Prize Money Tournament Series Southeastern Michigan

National Senior Women's Tennis Association Championships, Alexandria, VA

Third place!

I worked hard for my first national tournament of the year. I ran when I didn't feel like it. I stretched when I didn't have time to. I lifted weights when I wanted nothing else but to take a nap. I played tennis. And I played tennis. And, OMG, I played tennis.

I played at match plays and at junior clinics and adult clinics. I set up matches. When I couldn't find a match, I was on the ball machine.

For hours...

I can't imagine working any harder.

I thought, if I worked as hard as I possibly can on the things I can control and relax about the things I can't, I would be okay.

I couldn't control the fact that I live in Michigan who didn't have a single day of good weather for me to get a feel for outside tennis before I embarked on my trip to VA. I couldn't control the fact that most places with clay around here won't open until Memorial Day. I couldn't control the fact that usually I am beyond my spring asthma/allergy/bronchitis flare up by this point, but because of the prolonged cold winter, I fully expected my spring "symptoms" to materialize at any moment like that zit that likes to pop up the day before picture day.

I had a tense week with the husband before leaving. He knows me well and kept saying, I think you are thinking too much about your tournament. Relax.

I didn't tell any of my friends about the tournament because I felt ready. And it's weird, but I felt like saying that I knew that I was playing good tennis and saying that I was doing all the right things would somehow jinx me. I was scared to fail after telling everyone, "I am playing the best I have ever played right now." So, I didn't say anything. I just want to do it.

My first match at the Belle Haven Country Club in Alexandria, VA went on thirty minutes late. Sometimes that works for me and sometimes it works against me. The jury is still out on how that affected me. It was an afternoon match and instead of getting up early to hit, I slept in a bit and took my time getting to the club. I am usually in tune with my body and I just felt I had done enough and I needed to relax.

When I got on court, still having not been outside to hit or on clay, I felt okay. The warm up against my lefty opponent was uneventful, except for a brief thought that I should have hooked up with my lefty pal, Sarah, before I left and played out some points.

The match started and I think I blinked or sneezed or something but somehow I found myself down 0-5 in a matter of minutes. I do remember early, altering my game plan. I didn't want to power hit against this strong player, but I could not move. I couldn't be consistent. I couldn't get a serve in. Or a return in. I was missing out calls. Playing balls that were a foot or two out.

I couldn't believe all the hard work was coming down to this, a first round loss. I had done that plenty of times with a lot less pre-tournament work. I could have cried.

I looked at my mom.

And then I relaxed. Later, she told me, she was praying that I relaxed before I got too discouraged. She said she just felt once I got acclimated to my surroundings, I would be okay.

I quickly toweled off, drank a little water and went to collect the balls to serve that sixth game. My first serve was a nice serve with a lot or spin that felt confident. My opponent missed the ball long. I held at 40-luv and then broke her serve. I lost the eighth game, but I knew I had her.

2-6, 6-2, 6-1.

It was one of the best matches of my tennis life. It is one thing to tell yourself you can come back from a deficit, but to actually do it, is a different matter. To first gather myself after the first set loss and to tell myself that I was going to win the second set. And then to tell myself, I was going to win the third set. It took a self-belief that I didn't know I had.

This was the first major tournament where I managed to stay in the main draw the entire time, losing in the semi-finals to the number one seed.

But it was that first match that set the stage. It was the first match that I am looking to revisit in my head when I need a boost on the court in the future. I think it's important to have tennis memories, memories that you can pull out as reference in appropriate times, so your mind and body both know, I've been here before and I prevailed.

And I have an awesome one from my trip to VA.

Stay tuned,
KS.

McFetridge Open

In my quest for tennis excellence, I signed up for a tennis tournament in Chicago at the McFetridge Sports Center. I've been playing tournaments for a few years now and I find that I can usually find good competition in Chicago, whereas; the draws for tennis tournaments for the woman open player in Michigan can be sparse.

I am sure the economy, the blame for everything from unemployment to Dunkin Donut's cutting back on my favorite twelve-pack, is the reason for the recent drop in participation at tournaments. So, it is getting very hard to find tournaments to sign up for where its worth the time, money and effort to play.

There were two tournaments going on in Chicago this past weekend. One was a tournament for adults, 21-over. The stakes were higher, the prize being an expense-paid trip to Georgia to compete at the next level where a win would provide the talented player the opportunity to play in an amateur tournament to be held in Australia during the Open. As much as I desire to one day be competitive enough to compete with the great women who were signed up for that tournament, I know my tennis game is still in the "development" phase.

So I signed up for the McFetridge Open and met a tournament director that will make that stop a recurring stop on my "tour schedule". Scotty was accommodating from the start. With the small draw, he wanted the tournament to happen and to make it worth everyone's time. So, my competition? A couple of twelve-year olds and a fifteen year old!

All of them, wonderful competitors and I thoroughly enjoyed the time on the court we spent together, though I lost to both of the 12-year olds.

A friend of mine was conflicted about which Chicago tournament to sign up for and ended up signing up for the other one. Both tournaments were supposed to be a single elimination, but because of the small draw at McFetridge, the girls and I got to play a round-robin format where we got to play everyone in the draw. Then we capped off the weekend with a doubles match, which I really enjoyed.

It's hard to find consistent competition in Michigan at times. I attend clinics and weekly lessons. I have several hitting partners. But the intensity that I felt this weekend, battling it out with sluggers who could handle their own, is something that can't be re-created at a city park any given afternoon.

I played two matches on Saturday and two on Sunday. The first set of my first match went by very quickly, but I found a rhythm in the second set, and pushed my opponent to a second-set tiebreaker. Though I lost, I loved the fact that I figured out kinks in my game and would play another match were I could quickly implement the changes.

There were a lot of little things that were corrected, but the two major ones was my serve and working the point.

My serve has always been a big weapon. Whenever I play up levels or I play against guys who are stronger, faster and just generally, better than me, my serve is a neutralizer. But it can be erratic. This weekend I watched my opponents serve. I watched how relaxed and easy-going their motion looked compared to my amped up, sometimes spastic one. I tried it in my warm up and oh what a difference.

Thinking it was a fluke, I tried it again and again, but my serve was bigger, my consistent, deeper in the serve box and all without me looking like I am teeing off on the ball!

The second thing was me being patient during the points, looking for winners, but being able to pull back and settle into a rally when the winner wasn't there or the opportunity was missed.

As usual, the tournament, despite win/loss results was a positive one for me. It renewed my passion, my dedication to training and getting better and my belief in my game.

Thank you to the entire staff at the McFetridge Sports Center who was so nice and had good things to say about my game.

Next up for me is the Midwest Indoor Championships in Grand Rapids in a couple of weeks. I hope to play well and I will keep you posted.

Stay tuned...

KS

Tournaments for the Adult Player

Travelling this weekend with my doubles partner for the Saint Joseph's Fall Open tournament, I realized that there are probably adults out there who would like to play tournaments but are intimidated, never having done them before.

For a first timer, I would recommend a local tournament. This would give a newbie a good overview of what to expect without having to deal with the many things that could go wrong and infringe on the player's focus on playing, which is the whole reason for attending a tournament.

Many local clubs offer small, unsanctioned tournaments. By unsanctioned, I mean, the tournaments are not necessarily run by USTA guidelines and they will not count toward any kind of standings or rankings. Local Parks and Rec departments also offer tournaments sometimes. The best way to find out about these tournaments are to contact your nearest club and ask to speak to the pro in charge of adult programs.


Tournaments that are USTA-sanctioned can be found at the website: www.usta.com/tennislink/default.aspx

Or call your local USTA section office. For Southeastern Michigan, the number is 734-421-1025.

Potential tournament players can use the website to search for tennis tournaments in their area based on gender, age, playing surface, etc.

Before attending any tournament that I am not familiar with, I usually like to send an email to the tournament director, asking for answers to any questions I may have: hotel recommendations, expected size of the draw, starting times for play, etc.

After all my questions are answered and I've decided to do the tournament, I sign up using the online system if it is USTA-sanctioned tournament or by registering over the phone with the tournament director if it is not a USTA-sanctioned tournament.

Most tournaments will often only have the starting time for your first match only. Make sure you know when you are scheduled to play. Failure to show up on time can result in being defaulted! Tournament directors sometimes will use discretion in some cases, i.e. you are travelling from another state, but they are not required to and in cases of USTA-sanctioned tournaments, if you are not on the court fifteen minutes after your scheduled start time, it is a default!

Know what time you have to check in. Check-in is thirty minutes before your start time for most matches. Once you are checked in, DO NOT LEAVE THE IMMEDIATE AREA. Once you are checked-in, the tournament director can put you on court if a court becomes available. This is done to keep the matches moving. Many things like weather, long matches, etc., can cause delays so if the opportunity to put a match on early arises, most directors will do that.

Make sure you take snacks with you to the tournament site. Just as tournaments can run ahead of schedule, they can run behind. There's nothing worse than planning to play at noon, but not going on until 1:30 and then finding yourself hungry in the middle of your warm up!

If you are a string-breaker, have an extra set of strings on you so that, if you think you can't make the rest of the tournament with the racquets you have left, you can get the one racquet restrung.

Bring something to read or an I-pod. There is often a lot of downtime between matches where you don't necessarily want to leave the site.

Bring towels and plenty of water. For tournaments that are outdoors, sometimes they don't provide water. I like to have a big cooler in my car with a couple of gallons of water sitting in ice so that I can refill my water jug as needed. If it is hot, soaking a towel in a baggie of ice water is a good idea. It can provide quick relief on changeovers.

Bring a change of clothes. (It can't hurt.)

If the tournament is outdoors, bring a chair. Sometimes theres not a lot of places to sit or the seats available are in the sun.

It is common to have roving umpires at most tournaments. They are not there to interfere with play, call lines or harass you. Their job is to make sure play is continuous, overrule any obvious bad calls and they will call foot faults.

Most USTA-sanctioned tournaments will utilize single sticks for the singles matches. These sticks make the net regulation, but for people not use to playing with them, they can be a distraction, if you weren't expecting them.

Most importantly, have fun! It's so cool to play people outside your normal hitting circle. It helps your game and can provide that freshness to the sport when league play becomes stale.