End of Europe Trip and Houston Futures


I finished up my last tournament in Europe the last week of September before coming back to the U.S. on September 30th. In the 1st round of Qualifying in the Italy Futures, I played against a lefty player from Germany who had a good serve and big forehand. He started off the match playing unbelievable and hitting his forehand huge while I didn’t have a good start at all. He broke me right away and then held. I was not serving well that day and had a very low 1st serve percentage and I also was making too many errors. My opponent broke me a few more times and before I knew it I had lost the first set 6-0. I tried to get it going in the second set but again got broken right away and found myself down 1-4 in the 2nd set. I had a few break points to get it back on serve but couldn’t convert. I lost the second set 6-2 to finish a great 3 months in Europe, although it was a disappointing match to finish on.




To recap my time in Europe, I played 12 tournaments in 12 weeks in 3 different countries. 8 of them were Futures tournaments and the other 4 were Money Tournaments. I got to travel to some unbelievable places including both the French island of Corsica and the Italian island of Sardegna. I picked up my first ATP point in Portugal by winning 3 straight matches to qualify and winning my first main draw match. This trip was a great experience for me as it was my first time traveling on my own to play Futures and I learned a ton about what it takes to play professional tennis. The biggest things that I learned was how to manage everything from travel logistics to hotel and Airbnb reservations, to scheduling your own practices and cooking your own meals. I think it helped me take everything to another level of professionalism because the margins are so small. Everybody is looking for an edge in nutrition, recovery and stretching, and sleep. For me personally, it helped me to get into a routine where I was doing the same warm-up every day and waking up at the same time to make sure that I did everything that I need to do. I look forward to taking what I learned when I travel more in the future. I had a chance to spend a day in Paris and got to see a lot of the cool sights like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Notre Dame.









After being home for only a few days, I ended up playing the Houston Futures as I thought it was a good opportunity to compete again. I played this last weekend with the 1st round of Qualifying starting on Saturday. The conditions in Houston were hot and very humid over the weekend. In the first round, I played a player who is a senior at Texas-San Antonio who had a good serve and a huge forehand at times. I started off the match well and broke him in the 1st game and was serving well. I continued to return well and was more solid than my opponent to take the first set 6-1. In the second set, I continued to play some pretty good tennis to jump out to a 3-0 until my opponent really stepped up. He played a few very good games with some big forehands to get it back to 3-3. However, I regrouped and got the break before serving out the match at love to take a 6-1, 6-3 win.

In the second round, I played the #11 seed in Qualifying, Arthur Rinderknech who is ranked 1000 but has only played a few pro tournaments since he is a senior and plays #1 at Texas A&M. He has a very complete game with good groundstrokes and a solid 1st serve to go along with a high kicking 2nd serve. I didn’t have the best start and got broken right away and he was serving well to jump out to a 4-1 lead. I had  2 break points to try to get a break but he came up with big shots on those points. I lost the first set 6-2. I had a good start to the second set after getting a few holds to make it 2-2 but then lost a long service game on my serve. On break point, I served and volleyed on 2nd serve and made what I thought was a great pickup but he called my serve just long to get the break. I had a few break points in each of his next 2 service games to get it back on serve but once again he came up with clutch serves and big shots. The second set was close but I lost 6-4 in a pretty high-quality set.


I am now back at home in Orange County for the next 4 weeks doing a training block to improve on some technical things on my volleys and serve while also working on physicality and fitness. I plan to train hard before traveling again in mid to late November!


"Don't accept the limits they've put on your life, max out in every area of your gifts."
-Tony Gaskins Jr.

Comments

  1. Shiloh and Samantha SorbelloOctober 11, 2017 at 9:51 PM

    Good stuff, Alex! Hit us up if you venture North!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew AOctober 20, 2017 at 10:14 AM

    Great to hear about what's going on. I hope your training goes well brother!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 31, 2017 at 8:03 PM

    Thanks for the great updates Alec. I'm learning more about tennis through your blog. I'm happy you were able to see Paris!

    ReplyDelete

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