Hong Kong Futures - First doubles points!

For the past 2 weeks, I have been in Hong Kong competing in a few Futures tournaments to finish up 2017. This was my first time in Asia and I really enjoyed my time there as it was great to see a new part of the world. A big thanks to my teammate Tommy as his family was amazing hosts while I was there. It was awesome to try a lot of new types of food and expereince their culture. I think my favorite food was hands down the Peaking Duck that we ate on Christmas.

The tournament site was neat as it was held at Victoria Park which is centrally located in downtown Hong Kong. The site has 15 courts plus a huge stadium court that is able to hold a few thousand people. The weather in Hong Kong this time of year is pleasant with highs in the 60s with a little bit of humidity. The conditons of the outer courts were pretty slow for the most part except for the center court which was medium-fast.

I was able to get there a few days early to adjust to the conditions and the time change. I played my first round of Qualifying against a young, local player from Hong Kong. He had a pretty good forehand but couldn’t really finish points or be consistent enough. I started out well and serving strong to take the first set 6-0. And I continued to play my game and use my strengths to win my first round 6-0, 6-1.

The next day I played against my doubles partner this week, Jack Murray, who just graduated from North Carolina. We played in the last round of Qualifying on one of the colder days that week. He is an aggressive baseliner who is very disciplined and very solid from the baseline. I started off the match strongly and got a few holds plus a break to go up  3-2. However, he really found his best tennis at this point and kept the ball deep and returned well. He broke me back and then broke again to take the 1^st set 6-3. In the 2^nd he continued to play solid tennis and didn’t give me much. He played at a high level and I wasn’t consistent enough and lost the match 6-3, 6-0. I needed to play aggressively against him yet I made a few too many unforced errors and I didn’t make a high enough first serve percentage.

The next day we were playing doubles together against a good team from Hong Kong with one of the players playing at Michigan and the other at Harvard. We started off strong and got a few breaks to get off to a 5-1 lead. However, the Hong Kong team returned well for a few games and cut our lead to 5-4. We would break again to take the 1^st set 6-4 after it featured many breaks. In the second set, we also got the early break lead and lead 2-0 before the other team played very well. They started to return well and came up with a few clutch deuce points. We lost the second set 6-3 and the match would be decided by a 10-point tiebreak. We had an early mini-break at 3-2 but the tiebreak remained close throughout. We switched sides with the score tied at 6-6. At 8-8 we played a long point which ended with us ripping a ball at their feet that they couldn’t handle. After we missed a volley at 9-8, I hit an ace at 9-9 for us to have another chance to win it. At 10-9 I hit a good low return and my partner moved middle and forced a volley error for us to take the match 11-9! It was a good win for us as we returned pretty well as a team but needed to take better care of our serves.

In the quarters we faced off against the #4 seeds, Nicky Hu and Michael Zhu. This was a solid team that could play very well at times but they were a little streaky. We got the first break of the match to take a 3-2 lead and we traded holds until we would serve for the 1^st set at 5-4. We had 3 set points at 5-4, 40-15 yet they came up with 3 clutch returns in a row off of 3 of my 1^st serves. They returned well the next game and just like that we lost the 1^st set 7-5. In the second set, we won a few tight games on our serve by saving break points. At 3-2, we got the break and this time we would take advantage of the lead. We got a few more holds to take the 2^nd set 6-3 after returning well. Thus, another 10-point tiebreak to decide the match. It started off close as the score was tied at 2-2. Then we won 4 points in a row by hitting some good returns and playing solid tennis. They responded with a few good serves to cut our lead to 6-5. We played some of our best tennis at this point with some clutch shots. We finished off the match 10-6 after my partner put a volley away. By virtue of reaching the semis of the doubles, I got my first professional doubles points! This will help me a lot to get into the doubles tournaments during the next year.

In the semis, we played against the #1 seeds which consisted of a Portuguese player and a Taipei player. Both of them are ranked in the Top 200 in doubles. They started out playing well in the first set with the lefty having a tricky serve and the other player having good hands. They broke us a few times to take the 1^st set 6-2. In the second set, we won a few No-Ad deuce games to get a hold and a break to lead 3-0. We ended up breaking them again on another deuce point and holding serve to take a 5-0 lead. But that’s when they brought a high level and didn’t miss many balls from that point. They broke me at 5-1 after hitting a few big returns and playing solid tennis. And then they broke us again at 5-3 after a close game. But credit to them for coming up with some clutch shots. They brought it back to 5-5 before we traded holds to get to a tiebreak. Our opponents got an early mini-break to go up 2-1 and it remained close throughout. They won a key point at 5-3 before serving out the tiebreak and match 6-2, 7-6(3). This was a tough loss as this team ended up winning the tournament. It was a bummer that we couldn’t close out the 2^nd set but they played well and are experienced players. But a great week to get to the semis and get our first doubles points!

In the second week, it was a very difficult field as it was the only tournament going on in the world. Everyone in the Qualifying had points and luckily I was the last person into the draw. I faced off against the #2 seed from South Korea who is around 850 ATP. He had solid groundstrokes and moved well and made a lot of shots from the back. I didn’t have the best start to the match as my opponent came out playing very well especially off the return. I found myself in a 0-4 hole but was able to fight back. I got it back to 4-4 before we both held a few games to make it 5-6. Unfortunately I got broken again at 5-6 to lose a long first set 7-5 after 70 minutes. Again I got down in the 2^nd set 4-1 before coming back and breaking to make it 3-4. This was a key game and I ended up losing it after about 8 deuces. This ended up being a tough match because I was always fighting from behind and could never keep the momentum. I ended up losing 7-5, 6-3 in a close, 2 hour match. I learned a lot from this match but there were also some positives to take away from a good 2 weeks in Hong Kong.

 “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” - Ryan Holiday