This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Once again, I’m playing catch up with by postings… I am currently in Morelia at my final Mexican tourney, but let me first take a step back and talk about my previous week in beautiful Guadalajara.

The Guadalajara tourney was held at the Complejo Panamericano, an incredible all-sports complex that was built especially for the 2011 Pan-American games… the place is first rate! 4 practice courts, 8 elevated-show courts, and 1 very impressive Tel-Cel Stadium!

>>>>While quite a few of my photo selections seem to revolve around each week’s cuisine offerings, a good friend, and Mississippi tennis legend, Devin Britton, shows off some of his excellent photography skills on his own blog (www.DevinBritton.com). So take a minute and check out his blog as he always has an interesting take on the cities we’ve traveled to.<<<<

Once again, the housing connections came through in a big way, as I was able to find housing in Guadalajara, thanks to Nacho Plascencia’s (a Guadalajara native, but now a Roddick-LaValle tennis academy member in SA) good buddy, Daniel Alvarez put me up for the week. I had a great time with Daniel, a very considerate and generous host, I felt right at home.

We spent quite a bit of time together as a quintet that week in Guadalajara, our shared fitness guru, Paco Munoz, Nacho, Camilo (originally from Columbia, also of the Roddick-LaValle academy), Daniel (who elected to skip school to hang with us at the tourney). At most tourneys, you end up finding your go-to-group, and for the second week in a row, I was surrounded by impressive new levels of Spanish slang…

My singles (tennis, that is) experience in Guadalajara was a disappointment. I drew a first round bye which was nice as it afforded me a good, hard practice day for the first time in about a week. I played an American seed the second day, Mico Santiago, a good 18 year old from Oregon. I ended up going down 6-3,6-4 and felt out of rhythm the entire match. Even while not playing my best, I was happy with the way I competed and hung around, but simply lost too many long games. I lost 3 return games in which I had 3 break points in each game, and 4 service games in which I had at least 3 game points… not exactly a recipe for success. But I do need to give credit to Mico for making things difficult for me, he played a solid match on that Sunday and went on to qualify for the main draw the next day.

With my singles opportunity dashed early in the week, it gave me an opportunity to get back to the practice court and clean up my game. For the most part, I have been happy with my play in Mexico (6-3 singles record to this point), but I still felt like I could be executing a more aggressive game plan from time to time. So what a great opportunity to practice and incorporate that into my game plan before my final tournament in Morelia.

As I believe I’ve described in an earlier post, acceptance into the main draw doubles event is based on your singles ranking (a system that confounds me), and while I am still waiting for the ATP computer to register my ATP singles point (and subsequent world ranking) from last week’s Celaya, I am a liability in terms of getting into the doubles draw, at least until my ATP singles ranking becomes official in 2 weeks. So needless to say, I was excited when Pavel Krainik (CAN) (1100 ATP) asked me to play doubles. We drew the previous week’s winner’s #3 seeds Devin Britton (USA)/ Darian King (BAR). We jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead and had chances in the next several games as Britton and King made their push, but we couldn’t sustain our break advantage and went on to lose a close match 6-4,6-3. (Congrats to Devin & Darian as they went on to win their 2nd futures doubles title in a row a few nights later in Guadalajara). Darian & Devin had already had some success together and it showed during the latter part of the first set as they moved and crossed like a doubles team that has developed a sense of chemistry. Pavel & I didn’t quite have this same flow on our side of the net, as we had just put this pairing together… It’s always tough to play with someone when you’re still trying to remember their first name, but I was very pleased with how I played, regardless of the outcome it’s nice to see an immediate carry-over effect from practice sessions. I’ve always felt I was a better doubles player and now I am pumped to play a more consistent doubles schedule!

So while the tennis record in Guadalajara was an unimpressive 0-2, I had an opportunity to clean up some short-comings in my game and am ready for my last week in Mexico.. Morelia.

I also had an opportunity to do some sight-seeing around the beautiful capital of Jalisco, but that post will have to come later as the practice court calls my name…

–> I’ve posted a bunch of photos that you should browse through until I get a chance to publish the next posting.

Y’all take care & Go Spurs GO!

JW

Good morning. This is going to be a quick post as I’m writing this via the wifi on my bus from Queretaro to Guadalajara. (I was equally shocked that I’d have wifi on the bus!)

Yes, a bus trip means a loss… I went down in a good quality match 7-6(5),6-4 to the #8 seed and 586 ATP Chris Letcher.
It was a very close match and I played well enough to win, I just didn’t take advantage of enough opportunities to come out on top. But credit to Chris, he played some good stuff in the big moments to come out with the win.

All in all, this was a big week for me. I won 4 good matches and collected my first ATP singles point. I pushed Chris in a close match, and even held a 5-4 advantage in the breaker with two serves to come (not often I let these opportunities slip and they certainly aren’t fun when I don’t take advantage). While I was initially very disappointed by letting Chris ‘off the hook’ I am improving and maturing so much with each match that I can’t help but be thrilled with my growth as this year is way bigger than an individual match here or there.
Besides, during my year of pro tennis, there is always a chance for redemption waiting right around the corner.

I should arrive in Guadalajara about 2pm then I’ll take a taxi to the courts for check-in and a practice session.

Looking forward to meeting my host family for the week as well today, another great opportunity to experience some quality time as I continue to embrace this amazing Mexican culture!

Play starts as soon as tomorrow morning, so it’s a quick turnaround without much time to acclimate so I’ll be excited to be off this bus asap.

Ps- I had a fun family interaction last night in Queretaro. My uncle Marc, had told me about some family we had in Queretaro so I called Jenny and went by to meet she and her young daughter, Ivanna. Que preciosa! (see photo).

Finally, a huge Thank You to Mickey, his dad, Miguel Angel, and Elsa for being incredible hosts for the last week. I had an absolute blast and cannot thank them enough for the incredible patience they showed in explaining jokes, cultural references and general Spanish verbiage as the seemingly infinite blank stares crawled across my face. Not to mention that I feel a bit like a ‘comida’-connoisseur after sampling so many incredible dishes and salsas during the week. Adios al Conejo y Romina tambien!

ATP Singles Point

Check out the Video from Match Point, I’m serving from the far court: 

MatchPoint1stATPSingles

►

Yesterday was a great day!

After winning 3 qualifying matches at the $10,000 F5 Futures event in Celaya, Mexico I won my opening main draw singles match to collect my first ATP Singles Point!

As you saw from the above video, I won my first round match 6-3, 6-1. Many thanks to my former Texas teammate and current Mexican-altitude specialist, Miguel Reyes Varela, for taping the match point with his iPad!

Taking a step back to the last day of qualifying on Monday afternoon, I was obviously very happy with my 3rd qualifying match win in as many days, but after seeing the possible places that Qualifiers might be located for the Singles’ Main Draw, I became quite excited! The qualifying draw begins with 64 players that is then narrowed to 8 players that will feed into the Main Draw. Upon completion of the final qualifying match on Monday, the tournament supervisor selects  one qualifier to ‘draw’ his fellow 7 qualifiers out of a hat to determine their place in the Singles Main Draw. You can always tell when the Supervisor is searching for a player representative, because you’ve never seen so many 20-somethings so focused on a task that 5-minutes before could have waited for next week. It is widely held that only bad luck can be associated with drawing the q-spots.. and I guess in the most recent test of this hypothesis, the bad luck theory held strong.

I had left the courts for the day when I received a Twitter from a good friend, and my roommate from last week, South African, Keith Crowley… it read “I pulled the one seed for myself and the WC for you, you’re welcome!”  Keith had either foolishly tried to break the ‘bad luck theory’ or had not feigned preoccupation well enough to fool the Supervisor.Bottom line, I was set to play the Wild Card first round.

Quite honestly, it’s assumed that the wild card is one of the more winnable matches in the first round, but as with any unknown commodity, the WC could also be a returning-to-form, former tour veteran or a highly touted up and coming junior (a young Rafa Nadal was once a WC in his native Mallorca). But regardless of my opponent, I knew it was a great opportunity to win my first singles point.

I know stand at a crossroads in the story. I would like to say that the next 12  hours reflected my general attitude of ‘improvement over wins/losses’ and enjoying the experience, but when I look back on this years from now, I think I’ll be more entertained by a more candid reflection of my emotional state.

As is common in all competitive young males, and especially true in a Futures-type setting such as this one, with all of the friendly camaraderie comes a healthy dose of playful banter that leaves no subject untouched. My WC opportunity was not an exception, rather it was an easy target for  ribbing all evening long.

Micky and I have  spent most our time with 2 other Mexicans this week, Bruno Rodriguez (Miguel’s doubles partner), and a DF native Gustavo “Goose” Loza. We’ve had a great time driving back and forth from Celaya each day, and while I don’t catch all of the Mexican banter, I’ve been greatly entertained by the Mexican-banter and albures (double intended jokes) that I have been able to decode.

On Monday night, we were headed to dinner in downtown Queretaro, but not before we took a bit of time to broaden “el gringo’s” cultural awareness about  the Mexican independence movement of 1810. We went for a speedy tour around downtown and saw many of  the current Queretaro-state government buildings (pictured) 

and San Fernando Cathedral.

The picture (below & right) truly doesn’t do the Cathedral justice, as it’s one of the

more ornate I’ve seen. As Queretaro is known as the “cuna de la independencia’ or cradle of independence, most of these historically relevant buildings are built to encircle the terrific Plaza de Independencia, it had the festive, welcoming feel of the main plaza in Pamplona, Spain!

We

ended up eating at a very tasty Mesón del Chucho El Roto (Miguel helped me with a rough translation. Chucho is a nickname for someone named Jesus, Mesón is a type of meeting place, and El Roto is Chucho’s nickname “The Broken One”.. Chucho the Broken’s Place… mas o menós?)

We had a great meal and began with an entrada de “Chapulines” crickets…. gotta love the high protein to carbs ratio!

One of Queretaro’s signature sights are “Los Arcos” an aqueduct project built in the mid 18th century to bring water to the city… It’s a pretty amazing sight, especially the way they are light at night.. sadly this photo was my best drive-by attempt. 

The tour around Queretaro had been a perfect distraction from my upcoming main draw match. So as I tried to take my mind off of tennis, especially given the opportunity that Tuesday held, my highly flammable inner flame was constantly being stoked by  good-natured jokes all evening long. If this ‘excitable flame’ was simmering at dinner… it was a raging inferno by bedtime.  Its not that I was nervous about the prospect of playing, I was just so excited to have another crack at a singles point that I didn’t want to wait until the next morning to play. My attempt at sleeping Monday night was absolutely comical. I tried everything short of self medication or bashing myself over the head with a blunt object to find a few z’s. I tossed and turned, read books and articles online, played ‘rain shower’ music on my iphone, took a 2am shower, and even drank 2 liters of water thinking the full stomach would make me sleepy, but as you might guess it was a poorly devised plan as the full stomach quickly transitioned into an equally restless full bladder. Objectively, I’d give myself about 45 minutes of sleep over the course of the 8hr night…So you can imagine how relieved I was to finally see the reasonable hour of 7am show up on my clock…

Once the balls were tossed into play at 10am, I felt great. I was very excited to be out there competing and battling for my first point. I did not play flawlessly, but I played another solid, complete match and came out a 6-3, 6-1 winner. A great feeling indeed, especially having qualified for 2 previous main draws and come out empty handed each time.

I am very excited to keep battling and improving each day, and a singles point will allow me great flexibility in a couple of key ways. Most importantly, I will now be able to get into some doubles events with my ATP singles ranking. In what I believe to be a backwards system (now that this blog has been posted, I’m surely bound to receive a call from the ATP asking me how to rectify the system) , doubles acceptance at the Futures level is based on Singles ranking, so my Doubles Finalist Result at the $10,000 Futures event in Brazil in December has essentially done nothing to help my acceptance into doubles draws. With only 1 singles point, I won’t be assured doubles entry, but it will be much easier to pair with fellow players to play on a consistent basis!

Secondly, an ATP ranking will allow me direct acceptance into nearly every Futures qualifying event and even some ATP Challenger qualifying events, so many doors are opened in terms of schedule making.

All in all a great several days, but it’s back to the practice court today as I attempt to live up to the 19th Century social reformer, Jacob Riis, a quote that has been adopted by the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich…

“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, an I know that it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

Just keep pounding….

JW

While each week on the road has afforded me an insight into different culture’s varying perspectives on life, no tournament has felt like it was two trips rolled into one great week.. until this week!

Simply put, my second week, in this my second trip to Mexico, has been an incredible experience so far.

I arrived in Queretaro last Wednesday afternoon for a few days of practice with former Texas teammate, and current Mexican Davis Cupper, Miguel Reyes Varela (ATP 601). After a few days of practice and acclimating to the current elevation (~6000ft), I took my game on the road, to the Club de Tenis en Celaya (a roughly 40 minute commute from Miguel’s house). The qualifying rounds began on Saturday morning for the $10,000 Futures event and I opened with a win against an American, and then followed with another win on Sunday against #11 seed and ATP #1934 Rosas-Zarur (6-4,6-4). No amount of verbose language or window dressing could frame (pun-intended for this match) it as a well-played match. I brought minimal rhythm to the table, but fortunately Rosas-Zarur brought less. It was a battle of who could weather the barrage of bad errors, which, realistically speaking, determines the outcomes of quite a few matches, just ask any pro or collegiate coach, as quite a few of them sit on the sidelines plucking their hair out, one by one in ever-growing exasperation. I was up a break in both sets and did well to hold onto the leads as I finished off the match in straight sets. It was a great confidence booster to hang tough and gut out an ugly W (hat tip to “Winning Ugly” by Brad Gilbert). After most matches I try to do a little extra hitting and physical conditioning. Obviously, one needs to be wary of dipping too deep into the energy reserves during a tournament week, however the ultimate goal is improvement so that serves as a great motivator each and every day. I hooked up with another former Texas standout and Mexican Davis Cup Team member Luis Diaz Barriga (543 ATP). We had a great 45 minute practice. It was short & sweet, but very intense, just what the doctor ordered. I followed the hit with a brief session on the bike, some isometric ab exercises and a good stretch and it was time to call it a day.

Sunday’s match was against #8 seed and 1798 ATP Alexis Carlos of Mexico. I had similarly won 2 matches and progressed to the final round of qualifying last weekend in Estado de Mexico, only to fall 7-5 &7-5, needless to say I was excited to have another crack at it today. The match started well enough, with a hold of serve (so many of the players down here elect to receive first..much to my liking). In Alexis’ first service game, I had multiple chances to break but couldn’t convert, a frustrating proposition in any tennis situation, but especially at altitude where breaks can truly be at a premium. Today was a good serving day and I quickly found my rhythm which enabled me to hold relatively efficiently. I continued to play good games on his serve but didn’t break until the 6th game of the 1st set. I continued to hold and broke again to win the first 6-2. I was eager to get off to a good start in the second set but quickly found myself down 15-40 on my own serve. I played good tennis and was the appreciative recipient of a Carlos missed volley, but it was enough for me to escape with my service hold. Sometimes winning the long games seems to pay dividends down the road (thanks to Clarence Mabry for that and many other invaluable tennis insights), and the theory held true as I won the 2nd set going away for a 6-2, 6-2 finish. QUALIFIED! Another chance at a main draw opponent. My mental approach has definitely matured as a tennis player, no longer am I placing the focus on W’s& L’s, instead I’m making a concerted effort to truly enjoy every aspect of this incredible opportunity I’ve been afforded to chase my tennis dream.

After the day’s tennis activities, Mickey and I raced back to the house and took quick showers, in an effort to meet his dad and Elsa (Miguel’s father’s longtime girlfriend) for a Saturday afternoon meal at Las Laurelas, a restaurant inside a beautiful white-walled Spanish Hacienda.

A very significant reason why this particular week has been so incredible is the separation between my tennis and the experiences of enjoying the Mexican culture in Queretaro. Quite literally we are separated by some 40-50 km, but that distance has really allowed me to maximize my tennis for the day, then put the rackets away and embrace the wonderful Mexican culture. Mealtime has long been my favorite time of the day, but in Elsa’s house in Queretaro, every meal is an opportunity for great conversation and enlightening the ‘poor Gringo’ about all things Mexico. Each meal has taken the form of a 3 on 1 tutoring session. Miguel, Miguel’s father, and Elsa  have made even my most ridiculous questions feel welcomed.  We have discussed Mexican politics, both past and present, and even jumped into a brief overview of the current presidential race. Food is a common teaching topic as Elsa’s professional training is in nutrition. We even had a brief art lesson, as Elsa has taken to all sorts of art creation and collection in her spare time, with original paintings ranging from realism to cubism to impressionism and also having collected sculptures that include several 18th century pieces.

Most of these conversations have been in Spanish, although they are mindful to switch into English sometimes so I can be involved in some of the rapid-fire give and take.

Humor is a huge part of this household as well, and they’ve had great fun in remembering all sorts of pranks they have played on friends over the years. Humor appears to be deeply woven into the Mexican social culture as well. A very common example is their use of double-sense comments. This basically is the idea of making a seemingly innocent comment, only to see if those around are mentally agile enough to derive the not-so-innocent humor from the one-liner (albures). With Mickey as my guide, I’ve been treated to some of his father’s quick-witted specialties, but sadly, I’m not particularly close to decoding the figurative meanings of some of these saying, but I’ll keep trying.

While I may struggle to grasp some of the quicker verbal jabs, I felt first hand the burn* of a good prank.. a little background first. As I explained in my last entry, there are three types of salsas that come with every meal, and they escalate in terms of spiciness (pica-espanol) from verde, the most mild, to habanero, which borders on the “get the tres leches cake out and fast, because you need 3 milks to extinguish this burn”… ok bad joke, but you get the picture. Mickey and I sat down to get an early start to on Friday’s lunch, as I had to travel to Celaya for qualifying check-in.  I, as per usual, began to load my plate to the brim with all sorts of delicious gorditas, bruschettas, etc when Maria (who helps produce some of this amazing cooking) brought over a new dish, a combination of red onions and carrots that were soaked in a semi-clear liquid. I leapt before I looked, and much to Mickey’s excitement, tossed the carrots, onions, and broth all around my plate. Within 30 seconds, I recognized my mistake even though I could hardly see through the tears that were rolling down my face. The onions& carrots were not innocently soaking in some citrus/lime juice, rather they were submerged in a fiery habanero lava-type liquid meant to separate the men from the boys. Mickey had kept his tongue as he saw me eagerly spoon the liquid onto my plate, only to have fits of laughter follow his forced silence. It was all in good fun, but I was the brunt of a great burn.. literally and figuratively. Gun shy has new meaning for me at the Mexican meal table… this gringo has learned a lesson haha.

Wow, didn’t mean to have this one trail on for so long, but I’ve enjoyed this week so much that I wanted to share with all of you.

The two family pets, Romina y El Conejo (I’ll let you judge which is which), pictured to the right, about sum up my feelings for this awesome week.

And to finish on a bang (or a flame, if you prefer) check out what we saw at a street corner on our drive back from the Celaya club on Friday afternoon.

Thanks for reading and main draw singles tomorrow, so I’ll keep y’all posted!

-JW

As much fun as I had while in Estado de Mexico and particularly the tournament at Club de Sayavedra, I was excited to finish up my laundry, find a trustworthy sherpa and descend down from the 8200 foot base camp that had been home for the previous 6 days.

I was set to leave Estado de Mexico on Wednesday morning and fortunately my mid-week departure allotted me a couple of days to practice with an old college teammate, Miguel Reyes Varela in his hometown of Queretaro. Mexico is divided into 31 states and I was headed to the state capital of Queretaro, officially called Santiago de Queretaro, about 200 km northeast of D.F.

My morning began uneventfully with a pleasant cab ride from La Privada de Loma Escondido (housing in Estado de Mexico) to the bus station at Topetzatlan. Mexico has a very extensive bus system and I was excited for the day’s journey. Anytime I’m traveling solo I feel a need to ‘be on alert’ but today’s journey could not have been any easier. As is customary in Mexico, I prearranged the fare with my taxi driver for the 30 minute commute to the bus station (200 pesos ~ $15), but as we arrived on the outskirts of Topetzatlan he very smoothly (definitely not his first rodeo with a gringo) asked for a higher wage. My spanish is by no means great, but it has improved to the point of being able to politely stick to the 200 pesos. I hauled my gear across the service road and into the bus terminal and immediately met a consortium of different ticketing stands. I walked up to the ETN (TuriStar) clerk and purchased my ticket for the Queretaro “de lujo” bus… yep the luxury liner. I threw my spendthrift tendencies to the wind and splurged! Oh what a valuable 50 peso (<$4) upgrade it was. Not only was the bus now a direct 2 hr transit, but I also had full access to the VIP lounge and its adjoining bathrooms, so I could avoid the pay-to-pee extortion tactic

that was in play at the station (right). We boarded the bus and were treated to a snack pack of juice, yogurt, and of course galletas (I’ve learned that no journey is worth taking in Mexico unless you are armed with galletas, Cajeta, or preferably both).

The bus set off promptly at 10:15, and I was already thrilled with my very spacious seat when I realized that it could fold out into a quasi-bed.. who needs Business Class when you can almost kinda-sorta stretch out on the <de lujo> bus!

Being surrounded by Mexican families and tennis players has only helped my Spanish, but on the bus I happened upon a great, and entertaining way to continue to improve my language skills. The bus was showing the (MIT students go to Vegas and count cards) blackjack movie, 21, a movie that I watched, in English, when it first premiered. I can’t believe I didn’t think of trying this before, but all of a sudden I understood conversational phrases that have forever been ‘over my head’ simply because I now understood the general plot of the movie.

The journey seemed to pass in a flash as I was stunned by the scenic Mexican countryside (almost as pretty as springtime in West Texas!) I’ll see if I can dig up some photos to show y’all! The rolling hills and impressive pastures made me miss good ol’ West Texas Hwy 90!

The bus arrived in Queretaro and I was greeted by Mickey (warning I may switch between Mickey, Miguel, Dundee and any number of nicknames Miguel has from UT) in his dad’s tennis academy van, it certainly wasn’t hard to miss the large MexiTenis scrawled along the side. After a brief driving tour of the city center we made our way north to his father’s tennis academy courts. The courts are inside of a gated subdivision called Juriquilla. Gated neighborhoods in Mexico are more common than in the U.S. and known as ‘privadas’, ‘colonias’, and ‘fracionamientos’ respectively, as they grow in relative size. Juriquilla is on the larger end as developments go and is some 20km outside of the Queretaro city-center. After a good practice (never quite appreciated how normal 6000ft can feel) we headed back towards Queretaro-proper and his house in Jurica. Mickey and his family welcomed me into a beautiful white-walled home where lunch was waiting for us. Have I mentioned that I’ve been eating like a king here in Mexico? Apologies for the poor lighting quality in this first picture, but generally I’m too excited to slow down and take a quick snap once food is served… but I’ve done my best to include a few pictures below. The three salsas you see at the bottom of the post is a staple at the Mexican table, akin to our salt and pepper. Although I must say that I absolutely prefer the choice of Habenero salsa (light red), salsa roja (deep red), and verde salsa (primarily avacado & lime) to our standard S&P. The fruit is incredibly fresh as you can see and the included egg-dish was this morning’s victory breakfast (claras de huevos mexicanos/ egg whites with tomato, onion, and jalapeno).

All this talk of food is making me a bit hungry so let me get to the meat and potatoes of this post so I can get to the table as I’m late for our family lunch.

After several good practice days with Miguel in Queretaro I was ready for the beginning of qualifying today at the Celaya $10,000 Futures Tournament. Fortunately, Celaya is only a 40 minute commute from Miguel’s front door so it works perfectly that his family has welcomed me to stay for the week (Many Thanks!).

As luck would have it, I drew an American from NYC first round. I broke early and had many chances in the first set to secure a second break but didn’t convert and as if to remind me how important that insurance break can sometimes be, I lost my serve to even the set at 4-all. But I recovered nicely by breaking and holding to take the first set 6-4. I kept the pressure on in the second and broke twice to take a 4-0 lead. We both held twice to close out the match as I won it 6-2. It was nice to see someone across the net equally as concerned about a sun-burn as I was and equally as unsure of this pressure-less ball tennis. While my shot-making skills are improving, I am even more excited to see how I’ve matured as a match player. Because at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter how many tools you have in the bag if you don’t know how best  to maximize the shots on that given day.

Good start to the tournament and tomorrow I’m back to squaring off against Mexicans as I line up against #11 seed Rosas-Zarur (1934 ATP).

Saludos! (& please enjoy the pictures below).

The last time I checked in, I had just won my first round qualifying match at the Sayavedra Club en Estado de Mexico 6-3,7-5. It had been a while since I played my last tournament match (mid-February in South Texas) so it was good to compete and battle through a tough second set especially given how crazy the tennis can be at 8200 feet.

Day 2 began a bit earlier with my match being one of the first scheduled matches of the day. I was set to play my second Mexican in two rounds Rudolfo Jauregui Sainz de Rozas. As opposed to the first round matches, all of the Day 2 tennis was to be played on the main bank of courts. The day before, as is customary at many of the Mexican Futures tournaments, we had a ballboy who helped quicken the match pace by keeping the server stocked with balls at all times, what a privilege! But when we moved to the main bank of courts on the second day, we had 3 ball boys, partly to quicken the pace of play, but also to serve as mobile fences to keep balls from rolling between courts as there were now 4 matches playing in adjacent courts. Concentration and focus were premium advantages as there were always balls rolling around or ballboys scampering to pick up a stray pelota. My opponent was the #8 seed (#1522 ATP), and at first glance Rudolfo looked like a younger version of Tommy Robredo. This comparison may be a slight stretch as my opponent’s backhand may not have been quite as elegant as the perennial top-20 Spaniard’s but my second round opponent did posses a feistiness that caught my attention and heightened my focus. My game plan became quite clear in the early going of the match. I was both bigger and stronger than my opponent so I felt comfortable playing through the middle and waiting until I earned a shorter ball to attack. I quickly found a rhythm and played a very clean match. A high percentage of first serves and minimal errors off the ground helped me get off to a good start and keep the momentum as I secured a 6-2,6-2 victory.

Dinner after my Day 2 win was an absolute pleasure as our host family took us out for a great Argentinean dinner (pictured above). Classic steak dinner with a salad and a uniquely South American potato dish.

The next morning was the final round of qualifying, and I was set to play another Mexican #1722 ATP, Jorge Eduardo Orozco Rangel. The conditions this final morning were a bit different than the previous two days, it was colder and I couldn’t quite get the same feel for the ball. My opponent was clearly very comfortable in these high-altitude conditions and while he was patient and content to work the ball around the court, he would also step up and be the aggressor at opportune times. I started poorly and got down a break early. In the early going I had tried to be consistent and out-rally my opponent, but it soon became quite clear that I would need to play more aggressively and force the action to push him out of his comfort zone. I made a strong push after falling behind 3-1 early and took a 5-3 lead. To this point I was balancing steady tennis with aggressive tactics and was able to keep him off balance. Then at 5-3 I made a tactical error and decided to play more conservatively. This was a poor decision as I lost my serve and thus lost a chance to serve out the first set. He raised his level and we played 3 more close games, before he toughed me out to win the first set 7-5.

I started the second set determined to get back to my aggressive game plan. I held to start 1-0 and quickly broke. Then serving at 2-0 and 40-15 I again had another chance to swing the momentum decidedly in my favor. My opponent was obviously a little down and took huge cuts at the ball on the next two points to get back to deuce. Another series of points saw chances for both of us to take the 3rd game, but after several more deuces he broke back and we were again on serve. The next several games were very close but I again took a 5-3 serving advantage, a chance to force a 3rd set, and equally as important a chance to play with new balls, something that would definitely aid my aggressive tactics. However, I missed another chance to serve out a set and lost my serve in a long, close game. Looking back, I am happy that I had maintained my aggressive game-plan but I simply did not execute as well as I needed to. Eduardo again held for 5-all and following a similarly frustrating script, the second set was a mirror image of the first set. I again found myself down 6-5, but 30-all on Eduardo’s serve. I was unlucky to lose the next two points, both on mis-hit forehand winners by my opponent, but given my earlier 5-3 advantage I shouldn’t have given him the opportunity to sneak back into the set. Serving 5-3 in both sets should have been a straight-set victory, but credit to my opponent as he was able to hang tough and play his best tennis when he was down.

I learned some valuable high-altitude tennis lessons during that match and look forward to several good days of practice in Queretaro with former UT teammate, Miguel Reyes Varela before the next tournament in Celaya.

Lucky for me the road rolls on, and armed with these new lessons I look forward to improving each and every week.

Saludos,

JW

This is a follow up on previous “March Madness.” Sorry for not posting the articles in the correct order.

While I had originally scheduled a few weeks for downtime and tennis-specific training during the month of March, an opportunity soon presented itself that I simply could not turn down. … as I began to explain in the previous ‘March Madness’ post I was offered a commentary role with the newly formed ESPN-Longhorn Network. My role was to provide the color commentary/analyst perspective during nationally televised men’s & women’s Longhorn tennis matches.

I would spare all of the exacting details, but then what would I do with this afternoon away from the courts if not reminisce and type.

Bottom line: it was nothing short of an incredible experience.

During this 4 week timeframe in March (and a weekend in April), I had the opportunity to commentate on 8 men’s and women’s matches (3 were cancelled due to inclement weather) but what an experience!  My typical broadcast preparation would begin about 4 days before the match and would usually involve gaining a feel for the opposition’s coaching staff, player roster, and results to date.  The production team at LHN (Longhorn Network) would then setup a conference call with the opposing coach, giving myself and my broadcast partner ( the play-by-play personality) an opportunity to have a 30-40 minute conversation with the coach, in the attempt to gain an insider’s perspective into the accomplishments and challenges facing that particular men’s or women’s teams. I would then combine these ‘coach’s notes’ with my personal notes to give me a fairly comprehensive view of the visiting team.

I would arrive at the UT Tennis Center in Austin a day before our scheduled broadcast and have an opportunity to sit down with UT women’s coach, Patty Fendick-McCain, or Coach Center of the men’s team. This was always insightful, because as familiar as I may be with both teams, no one knows the pulse of their squad like the coaching staff. I would then usually sneak out to the courts to laugh it up a bit with the guys and girls teams as they put the finishing touches on their afternoon practices. While I may have claimed this was essential ‘scouting time’ and absolutely necessary for my broadcast knowledge, I could hardly hide how much fun I was having being back with both teams. It was truly a great window back into the joys of collegiate team tennis. I certainly thought I made a considerable effort to enjoy my collegiate athletic experience but nothing makes me want to go back for another year like the incredible camaraderie on display during a pre-match practice!

After I squeezed as much court-time as I possibly could, I would rendezvous with the production team (includes a producer and a director that weave the audio/video together into one seamless performance). Up until this point, I was in my element. Chatting with coaches, laughing with both Longhorn & visiting squads… but then the tables turned. I felt like I was in a visiting arena, where nothing quite looks familiar. I will never forget my first production meeting. It was the afternoon before the men’s UT vs. TCU match or Horns vs. Horned Frogs, if you prefer. Quite frankly, up until the meeting, I was feeling very confident in my preparation. I had known the TCU coach, Dave Roditi, since I was 13 and was extremely familiar with his roster, as I had practiced and played with his team multiple times in recent months. (Not to mention my possible involvement in Friday-night extracurriculars @TCU with the Horned Frog’s team just a few weeks prior to the Sunday afternoon tennis match.) So there I was sitting on a barstool staring at my producer, Kerry (she has produced all 4 tennis Grand Slams and numerous NBA & NFL games over her last 8 years with ESPN) and the director, Brad, one of the Tennis Channel’s primary directors. They began to show me the ‘run sheet’ for the broadcast. The run sheet broke down our on-air schedule by the 15 second interval and included all sorts of TV-related details that were Greek (at best) to me. At first glance, the run-sheet was sanskrit, and as I perused it more closely I was even more intimidated. Brad and Kerry then explained that during the match I would wear a set of over-the-ear headphones with a mic boom attached to it. Furthermore, while I was ‘commentating’ on the action below, Kerry would be talking to me via my headset while they flashed upcoming graphics on one of my 3 TV monitors (that I was supposed to be watching).. can you say sensory overload? This job was surely designed for someone with split personalities syndrome. To summarize, I was going to put headphones on that would prevent me from hearing my own voice, and then my producer, would effectively step in and be the ‘voice inside my head.’ I must’ve let out a chuckle at this point because both Brad and Kerry interrupted their run-sheet explanation by telling me that the process sounded more difficult than it actually was. “You’ll be fine, they cooed.” The meeting soon came to an end and I left to go grab dinner with my sister, Julia. Nothing like having a younger sister around to chop you down a level and bring you back to reality haha. After careful thought to make sure they sounded at least reasonable if not a bit witty, I emailed my producer the ‘keys to victory’ for each team, as “Jon’s Keys to Victory” was going to be a graphic that was to be flashed on air during the beginning of doubles play. Just before bed that night, I rehearsed my 2-3 minute memorized opening for the broadcast’s ‘on-camera’ shot, thinking that having something concrete to say at the opening was a good idea.

During my LHN matches I had the opportunity to work with two different play-by-play personalities.  Mark Brown has been with ESPN for a number of years and has covered all 4 of tennis’ Grand Slams as well as numerous NFL and Div I NCAA Men’s Final Four weekends. Needless to say, the guy is a pro. But on this first broadcast  I was paired with an equally loquacious Grant Boone . Grant has an comparably extensive resume as he has done considerable work for ESPN and CBS Sports and is a fixture on the commentating team for the Master’s at Augusta National. As I walked into the commentating booth 3 hours before tip-off (or first serve), I was greeted by Grant’s quick-tongue and even sharper wit. We began with a mic test and an ‘ear’ test to make sure we could hear the audio/video truck and vice-versa and then we jumped into a dry-rehearsal in which the shows’ graphics were flashed in quick succession across our video monitors so we would have at least a glimpse of what we were to supposed to talk about when Kerry told us of an upcoming feature. While I was trying to absorb everything around me, Grant was all jokes. I’ve never heard more puns and one-liners than in that particular 45 minute stretch, and I grew up watching Leno, Letterman, and Saturday Night Live! At the time, I was miffed, how am I going to perform well when it counts if we are effectively blowing off the practice run?? But as it turned out, all of his joking and my subsequent laughter did wonders to relax me before the show. Just when I thought our prep was complete, I was pulled aside by our make-up lady, really?? I squirmed like a wet cat through a painless 5 minutes of foundation, powder, eyebrow combing, and even a bit of air-brush treatment, I thought I was ready for the run-way but instead whisking me off for a Caribbean beach photo-shoot Grant, and the now more camera-ready version of myself, made our way outside to walk-through our on-camera opening. And as you’ve probably guessed, that 3 minute memorized intro I had in my back pocket was deemed useless as I was meant to react to Grant’s setup questions and the upcoming graphics that Kerry was going to tell me about via the Secret Service-like bug in my ear. Our on-camera take was very smooth, and great fun. Who knew you’d have to concentrate this hard on your train of thought with a producer’s countdown in your ear and Longhorn tennis fans milling around you and waving at you? Looking back on it now, I’m happy that we didn’t have something rehearsed as it was a lot more natural with the genuine give and take between Grant and myself. We then rushed back inside the booth to begin our commentary of doubles play as the teams had begun their warmup. While I may have been a bit overwhelmed by the thought of having the sound of my own voice replaced by that of my producer, in actuality the process of commentating was quite fun. I needed to concentrate very hard to keep track of all three doubles matches and listen to Kerry and stay tuned for replay cues and upcoming graphics, but the thrill was certainly enough to keep the endorphins flowing. After the completion of doubles, I went down to the court level, where we poked a camera into Coach Center’s locker room chat and then I was able to conduct my oncourt, on-camera interviews. I took the opportunity to interview a player from each team and then it was “back to you, Grant, for the start of singles play.” During my walk down to the courts and my return trip to the booth I was accompanied by a technical assistant. At first, I thought it was in case I had a problem with my earpiece or mic, but on the way back I noticed he was leading me. I gave him a bit of ribbing as I told him that I was vaguely familiar with how to get back upstairs after being around this facility since I was 9 years old. He laughed but said that they weren’t allowed to leave the “Talent” alone to get lost or sidetracked by fans… initiate ego inflation!! I’m sure I won’t be living that one down anytime soon!

The singles began and Grant I had a great time jumping from court to court as we tried to catch all of the pivotal moments (huge props to the video truck for working so hard to make sure we saw action from all 6 courts. Especially considering that broadcasting collegiate tennis live, in its entirety, is basically a whole new undertaking. Incredible to be a part of the evolution of the process). The evening before, I had been concerned that I might run out of steam and not be able to talk for the better part of the 4 hour match, so I called an old practice buddy and current Davis Cup Team member and recent Austin- homeowner, Ryan Harrison, to see if he’d jump in the booth with us for a bit to give the audience a different perspective. So, at the beginning of the second sets, we welcomed Ryan on air and off we went.  I had seen him do a bit of TV work at the Australian Open when he was involved in a 3-way discussion on ESPN with Darrin Cahill and Brad Gilbert and I was very impressed with his presence and general ability to communicate on air. He was equally impressive during the TCU match. Ryan consistently highlighted the good play of the college players and  spoke to the fun environment of collegiate tennis, all the while avoiding the knee jerk reaction of some athletes to self-promote. We had a great 20 minute chat, ranging from pro vs. college tennis-banter to the recent Davis Cup win over Switzerland. Ryan obviously is having an impressive start to his young career (top 70 in ATP) but when he decides he’s had enough, I can assure you that he’s ready for TV work, I can only hope that my UT degree and burnt orange hair allow me to hang on to the LHN gig a bit longer.

Texas went on to win the match handily but there was great tennis to be had by all, something I thanked all the players for later, at the joint UT & TCU post match meal. As I quickly learned, my job is quite easy because the guys and girls play such great tennis, all I have to do is frame the painting that they create.

What a wonderful season of LHN tennis it was. The level of preparation and work that  30+ person crew invests into the endeavor is astonishing and I was so thankful to be with such a great group of audio/video technical support staff.

It goes without saying that the commentating experience has been terrific in terms of the public speaking arena, but personally it also served a broader, more important lesson. When faced with the idea of having your knowledge tested across the airwaves, you certainly want to be accurate, honest, and fair in your commentary as you don’t have the opportunity for a second chance. Such is life. There isn’t a pause function or a rewind button, so I feel inspired to bring a renewed level of joy and passion to my everyday activities. No matter what I am doing, it will have an impact on someone so I will strive to give it my best and have fun because… it’s showtime!