Footwork!

Last season, he did a lot of work to improve his footwork... to stay on his toes... and to stop playing "lazy tennis."  I caught a few lapses in that during the Carmel matches. 

Here are a couple to inspire:

... and another:

Serve 3

One last angle of his serve in Carmel - again, second match.  What happened?

Serve 2

Another sequence of his serve in Carmel... this was the second match.  Notice a difference?

Serve

This season, he's working on a modification to his serve.  The goal is more bend in the knees instead of pulling his legs together, a more fluid swing of his racquet, and continued improvement on ball placement. 

Here are some shots of his serve at Carmel: 

Carmel Valley Athletic Club NTRP

The Carmel Valley Athletic Club is a beautiful club near Carmel by the Sea, a two hour drive from home and just outside the tourist filled streets of downtown Carmel.  

Round 1:  Win, v Enrique Paraiso, 6-2, 6-4.  This seemed to be an easy match for him, much easier than he expected.  He focused on conserving energy for the next round but pulled off an easy victory.

Round 2: Loss, v Roland Squires(2), 6-4, 6-2.  This was a difficult match - he was down 0-4 in the first set before pulling back quickly to 4-4.  He played some great tennis, made some amazing shots, and held his serve easily.  In the second set, he threw in a lot of errors and in the blink of an eye the first 5 games had slipped past.  He managed to pull back two games but wasn't able to take it to a third.

POT 2010

He's in tournament mode and kicking off the 2010 season!