Work in Progress – The buildup of a new tennis player

It sounds like a company project or the idea of a doctor turned into a madman. But in fact is my idea of becoming a more solid player with more options to display on court at a less price in term of injuries…

All these months away from active competition or any sort of match play (there is always a competitive component in a friendly match that may not be good in my current development phase) Frank Hornig and I kept working on correcting the main flaws in my game.

Club Hipico y Golf City Bell

Groundstrokes started to show some good form as well as volleys. Serve and overhead (so much related) are to follow. So far I’m happy with what I’ve seen. Not only I’ve been able to play through tennis elbow injury but pain has subdued and for the first time in a long time I have nothing to complain on that front. I have stop using the patella strips protection for the first time in 7 years. All praise to Frank and his teachings.

I recently lost 10 pounds which helps me moving around the court better. Another improvement, little things that add up for a better overall outcome, won’t you say?

Switching hitting sessions with Oussama Azizi, Maher Diab, Francis Demers, and specially Carlos Montoto helps me discover little details that is dully captured and transmitted to Frank for further analysis/discussion. It’s a long process and of course I miss competition and the adrenaline rush of a break point, but it’ll come, sooner or later; in the meantime, I enjoy and embrace the process.

Not long ago I spent a few days in Argentina. With temperatures over 40C and humidity factor over 75% I just found hard to breath in such soaking atmosphere.  By 5AM temperature was close to 30C and raising, little to no wind, a true inferno.

Club Hipico y Golf City Bell

Still I managed to have a few hitting sessions at the nice Hipico y Golf Club in City Bell where my Family resides. I was helped by Walter the main pro there that accommodated the sessions for me with the cooperation of several of his students. Each session was 60 minutes long only as opposed to my 90 minutes here but considering the temperature it felt like 4 hours. I loved the feeling of hitting on red clay (my least favorite surface) as it was kind of a blast from the past.

Vilas and Wilander 2015

In my last night in Argentina, had the chance to visit Guillermo Vilas again and spent some time talking with him about what I was working on and we got into very technical discussions over dinner. It was great, enjoyed it enormously and hopefully he did as well. I’m deeply grateful that such Champion sets time to talk to someone that shares the same passion.

These days Mats Wilander is in Argentina, invited by the organization of the ATP 250 held in Buenos Aires. I know Mats and Guillermo sat for a talk. Their friendship goes way back to 1982 when Wilander defeated Vilas in the finals at Roland Garros. Both love tennis very much and I’m sure they also enjoyed each other company.

Can anyone stop Montoto?

A new year started and the 2015 season kicked off once more with the Sani Sport Indoor in Boucherville.

The 35+ group showed new faces and were in fact those new faces that dominated the draw. The win belonged to Simon Tremblay-Larouche on an easy win against Tommy Curkovic. I’m sure we’ll hear more about these players along the season.

On this draw the expectation on my end was set on my friend Oussama Azizi that was back on competition with a brand new system of play (the Great Base Initiative). Regrettably Oussama was not in a good day and a rock solid Jacques Préfontaine made his life hard. Talking to Azizi a few days later, he reported still leaving with good sensations as many games were close and he just failed close to the line. He had a better partial result on the tricky carpet when he lost 4 and 4 his consolation match. May not be the best of the starts but I’m confident once the new refurbished strokes settle he will enjoy deeper runs in the tournaments. Just wait for the summer.

The 40+ draw had a great number of players (14) but not many of the top guys, with a few exceptions.  Carlos, the King, was there as Marc Boivin, second seeded, the new addition in +40, Yohan Botbol, always dangerous on the hard and fast carpet at Sani Sport. Francis Demers closed the list of seeded players. Francis showed up last year more regularly to events and he got a few good deep runs that can make him a good challenger in the not so far away future.

A few new names as well this year. The main worth mention, Bruno Sakoto. This is probably the nicest guy you can ever meet at a tennis court, but also one of the finest old school serve and volley players out there. Bruno played many years in France and we share fond memories of the Inter-Park League and a few summer tournaments over the last decade. Bruno kicked off by beating the always complicated Sébastien Larrivée who is a truly die-hard player. Maybe he’s not so suited for fast and short exchanges, but yet a tough first rounder.  Bruno took the first partial on the tie-break to absolutely dominate in the second. Against Boivin, regrettably his body felt the lack of competition and he was forced to withdraw, a match that in equal physical condition, hands down, belongs to the Ivory Coast native. More to see in the future events, I guarantee a top ten slot for Bruno.

Pierre-Alain Dubois made a great run up to the semis where Boivin was the strongest man in the third set.

The surprise came by the name of Sébastien Harvey who crushed Francis Demers 6-0, 6-1. Did not see the match but I find hard to believe there were no external reasons for such low performance from the Beaconsfield resident. Francis has a game that clicks perfectly with the synthetic carpet and being dominated by someone like that is utterly surprising. But he wasn’t the only seeded to say goodbye in the first round, Yohan Botbol gave his hurrah in straight sets against Pierre Pomès who eventually also made it to the semis.

King Carlos had a déjà vu on his first match, scheduled very late on a weekday. Christian Gagnon made him run quite a bit last year at the same venue, going down with an elegant 6-4, 6-4. This year took more of a bite from the Argentinian. It seemed like Gagnon had the venom to poison his opponent, he was finding the range in his backhand and firing up his forehand all over the court. Carlos got tangled 1-5 in the third when he orchestrated one of the most thrilling comebacks on the senior tour. He ended up winning that last set 7-5. 

With his confidence restored and on the rise he passed by Pomès in the semis with a double 4 and crushed Boivin in the finals, allowing him only 2 games.

Carlos improved his run from last year when he lost against Borlée in 3 sets… Until Oli is back in competition, is there anyone that can actually beat him? So far the matches he lost in 2014 were on a bad day or due to illness, with the exception of the mentioned encounter with the Belgian champion. Still it is fair to say that since last January and moreover, since last summer his confidence has increased a lot and it seems that this will be another great season for Charly.

See you in the hunt.

Yours,

IRON GAUCHO