Interesting Weekend and Start of World Tour Finals

Written by: Staff on 20th November 2011

Interesting Weekend and Start of World Tour Finals

Roger Federer of Switzerland returns the ball to France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga during their group B match of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at O2 Arena in London, Britain, 20 November 2011. Federer won 6-2, 2-6 and 6-4. EPA/ROGER PARKER |

Today we saw Roger Federer headline the start of the World Tour Finals as he beat Tsonga in 3 sets. We also got a chance to see a rusty Rafa Nadal inch by Mardy Fish in a third set tiebreak. I think Federer was in fine form, Tsonga was able to hang tough in that second set and didn’t seem to be making the unforced errors off his backhand wing like he was in the BNP Paribas Masters final. I have one question however, can Roger design some fancier or colorful shirts? The solid polos are getting rather drab… Rafa looked like he struggled a bit with Fish, dropping the second set and then was unable to capitalize off of his breaks of serve in the third set. Nerves seemed to be a factor with Fish, unfortunately the moment, the money, the situation, had an effect on his forehand and volleys. Today kind of worked out perfectly because the entire Ventura County was blanketed in rain and I had all day to watch the tennis on television. Unfortunately I had to mute Tennis Channel because I couldn’t handle the ridiculous commentary. Overall It was a good rest day for me and a good day for tennis.

About two days ago I had a pretty good hit, a lot of cross court drills and point games for about 2 hours. I was training with a buddy of mine who trains full time in Barcelona, Spain and my other coach, Zibu Ncube (2-time All-American at Arkansas). It was interesting to see the difference between how a truly Spanish-trained player will approach groundstrokes as opposed to an American-trained player. American tennis is so linear and power based compared to Spanish tennis where angles, height of the ball, and dexterity are more important. I was drenched after the workout and it felt great. After practice, a few friends including USC’s Daniel Nguyen joined us at our favorite Southern BBQ restaurant. It was fun because we had a chance to catch up and ask him about his upcoming trip to France leading a U.S. collegiate team in competition against some European universities.

Saturday I found myself on a train down to Los Angeles to meet up with a long time friend of mine. We had lunch at Philippe’s famous french dip sandwich spot and then a nice dinner in Santa Monica. It was a nice way to change up my tennis routine and get my mind off of the game for a few hours. It was a little stressful because of all the driving around LA, anyone will tell you it gets worse and worse every year. I almost missed my train coming back north but managed to make it with a desperate sprint with my tennis bag in tow. It’s experiences like these that leave me happy that I enjoy traveling by car, train, plane or whatever it takes to get things done or moving. It’s also good training for later on when traveling becomes more important in my career.

Always trying to improve,

Shubert

Topics: Atp World Tour, Barclays, London