Day 2 in Florida

Practiced again this morning for an hour with my doubles partner, and snuck a quick hit in before my first round match this afternoon. Felt more comfortable moving on the clay today, and played with confidence. Won 6-0, 6-0. Big day tomorrow....singles at 12:30, mixed doubles at 3 and doubles at 4. Playing mixed with Bjorn Munroe, a 6 time member of the Davis Cup Team for the Bahamas. Attended the player BBQ this evening. Off to bed....need to rest up for tomorrow!

Emmie and I at Butterfly World this morning:

Florida!

After 4 days of a fun-filled family Thanksgiving (with 17 relatives), my husband, daughter and I left for Florida. I will be competing in the USTA National 30's Clay Court Championships Tuesday through Friday of this week in Ft. Lauderdale.

Our evening flight out of Chicago was delayed, which made for difficult travels.....Enterprise (car rental company) closes at midnight.....we arrived just before and found ourselves trekking through the airport with a 2 1/2 year old, car seat, tennis bag, etc.

The upside - we packed light, received our rental car with seconds to spare, Emmie (our daughter) slept the entire flight and until 11 a.m. this morning, and I got to hit on clay courts today in sunny Ft. Lauderdale! Heard it was 40 and raining back home?

The downside - in sharing my tournament experience with you, I must admit that I am in fact 30 years of age. I realize that I don't appear to be in my 30's and have been questioned at both National Tournaments this year. In New York (at the Grass Court National Tournament), the registration desk sent me to the back courts to check in.....for the kids' camp that was being held! Today, the registration desk asked if I was old enough to be playing in the tournament and jokingly asked for an ID. Anyway, yes, I'm 30.....almost 31!

Snuck on a practice court today with my doubles partner and hit for a good 90 minutes. Despite my limited exposure to clay courts throughout the training process, I adapted fairly quickly. The courts at Coe are strikingly similar in terms of speed. Lower bounce obviously, but kept hearing Coach Rodgers telling me to "move to the bounce." Coach has been helping me train the past couple of months and repeatedly stressed the importance of moving to the ball.

Overall, feel like I've improved considerably over the course of the past 10 months. Attribute much of that improvement to Coach Rodgers and the Coe College Tennis Program in general. I now have a backhand (after years of favoring my forehand side), confidence in my overhead and my rally groundstroke consistency is higher than ever. Honestly, believe that I'm playing better tennis than I ever did at the Division I level many years ago (since you are aware of my age now, 10 years to be exact). However, I must admit that I am not as prepared physically as I was for New York. Regardless, very much looking forward to playing this week! Singles play opens up at 3 pm tomorrow, with doubles and mixed doubles starting on Wednesday.

Tournament Homepage - http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=83418

A couple of fun pictures for you also. Emmie at the beach, and enjoying a spaghetti dinner.

LONDON 2010--Endgame

Once again, we were treated with Rafael Nadal versus Roger Federer in the final match of the ATP year end championships.

A brilliant semifinal win for Nadal over Murray in some of the cleanest ball-striking that I saw during the entire year. Murray and Nadal are likely the two best "grinders" on tour these days, and they both realized early on that offense would be required to win. Nadal created just a bit more of that to edge Murray 86 in the 3rd set tiebreaker. If you get the chance, watch this match again when the Tennis Channel shows it on replay. Great Tennis!

Federer basically walked all over the field en route to the finals. Straight set round robin wins over Ferrer, Murray, and Soderling yielded a semi final match where he easily handled Djokovic by a 61 64 count.

I picked Nadal to win, primarily because Federer had yet to prove that he could handle the high bouncing Nadal FH to his own one-handed BH. So what happened? For two of the three sets, Federer generally disdained his underspin BH for the 1st time in my memory and came over his BH, even at chest and shoulder height, hitting numerous winners. I am not sure but I even think Nadal mentally cracked late in the 3rd, something I KNOW I have never, ever seen!

The win by Federer is good for the game of Tennis. It keeps alive a rivalry, forces Nadal to get better(and you had better believe he will!), and gives Federer the belief in his new coach(Paul Annacone) and his ability to re-capture the world #1 ranking.

Makes for a good 2011!

Looking forward to the Australian Open!

LONDON 2010--update

OK.....So the Surface(carpet) is not that fast....the Bounce is low....Robin Soderling cannot bend his knees very well....Roddick can serve on any surface....AND Federer is still pretty darn good!

LONDON 2010

The ATP London Year-End Men's Tennis Championships begin Sunday morning with the year's top eight singles and doubles point winners participating in a round-robin format before the top two in each group advance to the knockout semi-final phase at week's end.

World #1 Rafael Nadal and #2 Roger Federer are in opposite groups and favored to advance. However, Paris winner Robin Soderling(pictured) is perhaps the world's best Indoor player and should fare quite well with his first-strike game on the quick, low-bouncing indoor carpet.

Group A Group B

Robin Soderling Novak Djokovic
Andy Murray Tomas Berdych
David Ferrer Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer Andy Roddick

Sunday singles play begins at approximately 8am(CST) with Soderling taking on local favorite, Andy Murray. Federer and David Ferrer will be on about 2pm. Group B begins play on Monday with Djokovic/Berdych in the early singles, and Nadal/Roddick later on.

Despite the surface which would seem to favor first shot ball strikers like Soderling, Federer, and Roddick, I think Nadal(if he has any mental energy left after the 11 month professional season) will come out on top. He proved to me(and countless others!) that he CAN play on a fast court when he won the US Open in September on the lightning quick courts in New York City. His deceptively good serve, especially in the Ad court, will prove decisive over the course of the week.

All in all, a great week of tennis ahead, especially since with the upcoming Thanksgiving Break, we all will have time to view more than usual!

Tune into the Tennis Channel for their complete coverage.

ENGAGED!

Former Coe standout and 2 time All-American, Molly Fiala, was proposed to this past Wednesday night in the Clark Racquet Center! Her now fiance and former Kohawk wrestler, Chad Garber, used a heap of tennis balls to assist with his message. Congratulations to the both of them and all the best from the Coe College tennis program!

Kohawk Kids' Clinics

During the offseason, Coe Tennis holds 8 Saturdays of clinics for kids ages 4-10. Each of the members of both teams (as well as both assistant coaches) help teach at least one Saturday, with 3 or 4 teaching a total of 8-12 kids at a time. It's a great way for the Kohawks to get involved in the community and raise money for the program!

Coach Rob

November 6th Campus Showdown

Pictured: First Year Daken Starkenburg in the near court and Junior Victor Khristenko in the far court.

Coach Rodgers (without hesitation of course) gave Coach Rob and I access to his blog – to post as contributors. Both of us look forward to sharing insight into the world of Coe Tennis with you – our followers!

This past Saturday, Coe hosted a Campus Showdown (men’s) in the Clark Racquet Center. Information on the purpose/format of a Campus Showdown can be found here:

http://www.usta.com/Play-Tennis/College-Tennis/538403_Campus_Match_Play/

Of the 22 participants, 5 members of the Kohawk squad played in the event, along with 7 fellow IIAC college players and a couple of high performance juniors. Coe standout, Victor Khristenko (our beloved Russian) defeated teammate Jonathan Roger (our scrappiest Kohawk….and I mean that in the most positive manner) in the final 6-5 (7-4). Congratulations to both of them for a tournament well played! First years, Michael Woolf, Daken Starkenburg and Tyler Wilson, also had good showings for the Kohawks.

All 3 coaches assisted with the preparation, and execution of the event. It was certainly a success – the day ran very smoothly, and participants got a lot of match play in! All of the money raised from the event goes towards the Coe Tennis program!

Coe College will host a women’s Campus Showdown on January 22^nd, 2011. We look forward to another successful event. Lastly, thanks to the USTA for their assistance and support in making tournaments like this a success!

Coach Kris

Women's Pre-Season Rankings

The Coe College Women's Team had two individuals ranked in the ITA/NCAA D3 Central Regional Rankings. First year, Tai Lucero was #11 in singles, and senior teammate, Hannah Jensen was #12.

Complete rankings can be found here:

http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/Rankings/2010-11_NCAA_Division_III_Women_s_Rankings/Division_III_Women_-_Central.htm

The Kohawks resume practice on February 14th, 2011 and will travel to Chicago to take on nationally ranked(#22) Wheaton College and regionally ranked(#13) Calvin College on February 26th.

Men's Pre-Season Rankings

Coe College was well represented in the November release of the NCAA D3 Central Region Rankings. As a Team the Kohawks were #12. Scott Stegemann was the #16 singles player, Victor Khristenko the #22 ranked singles player and Curtis Newman teamed with Scott to form the #8 rated Doubles pair.

Complete rankings can be found here:


http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/Rankings/2010-11_NCAA_Division_III_Men_s_Rankings/Division_III_Men_-_Central.htm

Coe begins practice on January 24th, 2011 and will host #13 ranked Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Opening Day February 5th, 2011 at 9am