Well that whole bit about keeping fingers crossed for normal tennis balls.. ya well, I guess we could’ve prayed harder… a return to Mexican tennis means a return to cardboard boxes full of pressure-less tennis balls.. but I digress.

So as I boarded my direct flight from SA to Mexico DF, I made a very crucial error (no self-termed savvy traveler would make this faux pas), instead of inquiring as to the occupancy level of the flight, I stepped aboard and hard-charged toward my 7th row middle seat, determined to get primetime overhead space for my precious- tennis racket-cargo. Much to my dismay, I was quickly encircled by two ‘significantly-proportioned’ travelers. No sooner did they buckle their seta belts, did I realize that these were the last two passengers were the last aboard the flight. As the flight attendants ran their best impression of a Peyton Manning hurry-up offense (ya they were that good), I finally had an inkling of what it felt to be an exhausted D-lineman, trapped between the O-lineman juggernauts and unable to escape to the space and serenity of the sidelines. I was left to envy the nearly 30 open seats all around the plane. Reading back over this paragraph, I am aware of how overly dramatic and it may sound, and it certainly is a bit trivial,but in the moment I couldn’t believe how such a rookie error had cost me that all-important airplane cat-nap opportunity.

Back to something that matters…..

I landed in DF and was ecstatic to see what a breeze Mexican customs could be in now my second trip through. I had made contact with a friend of a friend via text message the evening before I left Texas in an attempt to set up a practice for my first afternoon in Mexico. Turns out, we had both done one better. Keith Crowley (South African by way of a Finance degree at Miami) had just beaten me to DF by about 2 hours and after scoping out the scene had elected to wait for me to split the hour cab ride to club Sayavedra. What a guy! We quickly hit it off (even before tennis balls were in play.. shameless, I know) and our surprisingly light traffic commute was over before we knew it. I never quite appreciated the power of currency conversions, but this hour cab fare had only set us back the equivalent of $20 each!

We arrived at the club and were instantly impressed with how abruptly the scenery had changed from the urban jungle that is 23 million+ people in DF… I would soon learn that we were in Estado de Mexico, not only different in name, but not nearly as crazed with big-city hustle and bustle.

I’ve included some pictures to show how picturesque this week’s club is.. Sincerely worried that we may be enjoying the best club in this first week, here’s to hoping this string of Mexican futures will prove me wrong.

Tennis is nothing short of shocking at this level of elevation. Turns out, the elevation in Atizapan de Zaragoza (our district within Estado de Mexico) is over 8000 feet! So maybe I’m happy(?) that we are playing with ‘dead’ balls this week as I still haven’t figured out how to put 3 balls in a row into the court.. fortunately for me, neither has anyone else.

After two days of very good practices with Keith and a few Mexicans I met back in January, we were ready (as ready as we could be) for today’s first matches. I played a 6’3″ Mexican first round and he certainly didn’t need the extra pop that elevation gives the ball. Today wasn’t great tennis, but I was very happy with how I handled the conditions against a good player who practices at this very club. I mixed in a few attempts at ground-stroking in between crazed net-rushing kamikaze schemes, but in the end it was good enough, and timely enough to notch a 6-3, 7-5 victory.

To celebrate our two victories, the big South African and I had a practice session in which we ALMOST had a rally, we are certainly making grand progress haha. A light weight session rounded out the day followed by a substantial club-provided buffet dinner (oh ya there was certainly plenty of fajita mix and tortillas de maiz to be had by all).

I have yet again been blessed with an exceptional family that has offered to ‘house’ me for the week, but it has been too entertaining to gloss over with just a few words. So stay tuned …

This post has dragged on long enough… time to hit the hay and prep for tomorrow’s second round match.

Duermes bien!

JW

Apologies, this post was supposed to have been ‘published’ Thursday morning… 

Good morning all!

Looks like its time to fire up the ol’ blog again.. I’ve had my hiatus, both from tourney tennis and my writing duties. But with great privilege to chase the sun comes the equally heavy responsibility to post descriptive soliloquies of the great places I’ll see… not a bad trade-off if you ask me.

Today’s schedule has me landing in “el DF” at noon then taking a cab out to the Sayavedra Club (I’ve been warned it’s an hour+ cab ride, here’s to hoping that I’ve been misinformed). The club is located in a section of DF known as Atizapan de Zaragoza, a district in the far northwest of the Mexican capital city. I’m planning on an afternoon practice (keep your fingers crossed for normal tennis balls) as there is always a fear that tournaments in DF use ‘pressure-less’ balls to combat the vastly different feeling of high altitude tennis, but as one can only imagine using ‘flat’ balls just exaggerates the foreign feeling.

Once again, I’ve been fortunate enough to find housing with a local family. Sr&Sra Manuel y Monica Ceniceros. The housing streak is alive, dating back to my second week in Brazil (Dec 18!). Meeting families in each city has proven to be way more fun than the drudgery of hotel hopping.

My spanish is a bit rusty, but I had a nice opportunity to get a few reps in with the airline attendant at check-in, as I’m flying aboard the Mexican-based, Interjet Airline.

Should be a fun week in DF, what a great opportunity to be surrounded by 23 million Spanish tutors!

Time to board.

Ojala que todos tengan un buen dia!

~Juan Wiegando

When I first set out to travel and compete on the professional circuit, I made a commitment to try and do it in the most dedicated way possible. Throughout my first 3 months I have tried to base my attitude on the idea of ‘embracing the process’. The fundamental focus of this adage is to allow oneself to enjoy the aspect of improvement and keep a more macro/larger scale view of the professional tennis journey. Knowing full well that there will be highs and lows during this year of tennis, I am determined to enjoy each and every twist on this amazing life experience.

In accordance with developing a comprehensive and intelligent tennis schedule, I knew that I must incorporate appropriate rest and practice time along the way. To this end, March has been akin to a greatly appreciated pit-stop on my tennis journey.

After 3 weeks in Brazil, 2 weeks in Mexico, and 2 more tennis filled weeks in South Texas, my tennis ‘to-do list’ was so full of areas of improvement that I couldn’t properly justify the expense of another round of tournaments immediately.

While it’s quite easy to stay high-energy and ‘fired-up’ to practice and improve while you’re busy soaking up the Brazilian sun, its a great test of your determination to come back to the comforts of home and maintain a high level of focused intensity. Fortunate for me, I was excited as ever to build on progress I had experienced in my first few pro tourneys. I won’t bore you with details, but let’s just say that I’m looking forward to ‘Serving’ up some good results and ‘Moving’ my way up the ranks when I hit the road again. (Wow, I really need someone to proofread these before I hit the ‘publish’ button, but to0 bad for the readers, this ‘committee of one’ doesn’t have outside counsel to purge this weak attempt at humor).

But onto something more fascinating and fun. Like maybe some Longhorn fun??

In mid-February while driving through Brownsville (or was it Northern Mexico?? it all looks the same) I received a call from an 860 area code. Bristol, Connecticut anyone?? Yes, that’s the headquarters of ESPN…. long story short, they were curious if I would be able to FIND time in my schedule to do some TV color-commentary for the (ESPN/ABC-owned) Longhorn Network’s televising of Longhorn Men’s and Women’s tennis matches. What? me? Sure, put a Econ/Bio major in front of a TV camera and give him a mic with minimal instruction and even fewer rules… Evidently rumors of Wiegand-family dinners and our ensuing passion for verbose conversation hadn’t made it all the way north to Connecticut…. My response to their invite: “Absolutely! Where do I sign?”

Stay tuned to the next post.. I promise it will be coming soon, almost as quickly as you can say lights, camera, Longhorn action!

PS> Next tourney: Oklahoma City (first week of April).

Long time to go without updates… I apologize, but between fixing my computer and a serious lack of Internet access down here in the Valley (Brownsville and Harlingen) it’s been tough. But tonight, I’m accessing via phone (great technological success for me!)
For tonight, I’ll keep it short and sweet, but will follow with more details once I return to civilization or have a full-fledged keyboard, whichever comes first.
Brownsville was a good 10-days of tennis. I played two Wild Card singles tournaments before the Future and played well in each, reaching the finals of both tournaments. Lots of good match play… Then Chris Price (recent TCU grad) and I played well enough to get to the finals of the WC doubles tourney. Always fun to play with the big lefty.
So after 10 days of good tennis, I had earned births into both main draw events in Brownsville.
Ultimately I lost two tough first rounds, first to an old teammate in Josh Zavala in doubles, 4-6, 5-7 (we missed an opportunity when we let a set point in the 2nd set slip by). Well-played, Josh.
Then I took an L against Frenchman, Alex Lacroix (ATP ~730) in singles. A combination of Alex playing well and an off-day for myself made things more difficult, but I was able to come away with valuable lessons that will aid my development down the road. (You gotta embrace the journey!)
After a rest day, I was back at it, winning my first qualifying match in Harlingen in difficult cold and windy conditions 6-1,6-1. I get another chance tomorrow to turn things around against the #1 seed in qualifying, Alex Lacroix (yep, same guy) as we play at 11am. Should be fun!

So far, I’m having a great time down here in the valley and will include further ‘banterful’ details in the next posting.

Y’all take care.

JW

So an ATP doubles ranking can do something for you… I got into the qualifying for the $100,000 ATP Dallas Challenger and start play tomorrow, second match on after 10am.

So far this year is off to a good start. My goal is to keep improving and the wins will take care of themselves. Tomorrow is just another step in the process, but an exciting one nonetheless!

Now sleep.

Talk soon y’all.

JW.

It’s about 10pm here in Mexico DF and I just got back from my second round qualifying match. I took another tough loss to the #10 seed in quallies, Chris Kwon (#884 ATP). I started the match well, trading service holds until 2-1 when I broke for the first time. I then held through the first set and added another break later to close out the first set, 6-1.

To start the second set, I had multiple break points on Chris’ first service game. He played some solid points and ended up holding serve. We each held once more until I lost my serve for the first time, and Chris consolidated the break and took a 4-1 lead. We then traded breaks to finish the second set, 6-2 in his favor. We both struggled to hold serve late in the 2nd set and I think this has a lot to do with the high altitude (pressure-less) balls. The tennis balls really fluffed up in the second set and combined with their inherent ‘flatness’ (meant to combat the effect of high-altitude) we served liked 12 year old girls… hence a bunch of breaks.

I would say we cracked open a new can to start the third set, but anyone who has played high-altitude tennis would know that we simply opened a cardboard box of new balls, no new tennis ball smell, no cool sound, but we were ready for more tennis.

Again, I had multiple break points in my first return game to start the third set, but again  failed to convert. We each held until a long game on Chris’ serve at 4-all when I broke. I served for the match at 5-4 and played a passive game and was broken on a good passing shot by Chris. We both held serve for a tiebreaker and Chris hit two more good passing shots to finish me in the third set tiebreaker.

Another tough match in Mexico and another loss in a third set tiebreaker… Annoying, upsetting, and disappointing are all appropriate words, but at the same time, I can really see the improvements in my game and if I continue to put myself in good situations I am bound to convert some of these break points to win matches before the vaunted third set breaker.. or maybe I should just lobby the ITF (international tennis federation) to play out the third sets grand slam style??

Thanks again for hanging around through a long tennis-centric post, but I’ve been having a grand time in Mexico DF and will post some cultural banter soon.

Quick update in between qualifying rounds.
I won my first match this morning, 6-0, 6-2. I got off to a good start and served well throughout the match against a good Mexican junior.
Turns out the key in tennis is putting more balls in the court than your opponent, easier said than done at 8000feet.
Next up: a seed from the US of A at 5pm. Looking forward to more high altitude fun.