Update: Australia and SoCal Futures
After a few more weeks of training my next trip was to Australia to play two $25K Futures. They were held in smaller towns a few hours North of Melbourne. These tournaments were unique as they were played on grass. There are only a few tournaments that are played on grass throughout the year with most of them being held in England in the weeks leading up to Wimbledon. This was a new surface for me as I had never competed on it before. Grass is a lot different as the ball stays very low and the courts play fast. I flew into Melbourne and then took a 4 hour train ride to the first tournament. It was held in Albury, Australia at an amazing club that had 26 grass courts. I arrived four days early so I could practice and get used to the grass. The courts were very soft as you couldn’t even bounce the ball before you serve. You had to almost throw the ball at that ground for it to bounce up normally. It was difficult to play from the baseline as most of the points were only a f