Tournament #10 Futures Sardegna, Italy

After I finished up the last tournament in France, I took a long but beautiful train down through France and into Italy. Last week I trained with Jesse, my teammate from Davis, on the red clay in Piombino, Italy. Playing on the red clay is a big difference because it is a lot slower and you need to be more patient when constructing points. After we finished 5 days of good training on the clay, last Thursday we took the ferry to the Italian island of Sardegna and then drove down to Santa Margherita di Pula where the next Futures are held. It was a long trek as the ferry took about 6.5 hours and then we had to drive another 4 hours on the island. 

The tournament is held at a really cool resort, Forte Village Resort, where there are four hotels on the property and it is very expensive. There are 11 red clay courts at the site which they take good care of. We are staying about a mile from the resort in a nice AirBNB that is 200 feet from the Mediterranean sea. 

The Qualifying draw for the first Futures was a 32 draw and because of my ranking, I was seeded and only had to win one match in order to qualify for the main draw. As the draw would have it, I ended up playing against Jesse, my teammate from Davis who I was staying with and have been practicing with for the last week. It was a little bit strange playing against him because we are good friends and have played against each other so much in the last 3 years.

We ended up playing Sunday afternoon but not before an hour rain delay. We both started off the match serving well and we each held to make it 3-3 in the first set. After a long game on his serve, I managed to get the break before winning the 1st set 6-3. I got a few breaks to open up the 2nd set to go up 4-0 before he played a few good games to break me and then hold his serve to make it 4-2. I closed out the match strong though by winning the final 2 games to win the match 6-3, 6-2 and qualify for my 2nd Futures main draw and first on clay.

I played the first round of main draw on Monday against an Italian player Bonadino who is the #3 seed in this tournament and #425 ATP. This was a very good player and probably the best player that I’ve played against. He had a great one handed backhand that he could rip from anywhere on the court. 

In the 1st set we both got a couple of holds to make it 2-2 before I got broken after a long game on my serve where I had a few game points. My opponent played a few good games to close out the set 6-2. I wasn’t playing badly but needed to serve a little bit better and play the big points better. At 1-1 in the 2nd set, I found myself down 0-40 but came with some good serves to hold and then break my opponent to go up a break 4-1. I closed out the 2nd set 6-3 after he saved a few set points.

The third set was high quality as we both were playing good tennis especially in our service games. It remained very close throughout as we both held our service games until it was 3-4 in the 3rd set. I again found myself at 0-40 facing 3 break points but I battled hard and saved 4 break points that game before getting a big hold to make it 4 all. At 4-4, my opponent served a long game and now it was my turn to have break point chances, I had 2 or 3 and he came up with winner shots on all of them. I finally converted on my 4th break chance to go up 5-4 in the 3rd. My opponent played well the first 3 points with some big shots and I was down 0-40 and I saved the first 2 break points but double faulted at 30-40 to get broken back. I had 2 more break points at 5-5 in 3rd but again my opponent came up with great shots to save them. I would go on to get broken again at 5-6 after a few deuces and lost a very tough 7-5 in 3rd match. Another tough loss but definitely a lot of positives in the way that I played and how close I am to players that are highly ranked. 

Jesse and I got into the doubles main draw and faced the #1 seeds from Italy in the first round. They played a good first set and we lost 6-2 but would respond by getting a good start to the 2nd set. We got up a break 4-2 and continued to serve well and closed out the second 6-4. In the 10 point tiebreak for the 3rd set we got up a mini-break early 3-0 but then it remained close until they had a match point at 9-8. They missed a return to make it 9-9 and we closed out the match with a putaway to take it 12-10. This was a good doubles win against a good team!

In the next round we played against a German/French team that played very well. It wasn't our best day either as we didn't serve and return that well. They played very good doubles and were returning exceptionally well. We lost 2-6, 2-6 which was a disappointing loss but have to give credit to our opponents. By making the 2nd round of doubles and losing in the main draw of singles I won 265 Euros this week. On to the next week!