Welcome to Big Cat’s Corner. I will be sharing tennis tips, dishing on local tennis and providing updates on Eric. If you want to know more than "it's not a break until you consolidate," hang around in my corner...with additional tips from the pros and the occasional blog from Eric, this section is sure to be a smash!

Barclay Championships 2011

Jan and I recently attended the ATP Championships in London, sponsored by Barclay. I can only describe the whole experience as AWESOME! The tennis was incredible and the hospitality shown to the players guests even better.

Eric and Jules were the alternate team, having finished in 9th place. As the alternate team, they were required to check in every session and hang around for 45 minutes to see if they were needed. Eric never did get to play, but did get to participate in some activities. He had practice sessions with Mardy Fish and Jo Willie Tsonga; helping them prepare for their matches with Nadal. Eric also commentated on the Tennis Channel for one of the doubles matches and he did an exhibition for Federal Express, another one of the sponsors.

The venue was great! The O2 arena hosts all the big concerts in London, and the treated the players like rock stars. All the matches had extravagant light shows, smoke machines, music and sold out crowds. It was quite a show – taking tennis to a new level of entertainment.

Eric has a new partner for 2012. Bruno Soares, a Brasilian doubles specialist, should be a great partner and I know one of their top goals will be to return to London for the Barclays. I hope inviting his parents to join them is also a high priority!

Tim Butorac

PS – Congrats to Roger Federer who won the singles and Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi who won the doubles.

Heineken Open - Panasonic Smash

Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer try to break the Panasonic DMC-FT10 Shock & Waterproof camera with their serving.

The Outliers

I recently finished reading a book entitled The Outliers, by Malcolm Caldwell. An outlier is any person who is above the norm or average in any field be it music, business, sport or whatever. The constant among all these outliers is that sometime in their background, they put in 10,000 hours of practice or training. To put this into tennis terms, I feel any player who puts in their 10,000 hours on the court or hitting 10,000 carts of balls, will find themselves improving rapidly, passing up their opponents. Certainly, athletic ability, talent and even genetics are a part of the formula, but the largest percentage of mastering a skill comes from practice and persistence.

So when you look over the edge, and see somebody hitting great shots time after time, rest assured they’ve put in their 10,000 hours. If you want to be one of those players people oooh and aahhh about, you need to put in your 10,000 hours too!

Tournament Tennis

Watching our juniors compete this past Christmas break, I was impressed with how it seemed to bring out their best. I saw great sportsmanship and great focus from everyone. Competing in a tournament in front of a small crowd can be nerve-wracking and really test your self-esteem. Our juniors handled the situation well and should be applauded for their efforts win or lose!

Turkey Tennis - 2008

It has been an exciting month of tennis at the RTC.

We hosted our first Gobblers Unite Round Robin and the Saturday following Thanksgiving. We had great participation and I congratulate all those who played. I think they all learned a bit about competitive tennis. (Pictures from the event can be found on the bulletin board at RTC or on our Facebook website.)

National Father/Son Tournament 2008

Recently, I had a great weekend in San Diego, CA competing in the National Father/Son Hard courts tournament with my son Eric. I can’t think of a more enjoyable thing to do. Spend time with your family, in a beautiful setting playing the great game of tennis. How did we do? We went for the gold, but settled for the bronze.

Congratulations Parents and Athletes

We’ve just completed the girls’ fall tennis season and the Rochester schools had another banner year. Congratulations to all the girls who competed this year and put in all the time and work to achieve these results.

Through the years, people have come to me and congratulated me on my boys’ success; if Eric won a tournament or if Jeff played a particularly good match. My initial reaction was thanks, but I didn’t hit the good serve or put away any overheads. Soon though, I came to realize that parents are a significant part of these success stories. Virtually 100% of the time I’ve seen a junior tennis player become a Big Nine Champion, a section or state champion or a top contributor on their team, it can be traced back to parents or guardians who invested a significant amount of time, energy and probably money into the player’s tennis career. So parents take a bow...you’ve done great!

I’d like to spotlight a few special juniors who were exceptional this fall. In no particular order, kudos to the Lourdes Girls’ State Champions, to Alexa Palen, Girls’ Class A Singles Champion, to Annie Ryu and Emilie Renault, the Girls’ Class AA State Doubles Champions, to Courtney Rust, Mary Utz, Jory Kircher, Mary Ellen Donovan and Kelsey Frechette, all individual participants in the State Tournament. Congrats also to all the juniors who had successful junior tournaments this fall. Keep working!!!

My favorite story this fall involves one of my favorite juniors, Erin Kappers. Erin played #1 singles for Mayo High and was enjoying a great senior year. While leading Mayo to the section team title, she contracted a severe case of mononucleosis. This was terrible timing and did not allow her to compete in individuals and to defend her state high school tennis title. However, she somehow dragged herself out of bed and competed and even won her match against Edina in the State Team Tournament. It was an incredible effort! Erin, you made the Big Cat proud!!!