The 2014 Season started – Boucherville

 

The hard road back

After all the pain I went through since the injury back in November, the new season made finally its debut with the nice and cozy Boucherville tournament, played again at the Sani Sport facilities.

Olivier Borlée

The hard and fast, synthetic rubber surface; is not among the most appreciated one at least among the 40+ gang. Nevertheless a reasonable number of players showed up. Among the most prominent: Olivier (Oly) Borlée and Carlos (Charlie) Montoto. Both these guys have been #1, and indeed they are currently the contenders for the top spot for this year as well.

For me coming back from 9-10 weeks of not playing a match was hard. Only the Friday prior to the tournament I did a few serves to check that the shoulder and the lower trapezius would hold during a match.

As I was seeded second, I had my first round bye. Something I particularly dislike on these courts, as the more you play, the better you adapt to its speed, and during the wintertime, Montreal is a hard place to book hard courts. Anyways, you can’t have it all. My objective was to make a similar run to last year where I stop in the semis, but I had many doubts as I said, I hadn’t played a match since November and all the training I did was on clay… Not a very promising scenario.

I was set for a re-match with Shariff Cabarcas-Ramos. We’ve known each other for almost 10 years now, but funny story, we only played couple of times. Officially to this date, Shariff beat me at my debut in the AVTQ league in Côte St-Luc 2012. It was a close to 3 hours match under a blasting Sun. 7-5 in that last set was the score. Conditions for this occasion could not be more different though. For starters, he had a match under his belt from the previous round he'd won in straight sets; he is also best suited for fast surfaces due to his almost flat technique on both wings. Yet, I’m not the same player I was in 2012.

Shariff started at full steam, not engaging in rallies and going for winners from the first ball. I was able to have a decent start, and at one point even breaking Shariff to take a 2-1 lead. But that was as far as I was able to go. Could not keep the pace and paid the price. I was convinced I had more to offer into the match; just had to try extending the points a little bit more. By doing that, and with some help from my opponent that lost focus at the start of the second set, I was able to force a last partial. By then, I was in command of the action, Shariff tried to come back, but it was too late by then. 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 final score and making history…

Oussama Azizi on the 35+ had an early exit, losing against Mike Hamryszak in straight sets. Knowing both players, I would have assumed Oussama as the heavy favorite; but the surface, an inspired opponent, and a bad night can call for the shower sooner than expected.  I’m sure “Roger” will bounce back in the next challenges.

Making history

The semifinals in Boucherville 2014 will mark a milestone in the AVTQ history. For the first time, two Argentinians would face each other to secure at least a runner-up. Carlos is a good friend that I met recently, but I been following him for years. Still have a few magazines that show him among the top in the junior’s rankings of Argentina. When we grew up older and started playing the local senior tour, Charlie was a top ten player and contender on each tournament. On my end, I had to earn my way through the qualifications and after a lot of work raised to top 30 in the country.

We played some friendly tie-breaks since we met and was able to experience his ball speed and great vision of the court. That is basically the difference between a good player, and those top guys that run the show: Montoto, Borlée, Blaettler, etc… Other guys may have more power, or even better stamina, but these three are of a different class.

I prepared my strategy to play Charlie and off I went. I was surprised to see that I could keep the pace with him, and on certain passages, I had more power. How was that possible? Carlos had a slow start, was able to hang there based on his experience and good technique and waited with patience till the moment his aching body would tell him to put down the foot. We had nice exchanges and good points. But there is a gap among us, and still today he’s the better man. I was still happy despite losing 6-3, 6-2. When I reviewed the stats, Charlie made 55% of the points (to my 45%); he won 15 extra points throughout the match, almost 1 extra point per game in average. May not sounds as much, but it is a hefty difference.

Patrick Frappier

From the other side of the draw, Olivier (Oly) Borlée was advancing on skates. The guy is super smooth, top 50 in the Rogers Open Ranking, 11 in Québec Open, top 3 among the vets, and freaking top 25 in the World in +40s!! And that is only for singles… Add up his doubles and you have a Terminator T-4000. He dismissed all his adversaries quickly, and without mercy. Oly was all business. In the semis he beat the revelation of the tournament, Patrick Frappier.

Pat knew Borlée from last years’ Easter Canadian Championships played at CDL, but this time the surface played a little bit more in his favor as he has a first serve that delivers some sting. Still far to become a real menace for the top seeded, Patrick earned a few more games this time, as he went down 6-1,6-2. It was a great effort for the first-time semifinalist.

And we got the main course for the finals, the current champion (Montoto) defending his crown against an ambitious opponent that is in the mission for #1 (Borlée)

I thought that Charlie and I had had great one-hand backhand exchanges… but what these guys gave in the final was a real concerto. Top-spin, slice, side-spin, volleys, great services, drops… you name it. Oly started as an Indy car going for the pole. Charlie’s pride answered on the second set coming back strong and making a statement: “I will die out there… but I’ll give it all” Oly put more pressure in his turbo and got the pole position and best of the third set. Final score: 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 for Borlée. Great match, to play, fantastic to watch from the sidelines.

The new rankings were published a few days after the tourney, and showed that Borlée took the #2 spot and breathing down Alex Blaettler's neck, Felipe Heck down to #3, I got back one spot to #5, and Charlie is still at #8. For a full listing of the rankings, you can visit http://www.tennis-veterans-quebec.com/classement/

 

The doubles adventure

This year I’ve decided to put more emphasis on the singles rather than doubles, so I told my usual partner, Oussama Azizi, to get a new player to match him. My injuries last year could not give us enough regularity that we needed as a team to play and practice. Oussama found a great player, Tarik El-Akhbari, and soon they will be winning matches and sooner than later, tournaments. In Boucherville in particular, Oussama and Tarik had bad luck, they got the first seeded team in the first round. Not much for the analysis, rather than the longer the match went, the better they started interacting. Good stuff for the future.

On my end, I was extremely lucky to be pared with Yohan Botbol. A true doubles dynamo. I know him well as he kicked my butt twice in this specialty in 2013. So I was very happy to have him for once, on this side of the net.

Due to the small number of players for the doubles, Lucien Desmarais decided to join the 35+ to 45+ groups together, making a nice field. With Rousseau / Simard as the first seeded of the tournament, and a bunch of good players spread out, it looked more a mine field than a draw if you ask me.

Our first match was against Richard Lacombe / Mike Hamryszak. We got an excellent start with good serve and volley action, and decent returns. First set we got our break and went on to win 6-3, but on the second we lost focus and found ourselves in a tough situation at 2-5 and our serve. Slowly but surely we climbed back to tie the set at 5-all and stormed away with Yohan playing like Michael Llodra! A feast at the net. Great win, fantastic comeback.

Next match was against Scott Hill (lefty) / Rodrigo Cordova. Rodrigo is a Chilean player with a very classic style of play, one-hand backhand, plenty of top spin, nice serve and tremendous speed. Rodrigo is a former professional player, still playing in the open group in Québec.  Scott on his end possesses a great first serve that he explodes to the limit and is a smart player that volleys very well. We simply played the best we could, considering the almost non-existent experience as a team.  Yohan was sublime in his interventions at the net; I returned pretty well from both sides, was solid with my serve, and did not make mistakes at the net. The match was of great quality; Scott was slightly slower than usual. Not a surprise as he had to battle the previous days in the singles draw of 45+ (made it to semis) on some long grueling matches. Rodrigo was a little off with his serve and had a couple of situations that were simple bad luck. We showed control of the situation since we got our first break and kept the foot down for a 6-3, 6-2 win.

The semifinal versus the top seeded team was something else. Danny Rousseau is a guy that probably serves as hard as a good professional player. My guess is that the first serve is in the orbit of the 190/200 clicks. You need to keep it cool to face a guy like this on a rubber surface. This is his turf, definitely.

I was happy to see that despite Danny winning his serve games with some ease, we were able to hang in until the very end. The only break in the first set came in the 9^th game. We lost Yohan serve for the first time in the tournament, by just a couple of balls. The second set was a different story. They got more relaxed and varied more the points, there we got a little mixed up and confused for the lack of practice as a team. We went down 6-4, 6-2 but I was very pleased with our promising form. It turned out to be in fact the match for the tournament, as the runner-up team, did not showed up for the final… Ahhh… maybe next time!

What is the pipeline?

The league will go to Québec city, but this is a tournament that is not very popular among the players from Montréal, so won’t be there again this year. Toronto seemed to be a good challenge, and was eager to go, but a late unfortunate injury on my arm is bothering me enough to seriously consider not playing. I’ve registered, but this upcoming weekend is going to be the final test to make the call. If not playing that one, then I will have to wait until April for Carrefour Multisport.

See you in the hunt.

Yours,

 

Iron Gaucho

 

 

 

 

 

The WOW experience

A good friend of mine, Don Bui, asked me a few weeks ago to explain in more detail how I lived the WOW experience. The acronym WOW is for Wilander-On-Wheels. As they put it, is the fantasy (become true) of hitting with the 8 Grand Slams champion (7 singles and 1 doubles), Mats Wilander himself.

A few years ago Mats met Cameron Lickle, a nuclear engineer in the US Navy that had this idea of teaching tennis in different locations throughout the year. Cam was not a beginner in the tennis business; graduated in 2003 from the United States Navy Academy and captain of the US Navy tennis team in ’02 & ’03. The Swedish ace was hooked by the idea, as it would tie perfectly with his interest in teaching tennis and at the same time an excellent way to spread the word about the MW Foundation.

The MV foundation, tries to raise awareness on a genetic disease called Epidermal Bulluyosa (EB) or the “Butterfly Children” disease. Mat’s 15 years old son, Erik, inherited a mild form of this disease. There are many variations of EB, but basically the skin of these children is so fragile that it blisters and tears from minor friction. There is no treatment or cure to this date. For more information on this condition, you can learn from debra.org

Why on-wheels? Basically because our two friends decided to move on an RV from one location to another instead of an airplane. This way they see things differently and have the chance to do some camping and meet more people in a more personal way. When you get to the venue where the clinic takes place, you will see their RV parked there, making the first impression of a memorable day.

There are many formulas for the WOW experience, and if you are interested in knowing more about it, I encourage you to visit their site: http://wilanderonwheels.com/ and also their Facebook and Twitter pages. Cam himself is in charge of the content.

But going back to my personal experience, I was exceptionally lucky to have someone organize such event in the charming Le Montcalm tennis club. We had somehow some unstable weather so we had our on-court activity indoors. But before jumping to the big moment, I had the chance to peep a little bit on what the previous group was doing. Basically Mats and Cam split in two courts with four players on each one. There is only one activity that everybody shares at the same time: The warm-up, with some jogging, jumping and those sorts of drills. There is always a group/shift in the morning (sometimes 2 if the demand requires) and again one (or 2) in the afternoon. There is a lunch break that you can share with Mats and Cam for about 30 minutes and then another 45/60 minutes of questions that take the format of a press conference. You can ask them whatever you want about tennis… and as Mats revealed… also marriage. He says he has enough experience after 24+ years married so he can share a few tips there too.

I won’t transcribe the whole Q&A; as I said, they are open to answer any question, some people go beyond what I consider polite in their comments. Asking about a doping suspicion of a player of a different generation makes no sense to me. Girlfriends… don’t really care. But what I found very interesting was what he had to say on the way he faced the ’88 season (When MW became # 1) after such an incredible ’87. First, he didn’t do anything different in terms of the hours of training, or its intensity, yes he developed a little bit more his one-hand backhand slice as he noticed would be the weapon to start unlocking Lendl’s defense. And nothing else. He claims there was a big luck component in that season. In Australia he played the final against Cash, the local hero, and the guy failed a few volleys here or there that gave him enough air to go for the K. O. at the end of the match. Again in France, Leconte was up in the first set of the final but could not hold his nerves. Wilander for the kill again. Got surprised by Mecir in Wimbledon, but got his slice fired up for the US. Open and knocked down the top seeded (Lendl) in the final.

Overall his message was always to keep training, being humble, and accept that there will be days that things go your way and other… well… just don’t.

It was time to change and rushed to the court. My heart was pumping.  Wilander is clearly in his arena, the court is his spot in the house, so to speak. It’s like the guy becomes bigger and stronger once he steps into the court. First few minutes a quick introduction from both pros, they take the time to learn the 8 names that will make the run with them and explain how the experience is going to work.

Two groups of 4 players are formed, one goes with Cameron, and the other stays with Mats. Every 2 drills, groups exchange pro, so you have the chance to hit with all the 4 players within your group, and both pros. The pace is fantastic and each drill is finished by a game of points (doubles, king of the court, one-on-one, etc…) Corrections are made right away. A problem is spotted, they stop you, make the correction and off you go… and miracles happen!!

Some people may consider that such event could be a little pricy and so, that they could have x number of hours with their club pro for the same value. My experience with guys like Mats (Wilander), Guillermo (Vilas), etc… is that they will spot your weakest points in a couple of balls (instead of weeks or months) and they will provide you with few simple tips to correct that. If you like the cost-benefit analysis, you will realize that it’s worth every penny. Not saying stop working with the club pro. Most of them are excellent and super professional…but; how many of them have been in the ATP tour… How many Grand Slam winners, or top ten in the rankings. Anyone #1 in the World? High level competition gives them a comprehension of the game that you will not find that easily.

Cam is a fantastic player and pro if you ask me. He is quick to explain and goes straight to the point. Playing him is super hard. His serve flies at ultrasonic speed. Wilander on the other hand is trickier; he can let you put some balls back. Trying to earn a point can take FOREVER. Best chance is if you are in the attack mode on a hard court. Put your Pat Cash racing stripes headband, grip your weapon and start the serve motion à la Boris Becker… and GAME ON!! If you ask me what happiness and complete excitement is, I would try to describe the face of my drill partner when we were hitting one-on-one with Mats. This guy, a regular weekend warrior, played the most exciting point I’ve seen in non-professional tennis to this day. He finished with a forehand volley on the line and Mats almost on the floor. He turned to me, and the smile, the bright in his eyes, the blood flowing thru his cheeks denoted all the possible emotions a player can experience. It took him a while to come back to Planet Earth…

On another occasion we were playing doubles against Mats and another participant and it went down to the wire. Nobody wanted to lose. Hitting at the net with a guy so good at passing opponents gives you an incredible thrill. Winning a point there is unforgettable.

After 90 non-stop minutes you are good to go, take a shower and after some time to rest and make socials with the other participants, you are invited to a BBQ with the whole gang. Food was fantastic, the night cleared so we did it outside, with a view to the St-Laurent River. And we kept talking tennis with Mats and Cam. You could see there that the youngest (under 18s) were more lent towards Cam (in his early 30s) and his stories on the US Navy, and the seniors were sitting and chatting with Mats. I was surprised that after almost 8 hours he was still keen on talking about past, present, and future of tennis. His views on Eugenie Bouchard, on Milos Raonic, on Nadal, on Federer, his friendship with McEnroe, his best buddy (and doubles partner) Joachim Nyström… And so many more stories.

By the time of dessert, was also the moment to provide our friends with some beautiful souvenirs from the organizers which was very nice and truly appreciated by everybody present. There was nothing missing in the preparation Pierre Langlois had in charge. Pierre and his team took care, from the day you registered to the day of the event, of every single detail. He kept players and participants on the loop sending reminders by email. He even escort us to our car as he knew we had a long drive back to Montreal that same night (I was playing Côte St-Luc the following day) Mats and Cam on their end thanked us for coming that far just to be able to hit with them. So down to earth people… It was indeed a day to remember.

 

Yours,

 

Iron Gaucho