Tournament: Scottsdale, Arizona Mercedes Benz Men’s Open
A little over a week ago I finished up playing in a big Men’s Open in Arizona. Although Men’s open tournaments don’t give professional points, they offer good prize money and high-quality matches. This tournament had a total purse of $27,000 which is more than Futures tournaments offer. The tournament was held in a pretty cool location as it was right up against Camelback Mountain.
I played my first round of singles in the Round of 64 and played against a player who played for a local Arizona community college. He was a fast guy who made a lot of shots but he didn’t have any weapons. It was a good match for me as I served well and was able to play aggressive attacking tennis and I won in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.
In my next match in the Round of 32, I played against a pretty good junior player from Arizona. He was a good baseliner and had a really good backhand. I once against served well and didn’t get broken in the match. However, I didn’t return as well as I would have liked. I won the match 6-3, 6-3 but I had break points in multiple other games.
In doubles, I played with Adam Oscilawski who is a highly ranked national player from Arizona who will be going to Rice University. We didn’t end up playing our doubles match until 10:30 at night because the tournament got a little behind as matches went long. We played a few older guys who were good doubles players with good volleys and solid returns. We won the match 6-2, 6-4 with the second set being closer as we didn’t get the break until 4 all.
The next day I played my singles match in the Round of 16 against a good player from Arizona State. He was a good baseliner with a big forehand and a good serve. The first set started off well for me as I was serving well and broke him a few times to take the first set 6-2. The second set was closer as I was up an early break but he broke back and started playing well and playing aggressive tennis. I would go on to break him again and then serve out the match to win 6-2, 6-4.
In singles, I played my quarterfinals match the same day against another good nationally ranked junior from Arizona. He was a good rhythm rallier who could hit the ball really well if you hit it strong to his strike zone but he struggled with variety. I got off to a strong start by breaking him in the 1st game of the match. My opponent had trouble returning my serve and I would quickly take the 1st set 6-2. The second set was closer as he upped his game and there were no breaks until 4-4 in the 2nd set until I finally broke him after a long 10-deuce game. I served out the match at love to win 6-2, 6-4.
In the semifinals of singles, I played against Mitch McDaniels who was 900 ATP last year. This was a tough match as I wasn’t serving my best and not making a high enough percentage of 1st serves. My opponent started off playing very well and playing fast, aggressive tennis without making any errors. He also was serving well which made it tough for me and I was starting a lot of the points behind. I lost the first set 6-1. The second set I started to get a little bit of momentum and had some break points on his serve but couldn’t convert and then he ended up breaking me again at 2-4 before serving out the match 6-2.
Later that day in the doubles quarterfinals, my partner and I would look to get some revenge as we played McDaniels/Iftikhar. In the first set, both teams traded holds early and we had the first chance to get a lead when we had 4 break points at 3-3 but couldn’t convert. They played a good game to break us to take the first set 6-4. We then found ourselves in a hole in the 2nd, down 1-4 and 2 breaks but then we played our best tennis. We started to return better as a team and got it back on serve to 4-4. We then came back from 0-40 down on our serve for a big hold to go up 5-4. We broke to take the 2nd set 6-4. In the tiebreak, we were leading throughout and closed it out 10-7 to advance to the semi-finals.
In the semis, we played against the #3 seeds from Arizona State. This was a righty/lefty tandem with the righty being better at the net and the lefty had a tricky serve. We had a strong start to the match to go up a break 3-2 early but they responded and broke back. Our opponents then broke us again at 4-5 to take the 1st set. They started to return really well which made it tough. They continued to play well in the second set and quickly took the 2nd set 6-1.
"The best are simply a little better at a lot of things."
-Jon Gordon
Good work, AA! Keep working hard!
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