I'm the #1 seed at the $2,000 Carmel Valley Athletic Club Men's Open and NTRP - A USTA NorCal NTRP Grand Slam
If the darn rain would go away, then maybe the tournament will actually get under way!!! Go away rain! This tournament is 2 hours away from me too! Well, at least it is a small draw, hopefully we can finish the whole tournament in 2 days.
Here's the link: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/Draws/EventDraw.aspx?T=96528...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tim Prapong on -
$2000? You'd better win then ;)
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Permalink Reply by Mark T. on -
Okay Mike. How did it go? I was hoping for you the entire weekend. Spill the beans already.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Dong on -
Okay Mark, here it is: So with all the rain here in N. Cali lately, the tournament was rained out last weekend. It continued yesterday. It was sunny and decent in Carmel. So if you click on the link that above that I posted, you can see that I had a first round bye. I won my first match easily yesterday 6-2, 6-1. Now here's the story: After I finished my first match, I was reporting the score to the tournament director and he said, "congratulations we will see you next weekend in the semis". Keep in mind that I am driving 2 hours EACH WAY to this tournament! It's in Carmel, and I live 2 hours North from it. Last weekend, I drove all the way there just for them to tell me that it just started to rain there and they were canceling until next weekend(yesterday). So anyways, I told the director, "next weekend? can't we play the semis today?! We are expecting rain all week, since it's nice out here today, let's try to get as much in as we can!". The director said that it was up to the winner on court 10, which I would be playing the winner of. So I said, "ok, I'll watch the match and wait to see if the winner is down to play the semis afterwards, since we both only played 1 match today. So, here I am watching the match, I knew one of the guys playing, Brad Leach. I run into him at a lot of the tournaments and I've played him before and beat him in a couple of them. He's a solid 4.0 player. Now, the guy he's playing, I've never heard of or seen before. HOLY BATMAN....this guy is good! I was thinking to myself as I watch him lay down a whooping on Brad... there's no way this guy is a 4.0, he's got to be at LEAST a strong 4.5 and maybe even a 5.0. I'm sitting there thinking...I have to play this guy? Because Brad doesn't have a chance against this dude. Sure enough this guy Steve Capie whooped Brad 6-1, 6-1. After their match Brad could be heard cities away complaining how that guy is no way a 4.0 player and it was no contest. Brad was pissed and felt cheated. I have to agree with Brad. Either this guy played the greatest tennis of his life during this particular match against Brad, or he is sandbagging and kinda flew under the USTA radar and didn't get bumped up. So anyways, this guy Steve agreed to play the semis with me that same day(yesterday).
So we start our semi final match under lights at 7PM. OMG!!!! This dude is friggin GOOD! He slaughtered me 6-0 in the first set. 6-0? Are you fricken kidding me? I have NEVER been served a donut before in my tennis career! EVER!!!!! So I'm down 2-5 in the second set. Suddenly the warrior in me gets unleashed! I scratch and claw my way back and now I'm up 6-5 and it's 40-30 and I'm serving for the second set! Here it is, I just need 1 more point and were splitting sets and I'll be bringing it to a 3rd set! Then....a couple of light rain drops started to fall out of the sky. I'm ready to serve out the set trying to hurry it up. This guy started to pace back and forth and kept asking for more time. Sure enough, the rain started to come down harder and soon covered the court. This guy knew I was on a roll and was hot! He ran off the court to grab the director which took even more time and allowed for the court to become even more wet. By the time he came back with the director it was full on raining. It was called off due to rain delay until next weekend. What a JERK!!!! he knew all I needed was 1 more point to bring it to a 3rd. But he was smart, he used all the time to his advantage to stop my hot streak just in time. We find out that we live 10 minutes apart from each other! So the director, Steve, and myself agree that we will play and finish the match offsite at our own terms in our area. So we will continue where we left off, I'm up 6-5 in the second and serving 40-30 for the set. We plan on playing it out this Thursday in our area. But I don't know how it will pan out since the forecast calls for rain all week. Either way, win or lose, I will be going back to Carmel this weekend for the finals or the consolation draw for 3 or 4th place.
http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/Draws/EventDraw.aspx?T=96528...
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Permalink Reply by Tim Prapong on
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Rain saved him, but you found out something about his game. Think about what it is, and then just keep doing the same when you restart.
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Permalink Reply by Mark T. on
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Dude, that just totally sucks. I am sorry. Ok, so like Tim says, you figured something out. Think about it. Plan your new attack on that. Kick his A** and as he leaves the court tell him to man up and play where he belongs. UP! I hate sandbaggers. Ruins the game for those trying to learn, grow, improve and get a foot hold in this great sport. Now that being said, if you beat him, do you need to move up as well? Hey good luck tomorrow. I hope the weather holds for you.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Dong on
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Thanks guys. We both decided that the rain isn't going to permit us to play this match offsite. So we left it in the tournament directors hands.
So here's the update: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/Draws/EventDraw.aspx?T=96528...
Notice the guys on the bottom of the draw haven't even played 1 match due to withdraws.
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Permalink Reply by Mark T. on
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Man, that really bites. Well, I hope you are eventually able to finish, and beat that guy. Hopefully this weekend. Good luck my friend.
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Permalink Reply by Tim Prapong on
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Go to the gym and do lots of cardio and deep lunges. So when you go out there, your wheels and stamina are better than his.
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Permalink Reply by steve_capie on -
Hi Mike,
Sorry that you thought I was a jerk in our match in the second set. As I recall, Brian Cory (the tournament director) was standing near the trailer (one court away) so I never had to leave the court. It was definitely tough conditions. I thought you did a great job in coming back in the second set. You showed a lot determination and focus. I must admit I prefer playing during the day where I can see the ball much better. I admit that playing during the day did help me play better in the 3rd set. That was definitely the case when I played against Brad. I thought Brad played played well, but I was able to get into the zone and play some strong aggressive tennis.
Two years ago I had a herniated disc in my neck and had an operation and have been working to get myself back into playing shape. I am also 48 years old so I tend to be conservative when playing in conditions that may be marginally safe. Last year I was recruited and played on a men's 4.0 team out of the Fremont Tennis Center and went 7-1 during the season. I had expected to be bumped to 4.5. Most likely if I play anymore tournaments I will either play 4.5 or men's 45 singles. My goal this season is to go undefeated on the Crow Canyon Men's 4.0 USTA team. I will mostly be playing singles but I play a mean game of doubles as well :)
I saw the latest Norcal 4.0 rankings and saw that you are now ranked #2. I definitely believe that you will be able to reach your goal of becoming #1. Good luck and take care.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Dong on
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I thought I'd bring this thread back for 1 reason. If any of you guys read this a couple of months ago, you would have found out that I got my butt kicked 0-6,7-5,0-6. I was extremely upset because I have NEVER been beat 6-0 in a match before EVER...let alone twice in 1 match! you can see for yourself here: http://www.ustanorcal.com/playermatches.asp?id=155509 But, I have to tip my hat off to the gentleman Steve Capie, who is a tremendously good player. He is probably the most consistent player I have played thus far. Anyways, Steve happens to be on a USTA league team that is in the same division(Diablo South) as one of my USTA league teams. Steve's team,(Crow Canyon)was undefeated and in first place. I told my captain that Steve was a great player and that he is on the Crow Canyon team which we would face on the 2nd of July, yesterday. So, not only were we playing the first place undefeated team, we were going to face one of the best singles players Steve. We decided to stack and put me in #2 singles(I always play #1). Well guess what? Crow Canyon stacked too! There I was...facing Steve Capie again. I lost the first set 4-6, and won the second set 6-3. In the beginning of match I told him that I wanted to play a full third if we ended up splitting. Well, we had such long points, games, and sets that we were the last match left on the courts by the middle of our second set. It was getting late around 9PM and Steve and his teammate talked me into playing a tiebreaker in lieu of a full third set. At this time, my team had already clinched the team win with a singles win and 2 doubles wins. So here we are playing the TB. I end up losing the TB 4-7. We shake hands and are about to put our sticks away when...my captain yells out, "what was the score"? When I told him 4-7, he shouted,"NO the TB in lieu of a third is ALWAYS a 10 point TB. So, Steve and I walked back on the court to finish the TB. At one point, I had match point and noticed Steve was a few feet behind the baseline...I tried something risky and tricky and through in a quick underhand serve. I ended up losing that point, but hey, it took some big yellow fuzzy's to try to pull that off! Anyways, I ended up winning the TB 12-10 and the match! Not only did I get my redemption, but we beat the undefeated team! Victory is SWEET! Our team has 1 loss and should be in first place now.
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