Iowa City Futures: First Professional Doubles Title

I have been a little behind on my recaps as I’ve played a lot of tennis in the last few weeks. I finished up playing in Iowa City, Iowa in the $25K Futures over a week ago. The tournament was hosted at the University of Iowa and they have a nice setup with 12 outdoor courts and 6 indoor courts. It was warm and humid in the early part of the week but cooled off a little bit as it rained a few days later in the week.

In the 1^st rd of Qualies I played Connor Johnston, who is a junior at the University of Michigan. He was an aggressive base-liner who liked to take the ball early and take time away. He also came to the net a good amount and mixed in the serve & volley. Both of us held in the first two service games until I played a good return game to break him at 2-2. I held and then broke him again before I served out the first set 6-2. I saved a few break points in my first service game before holding and then getting another break. I was serving well and doing a good job of driving the ball when it was siting up. I closed out the match 6-2, 6-1.

In the 2^nd rd of Qualies I played Andrew Zhang, who is a good junior player from the Midwest and he will be a freshman at Duke in the fall. He was a lefty who played big from the baseline, especially with his forehand. He also had a tricky lefty serve. I got the break right away and a couple holds to make it 3-0. We both held our next few service games until I broke him again to close it out 6-2. The second set was closer as it was 2-2 and my opponent had 2 break points but I saved them both. I played a good return game in the next game by hitting some solid returns and coming to the net. I broke him again before serving out the match 6-2, 6-2. This was a good match from me as I played solid and didn’t get broken. It was great to see my grandpa as made the long drive to watch one of my matches.

In the last round of Qualies I played Pierce Rollins, who is another good junior player and is going to Texas A&M in the fall. He was a lefty with a good game and a huge forehand from the middle of the court. This was a weird match as there were a lot of breaks in it. In the 1^st set I got up a break a few times but couldn’t consolidate. I had the break at 1-0 and 3-2 but got broken back both times. At 4-4 I got the break again and then served for the set at 5-4. I got down 0-40 on my serve before responding with a few good serves. I won 5 straight points to take the 1^st set 6-4. In the second set I got out to a break lead at 3-2 and held for 4-2. At one point in the second set we had a long 30-ball rally and my opponent started to throw up a little bit during the point and he still managed to win the point remarkably. I served out the match at 5-3 to take the 6-4, 6-3 win and qualify for another Futures! I thought I returned very well in this match as I broke a lot, but I need to take better care of my serve as I only won 4 of my 9 service games.

The next day we played our first round of doubles. I played with Nick Chappell, who graduated from TCU a few years ago. This was our first time playing together. We played Petros Crysochos (Wake Forest) and Finn Bass (Great Britain). Petros is the reigning NCAA singles champion. We were serving well which was key as we made a high percentage of 1^st serves and put a lot of volleys away. We got out to an early break at 3-1 by returning well and playing solid doubles. We got another break at 4-2 before we closed out the first set 6-2. The second set was closer as we got the early break in the 2^nd set but they started getting looks on out serve. They had 2 break points on my partner’s serve at 2-1 but we saved them both. We had a no-Ad point to go up a double break but they saved it with a good serve. On my serve at 4-3 I was down 15-40 before I came up with some clutch serves to get a big hold. My partner served it out at 5-4 in the next game for a solid 6-2, 6-4 win. I thought we played great considering it was the first match we played together.

I played my first round of the singles main draw the next day against Petros Crysochos, who is the reigning NCAA singles champion. He is a very good player who plays far behind the baseline and counter punches well. He can attack too as he has a great forehand from the middle of the court. He also returns very well. I started off the match well as I broke him right off the back and jumped out to a 3-1 lead. However, I then threw in a bad service game. At 3-2, I had 2 more break opportunities but couldn’t convert. At 3-3, I lead 40-15 on my serve and ended up losing a long Deuce game on my serve with my opponent coming up with some good shots. We both held and then he served out the 1^st set 6-4. I again got out to another good start and went up a break 2-0. He responded by playing a good game to get it back on serve. At 3-4 in the second set, he played an unreal game to break me. We had one amazing rally where I thought I had done enough but he hit a forehand down-the-line winner on the full stretch to take the 5-3 lead. He served out the match in the next game as I lost a tough 4-6, 4-6 match. I thought I played at a good level but needed to convert on a few more of my opportunities. I was coming to the net a decent amount, but I needed to be sure to come in with a strong approach.

We had the quarterfinals of doubles the next day against Anderson Reed and Ian Dempster (Wake Forest). One of them had a big serve and good groundstrokes while the other was more of a doubles player with good hands and solid returns. My partner and I broke them first to go up 3-2 in the 1^st set by playing a good return game. However, they broke us back to even it at 4-4 in the second set. Both teams continued to hold serve and at 6-6 we played a tiebreak. We jumped out to a mini-break at 3-2 and would lead the rest of the way. We made it 5-2 before we split the 2 points on their serve. Then we served it out to take a solid tiebreak 7-3. In the second set we had more opportunities as a team to break but didn’t convert. At 3-3, we had 1 break point but they saved it on a no-Ad point. At 4-5, we had to save 2 break points (and set points) to make it 5-5. We would play another tiebreak. We again got off to a good start by making a high percentage of 1^st serves and hitting quality returns. We lead 4-0 and continued to play well. We closed it out to take a good win 7-6(3), 7-6(2). In doubles you have to make the semifinals to pick up ATP points so it was an important win.

In the semifinals of doubles we played Martin Joyce (Ohio State) and Max Cressy (UCLA) who are both going to be seniors in college. Martin made it to the NCAA doubles final this past year. We played this doubles match indoors because of heavy rain. They both play similarly as they have big 1^st and 2^nd serves and good volleys. We started off fast by breaking them in the 3^rd game to go up a break 2-1. Unfortunately we got broken on my partner’s serve in a tough game to even it at 3-3. However, we were returning well and played a great game to break them culminating with a lob winner. We served out the 1^st set at love to take the 1^st 6-4. In the second set we continued to return well, by making a lot of 1^st serve returns and hitting quality 2^nd serve returns. We broke them to go up a break 3-2. My partner was serving at 4-3 in the 2^nd and we had 2 game points but got broken after they came up with a great return. We bounced right back with another solid return game to take a 5-4 lead. We served out the match at 40-15 to take a high-quality match 6-4, 6-4. This was a solid match as we returned well considering we were playing 2 guys with big serves indoors.

The next day we played the finals of the doubles against Matic Spec and Felix Corwin, who both just graduated from University of Minnesota. Both of them had big 1^st serves, decent volleys, and they returned well. In the 1^st set they started off playing at a very high level, they hit a few return winners of good 1^st serves to break us in the 1^st game to go up 3-0. They also were serving well and making a high percentage of 1^st serves. We got a few holds to make it 2-5 before they played another good return game to take the 1^st set 6-2. We didn’t panic as we knew that they played at a very high level. We just needed to raise our level a little bit and make a few more returns in the court. In the 1^st game of the 2^nd set they had 2 break points on my serve but we saved them to get a big hold. We played a great return game at 2-1 to get out first break of the match. We continued to serve well and we stretched our lead to 4-1. They held to make it 4-2 and then we played a solid service game to hold for 5-2. In the next game we broke them again on the no-Ad point to take the 2nd set 6-2. Thus a 10 point match tiebreak would decide the champion. I started out serving and unfortunately double faulted the 1^st point. We bounced back and won both receiving points to take a 2-1 lead. We split both of our service points to take a 3-2 lead. They hit a good serve to make it 3-3 and then we hit a great return to go up 4-3. I hit two good 1^st serves and we took a commanding 6-3 lead. We split the next 2 points when we were returning to go up 7-4. My partner won both of the points on his serve to make it 9-4. Our opponents came up with two quality points to cut our lead to 9-6. I hit a big serve out wide and they missed the return so we won a tight match 2-6, 6-2, 10-6. It felt great to win my first professional tournament! My partner and I played well together as our games complemented each other nicely.

For winning the doubles title, my partner and I split $1550. I earned $270 for qualifying for the singles main draw so I took home $1020 which is a good week. The next tournament is another $25K Futures held in Champaign, Illinois at the University of Illinois. 

"A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, and the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things worthwhile, it can be done." -Vince Lombardi