Back on the Road in Poitiers, France

I am back in France this week, in Poitiers, a small college town a few hours from Paris by train. I made the choice to come here with the opportunity to play in a prequalifying tournament for the ITF. Little did I know, the prequalification matches would both take place the day before ITF qualifying. I was still grateful I came a few days early to get some meaningful practices and matches on the courts before the ITF even, allowing me to get used to the surface and ball.

I am transitioning back to the indoor hard court from my month in Monastir, grinding outdoors in the wind and sun. The change is always easier going from outdoors to indoors, rather than the other way around. An added element of the ball change has impacted my transition this time as the balls in Monastir are much heavier and faster than the balls used in Poitiers. I wasn’t sure how I’d adjust from slow courts with fast balls, to fast courts with slow balls. However, much of my career I’ve spent grinding on fast indoor hard courts, so I felt at home within the first hour back.

In the first match of my prequalifying, I defeated a young French junior in mildly contested match. It was routine for me, as I got the breaks early in both sets and held it out. Little did I know he would end up winning his first round in the ITF qualifying on the consecutive day. My next round was against another top French junior with the same French rating as me (-2/6). I began the match feeling drowsy and lethargic, yet I continued to do everything I could to maneuver the ball around the court and move forward when possible. This led me to an astounding 4-0 lead. I closed out the set 6-2 with some resistance from my opponent as the balls slowed down, he had more time to take a big swing at the ball. Things were tight in the second set as we traded breaks early on. I was up 3-2 and then my opponent went on a tear. We were competing back and forth but each game he was managing to squeak out after endless deuce games. I had my chances to attack but the speed of the ball had slowed, and my opponent seemed to get every passing shot in a place I couldn’t reach. I went on to lose the match in the third set, missing out on the wildcard for qualifying. Fortunately, I was still able to sign in for ITF qualifying and was successful in getting into the tournament, drawing the Italian 6^th seed in the first round, ranked around 1100 ATP. I felt confident going into the match having played the previous day for around four hours, but I was physically sore and needed a good rest to be ready to go the next day.

I warmed up the next morning with Robi, a French friend I had made in the summer ahead of my morning match. Our first set went for well over an hour, as I let three set points slip on my opponents serve up 40-0 at 5-4. Although I was aced on two of those points, I was disappointed in my return execution in the rest of the game. These neutral errors bled into the next game, and my opponent pounced at the opportunity to break. I was competing so well in this set, continuously breaking his serve, only for him to break back. I kept getting unlucky on the biggest points in my services games as my opponent was hitting lines and let courts when it mattered most. I reminded myself that luck would turn my way, but it seemed to evade me when I needed it most. This match was a dog fight, we were both playing well, not many unforced errors yet very aggressive tennis. It was clear our match was the best quality of the first batch of matches since all 50 spectators were on our court.

Since our match was the first round of qualifying, there was no ball change and as the match wore on, so did the balls. We approached the two-hour mark just halfway through the second set after trading breaks once, I was up 3-2 on serve. Game after game, we went to deuce and the second set turned into a battle of will and concentration. Over and over my chances of winning the games were erased by my opponent’s shot-making. I put myself in a position to win and my opponent continued to have answers. I cannot be disappointed in my performance even though it resulted in a loss.