24th April 2007
Last week I played the first two rounds of club championships, in the first round I played Chris Martin, I beat him 6.3 - 6.1, that put me in the second round to play Rob Martin, a hitting partner, friend and I also used to live with him for a few months last August. I'm a year older than him and have always beaten him, which I did again this time 6.4 - 6.2. This weekend I played the final against Tristan Vendables, the head coach at Wembley and number 2 in our state grade team. I have never beaten him but that all changed in this match. I won 6.2 - 5.7 - 6.4, I had a little slip up when I was 6.2 - 5.2 up serving and lost 5 games in a row, but I got back on track and played a good third set breaking him once and not dropping my serve to win :).
I'm still sorting out a trip to go and play some Futures, I was in the travel agency the other day all set and ready to go to China on the 2nd of May, to play a tournament from 4-12, another from 12-20 and another from 20-28. The problem came when I didn't realise you only had 3 days from when you booked the flight to pay for it, I wont have the money for the trip until next months sponsorship money comes in, the flight cost 1,500 and I only have 900, so can't book the flight yet. It's not a big deal. I wont go to China because there's no point just going for two tournaments, but there are a couple of really good tournaments in either Poland, Bosnia, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy or Romania. I know the flights would be a bit more expensive but there are more tournaments and more chance of getting in so it would be worth it. I'm going to a travel agency tomorrow to find out which is cheapest, then I'm off :).
Training is going really well as ever. Getting stronger, faster, and more flexible.

11th April 2007
This weekend I and everybody from Wembley Downs tennis club, went to Bridgetown, a town 3 hours down south for an Easter tournament. Being an Easter tournament it was more of a holiday than a serious tournament, we shared a little bed and breakfast while a couple of others camped outside. We had a rough first night, we didn't get there until about 2.30 am and it was freezing cold with no heating. I played Todd Pleydell my hitting partner, doubles partner and friend, in the first round, I have played countless practice matches with him, some he wins some I win, but had never played him in a proper match. I played really well and won 6.1 - 6.3. It was a pretty small tournament, after just winning the first round I was in the semi-final. I lost to Pat Prendivale 6.3 - 6.4 a left hander. I struggled to return his serve, I think I had one break point in the entire match, which he saved by acing me. In the doubles Todd and I won 3 matches to get to the final where we lost 9 - 7 (it was first to 9 games for some reason).
My foot is back to 100%, so I've been getting back into hard training, doing lots of running and court fitness. I'm going to have a sit down with Darren this weekend to sort out some tournaments. Asia has been slightly mentioned, there are loads of Futures over there around this time and the competition isn't that strong. Futures is where you start to get a world ranking, you have to win 3 matches to qualify and then win a main draw match to just get 1 world ranking point. Because I haven't got a world ranking point yet, I have to look for weak tournaments where there aren't that many people entering, because if there are players with a world ranking there, they will get in instead of me. Bit confusing but should be easier than it sounds, the hard part is to win 4 high quality world standard matches in a row or more to get a point a 2, and to do this week after week. That's why I'm doing allot of running, to make sure I wont get tired. The plan at the moment is to train hard for 4 weeks then hopefully there will be a tournament I could go to.

26th March 2007
The last couple of weeks I've had a foot injury, the physio said it's to do with the tendons around my metatarsals, not sure how it happened, but the only thing I could do was ice and rest. There was one problem with resting though. That week was the last round of pennants, which we needed to win to get into the finals. I was needed to play, because I play number 2 in the team and if I pulled out, everybody would have had to move down a spot and play a tougher match, but if I played even if I lost, the rest of the team would have more chance of winning. I gave it my best, but couldn't do any sharp turns because there was a very small chance that the other option was that I had a stress fracture in my foot and it wasn't the tendons, so I didn't want to make that worse. I focused on holding serve and just having a swing when returning. I won the first set 6.3, lost the second set 7.6 and lost my serve for the first and only time in the match at 3.3 in the third to go on and loose the set 6.4. Todd and I lost our doubles 10.8 in the third set tie-breaker. Tristan and Blake were 9.3 down in their third set tie-breaker and came back to win it 11.9. But unfortunately the team lost 4.2 and we didn't get into the finals. I was happy with the way I played, my opponent served really well, which made it hard to break him and I don't think I've hit so many aces in one match.

Been doing loads of gym and cycling and this week I'm going to ease back into training and now Matt is back I've got a few hits with him lined up.

Off the court things are going well, my sister, Mike and Garry (two room mates) and I went up north for the weekend, which was awesome fun, just chilled on a beach and in the surf. I didn't surf because there was reef 1 meter under the water, and considering I have never surfed I thought that could be jumping in at the deep end, so I had a snorkel instead :).

14th March 2007
Last week we were up against North Beach in pennants. I was playing Wayne Wallis. I have played him before and lost. He's also a full time player and goes away often to play AMT's. Anyway, I beat him 6.3 - 6.2, played really well and was feeling great for the following weekend, when I start a $20,000 tournament (winner of the men's get $5,000).

Had a solid week of training, then about 2 days before the tournament I got a cold and hurt my foot. I didn't let it get to me, I had this really strong feeling that this tournament was going to be my break through and I'll beat some top players, I was going to fight trough the obstacles and still win (like the pro's). I won my first match 6.1 - 6.0, then in the next round I played the number 4 seed from over east Michel Long. I lost 6.4 - 6.0, I was disappointed that I lost, and couldn't bring my 'A' game when it was needed. But I did the best my body allowed me to do, I was so knackered I went home and slept the rest of the day.

I played doubles with a good friend Rob Martin, we won our first match easy, but then lost in the next round to the same guy who beat me in singles. I'm going to see a physio tomorrow about my foot. Training has been a bit slow because of my foot, so just been doubling up with core strength and upper body weights. Doing lots of coaching to save up for my next trip, I cant wait. I know my break through is coming soon.

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