Welcome to France!

In another attempt to honor the French Open, I will share a story about playing tennis in France.  A couple of years back there was a tournament in Getxo, Spain (that’s where the picture of the open window at the top of my blog comes from) and directly after I played a tournament in Mont-de-Marsan, France.  Getxo, Spain is in the Northwest corner of Spain by the better-known town of Bilbao, and Mont-de-Marsan is in the Southwest area of France, and the closest bigger city is Bordeaux. 

I made a reservation with the tournament hotel in France and I also wrote the tournament director to inquire about housing.  I was in the final of the doubles event in Getxo, Spain  so I did not arrive to the tournament in France early enough to honor the reservation I had made.  I did not cancel when I knew I would be arriving later than the day for which I had made the reservation because the hotel did not ask me for a credit card number or mention any kind of a cancellation policy.  Before I eventually arrived at Mont-de-Marsan I was notified by the tournament that I received housing. 

I arrived at France quite late for qualifying singles and was lucky enough to be the first seed in qualifying so I had a bye in the first round and was able to arrive in time for my first singles match.  At some point I got a voicemail or an email from the hotel stating that they wanted me to pay 55 Euros for the night when I did not arrive.  When I met the tournament director and got set up with housing and transportation he also told me that I needed to pay the hotel for the night that I made the reservation and did not show up.  He said I could pay him, and he would give the hotel the money.  I did not have the cash at that time with me, and so he said we would just talk about it later after the tournament was over.  I got to the doubles semifinal and I won a round in singles so it was a couple of days later when I  finally finished the tournament and the tournament director came back to me for the money he wanted for the hotel. 

I told him that, quite frankly, I should not have to pay that night at the hotel because they did not ask for my credit card in advance, and they did not tell me about any 24 hour cancellation policy, nor was that policy stated in any way on my reservation confirmation.  I told him that, had they communicated this policy to me, I would have cancelled earlier, or not made the reservation at all when I knew all along that my schedule could change at the last minute and I could receive a charge.  

The tournament director became furious with me and claimed that I was hurting all of the other players because the tournament hotel would refuse to house the players the following year all because of my actions.  I found it hard to believe that the 55 Euros the hotel didn’t receive from me would make a difference in their decision to host the players the following year, besides maybe the deflation of an idea that they cannot just squeeze whatever profit they would like out of the players.  The hotel claimed that they held the room for me when they could have put other players in it but I had no way of confirming this.  Also, as I said earlier, they made no steps to protect their own interests by claiming a 24 hour cancellation notice.   In my experience, you cannot simply dictate policy to people as they show up-you must communicate policy ahead of time before the customer agrees to enter into the transaction. 

Besides my regular instinct and mistrust of the situation, another aspect I did not appreciate was the tournament director actively putting himself into the business between me and the hotel.   It was not his place to enforce any rules, whether conveniently made up at the time or consistently implemented after the fact, and he took the situation as a personal affront in an effort to bully and intimidate me out of the 55 Euros.   I had never been insulted by a tournament director over anything before.  He claimed that the tournament did so much for me by connecting me with housing that I was obligated to pay the 55 Euros, which only served to deepen my mistrust.   I would have paid my housing without question, but I was not going to pay him or the hotel.   In Australia they require players to pay their housing a flat rate for food and other expenses and I have no problem with that.   I had been to many different countries before France, and I had NEVER been asked to pay for a room when there was no solid cancellation policy, or when they did not take my credit card information for the reservation.   I told the tournament director this and refused to give him the 55 Euros. 

He began to rage and rant, and, in French, told the person at the club who gave me my prize money what had happened and the guy called me an ‘arrogant American’ in French and literally threw the money on the counter.  At this point I was so angry at being singled out in this manner that I was literally shaking, and I did not back down.  The other players there agreed that I was in the right.  After getting my prize money I went to the transportation desk to ask for a ride back to my housing and the tournament director stormed up and said, ‘No, no—you don’t give anything to us, we don’t give anything to you,’ and refused to let the tournament volunteers give me a ride back to my housing.  I called a taxi, booked my train that night and left Mont-de-Marsan.

It was like being in Italy and ordering the same thing for lunch at the tennis club every day, only to be told a different price that increases every day.  Or being charged 25 Euros for a 3-block taxi drive in Rome because ‘the bags use more gas’ even though I was notified by the train station that 10 Euros is the maximum price for that distance.  When I refused to pay 25 and demanded my change back, the taxi driver threw the money on the ground.  The next day I walked the distance he drove me, with my bags, in 15 minutes.   

The happy ending from Mont-de-Marsan is that I kept my money and afterwards I got to spend three days in Paris with my Dad who happened to be there on a business trip.    

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The Price of Greatness

Whenever I tell people a story of how this player stopped playing, or this other player quit they always say something like, “Oh that’s such a shame.”  People assume that if an athlete can keep playing professional tennis, an athlete should do so.  Also, an FAQ I get is, “How much do you train?”  Obviously not everybody is privy to the information about how much players train, and what kind of a physical toll professional competition takes on the body, so in this blog post I will try to explain. 

Let’s start with the whole purpose and reasoning behind training in the first place.  A competitive tennis match can range anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 3 hours.  Doubles matches, with the no-ad scoring put in place a couple of years ago, range from 1 to 1 ½ hours long.  Now, in a tournament if a player wins each day they can be playing a singles match and a doubles match in one day for 4 days in a row potentially, or any combination of spreading out four doubles matches and five singles matches in a 6-day stretch.  Grand Slams are great because they give rest days in between, but doubles are full matches in Grand Slams.  To be competitive, you have to run faster than the other player, have better aerobic capacity, be strong enough not to get injured, and be able to recover and play again the next day, against the highest ranked players in the world.    

What kind of training can prepare an athlete for these kinds of physical demands?  To give you a better sense of the sheer amount of physical activity necessary for competition I will describe a good warm up.

 I would bet that anybody reading this has gone out on any particular day to exercise, hopped on a treadmill, jogged for 15 minutes, gotten off and thought to their self, “Alright that was good exercise for the day.”  A good warm-up for pro tennis, either in practice or for a match, and before you even start hitting balls, is about 15 minutes long.  First you have to run around for five minutes just to get your heart rate up.  Then you stretch for about two minutes and then the remaining time is doing short little exercises like butt-kicks, arm circles or knee-ups to really get you sweating before you even pick up a racquet to practice. 

A good hitting warm-up then takes at least 20-30 minutes.  The reason is this; an athlete HAS to warm up to the point where they can start swinging with maximum effort on court, they can’t just step out and run around as fast as they can-the body doesn’t work that way.  There are exceptions to this, and how much you need to warm up depends on how much an athlete has been exercising in the previous days, but it takes a lot in the previous days to decrease the need for a good warm up. 

In terms of off-season (December) non-tournament training, every athlete is different in what they like to do and how much, but I will say that most every athlete must get out and train EVERY DAY with maybe one day of rest per week, regardless of how much they do each day.  When you are a pro athlete training you are forced to exercise hard every day, and workouts are much longer.  The hard workouts can vary in type-one day it is a hard sprinting workout, core workout, or weight lifting, and then the tennis workout must land on top of the training.  Tennis is not easy on your lungs; it ALWAYS lifts my heart rate up and gives me a super hard workout.  If I don’t try as hard as I can then I don’t practice good habits and my game doesn’t improve, so I HAVE to give it my all on the practice court every time I step on a court.  If my other training has not been grueling enough I know I can always count on the tennis practice part of training to work me hard.

How many hours are we talking about?  Well, at least 2-4 hours every day (other training and actual tennis practice combined) for 5-6 days a week, depending on how I feel. There are definitely players out there who train more than me, and it’s probably one factor that has held me back, because I actually get fatigued easily even though I take vitamins and eat extra protein.  Every player’s physiology is different- I like to sleep a lot, and I get tired quicker than normal when I am really training hard.  Training also affects my mood, and I get a bit snappy past a certain fatigue point.  It’s all in the details and everybody has their own cocktail that is their self that they have to manage.  

The training regimen for a pro tennis player is not an option, it is a must.  The biology of the human body is not something that would allow an untrained person to go out and play strong tennis for 4 hours at a competitive level.  If you want to be able to play strong for 4 hours a couple of days in a row you must gradually accustom your body to that amount of physical activity—which is the point of the whole training process, besides game, stroke, speed and strength improvement.    

Many tennis players are quite strong, big girls when they compete and then when they stop they lose weight and actually become skinnier.  In my opinion this is because the kind of exercise required by tennis builds muscle because it’s a bit over the top in terms of training.  When the player stops training, they lose the muscle weight that the tennis regimen forced on them.  Other players gain weight from the lack of activity when they stop playing—again, everybody’s physiology is different.

Truthfully, the younger a player is, the better they recover-and that’s a huge factor in tournament competition.  I think that women reach their recovery peak from ages 17-20 and it’s kind of downhill from there.  I felt at my physical peak when I was 16 years old, and when I reached age 22 I felt much older.  

Anybody who says, “Oh it’s a shame that so-and-so quit,” is unknowingly condemning anybody who has the ability to play a high level of tennis to a life of above-normal physical activity, along with the emotional and physiological toll that goes with it.  Training affects your sleeping habits (you sleep more, or if you train too hard you can’t sleep at all), your social life (it’s really tough to make it out to salsa night with your friends on a Saturday-all you can think about is a good night of rest), and your everyday life schedule more than you could ever imagine.  You have to arrange all of your training activities around competing, and managing rest and activity for peak performance- taking a jog just for the joy of it is not really something that we get to do until we retire.  

Once such a high level of training is reached injuries occur, and it can be very frustrating to have to pound your body to the point where it breaks down.  I could write a whole book on tennis injuries but suffice it to say that planes and athletics don’t mix, PLEASE WEAR SUNSCREEN, HATS, AND SUNGLASSES, hard courts are much worse on the body than clay courts, and imagine how much stress a 120 mph serve puts on a person’s wrist, elbow and shoulder?

On one hand professional tennis is a passion, a consuming love, a joyful ride and it feels amazing to be one of the best in the world at something.  On the other hand, once the life the life you have to lead in order to be a successful competitor starts distancing you too much from other things you want from life (if you want children, marriage, stability, physical health, or whatever it is you desire) even the most beautiful, talented players will quit.

The money factor plays a role also.  To be working so hard and barely scraping even is not quite the envisioned life of a professional athlete right?  Well, sorry, but it’s the reality for most of us.  Only the very best of the best get to buy the houses, make $400,000 in a year and receive $100,000 just in appearance fees for one event. 

I hope that maybe now people won’t be so judgmental of athletes with great careers who decide to give it up for a family, or even simply leave competition for a different life.  The toll that the lifestyle of professional tennis takes on a person can be enormous, and the money and prestige earned through that lifestyle are sometimes not enough to justify that toll. 

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I Guess Grunting Doesn't Give a Player a Voice. . .

A couple of weeks ago after a tournament in Osprey, FL I realized something about professional tennis.  There is no way for players to protect their own financial investment in tournaments.  Tournament directors can say which day doubles and singles finals are played and their interests are covered by the ITF rules regarding defaults, tanking, and even withdrawing due to injury or severe illness.  All of these interests are covered in the form of negative incentives and punishments to the players, even if they have a legitimate injury.  For example, a player got very, very ill before the doubles final of the 100K event in Midland, Michigan in February and she had to default.  The ITF fined her for this, took away her doubles prize money and points and only gave her prize money and points for the previous round reached.  So not only does she lose the prize money from the final that she could have won, she gets less money than she actually earned in results. . .because she was sick?  I think the people at the ITF and WTA get about two weeks minimum sick leave each year at least, with pay. I’m just saying. . .

One might ask, ‘How does this happen?  That’s completely ridiculous.’  Well, the players have no way to fine the ITF when it is arbitrarily harsh or makes mistakes.  Nobody at the ITF loses their job if they wrongly affect a player.  The players, on the other hand, lose their means to make an honest living and don’t have anybody to stick up for them.  What can they do?  The ITF and the WTA single-handedly rule over the world of professional tennis, and there is no competing administration the players can leave and join (note to self- put ‘form competing administration to WTA’ on my bucket list). 

It’s not like the ITF and WTA are clamoring to ask the players how they can make the tour better either.  This is odd, because who would know better than the players, the ones with the first-hand experience, who are on the front-lines of the Tour night and day, where the Tour needs to improve?  Aren’t the players and the administration supposed to be working together to create a sustainable, growing professional tennis enterprise worldwide, and doesn’t this involve keeping the players happy so that they will help the administration when necessary?  Instead, what you have now is a player versus administration, in a juxtaposition that alienates the less-than-star-status players from the administration while that administration puts the star players with huge endorsement deals on a pedestal, and everybody fails to complete the marketing tasks necessary to grow the sport as a whole worldwide. 

I will give a realistic example demonstrating how the players have no voice, and their own investments are not honored.  A girl traveled all the way from Brazil to the string of ITF tournaments in the Southern part of the USA that are played on har-tru clay courts from April through May.  Her flight was expensive no doubt, she has brought a coach to help, and each visa costs at least $150.00 USD.  She has seven weeks of food and travel to pay for both of them on this trip, plus racquet stringing and other necessary expenses.  Her ranking is in the mid-300 level so she is consistently in the qualifying of each event that starts on a Sunday every week.  

In South America, Europe, and most other countries the doubles final is always placed a day before the singles final.  For the players, doubles does not earn a lot of money, but it gives valuable experience and points that could propel a player into a position to make a living as a doubles player, and any money is good money on the circuit.  When the doubles final is a day before the singles final, this at least partially ensures that the players in the doubles final who are in the qualifying of the next event will be able to play singles in the next event.  This is how tournament directors should be required to schedule their tournaments.

In singles, if you reach the finals and are signed into the qualifying of the next event you get an automatic bid into the main draw of the next event—this does not happen for doubles.  In doubles, the only way you can play singles in the next week is if you finish play (either win the tournament or lose) before the qualifying sign in.  WTA tournaments will move qualifying matches of the next tournament to Monday, but ITF Circuit tournaments will not.  If a player is scheduled for the doubles final on Sunday and has to sign in on Saturday and play on Sunday in singles for the next week, they cannot play and if they fake an injury (or have an injury) and pull out from the doubles they are automatically pulled out from the next week’s singles draw.  The player also faces fines for defaulting, plus only the prize money and points for the previous round reached which is a formal way of stating ‘robbery’ of the points and money she earned.  In the same way the girl who got sick in Midland had her points robbed, so can the girl from Brazil be robbed if she defaults to go and play singles the next week.  Also, if she is viewed as ‘tanking’ and losing on purpose she faces fines.    

Now, our Brazilian has paid to come all the way to the United States in order to play singles and doubles for seven weeks straight.  For her, she cannot risk skipping one of those weeks because the financial and time investment is simply too great.  She will play whether sick or injured, but what if she does very well, arrives to the doubles final and the tournament director mandates that the final be held on Sunday, with a day of no play on Saturday and she is signed in to play a tournament with double prize money the next week-in the qualifying? 

She has no say, no voice, and no place to appeal the tournament director’s decision even though she has paid an incredible amount to arrive and play the tournament.  Her investment is good for seven weeks, all of the money she has spent is worth less with every lost point and prize money opportunity, and double the prize money means double the points. 

The tournament director gets to boast to his club members and in his publicity that he has a player from Brazil in the tournament, and all the tournament director has to do is make a simple, easy adjustment.  So why wouldn’t a tournament director want to help out the players and put the final on Saturday if it involves players who are scheduled to play in the qualifying of the next event? 

I think it’s only fair that, since our livelihoods are on the line and we only get money if we play and win, our plight is much more valid than the plight of this tournament director.  It’s like the rules do not keep into account the fact that we can only earn money WHEN WE PLAY, and we have no voice and no power to make sure that tournament directors like this take our best interests into mind when making important decisions. I will also say that the spectator factor was zilch in this example because the tournament was in a retirement community where people do not work during the day, so the biggest spectator turnouts were during the weekdays.

In the past I didn’t play doubles in a week when the doubles final would most certainly have interfered with my next event-in the real life case this blog entry is based on, my partner was the player with the overlap and I was just happy to have a partner in the first place so I did not think to ask her about her plans for the next week.  She herself arrived to the tournament one hour before she was scheduled to play her singles match because she had just finished playing the previous week, so she was not thinking so far ahead to the next week either.

Whenever things like this happen, the tournament directors and ITF say, ‘Why did you even play if you knew that the final was going to be on a Sunday?’  Well, I’m sorry if I was too busy trying to first find a doubles partner, second actually get into the draw, third organize my travels to the event, and fourth play singles in 90 degree heat with 80% humidity.  And I’m sorry that I don’t have $50,000 to spend on a limitless number of tournaments in a year so my ranking is low and I have to take the opportunities and partners that I can get and make the most out of every event.  I’m sorry that neither I nor my partner saw the paper sign behind the tournament desk that said ‘Doubles final on Sunday.’  When was the last time a small, easy oversight cost you $500.00 because somebody else couldn’t be bothered to show some flexibility and understanding?  And lastly, I am so very sorry that I am good enough, despite it all, to make it to the doubles finals of your professional event.  I am truly very sorry Mr. Tournament Director.       

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Learning How to Surf!

The goal of today’s blog is to help make a reader internet-savvy when it comes to professional tennis.  There are a few key links that will make any tennis fan’s search for players, results and information quick and to the point. 

First, http://www.wtatennis.com/page/Home/0,,12781,00.html  is a must-have for results and draws of the biggest tournaments in women’s tennis.  If you click on the address above, then go to the ‘Scores’ tab which is the second from the left, you will see the ‘Draws’ option scroll down and that is what will give you the qualifying, doubles and main draw singles draws of WTA events.  On the WTA Tour Site above there is something that says Men and Women at the very top, and when the mouse is over it, the WTA and ATP Tour tournaments, plus their dates, scroll down.  Clicking on a tournament takes you to the tournament website, which is not always an easy place to find draws, but the scroll-down gives a nice outline of all the WTA tournaments in a calendar year.

The men’s ATP Tour website is http://www.atpworldtour.com/ and to look for draws simply go under the ‘Scores and Stats’ tab which is the second from the left. 

The WTA website is not a very good tool for finding information on rankings and player activity.  This is because it is more focused on top-100 rankings when there are 800+ players with WTA rankings, many of them players who will, and have been, top-100.  The easiest site in my opinion for players’ rankings and activity is www.itftennis.com .  Down on the right-hand side, below all the multi-colored options, is a box that says ‘Find a Player.’  Typing in a players’ last name brings you to a list of all players (men and women both) with that last name.  It shows Junior, Men’s and Women’s results.  By clicking on the tab of the desired results next to your players name you can bring up a page with the following good information:

            Career-high singles and doubles rankings

            Current singles and doubles rankings

            Year-end rankings (for every year they had a WTA/ATP Tour ranking)

            Current year win/loss record

            Birthdate

Then, by clicking on the ‘Activity’ tab you can see the past year’s tournament results in singles and doubles.  Scores, opponents, rounds, dates and tournaments (ITF Pro Circuit plus ATP and WTA Tour events); it’s all there.  I often scout potential doubles partners who I don’t know very well using this website to see who they’ve beaten and lost to, and what the scores were.

For during-tournament results (a tournament that is going on the current week and has not finished yet), if it’s a WTA tournament then http://www.wtatennis.com/page/Home/0,,12781,00.html  is the place to go.  For ITF tournaments, two places are good.  American tournaments can be found at www.usta.com: go under ProTennis on the right top tab, then click USTA Pro Circuit also at the top in small lettering (which will bring you here: http://www.usta.com/Pro-Tennis/Pro-Circuit/USTAProCircuit/).  Then on the right either the tournaments for the current week are posted or something that says, ‘No tournaments are posted, for info on this week click here,’ will show.  And you want to click where it says, ‘here,’or on the tournament you wish to see.  As an example, this is the website that shows the information for this week’s Pro Circuit event, where I am currently playing: http://www.usta.com/Pro-Tennis/Pro-Circuit/ResultsSchedules/ .The men’s and women’s qualifying, doubles, main draw singles draws, plus the schedules or ‘order of play’ are posted and can be clicked on.

For international tournaments and slower information on American ones, you have to go to www.itftennis.com and click on either the men’s or women’s circuit colored tabs on the right.  There are three lists of tournaments:

            Completed (from directly previous week if available)

            Upcoming (coming week)

            Current (going on the current week)

The lists include all of the ITF events that fall in those three time frames, plus sometimes also WTA and ATP Tour tournaments like Indian Wells and Miami (Sony Ericsson) that fall into those three time frames.  Clicking on one gives you winners of singles and doubles, or you have to choose your category on the top right (qualifying doubles or singles, main draw singles or doubles) and if the draw and results are available they will scroll down once you have chosen the category.  This is usually the worst way to get current results because it is not updated very frequently during each week for whatever reason.

When the players sign into the tournaments, they use a site called the WTA Playerzone.  For WTA tournaments it costs about $200-$500 per year (depending on if you pay for a full WTA membership or just the ability to sign into the tournaments) to be able to use this website.  It costs $500 per year for a full WTA membership, and without it a player must pay $150 every time he or she plays in a WTA Tour event.  A player has to gage which is the cheaper option for him or her depending on the kind of schedule they intend to have in a year.

For signing into ITF tournaments, a player must pay $55.00 a year for an ID # called an IPIN.  Then, they go to www.itftennis.com/ipin, sign in with their IPIN and password and sign into tournaments as well as view tournament information from there.  A player can also withdraw from tournaments, far enough before certain deadlines, on this site.  Otherwise they must fax a paper withdrawal sheet to the tournament site, and to the ITF headquarters in London.

Happy surfing!!

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Serving and Stalking 'em Up!

I was in Surprise, AZ at a tournament a few weeks back and I stayed with some very nice elderly folk who have traveled the world and had many great stories to tell.  As I listened to them, I thought of a few stories of my own that I wanted to share.  One is about a super-server, and the other is about a super-stalker.

Both Venus Williams and Brenda Schultz-McCarthy have the fastest clocked serves in women’s tennis.  Brenda is originally from the Netherlands and her fastest serve is clocked at 130 mph in 2006 at a tournament in Cincinnati.  My first story is about an experience I had while playing her.

I was at a Challenger (50K) event in Indian Harbour Beach, FL about 3 or 4 years back.  I lost in the last round of qualifying to a lady from Portugal named Rossana de los Rios, who ended up in the finals of that tournament and becoming top 100 in the space of the next 2 years.

 As luck would have it, I got lucky loser!  (Lucky loser is when somebody who either lost in the last round of qualifying, or really anybody who is at the tournament, signs in to a list and when somebody in the main draw pulls out after qualifying has started, whoever is first on the list and signs in by a certain time on the day of play gets a spot in the draw.)  Guess who I drew as a lucky loser in the main draw?  Yes you guessed it, Mrs. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy.

I thought to myself, ‘OK, I’ve seen her play and she’s really just getting back into tennis after retiring-she has a wildcard into the tournament-if I can make her play her groundstrokes and get past her serve I’ve got a good shot.’  Easier said than done.  In one game in particular, none of my returns felt right.  I sat down on the change-over and tried to move on in my mind to the next game, and as I did so I looked down at my racquet.

My racquet had been sheared---not cracked, not broken, but SHEARED across at the point where the head starts and the neck ends.  Brenda broke my racquet with her super serve!  Can you believe it?  I couldn’t, so I took a picture—you can see it to the right. 

Now for the second story that I said was going to be about a “super-stalker.”  This is an exaggeration, really, but it caught your attention and made you want to read, right? 

I played a tournament about 4 years back my first January after finishing college and turning pro—this tournament was in Fort Walton Beach, FL which is right on the panhandle of Florida on the beach and kind of in the middle of nowhere.  That year at the tournament they did not have regular transportation to and from the site, so one of the volunteers at the club recommended that her son give me and my roommate a ride back to the hotel.

Turns out he was regularly available to give rides that week, so he drove us back and forth quite often.  He even took us to dinner one night which was very nice, since eating from the same hotel restaurant every night can get a bit boring. My roommate knew he was crushing on me, what can I say?  That’s how it goes sometimes.   I think he was about 34 years old---he was kind of an odd bird, very skinny and the rest of the details about him I have forgotten.

The end of the tournament rolled around and when I looked at flight prices, the closest and cheapest airport to fly out of was Mobile, Alabama.  I asked at the tournament how I could potentially get to Mobile.  Well, guess who offered to take me?  I was a bit wary because I knew he had a crush, but I needed to get to the airport and he seemed normal enough, so  I let the guy who was giving us rides that week take me.

It could not have started off on a weirder note.  I got in the car and he turned on a CD, stating that he had made a CD for the ride which included all of the songs from that week on the radio that I had liked or sung along to.  I had not made a big deal about any of the songs on the radio that I heard during that week—he must have paid REALLY close attention to me in order to be able to figure that out—and then the fact that he remembered which songs they were?  I thought, “And this is only the beginning, you have 3 hours to go!”

However, to my surprise the ride itself was quite uneventful.  He tried to make some deep conversation and I tried really hard not to share in it so that he wouldn’t think we were building a deep connection-this was not hard since his idea of deep conversation was a bunch of talk about premonitions, voodoo and magic.  He even believed in telepathy, and of course thought of himself as someone able to tap into that stream of consciousness.

 “As long as he doesn’t tell me that this ride was meant to happen and that it means something magical, and as long as I get to the airport safe he can believe in all the magic in the world!”

I breathed in a heavy sigh of relief (hidden from plain view of course) as we pulled up to the airport.  I thought, “Please just let me go, please!”  But no, I would not be allowed such a peaceful exit.  We got out of the car and right as I thought I was free, he said, “Before you go, I have something for you.” 

“Oh crap!!”

To my surprise and odd relief, he reached in his pocket and pulled out something—I couldn’t tell what it was at first and to be honest I was about to bolt for the door.  Showing some true grit, I stayed there to let him reach out his hand and give me his present.  He said as he reached out, “This is for you, for when you need a light in your life.”  Then he, turning out to be a bit of a shy guy (who knew?) turned around and bolted. 

As I stood there watching him peel off, I looked down in my hand and saw a keychain flashlight thing. At the moment, the thought didn’t cross my mind that he had been planning to give me a key-chain probably since he knew he would be giving me a ride to Mobile-- upon reflection, that makes the situation seem even more bizarre.

As it turns out, it was a super awesome keychain flashlight with a really bright light.  It was flat, not in a normal flashlight shape, and had three modes.  Off, regular light and then the real kicker!  This bad boy had a strobe light setting—yes, a strobe light setting.

 It was an interesting gift, and quite possibly the funniest part of this whole story is that I still carry that darn keychain in my purse to this day.  The battery is still good, probably because I hardly use it and most of the time I forget that it’s even there.  However, like he said, it is there for me in case I ever need a light.  Or, as in my case, a party tool or silly music video special effect. 

Each time I change my purse I make a conscious decision to keep that little keychain.   The strobe light setting really is pretty awesome.   

The moral of the first story is this: If you are playing against the woman with the fastest serve in the world and you can’t return her serve, it’s not your fault because your racquet’s probably broken.  And if you lose the match it’s not your fault either because she will probably just break all of your other racquets one after the other.

The moral of the second story is this:  If somebody has a crush on you and you do not share the sentiment, it doesn’t hurt to let them do nice things for you and for you to still be kind to them.  Your kindness may mean more to them than you think.  Even if they know their sentiment will never be shared by you they might still be able to give you something of value- like a strobe light keychain flashlight. 

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ITF Circuit Tours

I promised after the last blog entry that I would illustrate some of the ITF tours that take place around the world at different times of the year.  I will attempt to do as promised, along with the qualification that schedules do change every year and what I describe comes from experiential knowledge and may not be perfectly accurate.  I will also describe the changes that I know and have seen in these tours throughout the last couple of years.

Let’s start with the land down under, Australia!  Every year, usually, players have the option to go and try to pick up what they think might be “easy points” in Australia around September-November, and also around February-March.   I myself partook in a full six tournaments down under a couple of years ago. 

And then there is beautiful Mexico.  This schedule has changed, but it used to be like clockwork.  I got my start on the pro circuit playing the tournaments in the fall in Mexico—typically the qualifying draws are weaker there so if a player without a ranking wants to try and get a ranking, Mexico is the place to go in the fall.  They have about four $25,000 events in a row. 

This last year there was a very disappointing drop in the number of those tournaments, and the ones that still took place were down-sized to $10,000 prize money.  There are also a couple events in Mexico in various cities and states (yes, Mexico has states just like the USA) throughout the months of March-April, these have remained consistent and the prize money is around $25,000.

I can’t forget to include the USA, right?   In the fall, the USA has a hard court season that skips around the country location-wise.  San Francisco, Dallas, Albuquerque, Phoenix and Ashland, KY are just some of the city names where these events are held.  In the months of March-May there is a clay court tour in the Southeastern area of the USA.  These cities include Pelham, AL, Osprey, FL, Charlottesville, VA, and Jackson, MS.  Those are the two most consistent ‘tours’ in the USA throughout the year.

The summer in Europe is littered with tournaments in many different countries, and with many different prize money ranges.  France, Spain, Italy, and Germany are the countries that come to mind with groups of two or more tournaments in a row on a consistent basis during the months from June-July.

The fall is typically when two or more tournaments in the same country take place  in Asia-these tournaments are usually back to back, and take place-in Japan, China and Korea mostly. 

Throughout the year there are some random big tournaments in places like Dubai, or Moscow, or the Ukraine.  I say “random” because there are few tournaments during the year in those countries (I guess Dubai would be the exception there because they host a couple of WTA and ATP tournaments now).

So there we have it, a quick and simple sketch of common ITF tours that go on throughout the year. 

In the next entry I'll share a couple more funny stories!

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Roadmap

Any profession has a kind of roadmap during any particular calendar year.  There are certain times when you look for certain things to happen and certain events to take place. 

For example, people who work at Macy’s have a very busy time during the holidays and their whole year can be made or lost depending on holiday sales.  College coaches in universities gear their teams up for peak performance during their season. 

One could see how a person’s professional roadmap determines a bit of his or her life’s roadmap—when one takes vacations, plans to have kids, takes a class or visits friends, etc.   Most likely a college coach would not plan a vacation to the Caribbean during his or her team’s season, just like somebody working for Macy’s would probably not plan a family trip during the winter holiday season-and this is applicable to any profession.

I would like to draw this ‘professional roadmap,’ for professional women’s tennis.  The schedule from year to year does not vary too much, despite the fact that players can choose their individual tournaments so probably what I describe now is similar to what was happening 5-7 years ago.   

One aspect I would like to point out about the tennis schedule before I begin is its particular non-stop nature compared to other sports like football and basketball.  Tennis players play from January straight through November, ever y single calendar year.  And from January to November the only kind of off season we get is off hard court season and onto clay court season, or off clay court season and onto grass court season.

As you read through the schedule, keep in mind the “micro-level” schedule as well; tournaments are either one week or two weeks long (grand slams and the ‘mini-slams’).  Qualifying starts from Saturday through Monday and main draws usually start from Monday-Wednesday. 

Refer back to your own life while you go through my roadmap; think about the things that you and the people you know are usually doing during the time when the tennis professionals are in a certain place.  Do you usually have time to relax in January?  In the summertime?  Do you get the weekends off?  

 When I describe the tennis player schedule to people they usually nod their heads, ‘OK,’ saying they understand, but if you think about the things you are usually doing while the tennis players are off competing, that is when one really comes to understand the reality of the lifestyle.   Maybe you have spring break, maybe it’s the kids’ winter break, or maybe it’s Super Bowl Sunday—chances are a tennis professional is on court competing during those typical holidays and they won’t get a break until November (the Super Bowl counts as a holiday, right??). 

I’ll start with our “off-season,” which starts around November.  That is usually the time when players can plan a vacation, visit home, and take some time off from working out and training.  Two to three weeks is probably the maximum time that anybody takes off from tennis, and once December comes around players start up training again.

In January, players who are top 250 around Christmas day or New Years are off to Australia to play the WTA tournaments around in that area of the world.  The rest of the players ranked below 250 do their best to pick up points in ITF Circuit tournaments—there are usually some tough 25K events in Florida around that time.

Right after Australia the Fed Cup takes place in various parts of the world, and then after that there is a sprinkling of worldwide ITF events and WTA events in places that reach as far and wide as Thailand, Paris and Dubai.  These events climax into the the bigger “mini-slams” like the Sony Ericsson in Miami and Indian Wells in California.   

Players migrate in late March/early April to Europe for the tournaments leading up to the French Open-both WTA and ITF-which marks the beginning of the clay court season.  The time and place where the largest number of tournaments are held around the world in any given week, including both ITF and WTA events, is in the summer in Europe starting from clay court season (April, May) and continuing through Wimbledon (July).   These tournaments in Europe are also typically very strong.

Summer is also the season for club matches and leagues in Europe, where players are paid by clubs in certain cities to play against other players from clubs in other cities.  There are club leagues in France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Croatia, and many more European countries.  It is not uncommon to play a weekend in a club, take a train and play a tournament starting on Tuesday, then on the weekend take a train back to the club and continue this pattern for a couple of weeks. 

The money can be very good, especially for players who don’t have a big name but do have a solid ranking.  Typically the clubs pay by match, and then they add a bonus for winning.  July is also World Team Tennis month so if a player is selected in the draft he/she travels a bit around the USA to compete along with his/her teammates.  WTT travel can be brutal in that multiple matches are scheduled per week and the total duration is about 7-8 weeks total.  Play, travel, play, travel= tired. 

After moving northwards from France to England for grass tournaments and Wimbledon in June the players migrate back to the USA to prepare for the US Open and play the WTA tournaments leading up to it.    

Lots of players are typically pretty tired at this point in the year-in my experience the US Open usually has the highest ranking qualifying cut-off because players pull out with injuries.  The Australian Open, comparatively, has the lowest ranking cutoff for the qualifying because players are fresh and ready to go at the beginning of the year and are less likely to pull out due to injury.

 After the US Open in August there are very few ITF circuits and WTA tournaments until the end of September.

From September until November there are tournaments in Asia and a couple WTA tournaments in Europe; this time of year is reminiscent to February because of the sprinkling of different level tournaments all over the world. 

Once November comes along, it’s time for some rest and relaxation, and the cycle starts again in January. 

 On the next blog I’ll talk about the ITF Circuit-specific tours- there are a couple consistent ones even though they do tend to shift a bit every year.  

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!

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FAQ

I am currently playing in a 25K tournament in Lutz, Florida, which is north of Tampa, Florida and I am staying with some very nice folks from the Netherlands who offered housing to players in the tournament.  They asked me some questions over dinner, and I realized that the questions these people ask me are not so different from the questions I get in any other place I travel.  I thought it might be fun to share the FAQ list, complete with answers:

Do they put you with somebody automatically in doubles?

                No, there is no “they” who places doubles partners together.  Players must find their own partners.  There are lists at tournaments for people who are looking for partners—they include doubles rankings of the people signed up for the tournament.  If you are available and looking for a partner you can use the list and put down your contact information. 

What’s the coolest place you’ve ever been to/played at?

                My favorite place to play is Spain because I enjoy practicing my Spanish there.  However, in terms of the “coolest” place I have played at, definitely I say Australia.  Nowhere else will you see a flock of bright red, and white and yellow parrots flying above, or hear a kookaburra (which is really an amazing sound) while you are playing a match.   It’s like a tropical/prehistoric game park down under, and a very interesting experience all around. 

Are you friends with the other players?

                Yes and no.  Some of my best friends are fellow tennis players, but when it comes down to game day and they are on the other side of the net obviously we have to compete against each other.  Some players are mere acquaintances and we are not really ‘friends’ per say.  It is usually in a player’s best interest to be friendly off the court with the other players, but never to the extent that it somehow hurts your own results. 

I think most players would agree with what I say on this topic, although there are a few who like to stay separate from the other players all the time and don’t find being friendly beneficial.

What’s the best ranking you’ve ever had?

316 in singles and 189 in doubles.

How many years have you been playing tennis, and how many years have you been playing tennis professionally?

                I started tennis at 7 years old so I have been playing for 20 years.  I started playing professionally in June of 2005, so subtracting the year I took off to coach I have played as a pro for almost 5 years.  

Where do you go after this and when is your next tournament?

                I will go home to Dallas after this tournament and my next tournament will not be until the beginning of February in either Midland, Michigan or California.

Have you ever played anybody famous like Maria Sharapova or the Williams’ sisters?

                No, but I have played against plenty of current top 100 players.

How much do you get if you win the whole tournament?

                This answer depends on the tournament obviously.  For this tournament at the moment, a 25K, you earn around $3,000 for winning singles and almost $1,000 each person for winning doubles.

What’s your ranking?

                411 in doubles, 828 in singles.

What’s the biggest tournament you’ve ever played in?

                A couple of lower tier WTA tournaments in Memphis, Acapulco and Quebec City.

Did you go to school?

                Yes I graduated from Stanford with a degree in psychology in 2005, and I also played for TCU my senior year of college.

Where are you from?

                I was born in Oklahoma City, I lived for two years at Stanford when I was younger and we moved to Seattle when I was 7.  I currently live in Texas although I have also lived in Florida and California since graduating from college.  I normally tell people that I am from Seattle because that’s where I spent the majority of my time growing up and that’s where my parents still reside.

How do you deal with relationships while you travel so much, is it hard to meet people or have a relationship?

                To answer this question I usually tell my housing my current relationship status and listen to the other players in my housing share their status.  The answers can be endless in their variety, everybody has different circumstances and comes from a different place.

                If somebody is in a relationship what follows is a discussion of long distance relationships and how hard it can be to be away from your significant other.  If somebody is not in a relationship then sometimes the housing tries to think of young men to set you up with.  Either that or the discussion just stops there, after a little talk about how hard it can be to get to know people when you are only in a place for a couple weeks at a time.

Do you travel a lot?

                Between September and November of last year (2010) I played 6 tournaments in 6 different places ranging from Puerto Rico, to Albuerque, to Dallas, Texas.  And that is a relatively easy schedule.  Yes, I do travel often.

                One year I was gone for 2 ½ months in the fall to Asia and Australia.  Lots of the girls from Argentina and Australia do that kind of travel regularly because of tournament availability in their home country and the prices of airfare to get back home. It is more efficient to buy one long round-trip ticket and play for a couple of months at a time than for them to go home in between.  Girls from the USA travel to Europe for months at a time in the summer during the clay and grass season in Europe also. 

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Go-To Travel Guide!

Tis the season for many people to travel either off to a warm paradise for vacation or to some snowy region to visit uncles, grandparents, cousins and other loved ones for the holiday season. 

What better time than now to explain the fascinating little facts of traveling as a pro tennis player (a little bit of sarcasm there), packing and braving the airports?

After reading this you should have no problem preparing to travel with a tennis bag in case the occasion should ever arise for you (more sarcasm-let’s be honest, what percentage of people travel with tennis bags?). 

Many players vary the details in their own ways here—this is my own personal prep-system.  For example, many players check their tennis bags in whereas I bring mine as a carry-on.   My reasoning is as follows: have you ever seen how those guys below the planes toss the checked bags around??  Racquets cost almost $200 a pop if you are not sponsored, and so I keep my equipment as close to my person as possible.   I also think the tension of the string changes with the lack of pressure where the checked luggage compartment lies.  I am not a fan of re-stringing my racquets at every venue.

One friend of mine asked me when she had just finished college and was about to play on the tour, “What should I bring when I go to Mexico?” 

What follows is an extended version of the list that I gave her.  It applies to Mexico, the USA, Australia, Japan, and any other country to which a person could travel.  Consider it my go-to guide for international travel and competing in pro tennis tournaments.  Who knows, there might be some tips in there that apply to the traveling you will be doing in the near future.  

1.      String, preferably a reel.  String is FAR more expensive individually wrapped, and there is no way to predict what kind of string is sold/not sold at any given venue.  In fact, they might not sell string at all where you play which means you then have to either order and pay for shipping the string to that far-off land, or find a way to get to a sports store.  This is more difficult than it sounds.

Let’s say it’s Sunday, you have just popped your last string and you play the next day at 11AM.  Most places will be closed until Monday, and they will open around 10AM, 9AM at the earliest.  If you can even manage to get transportation to the sports store and to the tournament site that early in the morning off the regular tournament transportation route, you will be lucky to make it back in time to warm up for your match.  You can always take a taxi, but that costs money.  It is just cheaper and easier to bring a reel of the string that you like.  

If you will be gone for a long period of time competing, also bring a new pair of tennis and running shoes.  This will save you from the hassle of finding new ones on the road, or ordering them and having them sent to your location—which can be difficult if your location changes every week.

2.       Laundry soap.  Just having some powder soap in a Ziploc bag can be a life-saver.  Shampoo works too (thank you Mom for that tip)—but shampoo typically only really works with very warm/hot water. 

3.      Clothesline.  I have been stuck doing laundry by hand in some tiny hotel rooms and a clothesline can be very useful when you go to hang out your wet clothes with minimal space available.  It takes up next to zero space in a bag.

4.      Lotion!  If you like a particular brand, do NOT assume that every country/store in the world carries it, because they do not. 

This applies if you have a favorite type of face wash, shampoo, sunscreen, deodorant or whatever type of toiletry if there is only one brand or type that works for you.

Random fact:  Australia does not sell sunscreen over SPF 30.  People defend this and say that you cannot get higher protection than 30 but my experience suggests otherwise.  My SPF 70 doesn’t let me get a tan, and I get dark brown with SPF 30. . .you do the math.

5.      Snacks.  For the airplane, for late night snacks after a long day competing.  I like flavored roasted almonds, peanut M&M’s (because peanuts make them healthy), Snickers (again with the peanut equals healthy idea), Trail Mix, and Sweet & Salty almond and peanut granola bars.

Travel is unpredictable, so why go hungry when the schedule gets changed around?  You know it’s bound to happen—so bring a snack and be a happier traveler.

6.      A hat, sleeping mask, or jacket with a hood that can cover your eyes on the plane.  Planes dry you out with all of the air blowing at you all the time-if you don’t want red eyes at the end of the flight cover them up somehow when you sleep. 

7.      A change of clothes for every kind of weather—within reason.  Not a big puffy parka—I’m talking about bringing sweatpants and a jacket to Hawaii in case the weather turns cold (because you know it will freeze the year that YOU decide to go), at least one pair of long pants to Florida, and shorts to Midland, Michigan (they play indoors there and it gets warm in there with the heaters!!). 

8.      Cash.  You will always need this at some point, whether it’s for laundry or a bottle of water at a store on the side of the road.  Not a whole lot, but at least $20.00.

9.      Passport.  Big one here—your best international form of identity.  You need it everywhere-at the hotel, at the airport, the train station, the rental car counter.

10.  Stretching rope and thera-tube.  There is no guarantee there will be a good gym where you go and an arm-band (stretchy, like a thera-tube) can help prevent injuries and keep you strong.  It’s like a portable gym for your arms.  The more you can do with less weight when you’re traveling, the better. 

11.                     PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING!!! 

Let’s say I am on an airplane and we are getting in our seats and stowing our carry-on bags when the captain comes on the intercom to say there is a bit of a maintenance problem with the plane and we will have to wait a little bit to take off.  We wait thirty minutes for the notification that the plane is not fit to fly and we will all have to de-plane.  What do I say in this situation?

 “Thank you flight crew for doing your job and picking out a potentially life-threatening maintenance problem with the plane that was just about to carry myself and 200 other passengers 3 miles into the air at speeds up to 600 miles/hour.  I will wait as long as it takes to have a safe plane. I will be happy to move my things, de-plane, take another flying bird, and live to fight another day.”

What do I hear other people saying to their loved ones on cell phones?

“This is ridiculous.  I can’t believe this.  They had us on the plane for 30 minutes and now we have to de-plane and they are going to try to find us another plane. . .unbelievable.”

Would they prefer that the flight crew to ignore the potentially disastrous problem and put us in the air?   What’s better, making it home on time or making it home ALIVE?!  I’ll leave you to make that judgment. 

Another realization that might come as a shock to some of you out there is that the agents at the desks in the airport are NOT the Gods and Goddesses of travel.  They make mistakes, they do NOT know all and many of the passengers coming through have done more traveling and been on more planes than the people working the desks in the airport.  As a result, one must practice patience and treat them with respect given their limited margin of travel knowledge.

            Exhibit A:  I have my tennis bag (which is not the normal rectangular size of other carry-on bags) that I have traveled with as a carry-on for 14+ years on planes everywhere.  The size of it has varied over the years, but not drastically, and the size of my bag nowadays is actually quite a downscale compared to previous years. 

One morning this past November 2010 flying from Phoenix to Dallas/Ft. Worth an agent gave me a hard time over the shape of my bag.  She said that I couldn’t bring it unless I could fit it in the carry-on bag size display.  I thought, if the total volume is the same, why does the shape matter?  They can’t expect me to fit sports gear in a rectangular shaped bag. 

The supervisor had to come out, shove my bag in the display to show that it fit—I knew that the bag would fit, but they didn’t.  Why would they?  They don’t travel everywhere with a tennis bag.  The situation could have turned ugly, but I don’t expect her to know the things about traveling that I have learned from years and years of experience.  If she had that experience, she would know that my tennis bag ALWAYS fits. 

I will leave you with one last tip for the holiday season and the New Year (2011, wow!!).

Remember to put all your liquids (aka sunscreen) from your tennis bag into your checked bag before you try to carry on your tennis bag.  Sunscreen is expensive (try $11.00 a bottle)—if you don’ want to buy new sunscreen in every city it’s worth the trouble. 

Regular sunscreen sizes are almost always over the 3oz liquid allowance.  Even if it’s almost empty and the amount of liquid is below 3 oz what matters is the size of the container.    

Safe (and prepared, hopefully) traveling!!!   

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