Hello Everyone,
Hope all are staying warm and fit as the tennis season is put on whole for the next couple of weeks. All of the pros are diligently working hard on the court and even harder off it. Many of them see this as a new opportunity to up their levels of fitness and start the year ahead of the rest.
Americans Amer Delic, James Blake, Alex Kuznetsov and Brendan Evans are all hard at work in Tampa, Fl. Robert Kendrick is in Orlando working the 2 on 1’s, and Sam Querry and Robby Ginepri are hard at work on the West Coast.
Part 3 – Cycling to Tennis – The Attack – More about Tennis Fitness
In a bike race if you want to be a contender, you need to be at the front of the pack and ready for a rider, or a group of riders to make a getaway from the rest. This is known as a break away. In order to break away from the pack, the cyclist needs to “time” his attack, when the peloton (a large group of riders) is either sleeping or is at a vulnerable position.
In a tennis point, there is a moment where your opponent will be most vulnerable to an attack at the net. If the tennis player knows how to make the transition to the net in a quick, clean, and complete manner, he very often will have the opportunity to win the point by hitting a volley or an overhead for a winner.
So, as you can see, both sports have the element of “The Attack”. So many times when I have watched the pros play, it is easy to see when, in my eyes, he has lost the point because he did not take advantage of the first moment of vulnerability of his opponent. In the pros, you get one shot generally to win the point. If you don’t take it, your opponent very often will get the next opportunity and most likely will seize the offensive moment.
Both Cycling and Tennis have elements of strategical offense that can be intuitively developed over the years. This is what I call the 8th Sense. The high level Jeti’s , like Roger Federer, and cyclist Jonas Carney, have, that many people lack. Being able to know what options your opponent has on a particular shot can win you more points each set and game you play.
If you tennis fitness is lacking, you will have a hard time executing the play. Work hard off the court like the top Americans are doing now!
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Brendan Evans
My First Blog For TennisGrandstand
Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog here at TennisGrandstand.com. I’d like to talk about a couple different items this week and that is the American Challenger Circuit and Off Season training for College Tennis.
Firstly, I’d like to point out that American Robert Kendrick continues to show week in and week out that he is knocking on the door of joining some of the other elite Americans in the top 50. With a 1 and 1 dismantling of extremely talented Donald Young, in the Louisville, KT, $50,000 Challenger, Robert jumped to 91 in the ATP Race and should secure a spot in the main draw of the Australian Open.
Other Americans looking to make a run in the upcoming Fall Challengers are Amer Delic, Jesse Levine, Donald Young, Michael Russell and Bobby Reynolds. New comer to the “hot players to watch” group is Brendan Evans who is in Europe, trying to test his big serve and aggressive game in the indoor circuit.
As the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Tennis Team at George Washington University, I have been having the boys put in some solid work over the last 10 days. The goal is to lay a good foundation of power, strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance over the next couple of months. Luckily I have Alex Parr, one of the head trainers at GW watching over the boys and implementing the workouts that I generate using www.pegasustrainer.com . I am having a blast with these boys and am looking forward to the spring season.
Paul Pisani has trained many of the top American tennis players today; including Ginepri, Delic, Harkleroad, and Kendrick. Currently he is the Strength Coach for the GW University and has worked with Pepperdine and Princeton and owns and operates Tennis Fitness Solutions.
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Jelena Dokic Shows Her Intent to Make it Back
Last week on the challenger circuit, winning streaks continued on both the men’s and women’s sides. Several players have won consecutive challenger titles, making it clear that they’re serious about going into the draw at the French Open, which starts next week.
After limiting herself to just nine events in the last two years, it looks like Jelena Dokic of Australia is serious about making a comeback in 2008. The 25-year-old won her second challenger title in a row at the $25,000 event in Caserta, Italy, rolling over Patricia Mayr of Austria in the final with a 6-3, 6-1 victory. Dokic moves back into the top 300 with this result and was granted a main draw wildcard into the WTA event held this week in Strasbourg, France.
Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic is rolling into Roland Garros with as much confidence as a player could hope for. The 23-year-old won her second challenger title in a row at the $50,000 tournament in Saint Gaudens, France, with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain. Cetkovska has enjoyed a fine year on the clay, reaching the quarterfinals at a WTA event in Fes, Morocco, in addition to two main draw wins during the South American swing on the WTA Tour. With the right draw, Cetkovska is definitely a candidate to win a couple of rounds at the French Open next week.
American tennis has a new promising hope to look out for after teenager Chelsey Gullickson won the first challenger title of her career at the $25,000 event in Raleigh, North Carolina. She won the title with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win over fellow American Lauren Albanese. The 17-year-old is still listed as an amateur player, but may soon be rethinking her decision about whether or not to turn pro. Despite the loss in the finals, Albanese has all but eradicated her nightmare start to 2008, having lost her first ten matches of the year.
In other results on the women’s side, Barbara Zahalova Strycova of the Czech Republic won her third challenger title of the year at the $25,000 event in Szczecin, Poland, while teenager Kai-Chen Chang of Taipei won the first challenger title of her career at the $50,000 event in Kurume, Japan.
On the men’s side, Eduardo Schwank of Argentina is a name which has often come up in this column, which may mean that his time on the challenger circuit will soon be coming to an end. He won his third challenger title in a row at the $100,000 event in Bordeaux, France, overwhelming Igor Kunitsyn of Russia with a 6-2, 6-2 routing in the final. Schwank now moves into Roland Garros as a long-shot candidate to reach the second week.
Gael Monfils of France lived up to his billing as top seed at the $100,000 challenger in Marrakesh, Morocco, winning the title with a 7-6, 7-6 victory over Jeremy Chardy of France. Despite the loss, Chardy has been a consistent performer on the challenger circuit this year and has been granted a main draw wild card into the French Open as a result.
After losing in the finals of his last two challenger events, Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei finally broke the streak at the $50,000 event in New Delhi, India, prevailing over Brendan Evans of the United States with a 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 victory. Lu’s strong performances on the challenger circuit this have helped move him back inside the top 100 this year and into a new career high ranking.
In other results on the men’s side, Jesse Levine of the United States won the $50,000 event in Bradenton, Florida, while Daniel Gimeno of Spain prevailed at the $50,000 tournament in Aarhus, Denmark. Diego Junqueira of Argentina took home the winners trophy at the $30,000 event in San Remo, Italy, while Christophe Rochus of Belgium won the $50,000 tournament in Zagreb, Croatia.
The challenger circuit will remain fairly quiet this week with qualifying for the French Open starting on Tuesday. Yen-Hsun Lu takes top billing at the second $50,000 challenger in New Delhi, India, while Danai Udomchoke is the top seed at the $35,000 event in Fergana, Uzbekistan. On the women’s side, Maria Kondratieva of Russia is top seed at the $25,000 event in Moscow, Russia, while Chin-Wei Chan of Taipei is the top seed at the $25,000 tournament in Nagano, Japan.