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I know people have asked for blogs and there have been very few of them lately and those lacked great content. A number of first round losses coupled with US travel (which is much more uneventful than the far east for sure) and I just haven't had much to write.
So, two big topics...Bangkok and Minnesota Tennis Challenge!
First, Bangkok....I had a rough end to my partnership with Lipsky, with whom I tried one more tournament in Metz, France and failed again to find our winning ways. We had another disappointing loss in the first round. Splitting with Scott was tough cause we are such good friends, had great success at the beginning of our tenure, but then just couldn't find a way to get it done throughout the summer. It was tough but felt we may be better off trying a different route to get some wins. He's a great player and someone I could definitely see myself playing with again down the road. The split worked for him too as he and Stephen Huss made the semifinals of the event in Kuala Lumpur last week.
I decided to team back up with a good friend, Rajeev Ram. The same guy I won Chennai with the first week of the year but haven't played with since. I've never quite understood what makes Raj and I play well together, but for some reason we just do and I'm done questioning it.
We had a tough first rd against Lukas Dlouhy (US Open champ) and David Skoch. We came out very slow. Rajeev is probably even more laid back than I am on court and that was trouble all week...but we picked it up big time in the 2nd set and played an awesome tie-break to escape the first round. We were happy and vowed to start stronger in the 2nd rd.
That night we decided to play a practice set with Kohlmann/Peya and was going quite good until Rajeev caught a 2nd serve late and caught me in the side of the head/eye. I was able to finish the set but my vision was a little blurry and had a rough headache for the night (more on that later). I mean I can't imagine playing a real sport like hockey or football cause this tennis ball to the head was enough contact for me for a while.
Round 2...Hutchins/Tecau....ditto. We came out even SLOWER than in rd 1 and got down 3-0 in about 3.5 minutes and were instantly staring at each other wondering how this could happen again! But after the set break, we get very fired up, turned it around and played another great super-breaker to win the match.
After the match I was about to participate in a Muai Thai Boxing exhibition with a couple of the players when I started losing some vision. I hadn't had a migraine headache in years, but it was setting in. I saw the doc, got some drugs, went home and turned off the lights for the next 16 hours and woke up in the morning feeling better, but definitely not 100%. The trainer said maybe it was something with my neck cause sometimes guys sprain their neck with they get hit in the head because there is a jerk-reflex. So, he felt the need to snap my head around crack everything from my skull to my lower back to relieve the tension. I'm not a huge fan of this but, I wanted to feel better and he said this was the best way.
Semis... Knowle/Melzer...I still wasn't feeling great, but about 6 motrin tablets and 3 espresso shots later I was determined to not feel sluggish for this one and we weren't. This was the highest quality match of the tournament for sure. Melzer was seeing it like football after his singles win that morning and came up with a return winner, reflex volley off an overhead, ace and amazing drop volley to end the first set tie-break. It was one of those you sit down and say, "Ok, too good....he will now only hit serves and returns for the rest of the match." That is what happened. We made the adjustment, took everything at Knowle (who is no slouch, but we just had to do it) and we snuck a break and got the set. The breaker we came out hot again and got up 8-2!.....it's over right???.....WRONG! Rajeev misses an ace by the width of a blade of grass, then double-faults. Knowle drops two bombs and now I'm serving at 8-5. Still over right? Wrong. Huge first serve, Melzer gets it back to my knees and I volley deep back to him (wait! what happened to the "hit everything to Knowle strategy!!!!) and he rockets a backhand right through the middle for a clean winner. Now the crowd is really into it. 8-6...still feeling good and at least serving to Knowle. Another first serve, big one, out wide (he was sitting on the T) but he manages to get it to my side and I "SHOVEL" the weakest half volley of my career to his side of the court determined to not let Melzer see the ball. Knowle steps up, we are in position and the ball clips the net and goes over my racket. Really? 8-7 and now Melzer to serve. Great. Crowd is going crazy and Melzer is pumping his fist. It's back on serve. He serves to me and I push it down the line behind a poaching Knowle. Melzer is back and plays the ball crosscourt to Raj, (not sure why he chose to play Raj when we were both back) but I take this opportunity to charge to the net with no intention to give him another chance to play me from the back. They exchange heavy groundstrokes twice with Knowle and I faking a poach each time, then he fires at me, I reflex it back and he takes it cross court to Raj again, only this time Raj just lays into a forehand which literally knocks Melzer back and mishits a backhand. 9-7. Now, I'm feeling slightly better than the extreme panic I was feeling moments before. Raj makes a decent return off a first serve and Knowle dumps a short volley in the middle of the court low and soft. Normally I charge this ball and decide between the flat backhand which goes in the middle of the net or sails long....well today, I gave it everything I had and ripped my first official short, low, charging forward, clean, untouched backhand winner. Second to ever winning a tournament on clay this was one of my greatest achievements (half serious). We were into the final. Time to breathe again.
Finals - Garcia-Lopez/Zverev - This was probably the most anti-climiactic of the week. We got a great break at 5all, played a tight game to give it back, won a convincing tie-break and an even more convincing 2nd set. On an indoor court with Garcia-Lopez staying back, we were the more dominant team and pulled through.
So, I believe that's 7 first round losses and 1 title in the past 2 months. Consistency never really was my thing...
I'm writing this from the plane as I fly to Beijing and will try to write again at the end of the week there. I have a couple travel stories, but will save them for the next one as I think this one has gotten long enough and I still have one more topic to cover!
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