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Yes I forgot I have a website and now I will try to bring you up to speed starting about five weeks ago after the New Zealand Tournaments!
I was back home in Melbourne for a couple of days before catching the three hour train to the town of Sale, Victoria for the clay court 15k futures event. I won my first round against Indonesian Davis Cup player Elbert Sie 62 60 and then won my doubles with Oliver 62 62 later that day. I only had doubles the next day and Oliver and i lost to Ebden/Audouy in a very tight match that went on until 730pm. I scored revenge on Audouy the next morning beating the 3rd seed 62 60 again!
In my quarter final match against Miles Blake from Great Britian i struggled in the first set but then picked it up in the second set to win the match 75 61.
On Friday was the big Challenge...playing Greek Vasilis Mazarakis in the semi finals....i played him two years ago at this same event and lost 06 16....my coach at the time thanked Vasilis after the match for the lesson he gave me on how to play tennis! He went on to gain a career high ranking of 105 that year! But this time it was different and it turned out to be a very close match and I am sure an entertaining one! I struggled again in the first set and he got an early lead and took the first set 62. Then i started to play very well and i won the second set 64 and continued into the third set where i was up a break 3-1. But he raised his game and the games to follow were very close but he inched in front to win the final set and the match 26 64 46 in over three hours…and won the tournament!
I got straight on a train to Melbourne and was only home a couple of hours before getting a 4am flight to Tokyo, Japan. After around 15 hours of flying time and over 3 hours in the train to the tournament I finally got a little bit of sleep before having to play at 10am the next morning against Russian Andemirkhan Karanashev. It was a challenge as I had to adjust from hot conditions and slow clay courts in Sale to very quick hard courts in 5*….not to mention I was exhausted! It appeared that my good form had completely disappeared as the ball definitely didn’t go where I was asking it to. The Japanese love baseball and I am surprised I didn’t get offered a baseball scholarship to the collage we were playing at as I was framing tennis balls over the fence for home runs throughout my match! We split sets and I was down 2-4 in the 3rd set and reeled off 4 games straight to win the match 46 62 64…I learnt how to win ugly…very ugly on that day!
I played doubles with a Swedish player Henrik Soderberg and again had another three set match winning 64 46 63
When it came to playing Chinese second seed Xin-Yuan Yu. I was fairly tired and that showed in the first set by the scoreboard and the confused looking faces watching the match! I was forced to dig deep in the second set and should have won the second set after having set points in the tiebreaker but a forehand net cord winner from Yu ended that quickly! I lost the match 26 67(7). Later that day Henrik and I lost our doubles match to the top seeds Yu and Zeng…don’t worry about the score!!
The second tournament in Japan was at Waseda University, the top tennis uni in Japan. In the first round I played Korean Dae Dong Lee which was an interesting match and I played really well but still managed to lose the second set. I eventually won the match 63 67(3) 62. I played doubles with Nick Monroe, a mate of mine from America and we won our first round against a couple of Japanese players 62 62.
I beat eight seed Tetsuya Chaen 64 60 the next day and back playing good quality tennis! He just made Finals in the first week so it was good to beat a player in form!
Later in the day Nick and I teamed up to knock off the second seeds Chen/Jun in a great match 46 62 61.
On Friday I had my quarter final match against Second seed Ti Chen from Chinese Taipei. I played a great match but it ended a heartbreaker….I was in a very winnable position at 64 53 and had a match point when serving for the match at 54. After nearly three and a half hours I lost 64 67(4) 57 arrrrrhhhhhhh. I had an hour off and then was back on court for my semi final doubles match which we lost badly….I had nothing left!
I had a quick shower and was driven by the tournament car through the worst traffic I think I have ever been in to Tokyo Station….I had to get the 630 train to the airport or I would miss my flight! I finally got to the station after nearly two hours in the car……with three minutes to spare I ran faster than I did against Chen straight through the ticket pay station (I think I broke the gate) and to the platform….the doors of the train closed 30 seconds later!
After being wedged between two rather ‘well feed’ men for 12 hours I arrived in Brisbane and got a connecting flight to Auckland and spent two days in the heritage hotel barely leaving my bed….only to pick up the room service from outside my door….I would have gone outside but the reception didn’t provide wheelchairs, especially for athletes! I joined the New Zealand team for three days of training before the Semi Finals of Davis Cup Vs The Philippines tie starting on Friday…which was great fun as we spent plenty of time playing pool at night…..sleep is overrated!
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The tie was played at Parnell lawn tennis club was selected to play my first live match on Friday and was up against former top 50 player Cecil Mamiit from the Philippines. I played a good match and it was close but he came through when it counted and took the match 64 64 64. Simion Rea from NZL lost the other singles to Eric Taino 61 62 64.
On Saturday Dan King Turner and Rea lost the doubles to Taino/Mamitt 75 67 67 26 and so we had lost the tie being down 0-3 in matches! The reverse singles was played on Sunday when Matt Simpson lost to PJ Tierro from the Philippines 36 62 36. So I had to go and see If I could get New Zealand on the board with a win in the final match…and I did and played really well winning 62 64 against Johnny Arcilla! Even though we lost the tie I really enjoyed the week and I think all the people watching did too. Lets just say there was a fair amount of alcohol served in the stands and boxes over those three days!
My Grandmother had here 90th birthday and I got her along to the tennis to watch one of our practises which was probably quite boring even for a 90 year old!
I didn’t waste anytime in getting to the airport on Monday…..I was home in Melbourne, Australia by 10am after seven long weeks on the road! I had only 9 days at home but I made the most of it and didn’t play much tennis…plenty of golf, beach, and even went to an AFL game for the first time!
As normal I had way too much fun in Melbourne which makes it hard to leave but I am here now on Jeju Island off the south coast of Korea and hoping to see some sunlight and win a few matches. I am playing doubles with my marathon match opponent Ti Chen this week…we have made peace and decided to beat up on other people instead of ourselves!
About to turn 20 years old….leaving my teen years behind is a terrible thing!
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