Dutch, Deutsch, and Dusted

 

Despite having minimal sleep the prior two days, I performed fairly well in my tennis match, coming up just short in a close match, serving well. I crashed in Bordeaux after nearly 9 hours at the tennis club and slept after hopping on a call with my coach Gordon Birt from London to discuss the match.

The next morning, I was off to the Netherlands via train in hopes of getting into an international (ITF) tournament for doubles, where I would be playing with my friend Vinny Strauch from Hamburg. We signed up for the event while we were both on our way there, only to find out we were third alternates for the doubles draw. This meant that two teams were ahead of us if they were to sign in the day of the matches. Since we had both committed to travelling there, we stayed the night and signed in the next morning. Seven hours on the train for me and roughly six hours for Vinny, we were both disappointed to not be admitted into the tournament. Luckily, neither team ahead of us signed in, and we took the spot of the fourth seeds who withdrew from the tournament.

We played in the final round of matches for the day, so we waited around all day at the tennis club and practiced a couple of times. For me, it was the first time I’d played on clay since last season, so everything felt a little weird. Our opponents were two Dutch guys, one whom I’d met in Greece when I was there in October, and the other a former University of Washington Husky whom I’d just seen in Moraga, CA, at a tournament. We chatted a bit before the match, but it was all business when we stepped onto the court. Obviously, I wanted to crush him, being a husky and all. Unfortunately, my partner and I lost in straight sets with set points in the second set. Frustrated and animated, I was distraught over the result as I felt like I could’ve played better on clay. My partner was just too weak and inexperienced in doubles, making it difficult for me to play my game. We chatted with my old teammate Jeremy from Alabama for a while before and after the tournament, who was also playing singles in the event. After seeing him for the first time in a year and meeting one of his Italian buddies, we hopped in the car and drove back to Hamburg.

Leaving The Hague around 6 PM, we were destined for a late arrival, given it’s about a five-hour drive. Plenty of good conversations with Vinny and a late dinner stop at McDonald's off the autobahn gave us a break during the long journey. Fortunate for me, McDonald's in Germany has plenty of plant-based options along with a few other unique menu items that significantly differ from the U.S. Eating a hamburger on my way to Hamburg made me chuckle and gave light to the marathon few days I had.

Just as we arrived in the Hamburg area, the traffic slowed and came to a complete halt… for 20 minutes at midnight. Just as our expedition was coming to an end, another roadblock in our way… literally. We made it home just past 1 AM and had to be up to practice with Vinny’s coach, Matti, the following morning at Tennis Club Alster, where they host the ATP 250 event every year with a massive stadium. Unsurprisingly, we practiced for roughly three hours without breakfast, resulting in some mediocre tennis performance. Keeping context in mind was only possible for the first two hours of practice, resulting in lots of frustration coming through in my body language. As I got hungrier, my mental clarity escaped me; practice couldn’t be finished soon enough. Of course, our practice set went 7-6, and we were both losing track of the game score. Exhausted and frustrated, we went to an Asian food buffet in Hamburg Mitte. Exactly the meal we both needed after the last 24 hours. Ah, the satisfaction of crappy sushi and deep-fried everything, yum!