Serving It Up in NYC
9/2/2021 9:42:00 AM | Men's Tennis
September 1
Greetings from New York! It was an early start with a 6:30 a.m. pickup of our freshman German Samofalov for the drive to the airport. After a quick ritual from German, that he does before he leaves for tournaments, we were off. As with most trips, you always wonder if everything is booked correctly and if you have all the important things packed. With our arrival at the hotel, we took a deep breath for completing the first step of the trip. There were about five or six 'Roll Tide' greetings from random people at the airports, which is always nice to get reminded that the clothes you wear represent something a lot bigger and is something lots of other people recognize.
As a tennis player and coach, I am not a fan of rain. We had a court scheduled for practice today, but the weather had other plans and finding indoor courts in New York last minute is no easy task. Another bummer about rain in NYC is that you still have to walk to restaurants. So German and I had to put on our hoodies and find something nearby. Thankfully, we did and it wasn't raining as hard during our search. With a rainy day one behind us, we look forward to sunshine for the following week, couple of practices on Thursday as well as the official signup for the US Open and first match to follow on Friday. Looking forward to some Crimson Tide competition and some nicer weather. We will keep you posted and as always, Roll Tide.
September 2
Day two wasn't very eventful as we spent a lot of time waiting around for our negative Covid test results. We had to go to the tournament office a couple of times to ask what was going on and finally after over 24 hours of waiting, since we took the test, we got our negative results and we were allowed to head out to the official arena to get a feel for the courts. Unfortunately, the last shuttle for the day had already left so we had to make our own way to the facility. In any case, as tennis players we always have to stay nimble and roll with the punches and make the best with what we have. We had a solid session of hitting and we're both excited to get into the competition tomorrow. We got back to the hotel, found a Japanese restaurant that was walking distance, this time with no rain, which made the walk a lot more enjoyable. Looking forward to battling early in the morning with a 1st match start at 9 a.m. CT. Roll Tide!
September 3
We got some competition in today and I was really happy with the way German played, even though we didn't get the desired final result. In the qualification rounds they play a 10-point super tiebreaker instead of a full third set and I felt like in a normal full third set, German had the upper hand after the way he finished the second set. The breaker was really close as both players did a good job of getting their serve points. Ultimately, it was one shot that German missed that cost him the match. We had a bit more time today so we did the obligatory Times Square visit after dinner and took the picture. Looking forward to doubles and some practices tomorrow to continue the process. Roll Tide!
September 4
Felt like day four was a productive one. We had an early start to get tested again. After we got that out of the way, we got some food and hopped on the bus to the courts. We watched a bit of the matches going on and then had a good practice with just German and me. We did a little stroll around the Bronx to get lunch and waited for our second hit with German's doubles partner. It was a good session but more importantly, German was trying the things we worked on in the morning. One of the most important things you need as a coach is for the players to try to do what you tell them - key word being, try. When they do that, we get data points we can use to find what best works for each player. If they don't try what we tell them, it's harder to find what's best to fix a particular issue. After we finished with tennis for the day, we went back to the hotel, quickly showered and went to Central Park. We decided to get some bikes and get a little cardio while exploring more of the park as it's quite big. After an hour, one turn into the opposing bike traffic and 30 percent of Central Park conquered, including one castle, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant as German was in the mood for pasta. Alabama beat up Miami in football to boot. Good day in the books, Roll Tide.
September 5
Some good and some bad news today. The good news was that we got to go to the main site and watch some of the men's main draw matches and we got to have a practice as well. The bad news is that German did not make the doubles main draw. The combined ranking of the last team that got in was 81 and German and his partner are 84. With that, our time in New York is complete. Regardless of the outcome, we feel like the US Open is a place we want to aspire to compete at. Seeing the level and absorbing what the pro players bring to the courts is what we need. I think overall it was a good experience, and we gave ourselves the best shot we could. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but you do your best, go home and get better the next day. That is our way of tennis. Looking forward to what opportunities to improve tomorrow brings. Next competition is at home with the whole team starting September 17. Can't wait to see everyone battle. Roll Tide!
September 5
Players Mentioned
