Match Day
Max and I play 7th on after 10 am. We will likely go on around 7:30pm central time. You will have to follow the livestream scoring and keep track of the matches to know exactly what time we will head on. For the live scoring, scroll to the bottom of my website and click on the ATP link. Once the ATP page pulls up, click on “Tournaments,” “ATP Challenger Tour,” and then “Winnipeg” to find live scores.
Our tournament preparation has been awesome. We have been starting most practices at 8am. The courts are generally empty at 8 which is nice for doubles specific practices. When working doubles skills, balls are frequently angled off the sides of the court and spill onto other players’ courts, interrupting their practice. The main benefit of practicing early is to practice the exact skills we want to improve and not have to restrict our practice to drills that keep the ball on our court. I’m also a morning person and naturally wake up around the 6 o clock hour, so morning practices work perfectly for me. Our second practice has been around 3pm, and we do gym together either before or after. Max and I have also been watching ATP doubles matches together, so we can continue to study the game and what good teams do well. It’s extremely important to continuously grow our vision of how we want to play as a team. Continuously learning about what teams consistently do at the higher levels also makes improving each day more fun in my opinion. I either get an idea about how I can perform a certain skill better, or I get an idea of a new skill I can work on. It’s new ideas that are the start of improvement in my opinion. The more ideas I can get from studying the game, the better.
Before film study yesterday, Max and I talked about how to more effectively play 1 up 1 back situations. We talked about which targets to aim to in certain scenarios and why. I don’t want to get too specific with details because we plan on using these tactics to gain an upper hand, but I’d be happy to explain if you contact me. During film study, I personally looked for different times that I could aim to specific targets in one up one back situations based on how the point developed. It basically felt like I was playing the point out in my mind. I look forward to applying what I’m learning into game, and hopefully I can win a few more points during today’s match because of it. We have practice at 12, and we will rest before competing later on. Take care.