Diary entry for 4th January 2007
Not much has happened on court over the last couple of weeks, Pennants has finished for this season and doesn't start up again until February. Matt and Brendan have been on holiday and the next tournament is in Bunbury on the 26th. It's been a interesting couple of weeks though, I've been reading loads, and taking up a bit of meditation and yoga. You may remember in my last diary I was talking about the three R system and the more mental side of the game. Well I've been really getting into that, and already feeling an awesome difference in my game. I've been reading all these articles about the mental side of tennis. The most recent thing I've learned, is you have two parts of your mind - They call them self one and self two. Self one is the part that controls speech, motor skills, learning new things, and all that. Self two is like a library the part that stores everything, and does things without you even knowing. It say's that you have to think of your mind as a computer and self one is a tiny chip compared to the size of self two, and you have to learn to use self two by quieting the self one (meditation) so that self two can do his thing. Now obviously if you can do this, your not atomically going to be Federer, you have to have the skills to play the way you want to play, that's where self one helps. Self two cant learn new things, but self one can. So the reason you do drills and patterns of play and practice is to use self one as a little door way so you store new skills for self two to use. I've probably made no sense at all but hopefully you get the gist of just a little part of what I've been learning the last few weeks.
I've booked some Money Tournaments in Sydney starting on the 31st of January and finishing on the 18th of February, Money tournaments have good Australian ranking points, and obviously money, and they're really high standard. So I can't wait to go and show of my new skills :).
There is a tournament on here at the moment called to Hopman cup, it includes Anchic, Berdyich, Rebrado and a few other top class tennis pro's. I went and watched Berdyich play Rebrado the other day, which was great, haven't seen live tennis for a while, and felt great to see what I'm training and working hard for, in the flesh, close up. I went with a friend and his two daughters with whom I hit, he's the guy who has helped me with all this new mental stuff, given me books, and is really helping me, even treated me to the Hopman cup, so I've got an extra person behind me now helping me reach my goal. Steve Fabbridge, an Italian guy who knows about his tennis.

27th November 2006
On the 11th of this month we played pennants at home against Serrento. I played a guy I have never played before or heard of. We had all the officials there, line judges, an umpire and reff, I love it like that, makes you feel really professional. I was in control the whole match not dropping my serve once and breaking him in each set to win 6.3 - 6.2. When I was a set and 5.2 up serving for the match, I started the game of with an ace, then another, and another, I was 40.0 up with out him touching a ball, I have always wanted to do a game of aces (the perfect game in tennis) but had never done so, anyway I was pretty nervous, praying for an ace, and bang I nailed one as hard as i could right on the T, to do my first ever game of aces and to win the match, I was a very happy chappy. Todd and I won our doubles 6.1 - 6.0 and everybody in the team won, so we won the day.
I started training with Brendan the other week, our first session together was the hardest one Ryan does, an 800 meter sprint, then 400, 300, 150, then back 150, 300, 400 and 800 with only a little break in between sprints. Brendan did the fastest 400 meter time any body has ever done with Ryan, 64 sec, I got 66 sec. Brendan is a fast bloke, but not the fittest, he had to stop half way while I carried on, it's good to know I can beat him at something.
The following weekend we played Claremont at Claremont, I played an ex coach, who Darren knows from back in the day. He's one of those players who can place the ball around the court very well and doesn't miss that much, in the first set I was feeling so physically good I was just enjoying running around and chasing balls down, but then after I lost the opening set I thought it's even more fun to hit the ball hard and play my normal game and win, I won the second set 6.3 and was feeling in control. I was holding serve very easy in the third set, I don't think he would of got more than 5 points on my serve, but he was also serving very well and we ended up going into a tie-break. It was on serve in the breaker with me serving 1.2 when I hit this volley winner inside the line and he called it out, I told him it was in, and he reacted in an un-sportsman like way (lets put it that way), there's nothing you can do in that situation if there are no umpire's or anything, it's his call and I had to deal with the fact that he got the point by cheating. I love it when people cheat me, it fires me up and I usually just put my head down and win, I did what I always do and the next point I hit this forehand right in the corner making him shank a ball out. I felt good and back in control, but then he called my shot out after he hit his shot out, Darren and Todd are watching and Todd falls off his chair with disbelief. So after this instead of being 3,2 up I was 4.1 down with him serving, I ended up loosing. It's a shame that I won but his name will be in the paper the next with a win next to it, but Todd and I kicked his butt in the doubles and we all won the day so, it felt good to walk away with another win under our belt.
I had a couple of hits with Matt this week, which is always good, hearing him tell you about Challengers and the standard of tennis and the atmosphere, makes me want to go right now, but wont be long now.
This week we played U.W.A at home, I won my match 6.4 - 6.4 against a tricky player, so I was happy to get through that match, I was even happier when at 1.2 in the first set I hit another game of aces :). Todd and I won the doubles and the team won again.

7th November 2006
The summer sate league pennant season started last Friday night, they made a big deal out of it, there were a few people who came to watch, serving food, speeches, even got the national anthem going. After all the presentations we got on court. All the teams (8) were on at the same time. Wembley downs (my team) got put on the front court against last years finalist Cottasloe. They chucked me on centre court against Troy Hardgraves, a top state grade 31 year old, who in his time played on the tour, and club tennis in Germany division 3 (Tommy Hass a top 10 world player plays division 1). I had a funny start to the match, I was 40.15 up in the first game on my serve and ended up loosing it, he held his serve then I was 30.15 down on my serve and hit a good second serve which he shanked out of court, then as i about to serve the next point the umpire says 30 all, I told her it was 40.15 and she said my second serve was out and it was a double fault, I question who called it because the lines man didn't and I didn't here any other call and she said she did, anyway I didn't worry about it and played on, and hit an ace to shut her up, then Troy hit a winner to brake me. I ended up loosing the first set 6.2. The second set was a bit better but I still lost it 7.5. It was a good match, but I'll just have to get him next time. The team lost by a set in the end.
I've been dying to put this in my diary because the following weekend I had I win which I was very pleased with. I played a guy called Ben Tullet a 21 year old from Nolarmara. I have never beaten him, he has knocked me out of tournaments, beaten me in pennants, and you wouldn't believe it but I also played him in the Winchester ITF in England when I was 14 and he beat me then too. So when I saw I was playing him, I was pumped. I didn't have the best start loosing my serve the very first game, and considering Ben's strength is his serve and we were playing on grass, it definitely was not a good start. I played really well the whole match and ended up breaking back to take the first set to a tie-break which I won 7.4. Apart from the first game I didn't drop serve the whole match and broke him again at 5 all in the second and served for the match with 3 big un returnable serves, he hit one return winner, then I finished it of with a big ace down the T winning the match 7.6 - 7.5. The team won the day 5.1. So it was a great day.
Training is going well, I start the 4 x 1 k sprints tomorrow, I haven't done them for a while and I just got some new running shoes so hopefully there will be an improvement, I got 3.08 last time. Getting stronger in the gym, I did 9 wide grip pull ups the other day which is a new personal best, and considering I weigh 84kg I never thought I could do that in the short amount of time I've been doing them, about a month ago I was really struggling to do 2.
Getting on court a couple of hours a day with Todd or Brendan, and Matt is back for a couple of days so I'm trying to get a hit with him. He beat a guy number 260 in the world in his last tournament, I'm doing everything he was doing last year, so I feel I'm on te right track, just want to get out there and start playing some Futures, I've been saving up and doing some extra coaching recently so I can do a few 4 week, 4 tournament trips soon, then come back train for a couple of weeks, then go again.

October 2006
On the 23rd of September I played in the semi-final of the Serrento tournament against Cliff Marsland a guy I've played before and beaten, I was serving really well, and he could't break me in the whole match and I broke him once in the first and once in the second which was enough to win 6.3 - 6.4. In the final I played one of the top players in W.A Camren Fenner, he was one of only 3 players in the Australian junior team in his time, and has been at the top of men's tennis here for a while, but he never wanted to go pro. I lost my serve at 3 all in the first set which ended up costing me to loose it 6.4, I was holding serve easy in the second set, and had a couple of chances to break him but couldn't do it until 4.3 up when I broke him after a long game, then held serve to win the second set 6.3. The third set both of us had chances to break but didn't take them. Camren likes to play at the net, he charges it whenever he can, and being a big guy he's hard to pass, in fact I found out the best thing to do is hit it as hard as you can right at him which locks his hands up and he cant do anything, I hit him a few times in the course of the match, I was a bit mean but it was winning me the points and I'm sure he understood. Anyway It was still on serve at 5.4 to him in the 3rd with me serving to stay in the match, I didn't make one first serve when I needed it the most, which gave him opportunities to attack the net of my second serve, at 15 - 15 he charged the net and I had no choice to nail it at him, I hit one of the best backhands as hard as I could right at his right hip (which is the most awkward place to hit from) and the lucky bugger framed it and it dribbled over the net, this really pumped him up, and he took it up an extra level and I didn't which cost me the match 3.6 - 6.4 - 4.6.
Ryan my fitness trainer has gone away for a well deserved holiday for a couple of weeks, and Andrew has taken over for a couple of sessions. Andrew trains the ozy rules footy team here, and knows how to do a hard session, I think Ryan told him (Andrew works under Ryan) to make me cry, I didn't but I that was the goal :). Got a new personal best in my 12 k run yesterday 38 minutes, so feeling fit and pumped for my next tournament. During tournament season you don't do as much stamina training, more short fast training, so sometimes you feel your dropping in stamina after a while so it felt great to do a long run and not only still feel great but get a new personal best. I also bench pressed a new best the other day 90kg, which is more than my body weight so I'm pretty happy with that. I'm feeling physically great recently because I also leg pressed my best today 10 reps on 310kg.
On court training is still going well, getting on court a couple of hours a day with Todd, playing mostly point play, Todd's a great hitting partner because he's about the same standard so we always have tight high quality practice matches which he sometimes wins and I sometimes win.
I played in another tournament last weekend. Unfortunately I didn't do so well, I won my first match 6.0 - 6.0, so that was alright, but then in the second round I played Cliff Marsland again and lost 6.0 - 6.1. It was a weird match, we were out there for 1 hour and 45 mins, and even when Cliff was 6.0 - 4.1 up he was still getting pumped because we were having tight games. My serve wasn't going well, I like to use it to get me cheap points and important times but it didn't happen that day, I just didn't do anything on important points, and he did. And on his service games I like to chip the return back and work the point to set up an attacking shot, but this time I would chip the ball back and he wouldn't hold back and smack a winner, I then obviously had to change my tactic and not let him attack first by doing it before him, which I love doing, but I played so bad in that department and kept missing on the key points again, which caused me to loose.
This week on the training court I really worked on winning those key points and making sure I raise the bar and not hold back and go out and win those points, and it's working on the practice court, and I mentally really feel I've gone up a level, and after getting those personal bests this week in training, I cant wait to start the next tournament on the 15th and make it happen on the match court.

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