

I learned a lot from this match and these tournaments in Greece. The biggest takeaway from Greece is that I need to continue to work on that “deep belief” in my game and what I can accomplish when I play my style of tennis. A lot of guys I am competing against have either been playing Futures for years and have numerous matches at this level under their belt, but nonetheless that cannot be an excuse for me to not play my game in these matches. I have had a lot of time to think about what I need to work on before I head back overseas again to compete and I am really excited about the direction of my tennis. I will continue to build off of Greece and use this as a learning opportunity and part of the process.

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They also had some cool Red Clay courts there too!