In my last blog, I wrote about the challenges of facing my roommate in the ITF Futures event on the hard courts of Obregon, Mexico. Here's an update on what's transpired since then.
After a short journey to Guadalajara I arrived at the airport to my awaiting girlfriend. We have done some traveling in the past and it works out great because of her help, support and dedication to what we are trying to do. She has some friends here in Guadalajara so we were able to stay with them, which is nice for the company and to save some money on a hotel.
As soon as I got a good night's sleep and a relaxed morning to recover, I hit the clay courts for my 2 p.m. practice. Conditions were extremely different from last week as they sometimes are from week to week. Here I had to adjust to about 5,000-foot altitude, very dry clay courts, and pressureless balls. The reason they use pressureless balls is to slow the pace of the game down in such high altitude because otherwise the ball would fly through the air. Usually tournaments find the cheapest ways around everything so the balls we used were extremely flat. To give you an idea of how flat, I could squeeze the ball pretty much so the top touches the bottom of the ball with one hand (and I don’t have super-human strength).
The very next day I was scheduled for a 4 p.m. doubles match with a different partner from last week. I had a long one-and-a-half hour practice in the morning where I just did my best to figure out how I could play knowing it was going to be impossible with the court and the balls to serve and volley. We lost the doubles match in a tight two sets.
The next day was my day to play singles. I played a tough opponent who was a friend of mine, which was fortunate for me because I had to kindly ask him to delay our start time by about 15 minutes. I did that because the useless stringers strung my 52-54-pound rackets at about 35 pounds (at least that’s what it felt like). I didn’t realize till I was about 30 minutes from match time and I quickly told them to re-string a racket so I could play (it was very stressful).
I ended up playing a pretty awful match and losing 6-4, 7-6 despite having two set points in the second set. Not because I didn’t try or anything, more because I couldn’t play a way that worked for me on those courts. I must have slipped at least 25 times and fell a few times too. The courts were dry and dangerous to the point where I am not too bummed I lost, knowing I was at great risk of injury had I played more on those courts (my knees are killing me!)
After the match I went to get my huge pay check totaling $93 U.S. dollars after taxes (ridiculous right???).
As for the next couple days, I will pretty much just rest and refresh my mind and body. I will probably catch the 5 hour bus to Puerto Vallarta for the next tournament on Friday morning. I will then have a few days to train and prepare for the tournament which I am excited to play. It will be my last Futures event for the year being that the next two weeks after that will be Challengers.
I may take in some sights here in Guadalajara before I leave as to enjoy my short break (with my girlfriend) in hopes to go deep into next week’s event.
Native Australian Nima Roshan has been playing on the Challenger circuit for about three years. His prior blogs include Mexican Highs And Lows, Life On The Challenger Circuit and Friendly Fire. He played college tennis at Brigham Young University from 2003-2006. He is currently based out of Southern California and has played about 30 tournaments this year including Futures, Challengers, a main Tour event, alongside some money tournaments to help fund his travels. If you have questions or comments for Nima, please email Tennis Week.
