Coach Newman's Corner

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March 18, 2009

Ashley Continues Doubles Play In Rome-Pomezia

Ciao,

My partner and I squeaked out a win today in our doubles match…7-6(4), 6-7(7), 10-7. It was a match of many ups and downs. We saved a set point in the first set, but that was nothing compared to how many match points our opponents saved in the 2nd set. I stopped counting after about our 6th match point. Our opponents played well for the majority of those points, but we also had a few bad and tentative shots in the mix. After we blew the 2nd set we went down 0-2 in the 10 point tiebreaker. We refocused and relaxed as much as we could. We leveled it at 2-2 and kept trading off points until 7-7. Finally, we were able to put 3 solid points together and end the insanity. Thank goodness! I still didn’t play my best, I’m having a hard time finding a couple of my shots. I just need to be patient with myself, loosen up, and stop thinking too much! That will be my goal for tomorrow along with being more aggressive. My partner and I are getting more comfortable playing together and learning each others tendencies. We will definitely be improving on a few things from today’s match and pumped up to play better.

We play our semifinal match tomorrow not before 3:30pm against my roommate, Karolina Kosinska, and her partner Simona Dobra. I’m going to practice in the morning with Maria-Teresa and her coach to work on some singles stuff. I’ve probably spent the most time with them practicing and going to dinner together. They’re very nice and helpful. We always have quality practices with a high intensity level. We’ll probably be going to the next tournament together and I may share a room with her also. After we practice I’ll grab some lunch which I missed today because I was playing during that time. Then I’ll hit with my doubles partner right before we play so that we’re warmed up and ready to go. I’m looking forward to tomorrow! Wish us luck! Time for me to get some shut eye, goodnight : )

Posted by Jack Newman at March 18, 2009 5:25 PM