#1 Ranking for 4.0 NTRP Singles Mid-Atlantic (800 points)
Tournament Results for 2011 (13-3 record)
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Tennis and Russians
Marat Safin (former World No. 1 and US Open / Australian Open Winner), has now been elected as a politician in Russia!
I guess pretty soon they will want to update his profile picture on Wikipedia. It's actually a cropped shot of one I shot for a friend of mine Nick and him were at Legg Mason a few years ago after practice but I still don't know how it made it up there as his official mug shot =)
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| My Flickr Photo from Legg Mason |
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| Capitals star Alex Ovechkin with Maria Kirilenko (photo via Twitter) |
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| Maria Kirilenko with GWU tennis team |
According to Arlnow.com, Maria Kirilenko has been practicing with the George Washington University tennis team and seen at Kettler Captials Iceplex at the Ballston mall.
Monday, August 08, 2011
WTA Citi Open 250
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| Zheng Jie with JC at WTA Citi Open |
Zheng Jie was there to practice and I was lucky that someone was nice enough to take a picture for me. It was easily 100+ degrees heat index out there that weekend, but was definitely worth it for $5 tickets to see those top players so close by.
Unfortunately, it was at the same time as the ATP Legg Mason 500 event, so not as many fans made it out there. We were out during the opening Saturday to catch a peek at some of the top women players visiting the area. Other players there included: Nadia Petrova, Melanie Oudin, Sania Mirza and Shahar Peer.
More Flickr pictures from the Citi Open
Friday, July 08, 2011
Tennis Center at College Park (TCCP)
TCCP
A training ground for up and coming tennis juniors, TCCP is nestled near the University of Maryland Campus at College Park. Such greats as Denis Kudla and Mitchell Frank have been past alumni in this unique institution. It is not your typical Bollettieri-styled boot camp - rather it has a much more family and education oriented structure to its program. Tennis Channel had featured some of the coaches on its special called "Who's Next?"
It houses 12 indoor and 15 outdoor courts, including Deco-Turf 2, Har-Tru green clay and the only 2 French Open-style red clay courts in the Mid-Atlantic. Here is a Washington Post article with pictures of the facilities.
USTA Tournament
During the July 4th weekend, I entered the USTA Mid-Atlantic Championship Tournament. Played across 4 days with heat indices reaching over 100 degrees, some competitors who entered multiple events had to retire. I was blessed with a favorable draw and received a 1st round bye during Friday night. Some of the 1st round matches lasted so long that they had to be moved indoors that night.
The tennis gods must have taken pity on me, as I was able to play 3 consecutive rounds indoors. The bubble, etched with red Terrapin logos, was much more humid but at least it was shelter from the relentless sun outside. My semi-finals victory could partially be attributed to this fact that I was the fresher man the day before.
Indoor Tennis Bubble
One characteristic of the tennis bubble I had to become accustomed was the concave sides caused out balls and most errant serves to rebound back on court. Acoustically, there is a hollow echo that reverberates the grunts and yells inside like a giant cave. The lighting was a bit dimmer than I expected, but I liked the surface and bounce height. I never lost a set indoors the entire tournament.
I had a good sense of what I was up against, as my fellow USTA teammate had fought valiantly the day before to my opponent. I watch how consistently well his slice backhand seemed to frustrate my friend even in the great condition he was in.
Reaching the 5th Round - Finals
The final was just as tough as I had imagined. We were assigned outdoor court #21 - blackjack, the farthest court at the end. I had watched another friend's doubles match here just a day earlier. What I did not realize was that the court surface was slick and smoothed out near the back of the baseline - almost as if there was a fine film of dirt. Traction was a problem on a few occasions but more frustrating was my inability to attack the 2nd serve, which was plainly vulnerable but I would over-hit or mis-time too many times that day.
I lost the first set too easily, and hunkered down in the second. The cross court rallies seemed to last forever, especially on the backhand side. When I pressed, he would defend stubbornly - no free points. If I had any chance, it would be to wear him down and take out his legs. I was successful to a degree, but the cost was that I also was expending a lot of energy to keep him moving. In my final service game, my energy level was a bit lower than I had anticipated and ended up dropping it along with the match 6-2, 6-4.
He came up to the net during a few key plays but for whatever reason, my lob was not calibrated...sailing just a few inches long each time, whereas the day before it was making its mark almost like clockwork. In retrospect, I have to fault myself for leaving my rackets in the car the day before...going out to lunch for a couple hours just to wind down. It is possible this would have loosen the strings just enough, given that it was probably 120+ degrees in my trunk - dumb mistake.
Tournament Summary
In the end, I was happy with my performance for the tournament overall. It was a fun event because of all the company I had there, plenty of nice amenities at the club, and the familiar faces at the event made it all much less stressful.
Of course there were the usual "competitive" line calls and players that seem to have their lives riding on the results, but that's to be expected. It was nice to be able to sneak a peek between rounds to watch the Wimbledon championship weekend playing on the large HDTV out front, showcasing the finals for both the men and women players.
It is always nice to bring some hardware back home in any case too. I'm looking forward to being back there again next year.
A training ground for up and coming tennis juniors, TCCP is nestled near the University of Maryland Campus at College Park. Such greats as Denis Kudla and Mitchell Frank have been past alumni in this unique institution. It is not your typical Bollettieri-styled boot camp - rather it has a much more family and education oriented structure to its program. Tennis Channel had featured some of the coaches on its special called "Who's Next?"
It houses 12 indoor and 15 outdoor courts, including Deco-Turf 2, Har-Tru green clay and the only 2 French Open-style red clay courts in the Mid-Atlantic. Here is a Washington Post article with pictures of the facilities.
USTA Tournament
During the July 4th weekend, I entered the USTA Mid-Atlantic Championship Tournament. Played across 4 days with heat indices reaching over 100 degrees, some competitors who entered multiple events had to retire. I was blessed with a favorable draw and received a 1st round bye during Friday night. Some of the 1st round matches lasted so long that they had to be moved indoors that night.
The tennis gods must have taken pity on me, as I was able to play 3 consecutive rounds indoors. The bubble, etched with red Terrapin logos, was much more humid but at least it was shelter from the relentless sun outside. My semi-finals victory could partially be attributed to this fact that I was the fresher man the day before.
Indoor Tennis Bubble
One characteristic of the tennis bubble I had to become accustomed was the concave sides caused out balls and most errant serves to rebound back on court. Acoustically, there is a hollow echo that reverberates the grunts and yells inside like a giant cave. The lighting was a bit dimmer than I expected, but I liked the surface and bounce height. I never lost a set indoors the entire tournament.
I had a good sense of what I was up against, as my fellow USTA teammate had fought valiantly the day before to my opponent. I watch how consistently well his slice backhand seemed to frustrate my friend even in the great condition he was in.
Reaching the 5th Round - Finals
The final was just as tough as I had imagined. We were assigned outdoor court #21 - blackjack, the farthest court at the end. I had watched another friend's doubles match here just a day earlier. What I did not realize was that the court surface was slick and smoothed out near the back of the baseline - almost as if there was a fine film of dirt. Traction was a problem on a few occasions but more frustrating was my inability to attack the 2nd serve, which was plainly vulnerable but I would over-hit or mis-time too many times that day.
I lost the first set too easily, and hunkered down in the second. The cross court rallies seemed to last forever, especially on the backhand side. When I pressed, he would defend stubbornly - no free points. If I had any chance, it would be to wear him down and take out his legs. I was successful to a degree, but the cost was that I also was expending a lot of energy to keep him moving. In my final service game, my energy level was a bit lower than I had anticipated and ended up dropping it along with the match 6-2, 6-4.
He came up to the net during a few key plays but for whatever reason, my lob was not calibrated...sailing just a few inches long each time, whereas the day before it was making its mark almost like clockwork. In retrospect, I have to fault myself for leaving my rackets in the car the day before...going out to lunch for a couple hours just to wind down. It is possible this would have loosen the strings just enough, given that it was probably 120+ degrees in my trunk - dumb mistake.
Tournament Summary
In the end, I was happy with my performance for the tournament overall. It was a fun event because of all the company I had there, plenty of nice amenities at the club, and the familiar faces at the event made it all much less stressful.
Of course there were the usual "competitive" line calls and players that seem to have their lives riding on the results, but that's to be expected. It was nice to be able to sneak a peek between rounds to watch the Wimbledon championship weekend playing on the large HDTV out front, showcasing the finals for both the men and women players.
It is always nice to bring some hardware back home in any case too. I'm looking forward to being back there again next year.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Congrats to Li Na - Women's French Open winner!
Li Na - First tennis player from Asia to win a Grand Slam title in singles
This is sure to be very big news in China and the continent, as well as the growth of tennis worldwide.
This is sure to be very big news in China and the continent, as well as the growth of tennis worldwide.
Training on Clay
I think it was a smart move to hire a coach to help her move and play better on clay. You can see from this video the detailed analysis and training that went into her preparation ever since Madrid.
Li's Power Game
Her power game had a lot of similarities to Sam Stosur's (last year's FO finalist). I think Li Na's footwork and court position was a major difference, which took away time from Schiavone.
More Li Na Pictures
Below are some more (previously unpublished) pictures of Li Na from one of her earlier training sessions. They were taken at the 2010 US Open on the Grandstand court next to Armstrong.
- Newest photo →
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