From Food Poisoning in Florida to Tournament Mode in Southern California
Florida Training:
I was extremely eager to get back to the training grind as I have not really pushed myself on the practice court since Greece! Coming out of the gates, I was in the gym for 2-3 hours a day and on court twice a day. I found myself hungry and locked in on improving what I had discussed after Greece. I felt amazing and really dialed in before an unexpected turn of events.
Visit to the ER:
It is Tuesday, April 17th. I had my BEST day of practice to date and was on court twice, ran 4 miles at a 7-minute pace, and finished the day off at the gym for 2 plus hours. Not only did I feel at peak fitness physically, but also mentally i was ready for battle. After this amazing day of training, I went out for a routine dinner and had Japanese food, which is a personal favorite of mine. A few hours after that dinner, I found myself barely above to move, extremely sick with food poisoning.
After not sleeping all night, barely able to move from the bathroom, I called my coach at 6am and he got me to the Emergency Room right as i was about to pass out! Between food poisoning, dehydration, and sun exhaustion the combination could not have been any worse...
I spent all morning in the ER, but luckily after 3 bags of IV fluids, I felt a bit like myself again. I proceeded to take the rest of the week off, as I was still extremely weak from what transpired. Going from training all day every day to barely leaving my bed was quite a tough adjustment as i was pretty much on “house arrest”.
Southern California Tournament Update:
I would be lying if I said I felt great coming into my tournaments in Southern California after missing several days of practice. I knew there was nothing I could do and thought back to what my college coach mentioned a lot: “adversity training”. I decided that I was not going to make excuses and find reasons for a potential poor performance. Rather, I went out and knew I needed to make the most of my situation and battle through.
My coach and I first were in Ojai, California for the 118th Men’s Open, which is an awesome event with a lot of history and incredible competition. I had to battle through 2 Qualifying matches last Tuesday in order to get to the Main Draw. I got through my first match in the morning, but knew that I needed to step up and play a lot better if I was going to win my second match of the day.
After a 90-minute break, it was time for battle again against a top junior player from California. The sun was beaming and it felt like 90 plus degrees on court. My opponent came out swinging and was making all of his shots the first couple games. I knew that I needed to stay focused and make him play a lot of balls in order to win. Eventually, he started over hitting and committing unforced errors, which I took advantage of. I won the first set 6-2, but felt myself quite nauseous and out of it after that set. I felt my mind wanting to make excuses and give in, but I knew I needed to fight through this and channel it into aggressive play to get off the court as quick as possible. I luckily won that next set 6-2 and qualified for the Main Draw!
The first round of Main Draw, I went up against the #2 junior in the country who was seeded third in the tournament. I give my opponent a great deal of credit, as his anticipation, movement, and consistency were some of the best I have seen. I had several chances to hold serve and many break points, but found myself unable to take advantage of those opportunities. I lost this match, but had a lot of valuable takeaways.
After losing in singles, I was still very excited to compete with my doubles partner from Greece, Jeremy Sonkin! He and I have developed a great friendship on and off the court and it has translated to a lot of chemistry between us. We are still a young team in terms of experience together, but I really believe in our upside, as our styles of play are quite complimentary to one another. We proceeded to win our first round match handily before going up against a top pro player and former pro player. So far in our time as a team, we have never had a match were we both were off, but that was the case this match. Losing a match like that was a wake up call for us, but we knew that we were not going to let that bring us down in the long run. We have a lot of tournaments ahead of us and both feel strongly in our potential as a team.
Off to Florida:
I am en route to Florida to play in a Clay Court Prize Money event before Clay Court Nationals later in May! I can’t wait to let you all know how this first event goes as it will be my first time back on clay in awhile.
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