Top Gun in Full Effect – Shubert Blog

Written by: Staff on 6th November 2011

Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle

Top Gun in Full Effect - Shubert Blog

Japan's Kei Nishikori celebrates after winning his semifinal match against Serbia's Novak Djokovic at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, Saturday, November 5, 2011. EPA/GEORGIOS KEFALAS |

Hey there! How are you doing?? How bout that upset of Djokovic by Kei Nishikori?! I applaud Kei’s determination in those final stages of the second set… Who knew 5 years ago when I warmed him up before one of his matches at a local futures event here in Irvine that he’d be beating world #1s one day?! Very cool stuff. Was also pleased to see Sam Querrey beat Tsonga! He’s coming back! Watching him on tv Del Po last night I had to chuckle to myself because when I hit with Sam two weeks ago, his forehand was still a thing of beauty despite the surgery. I watched Del Po unable to reach some of the balls Sam hit and wondered to myself if I could’ve run them down… Probably

I’m currently playing in the Men’s Open division at the Top Gun tournament going on in Irvine, CA at the Racquet Club of Irvine. For some reason I have to play 4 rounds of qualies in order to get into the main draw, I’m thinking the tournament organizer didn’t check rankings or past results when making the draw… Last night on a cold and rainy evening, unseeded myself and #1 seed in the qualie draw Chris Kearney were both involved in our first round matches which were basically club players against pros… I was sort of annoyed but figured I needed to match experience after a month lay-off. Sigh. I followed up last night’s win with another today against the #6 seed, 6-3 6-2, I’m going to continue through the draw making sure not to get caught up in all the seeding hoopla though, because it really doesn’t matter. I know my strengths and skillset and am confident against anybody in this tournament. My shoulder is holding up just fine after a good massage yesterday so I plan on resting it the rest of the day and hydrating.

I’ll be heading over to Los Cab to watch Booie Grant play his Junior Sectional doubles match later this afternoon, should be good exposure and experience. I’m a really good doubles player thanks to my coaching from Brad Pearce (Former top 25 doubles player in the world when doubles actually mattered) back at BYU and I never played doubles as a junior… I regret it a bit but knowing I didn’t have professional knowledge of the positioning or style of doubles that wins most often, I probably wouldn’t spent most of my junior doubles career banging my head against a brick wall.

Speaking of Brad, he’s currently opening Winter Clinics in Provo, Utah at Brigham Young University. If you’re in that area or region, I suggest going to learn and improve from a master. Similar gigs are also available in Hawaii by my friend and former touring pro, Ikaika Jobe. You can find him on Facebook by searching for: Ikaika Jobe Tennis; As my doubles partner and friend, he knows a lot about the game through his collegiate and professional experience. Anyway that’s my quick update for now, I’ll leave you with a little bit of a jokester pic from Hawaii as I hit with a friend near Diamond Head Crater on Halloween day, enjoy!

Getting ready for my match early tomorrow morning,

Shubert