Riders
of the Storm… and Heat Wave.
Surviving summer in Montreal
is not an easy task for the tennis warrior. By the time Valois hits the
journeyman’s calendar, the all mighty Sun is at its peak of power and makes
life miserable for those who dare to face their destiny on the grey outdoors
arenas.
This season the tournament
in general attracted far more players than the 2013 edition and the +40s draw
wasn’t the exception. With names like Montoto, Skerjl (winner in +35s last
year), Heck, Salhany (defending champion in +40s), and Lacombe, as seeded
players; the tournament promised a lot of action and some potential blockbuster
battles on the second week.
Montoto (Charlie), as first
seeded, started in quarterfinals against and old friend and foe… Francis “The
Terminator” Demers. They’ve played a few times this year and for the third
tourney in-a-row, they would meet again. The Beaconsfield resident had his
tennis bag full of rackets and confidence. He (literally) wiped-out Sébstien
Larivée, on his debut, with a 0 and 3 win.
The quarter final match did
not go as Francis expected as he was slightly off-timing; paying a high price
against a player like Charlie. Montoto is in great form this season and he is
aiming for the #1, once in the court, he’s all business. Yet a good performance
for Demers that climbs to the 10th spot in this month’s ranking.
With a little bit of luck in the draw, he might be able to run deep and do some
damage in future tournaments.
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| Felipe Heck and his beautiful Charger |
In the meantime, Salhany
gave W.O to Boivin, something that
Felipe Heck used to his advantage beating Marc
and reaching for second year in a row the semis. Never so far conqueror of the
Argentinian native, Felipe played a solid game while his opponent seemed to
suffer the extreme heat. The Brazilian step on the gas and took the lead with a
strong 6-2 and 2-0 lead when Charlie called the day.
On the second half of the draw,
Lacombe got the best of Phil Chalabi to earn his place among the 4 best
players. He would face his old friend Yanko Skerjl. This time around Yanko kept
his foot down and earned the right to play the final with a straight win 4 and
4.
Heavy rain delayed the final
match for a couple of days, but finally Skerjl got to defend his 400 points.
Montoto finally made it to
#1 tying Olivier Borlée (injured) with 1,280 points. Lacombe is right behind with
1,200 and Yanko is 4th with 1,040. Myself as expected; dropping to
the 5th spot. By the end of the summer, I should be out of the top
ten.
Next stop, Côte St-Luc, provincial
designated tournament.
Meanwhile
at Frank Hornig’s Secret Lab… (aka. Baie d’Urfé tennis club)
 |
| Oussama "Roger" Azizi |
Oussama and myself, kept
adding hours developing the new technique that will eventually bring us many
years free of injuries (at least from those of a poor technique origin) Frank is very thorough and takes all the time and resources needed for us to get it right. Even his daughter Lauren (a top junior in Quebec) is helping us.
We are making some good
progress. After 45/50 days, I can see a major improvement on Roger’s volleys
and the length of our rallies has tripled what we used to hit. His backhand is
more solid than ever before. On my end, my ground-strokes are rising with an
unusual amount of spin, and slowly I’m getting there with the backhand slice
and forehand volley. It’s going to take time and patience, but we are in the
right direction.
We are watching a lot of
videos from different players and reading a lot about technique and tactics,
understanding better what we are trying to replicate in the terrain.
Maher Diab’ help is at the
same time capital to this process with infinite patience to feed me countless
balls to reinforce these changes. He sees some evolution as well, and he’s very
optimistic about what this will bring.
Have to start working on my
stamina and hit the gym again to get fit again. Pain is almost all gone. Still
when is humid, I feel some discomfort but not to the point of not being able to
hit 450 balls in an hour. Led by Guillermo Vilas example… How much time do we
have to practice? Until there is no chance of error.
Practicing
partners… The usual suspects… plus 2!
Since I’ve decided to make
these changes, in the list of regular hitters we have Oussama “Roger” Azizi,
Francis “The Terminator” Demers, Carlos “Charlie” Montoto, Anicet Fotso (The
prodigal son is back in the gang), and last weekend we were extremely happy to
get Olivier “Oly” Borlée who is starting to hit the courts again. We hit for
about 2 hours on Saturday and he looked as if he was still in competition.
Simply unbelievable. Watching him connecting those shots with a grin locked in
his face is extra-motivating. I’m sure next year he will renew his fighting
for the top.
See you in the hunt.
Yours,
IRON GAUCHO
A few weeks back, my friend (and regular doubles partner) Lloyd "Lionheart" Mangahas, made his comeback to competition. Sidelined for quite sometime (since our runs in Tennis Montreal Doubles League 2012-13) and after a kidney transplant; the Saint-Laurent hero made his first step towards the World's Transplant Games 2015.
