Yonex Cup and Ojai Recap

The last 2 weekends I have been busy competing in Men’s open tournaments across Southern California. The first tournament, Yonex Cup Championships, took place at a nice club in Rancho Palos Verdes. I played both singles and doubles in this tournament with my first match starting on a Thursday night.

I won my first two rounds fairly comfortably against a younger junior 6-0, 6-3 in the 1^st round and 6-0, 6-2 in the 2^nd round against an older player who is highly ranked in his age group. It has been good to get a lot of matches and compete in a tournament setting as you can’t replicate it in practice.

In the quarters I faced off against a highly ranked junior, Jack Pulliam, who is committed to Texas A&M. He has an aggressive game-style with good groundstrokes and he can also finish points well at the net. In this match I broke him right away in the 1^st set to jump out to a 4-1 lead by moving the ball around well and finishing some points at the net. However, he played a couple good games and my level dropped a little bit as I made some unforced errors. At 4-4, he had a couple break points but I saved them and held to go up 5-4. I focused in and played a good return game to break him and take the first set 6-4 with a backhand down-the-line winner. I again got out to a quick start in the 2^nd set leading 3-1 and continued to serve well and play my game. I would break him again at 5-2 to take the match 6-4, 6-2 on my 4^th set point.

In the semis I played Rylan Rizza, who played at the University of Virginia about 10 years ago. He is a dangerous player as he still has a big serve and forehand while also volleying well. I started off the match strong by breaking him right away and getting two quick holds to jump out to a 3-0 lead. I was returning solid and broke him again to go up 5-0, then he played a couple good games before I closed out the first set 6-2. In the second set, I continued to play good tennis from the baseline to get the break to go up 4-1. I lost my focus a little and got broken in a bad game. He evened it at 4-4, but I finished strong with a good hold before breaking him to take the match 6-2, 6-4.

I also played doubles in this tournament with Sebastien Fanselow (who I would face off against in the singles final). We won our first round of doubles 6-1, 6-0 against two young juniors from Palos Verdes and played well together considering it was our first time playing together. In the semis of the doubles we played against a good father-son team, Brady-Brady. The dad is a good doubles player with good hands, and the son playes high school tennis. We played a good doubles match by returning well and won 6-1, 6-3.

In the morning I faced off against Fanselow in the singles final and then we teamed up for the doubles final in the afternoon. Fanselow is a really good player who does everything well and has no real weakensses. I would say his strengths are his return of his serve and his aggressive groundstrokes. I got off to a good start by holding my serve and breaking him to go up 2-0 in the 1^st set. But he responded by getting a hold and breaking me to level it at 2-2. I had a break point at 2-2 but he played a good point before holding. He broke me again by returning well and making a lot of shots to take a 4-2 lead. We traded holds and then he served out the first set 6-3. I didn’t have my best serving day but he puts a lot of pressure especially on the 2^nd serve. In the second set, I again got the early break after winning a long 10-deuce game on his serve. Unfortunately I couldn’t sustain the momentum and got broke right back. We both held the next couple games until 3-3 in the 2^nd set. But he raised his level again and broke me after a long game where I had a few game points. I had chances to break back to get back on serve but couldn’t convert. He broke me again and I lost a tough final 3-6, 3-6. Although this wasn’t the result I wanted, it was good to make the finals and get some wins.

In the doubles final later that day we played the team of Rizza/Abid. They are both good doubles players with good hands and decent serves. Abid is a lefty who returns well and has solid groundstrokes off both sides. We got off to a hot start and broke them to go up 4-1 in the 1^st set. Both teams held a few games until we served for the first set at 5-3. Our opponents played a good game to break us and then we had one set point, a no-Ad point, on their serve and my partner ripped a forehand that clipped the tape. Unfortunately we lost the momentum as they continued to return well and they took the first set 7-5. We got broken early in the second set to go down 1-3 but we fought back and evened it at 4-4. We had a couple break points but they came up with good plays. We were serving at 5-6 to force a tiebreak but they hit a return winner on a no-Ad match point. This was a tough doubles loss 5-7, 5-7 as we definitely had a lot of opportunities but credit to the other team for coming up clutch.

For making the singles final I won $800 which is a pretty solid for a one weekend tournament. Then for the doubles finals, my partner and I split $250. Overall it was great to get a lot of matches and see where my level is at while also winning some good prize money.

This past weekend I played in the 118^th Annual Ojai Tournament, which is a big men’s open that is played at the same time as the Pac-12 championships and the junior events. The total purse for this tournament was $30,000 which pays out more than Futures tournamnets do.

I played my first round against Lucas Bellamy, who is a senior and going to UCLA next fall. He has a good serve and hits big shots but not that consistent. I served well and played aggressive when I could. I jumped out to a 3-0 start in the 1^st set and then got another break to close out the first set 6-2. In the second, I continued to serve and return well and dominated to close out a 6-2, 6-0 win.

In the second round I played against Denis Uspensky, who played #1 at Pepperdine this past year. He has an aggressive baseline gamestyle with a great inside-in forehand and also a good one-handed backhand. He was really good from the middle of the court and once he got control of the point he was tough to get out of his patterns. In the 1^st set I got out to a break lead at 2-1 but then he played a few good games to go along with a few poor service games from me. I suddenly found myself down 2-5, however I fought back and saved a few set points to even it at 5-5. Both of the next 2 games were long Deuce games and I had break points and game points but unfortunately lost both and the first set 5-7. I jumped out to an early break in the second set to go up 3-1 and managed to get a few more holds and take another competitive set 6-4. The third set also had some momentum swings. I had break points in his first service game but didn’t convert, and he broke me and I found myself down 1-4. I fought back and evened it at 4-4 and I had 0-30 on his serve and just missed a backhand that would have given me 3 break points. However, he held and then he played a good game to break me and I lost a tough 3-hour battle 5-7, 6-4, 5-7. Although it was rough to lose such a close match, I was happy with my fight and high-quality tennis from both players.

I played doubles in Ojai with Jesse Ross, who also played at UC Davis with me. We played our first match against two older guys from NorCal. They both had pretty decent hands and played good doubles. The 1^st set was just one break, we broke them to go up 4-2 and we held serve the rest of the way to win 6-3. In the second set, we actually got down a break 1-4 but then responded to even it at 4-4. Both teams held serve so we played a tiebreak. We got out to an early lead and never looked back to take the win 6-3, 7-6(3).

In the quarters of doubles we were supposed to face off against Clay Thompson/Michael Shabaz but Shabaz got hurt in singles and they had to withdraw. That gave us a free pass into the seminfinals.

In the semifinals we played Sebastien Fanselow/Lester Cook. Lester Cook is a former professional who played on the tour for about 10 years. This was a solid doubles team as they served and returned well. The 1^st set was close as they only broke us once. We had a few break point opportunities to get back on serve but didn’t get it. So we lost a close first set 4-6. In the second set we jumped out to a break at 3-1, by returning well. We then got another break to go up 5-1. However, we didn’t close it out the first time and then they played another good return game and suddenly we were back on serve at 5-4. But we rebounded and broke them again to take the second set 6-4. In the third set they broke us to take a 2-1 lead. We had break chances to get it back on serve but they came up clutch. They would go on and break us again to take a 5-2 lead. We saved 4 match points when they were serving for the match and got one of the breaks back. We got a hold to make them serve for it again. Credit to them as they came up with good plays to take a tough match 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. This was a good-quality doubles match with a lot of good points.

We split $600 for making the semis of the doubles. I’ve been training hard this week before I leave for Singapore on Monday. I will be playing 3 $15K Futures in Singapore. I’m excited to get out there on the Futures circuit after playing a few men’s open in preparation.

"It's not the lack of resources, it's your lack of resourcefulness that stops you." -Tony Robbins