End of 2019: First Career Singles Title and 2 Doubles Titles

1^st tournament: Fayetteville, Arkansas $15k Futures tournament

Round of 32: Defeated Tyler Zink 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(7). My opponent is a freshman on the Georgia tennis team and is a good player with solid groundstrokes. I didn’t get off to a good start as I got broken to go down 1-4 in the 1^st set. He broke me again to take the 1^st set 6-1. I turned around the match by starting to serve better and looking to come in more. I went up an early break 3-0. I broke him one more time to take the 2^nd set 6-1. I went up a break in the 2^nd set 4-2, however he broke me back to put it on serve. I had two match points on his serve at 5-4 but he saved both. I was up 6-4 in the 3^rd set tiebreak but he came up with some clutch shots. At 7-6, I missed an easy volley after hitting a good serve. But I responded and won the last two points to take the 3^rd set tiebreak 9-7.

Round of 16: Lost to Rinky Hijikata 6-2, 1-6, 1-6. He plays on the North Carolina team and is a good player who does everything pretty well. I got off to a good start and broke him to go up 3-0 in the 1^st set. I was serving well and playing solid from the baseline. I continued to play well and broke him again to take the first set 6-2. I had 3 break points on his serve in the 1^st game of the 2^nd set but didn’t convert. He then raised his level and started to play very well. He broke me to go up a break. He then broke one more time to take the 2^nd set 6-1. I didn’t get a good start to the 3^rd set and couldn’t break his momentum. I also wasn’t serving well enough and I ended up losing a 3-setter to the guy who ended up winning the tournament.

Doubles Round of 16: Lost to Mesquida Berg/Ribiero 3-6, 4-6. I partnered with Charlie Emhardt in this tournament. We got broken at 3-4 in the 1^st set when they broke us on a No-Ad point. They were serving very well and making 80% of their 1^st serves in so we weren’t getting many chances. They broke us at 2-all in the 2^nd set. We had two break point chances but didn’t convert either of them. Our opponents were 2-3 on break points which was the difference. We didn’t return well enough to give ourselves a good chance to win.

2^nd tournament: Santa Tecla, El Salvador $15k Futures tournament

Round of 32: Lost to Jody Maginley 1-6, 6-3, 3-6. My opponent has a good 1^st serve and he served at a high-level in the match. The tournament is played at an altitude of 3,000 feet which was definitely noticeable. It was difficult as I only had one day to adjust. I played a poor first set and wasn’t finding my serve, although my opponent served very well. I made some adjustments in the 2^nd set and started to serve a little better. I broke my opponent to go up 4-2 in the 2^nd set. I held two more times to take the set 6-3. I had a few break points early in the 3^rd but couldn’t convert. I got broken at 2-3, to go down 2-4. However, I played a good return game to make it 3-4. But I got broken again before my opponent served out the match. I saved the first 3 match points before he finally closed it out.

Doubles Round of 16: Defeated Maldonado/Villar 6-3, 6-4. I partnered with Luke Gamble for this tournament, who played college tennis at Princeton. He is a lefty with a great serve and good volleys. This was our first time playing together and we complemented each other well. At 3-2, we broke them for the first time in the match on the No-Ad point. We were serving at a high level and our opponents didn’t have many looks on our serve. We closed out the first set with one break to make it 6-3. At 2-all in the 2^nd set we broke again to go up a break. That was all we needed as we won our 1^st round match 6-3, 6-4. We served well although we could have returned better.

Doubles Quarterfinal: Defeated Tagashira/Vanshelboim 6-1, 6-2. My partner and I were dialed in from the start as we broke right away to go up 3-0. We continued to return very well and broke again for 5-0. We closed out a fantastic 1^st set 6-1. They started to play better in the 2^nd set as it was 2-all before we got a break. We didn’t get broken and broke one more time before taking the match. This was great doubles from us as we were focused and executed our game plan.

Doubles Semifinal: Defeated Butsch/Richmond 6-2, 6-2. This was the best team we had faced yet as they are both good doubles players having played college tennis at LSU and Virginia respectively. My partner and I got the first break of the match to go up 3-1. We were returning well and putting a lot of returns in the court. At 5-2, we broke them once more to take the 1^st set 6-2. In the first game of the 2^nd set we were down 0-40 on my partner’s serve but came back after he made some high-quality 1^st serves. At 2-1, we broke to go up 3-1 on the No-Ad point. We closed out the match with a hold to take another solid match 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles Final: Defeated Blumenberg/Carou 6-3, 6-4. This South American team was a solid team as they had big 1^st serves and went for big shots. We broke them at 4-3 in the 1^st set to get the only break of the 1^st set. My partner held to close out the 1^st set 6-3. There were some games when they served lights out which was too good. But we got an opportunity at 3-all and got a break. At 5-4, I was serving for the match and we closed it out at love after I hit an unreturnable serve. This capped a great week of doubles as Luke and I played very well together. We didn’t get broken once in eight sets which is pretty remarkable. This was my 2^nd doubles title of the year and 4^th of my career.

3^rd tournament: Cancun, Mexico $15k Futures tournament

Round of 32: Defeated Luke Gamble 6-1, 6-2. It was not easy having to play my doubles partner in the 1^st round of singles. It’s tough because you know each other well but it’s part of the game. I started out returning well and got an early break. I was looking to play aggressive especially off my serve and attack him early in the points. I got one more break before closing out the 1^st set 6-1. He got a few good holds to start the 2^nd set as we were even at 2-all. I then played a solid return game to get the break. I saved two break points in my next service game to hold for 4-2. I served out the match 6-1, 6-2 to take a good 1^st match.

Round of 16: Defeated Tigre Hank 6-2, 6-3. He is a lefty with a good serve and a good forehand from the middle of the court. I broke at 2-1 to get the first break of the match. In the beginning he was looking to play solid and run around to hit forehands. I was looking to come in to the net when I had the chance. I broke him one more time by playing a good return game before taking the 1^st set 6-2. In the 2^nd set he started to play more aggressive and play first strike tennis. We both held the first 7 games of the 2^nd set. However, I broke him after coming back from 40-15 down to go up 5-3. I then served out the match in the next game after playing a clean match.

Quarterfinals: Defeated Mariano Kestelboim 7-5, 7-6(7). He was the #2 seed in singles and he is a grinder with a very good forehand when he has time. However, he didn’t have that big of a serve so I got a lot of looks in return games. We both started off breaking each other a few times in the beginning. He mainly kicks his 1^st serve in so I tried to think of his 1^st serve as a 2^nd serve. I was down a break 4-3 before breaking him back. I went up 5-4 with a good hold. He held before I played two solid games to take the 1^st set 7-5. I was up a break 2-1 in the 2^nd set before he raised his level. He took 3 straight games to go up 4-2. I broke back to make it 3-4 but then got broken again. At 3-5, I played a good return game to make it 4-5. In the next game I saved 4 set points on my serve before getting a clutch hold. We both ended up holding for a tiebreak. It remained close throughout as he went up 5-3. We split the next 2 points as he went up 6-4. I saved two more set points with aggressive plays to make it 6-all. I then had 1 match point at 7-6 which he saved. I won the last 3 points to win a long 2 hr 40 minute 2-set match. I saved 6 set points in the 2^nd set which was unbelievable.

Semifinals: Defeated Alex Knight 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. He is a lefty who played #1 at University of Michigan last year. He is a good player with a high-level serve and forehand. At 1-all, he broke me after I didn’t play a good service game. I then had 3 break points chances but he saved all of them. He held for 3-1. He broke me one more time before he served out the 1^st set. He served very well to take it 6-2. I held to start the 2^nd set and then got the first break of the match. I started to put more returns in the court and attack the 2^nd serve return. I held for 4-1. At this point there was a 30 minute rain delay where we had to stay on the court. After the delay I won the next 2 games to take the 2^nd set. At 2-all in the 3^rd set I played a good return game to go up 3-2. I was serving well and had a good rhythm on my serve. I held for 4-2. I then broke him one more time before closing out the match 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. I was stoked to reach another final!

Finals: Defeated Jorge Panta 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. This was my 2^nd Futures final and first of 2019. Panta is ranked #505 and is a solid baseliner. He returns well and is very consistent from the baseline. In the 1^st set he started off playing very well and not missing many shots. He broke me to go up 2-1 in the 1^st set. He broke me again for 4-1. I started to my find range a little bit as I broke back and held for 3-4. I was looking to attack his 2^nd serve as often as I could. We both held our next few service games as he held to take the 1^st set 6-4. I saved a few break points early in the 2^nd set. I broke him at 3-2 after I played a really good return game. At this point I started to go for my shots as I knew that’s what I had to do. I was serving well and mixing in the serve and volley. I didn’t get broken that set and closed it out 6-3. I continued my momentum in the 3^rd set as I broke him at 1-all. I was playing well from the baseline and looking to come to net when I had the chance. I held for 3-1 and then broke him for 4-1. At this point he took a medical timeout. We both held which made it 5-2. I then closed out the match on my 2^nd match point with a volley winner! This was my first singles Futures title and it felt amazing after this had been a goal of mine for so long.

Doubles Round of 16: Defeated Alvarado Berropsi/Force 6-1, 6-0. I played doubles with Luke Gamble again this week. We started off playing well as we broke them to go up 3-0. We were returning well and putting a lot of pressure on them. We broke one more time before taking the 1^st set 6-1. In the 2^nd set we continued to play solid tennis and broke for 3-0. We closed out the match 6-1, 6-0. The match was closer than the score showed as we won almost all of the big points. It was a great start to the tournament as we returned at a high level.

Doubles Quarterfinals: Defeated Eguez/Handel. This was a solid team who served well and did everything pretty good. There were no breaks in the first 7 games of the match. It wasn’t until 4-3 that we broke them at 30-40 after hitting a few good returns. We closed out the set 6-3. The 2^nd set was close as well. We broke them at 2-all on the No-Ad point. My partner and I continued to serve well and didn’t give them many looks on our serve. We took the match 6-3, 6-4 with just one break in each set. We had still not been broken in 6 straight matches.

Doubles Semifinal: Defeated Bradley/Butsch 3-6, 6-4, 10-6. This team was seeded #1 in the tournament and they are both very accomplished doubles players. They return well and play solid doubles. They started off fast and broke us in the 1^st game of the match, which was the first time we had been broken as a team. We had a few break points in the next 2 games but couldn’t convert. They broke us again to take a 4-1 lead. We got one break back which made it 3-4. However, they won 2 No-Ad points in a row before taking the 1^st set 6-3. We had to respond after getting broken 3 times in one set, which was a combination of them returning well and us not making enough 1^st serves. We saved two break points at 1-all in the 2^nd set. After that both teams were holding fairly comfortably. At 4-all, we played a great return game. My partner hit two return winners to get us to break point. I then hit a good return and he crossed to give us the break. We closed out the 2^nd set 6-4. The tiebreak was close throughout. We changed sides with a 7-5 lead. We held our service point for 8-5. They made it 8-6 and then we won a weird point to go up 9-6. My partner hit a big serve to close out a good doubles match.

Doubles final: Defeated Estevez/Kestelboim 6-2, 6-1. Our opponents were an Argentinian duo who liked to play one up/one back doubles. At 2-all in the 1^st set we broke them on the No-Ad point to go up a break. We were dominating in our service games and making a high percentage of 1^st serves in. We broke one more time to take the 1^st set 6-2. We continued our momentum in the 2^nd set and broke for 3-0. My partner and I were focused in and playing well. We broke them one more time before taking the title! It was back-to-back titles for us as team and a great way for me to finish a fantastic week by winning the singles and doubles titles in Cancun!

4^th tournament: Meshref, Kuwait $15k tournament

Round of 32: Defeated Mikalai Haliak 6-2, 3-0 retired. My opponent from Belarus was dangerous as he could play lights out and you never knew what you were going to get. The first four games were tight. At 0-1, I saved 4 break points in a long service game. At 2-all, I got the first break of the match by returning well. I went on to break him one more time in taking the set 6-2. I broke him in the beginning of the 2^nd set. He then retired at 0-3 down due to dizziness. This was a strange match but I was happy to get through.

Round of 16: Defeated Saida’lo Saidkarimov 7-6(3), 6-2. This was a tricky day as the conditions were very windy and it was difficult to play well. My opponent has a high-level forehand from the middle of the court. I got down a break 1-4 after he played some aggressive tennis. I came back from 0-40 down to avoid going down a double break. I knew that I needed to go for it more as he was good when he had time. I played a few good games in a row to come back from 2-5 down and even it at 5-all. In the tiebreak, I went up a mini-break 4-1. I played well and made some key 1^st serves. I took the tiebreak 7-3. I loosened up a little bit at this point and broke him right away to go up 3-0. I continued to apply pressure and broke him one more time. This was a good comeback especially considering the conditions.

Quarterfinals: Lost to Marko Tepavac 2-6, 1-6. My opponent from Serbia is a very good player who has been ranked in the Top 200. He has a legit serve and is a great athlete who moves well and returns well. In the first two service games we each broke each other to start the match. At 1-2 he played a great return game to break me and go up 4-1. He put almost every return in play and kept them deep. He closed out the first set 6-2. Unfortuanltey I didn’t get a good start to the 2^nd set and went down 0-3. I wasn’t able to get many looks on his serve as he had the power and the placement. I needed to look to play more aggressive early in the point as he was very good once it got to neutral. I ended up losing the match 2-6, 1-6.

Doubles Round of 16: Defeated Tepavac/Pavlovic 6-1, 6-2. I partnered with Simon Freund who played at UC Santa Barbara. My partner and I started off strong and broke them at 2-1 to go up an early break. We were making a lot of shots and putting them in tough situations. We went on to break one more time before taking the 1^st set 6-1. They got a few holds to start the 2^nd set. At 2-all, we played a solid return game to get the break. We were serving well and not threatened on our serve. My partner served out the match to give us a good 1^st round victory.

Doubles Quarterfinals: Defeated Rodriquez/Zayed 6-2, 6-4. We got off to a good start and were returning at a very high level to start the match. We broke them in their first two service games to go up 4-0. They started to play a little better and got two holds before we took the 1^st set 6-2. Both teams held their first six service games of the 2^nd set. Our opponents were serving unbelievable and making 90% of 1^st serves in. It wasn’t until 4-all that we got the break on the No-Ad point. That was the only break we needed as we served out the set 6-4 to take a great match.

Doubles Semifinals: Lost to Bellier/Mridha 3-6, 7-6(5), 4-10. At 2-3, my partner and I got broken on a No-Ad point after a weird point. That was the only break of the 1^st set and our opponents took it 6-3. They were serving at a high level and we weren’t getting many opportunities. We also got broken early in the 2^nd set to go down a break 0-2. However we responded and broke back at 2-4. At 5-all we saved two break points on our serve before getting a clutch hold. My partner and I had 1 set point at 5-6 but they saved it with an unreturnable serve. The tiebreak was close throughout but we went up a mini-break at 4-2. We held both service points for 6-3. They won both of their service points which made it 6-5. We took the tiebreak 7-5 to take the 2^nd set. In the 10-point tiebreak they started off very strong. They went up 3-0 with a mini-break lead. We switched sides at 1-5 down. We battled to comeback but it was a little to late. We cut their lead to 6-9 but they closed out the match with an ace. It was tough match to lose but I thought it was high-quality doubles.

5^th tournament: Meshref, Kuwait $15k Futures

Round of 32: Defeated Daisuke Sumizawa 6-2, 6-2. He is a solid player who moves well and has good groundstrokes. I started off serving well and broke him to open the match. At 3-0, we each traded holds in our next few service games. At 5-2, I played a good return game by attacking his 2^nd serve to take the 1^st set 6-2. I was playing solid tennis and waiting for the right ball to attack. In the 2^nd set I also got a good start to go up 3-1. In my next service game I saved 4 break points before getting a big hold. I went on to break him one more time before taking a good 1^st round win 6-2, 6-2.

Round of 16: Lost to Valentin Royer 4-6, 3-6. He is ranked #8 in the ITF juniors and he has a very complete game. He hits a big ball off of both sides and also returns well. At 1-all in the 1^st set I broke him by playing a solid game. I held for 3-1 in the next game. I then had two break points to go up a double break but I couldn’t convert. We both held our next service game which made it 4-3. I was serving here and lost a long Deuce game on my serve where we both had many chances. From that point he didn’t miss much at all and started playing at a very high level. He held and then broke me again to take the 1^st set 6-4. I went down a break 1-3 in the 2^nd set. I competed and saved two break points to make it 2-4. I then played 3 of my best points of the match in a row to go up 0-40 on his serve. However he saved all of them and came back to hold. He would serve out the match at 5-3 in the next game. I thought the match was a good quality but he played a little better in the important moments.

Doubles Round of 16: Defeated Hassan/Abdulrahman 6-4, 6-1. We faced off against a Kuwaiti wild card team in the 1^st round. They started off playing well and saved break points in 2 of their first 3 service games. No team broke in the first few games until 4-all. We played a great return game and broke them at 15-40. We served out the first set in the next game to take it 6-4. We started to find our rhythm in the 2^nd set by breaking for 3-0. My partner and I were returning well and at one point we won 12 points in a row. We broke once more to take the match.

Doubles Quarterfinals: Defeated Anand/Sumizawa 7-5, 6-3. We got down a break 3-1 in the 1^st set after they returned lights out. At 2-4, we broke back on the No-Ad point to get it back on serve. Both teams held their next service games until 5-all. My partner stepped up and he hit a return winner on break point. We served out the 1^st set 7-5. At 1-all in the 2^nd set we broke them. We started to find a rhythm on our service games as we were making a high percentage of 1st serves. At 5-3 we broke them one more time to take a solid match. I thought it was high-quality doubles and we played well.

Doubles Semifinals: Lost to Pichler/Sachko 1-6, 4-6. Our opponents came out playing very well, especially on the return. They broke us on the No-Ad point to go up 4-1. We had 2 break points but we weren’t able to convert. They broke us again to take the 1^st set 6-1. We got a solid hold by saving 3 break points to go up 1-0 in the 2^nd set. At 3-2, we finally got our first break of the match. Unfortunately we weren’t able to hold as they broke us on the No-Ad point with a big return. They held for 4-all. In the next game they broke us again after hitting 3 solid returns. They served out the match in the next game with 3 aces. It was just too good from them.

6^th tournament: Meshref, Kuwait $15k Futures

Round of 32: Lost to Valentin Royer 1-6, 4-6. This was the same opponent that I lost to in the previous tournament where he reached the finals. So it was tough draw facing him in the 1^st round. He came out playing lights out and hitting a lot of winners. At 1-2, he broke me in a long game on my serve. He would break me one more time before serving out the 1^st set 6-1. I made some adjustments in the 2^nd set by looking to change things up. At 1-all, I broke him for the first time in the match by playing a solid game. But I couldn’t sustain my momentum as he broke right back. He broke me at 3-all to go up a break 4-3. I then played a good return game to break back for 4-all. He continued to return lights out and broke me again before serving out the match. I didn’t think I played badly, he returned too good. I also got broken multiple times right after breaking him which halted my momentum.

Doubles Round of 16: Defeated Cooper/Noerstenaes 6-0, 6-2. Simon and I came out focused from the start and took an early 3-0 lead. We were playing well and getting to the net by being the more aggressive team. We broke a few more times to take the first set 6-0. At 1-all in the 2^nd set we broke again after hitting some great returns. We weren’t threatened on our serves at all and broke one more time to take the match.

Doubles Quarterfinals: Lost to Moritani/Takeuchi 6-7(8), 0-6. Our opponents were the Japanese duo who play smart doubles and have good hands at the net. We faced the first break points of the match at 2-all and saved both of them. Besides that there weren’t many opportunities for either team. At 5-all, we saved one break point on the No-Ad point on my partner’s serve. We had one set point on their serve at 6-5 but they saved it with a good 1^st serve. A tiebreak would ensue. The serving team was winning most of the points. They got the first mini-break to go up 5-3. At 4-6, I hit a good return and my partner finished the volley to make it 5-6. My partner hit a good 1^st serve to even it at 6-all. Both teams held their next few service points. We had a set point at 7-6 and one of our opponents hit an unbelievable shot by hitting a forehand winner off of an overhead. They ended up taking the tiebreak after they hit an unreturnable serve down the T. We were down 0-40 in the 1^st game of the 2^nd set and brought it back to Deuce. But they hit a return winner off a good 1^st serve to break us. We had multiple break points to get it back on serve but couldn’t capitalize. At 0-3, on the No-Ad point they hit a volley a 3 inches wide and it wasn’t called which really hurt us. They broke us one more time to close out the match. I believe we lost 4 No-Ad points in that 2^nd set. It was a tough match and our opponents went on to win the tournament.

I reached a career high of #638 in singles and #454 in doubles in November. I am now doing an off-season training block in preparation for next year.