It's been a while. I get it. My blogging motivation has been waning. I'm not really sure why. But enough with the excuses, let's get to it. Last time I checked in with you guys we had just finished our first rounds of a tournament in Billere. The following day, I guess it was Friday, September the 6th, Frankie played his second round against a 4/6 teenager. This kid had upset the number one seed, who was a 1/6 older gentlemen, the day before so Frank was ready for a battle. As a spectator and follower of Frankie's game for the last several years I really only have one regret about this match. It's that no one else who has seen Frankie's game evolve over the last few years was there to watch it. Frankie was Roger Federer, or at least as close as he'll ever get to Roger. He absolutely obliterated this kid, I think it was 6-1, 6-2. The biggest difference in the last few weeks has been a change in his mindset. Most people who know Frankie know that he was supreme confidence in things he has absolutely having no business being confident in. His believe that he could complete an Ironman despite essentially no training for example. Yet for some reason he has been unable to muster this confidence in things he is quite good at, tennis for example. But in the last couple matches he's turned his swag on, if you will.
Frankie and his very French chair umpire. The guy wore a scarf, peacoat, classy slacks, and had his legs crossed the entire match
His next match was against a kid we named 'The Turtle'. This wasn't a knock on his game, his speed, or anything of that variety. He simply moved and looked like a turtle. When he walked he would hunch over, thrust his head out in front of his shoulders, and waddle to the ball. In addition he had a bit of a belly, and thus his forward hunch gave the appearance he was sporting a shell. Despite this seemingly negative description of The Turtle's appearance he also possessed the largest forehand I have ever seen. It was outrageous. He would swing from his heels and bludgeon every single ball. For the pace he put on the ball he was also remarkably consistent.
The Turtle balling.
In addition, despite his heavy frame, he managed to run around every single backhand and rope his Goliath forehand. The match started poorly as Frankie dropped the first 8 points. He then broke to get to 1-2 but dropped the next 4 games to lose the first set 1-6. He was playing absolutely great tennis but The Turtle was just unbelievable. The second set was more of the same with The Turtle grabbing the second set 6-2, and winning the match 6-1, 6-2.
Frankie and The Turtle
There was one point of note early in the second when Frank and The Turtle traded 15 forehands that were all massive. After The Turtle left one a bit short Frank ripped a forehand up the line. The Turtle crawled over to the ball and hit a beautiful defensive lob. Frank sprinted forward, and in hit a sweet jumping overhead for an 120 MPH winner. It was one of those shots you hit when your messing around in practice and miss almost every time, but this time he hit it dead perfect. He turned and flashed me a sheepish grin, knowing he'd just played the best point of his young life. Despite the loss Frank collected a nice paycheck and was quite satisfied with his tournament.
The winners and runner-ups of each division. As well the mayor of the city second from the left.
The next few days we messed around in Biarritz playing some tennis and hitting the beach. While the routine is nice, it's starting to get a bit monotonous. Fortunately we have another tournament on Saturday, and then we will be heading up north for our last few tournaments. A few days ago, to break up the routine, we headed to Bordeaux to play a round of golf.
Biarritz chilling.
The course was similar to many American courses with two distinct differences. First, because Bordeaux is famous wine country there were grapes being grown all around the course, which was quite cool.
Notice the wine groves in the background...
....and again.
Second, there were several holes where the tee box was placed in a manner where one had to drive the ball across an active road to get to the hole. It was weird, cars would drive by, and you would simply wait for a break in the action before whacking the ball and hoping no car would come. Fortunately we avoided disaster, but it seems like a system with room for improvement.
Some golf clips.
Cool hole. Right in front of the pond you'll notice two smaller beaver like creatures.
He's very excited to golf!
That's all for now. I'll try to provide updates from the tournament this weekend, but I promise nothing. Although you do get your obligatory bonus pic taken in a French mall earlier today.
I haven't taken a little heat from the higher ups for 'going dark' or not posting frequently enough recently. But I can assure you what I would've posted in the last few days is not worth reading. Not only is it rather boring to describe, it will probably also fill you with bits of jealously as our days consist of waking up, tennising, beaching, rinsing, and repeating. But today, finally, we did something! We had our first tournament in forever. And what a day back to tennis it was.
Biarritz is quite nice...
...yea like really, really nice.
We made the 110 kilometer drive from our beachside heaven to the town of Pau. Frankie was first up on the docket at 17:00. He was playing a 4/6 man who appeared to be about 40. Normally I describe the matches just from memory, but I charted Frank's entire match today so today I can be a lot more specific. So for each game of the entire match I will pull out some interesting stats to try and give you a sense for how the match flowed. The comments below the game score are just what I think looking back at how points were won in that game while what is written after 'trend' is what I actually wrote while observing the match. I would recommend scrolling down quite a bit unless you throughly enjoy the nuisances of tennis. Seriously this is multiple pages of far too detailed analysis. I would expect most people to scroll for a while. I even got bored writing it. But here goes:
Frank serving early in the match.
Warm up thoughts: First warm up rally extends 50+ balls. Should be an interesting match. Guy is a left with a weak backhand. Has tried to hide it all warmup. Let's see if Frank exploits it.
Max's keys to the match:
Frank
Patience
Attack with forehand
Finish at net
Other dude (I think his name was Pierre)
Extend points past Frank's comfort level
Hide backhand
0-0 Pierre serving to start match:
Server wins 4 straight points. Two winners and two unforced errors by young Frank
0-1 Frank serving:
Frank double faults to open the game, players trade 2 errors each before Frank doubles again to get broken.
Trend: Poor start.
0-2 Pierre serving:
Pierre makes 6 forehand errors and gives back the break.
Trend: Guy made 6 forehand errors but he hits it huge. Does Franke notice that despite the good look of the stroke his opponent is losing almost all his points off of it?
1-2 Frank serving:
2 more doubles combined with 2 winners from Pierre leads to another break.
Trend: Second double was a clear hook off of a let. French guys in front of me not happy. Frank does not question call.
1-3 Pierre serving:
3 more forehand errors from Pierre capped with a double, Frank breaks bad.
Trend: Good god how many forehand errors will his opponent make. Looks like Frank has started to notice…
2-3 Frank serving:
At 15-30 guy uncorks a forehand winner and Frank yells at himself to hit to his opponents backhand. At this point in the match the guy has 1 forehand winner to 10 errors. Frank loses the game on an error.
This guy's khakis looked like they had been rolled in clay.
2-4 Pierre serving:
Missed return.
Aced.
Missed return.
Missed return.
Trend: Awful last game. Mind was stuck in previous game. His opponent swung his racquet 4 times and won 4 points. Unacceptable unless you're playing Isner.
2-5 Frank serving:
Frank finally picks up his serve and picks up 3 free points on service winners.
Trend: First serves make a difference…
3-5 Pierre serving:
Down 30-15 Frank runs around a second serve to gain no advantage and pays the price for it. Loses the set a point later on an ace.
3-6
2nd set: 0-0
0-0 Frank serving:
Had to run and get changed and come back to deuce.
Frank starts to serve huge though and fights off 3 break points to grit out an early hold.
Trend: Sweet service game. That's how you do it!
1-0 Pierre serving:
Pierre hits 3 winners and holds easily.
1-1 Frank serving:
Frank goes down 0-30 and then serves his way back into the game and gets the hold
Trend: Great early hold after going down 0-30. I have a good feeling about this next return game. He's been very close the last few return games.
2-1 Pierre serving:
At 0-15 Frank hustles his butt off and makes the guy hit one more ball, a little sitter, which he misses to move the game to 15-15. Frank eventually breaks off several forehand errors from his opponent.
Trend: Won game cause he made all 6 service returns. Good work.
3-1 Frank serving:
Frank forces 3 return errors and wins 2 more serve and volley points. Great hold.
Trend: Just served out of a tree. Probably hit a few that touched mid 110s.
4-1 Pierre serving:
Despite his opponent making 6 of 7 first serves Frank makes 6 of 7 returns and breaks again. I think there's a theme here…
5-1 Frank serving:
A bad game for tennis as there were 11 unforced errors caped of by a double fault.
Trend: Frank had a set point but lost it. Biggest problem was 1st serve percentage fell a lot. And he got super pissed when he lost the game even though ball striking is fantastic right now. I don't understand his brain.
5-2 Pierre serving:
I noted two points Frank lost because of bad feet. He was getting a bit tight.
5-3 Frank serving:
Again serve saves him.
Trend: Ace out wide on set point. Welcome to the big show.
6-3
Third set 0-0 Pierre serving:
Frank makes 4 errors in five points.
Trend: Frank mutters that is the worst f#&%ing game. I agree
0-1 Frank serving:
Solid service game with multiple service winners. I noted he hit one close to 115 up to the T (my mental radar gun is always accurate). Solid hold.
1-1 Pierre serving:
Ugly game with tons of errors. Highlight was a 2 year-old girl threw a big bouncy red ball onto the court during Frank's break point. It was quite funny.
The culprit.
1-2 Frank serving:
3 serve and volley attempts. 3 points won. Hold. He's won almost every point when's come to net (seriously, I only count 2 points lost at net up to this point)
2-2 Pierre serving:
Pierre hits 3 winners and holds.
Trend: Guy played great game and Frank is somehow livid with himself…of course.
2-3 Frank serving:
Serving and volleying comes back to hurt him as he loses two points early in the game and trails 15-40 before his opponent makes error after error to give him the hold.
Trend: Great hold down 15-40. Big firsts and smart plays after getting burned on two serve and volley plays where he served to the wrong side.
3-3 Pierre serving:
Frank hits the best backhand I've ever seen him hit. On the run, down the line passing shot that is just a frozen rope. Breaks.
Trend: Service games where Frank makes a high volume of returns generally work out well.
4-3 Frank serving:
Back to the big serving routine. He wins 3 points just because of big serving. Holds.
After the match Frank said he was having conversations with Belletto during the 3rd set and that's what got him through it. He's a weird dude.
5-3 Pierre serving:
I didn't have commentary because I was warming up but he breaks to win. Great match. 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
I'm not sure this is a good way to review a match. It certainly was irritating to write and I'll never do it again. But Frank played great and won his first match on clay as well as his first European 3 setter! Seems crazy, but since he started playing well we haven't been on much clay. He plays in the semis tomorrow at 17:30 (and he's guaranteed some cash).
Now to my match. I was playing a 3/6 15 year-old. He was very good. But he was also 15. For some reason I'm a bit nervous when I play younger kids who have good rankings as I expect them to be better than they are for some reason. Either way the first set went well enough and I won 6-3. The 2nd set I lost a bit of focus and found myself down 1-3.
Before I 'lost my cool'
We played a long point which ended when my opponent hit a lob that I thought sailed a little long. The kid, who glanced at his father all the time to silently determine whether or not his shots were in or out, apparently got a look that said his ball was in. So he walked to the net and asked me to show him the mark. I couldn't find it, and the tournament referee, who was actually just a 17 year-old kid, came and pointed at a mark right on the line. Now, I'm not 100% sure if the ball was in or out, but this was definitely not the mark. This mark was a good foot away from where the ball landed. After a few moments of calm I did what they call, 'flew off the handle'. I yelled at the referee until out of fear he decided a let would be acceptable. But the kids father would have none of this and declared the point was his sons. Now whatever portion of the handle I had initially retained, I quickly lost. I yelled at the father, at the referee, at my opponent. One could say I even handled the situation 'poorly'. I spent the next 8 games thinking about feasible ways I could shank a ball into my opponents father. Or less inconspicuously, if I could just sprint over and tackle him off of his chair. Every changeover I sat and glowered at him (while eating peanuts, I probably looked insane).
Peanut glowering
Down 0-3 in the 3rd I finally let it go. It took 30 minutes, but finally I was able to play again. And I went on a 4 game stretch where I didn't miss a ball, and subsequently didn't lose a game. Up 4-3 I lost focus yet again and ended up losing 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. I had no business winning. You can't just go bananas, freak out, and expect to win. And I acted like an ass. But life goes on.
To get a little sense of where my head was. This was my response to a missed serve rolling back into the court.
Now it's very late and I want to watch football. Until tomorrow. (Plus bonus pics)
I've been a little slow on the blog posts lately not due to lack of time or internet access, but due to lack of content. The last few days have been fantastic, but they've been quite simple. Generally we wake up at around 10:00, dillydally for a while, play tennis for 2 hours or so starting at 12:00. Then go to the beach from 14:00 to 18:00. It's quite pleasant and highly relaxing. After spending our first day or two in the Biarritz area at okay, but not great, beaches we've finally found an awesome beach.
The 'new' beach. (Click on this picture)
Today the waves we're absolutely huge and it was actually a bit treacherous. To try and manage the force of the waves we bought some flippers and a children's boogie board while we were at a sports store getting our racquets strung. The flippers were effective. The boogie board however, snapped in two when Frankie was pile-driven into the sand by a large wave. Nonetheless, we both survived to see another day.
Life guards on high-alert today. It doesn't look like it but waves were 6-8 feet high and the rip current was nasty.
As I mentioned in my last post we anticipated playing in our next tournament tomorrow, as that's when the director predicted we would play when we signed up for the tournament. However, she called me today and told me we wouldn't be playing until Thursday. What happened is that they likely received less entries than they had anticipated which pushed the day we played further towards the end of the tournament. This is no problem for us as we've found a nice club we can train at for only 10 euros a hit and the beach seems to be calling again tomorrow.
We drove around for a while testing different beaches before we found the one pictured above. This one did not pass the test as you can probably tell my Frankie's body language. Cool picture though.
The only other thing to mention is we moved into our flat 2 days ago. It's in a great location, has everything we need, and is generally quite nice, but it is extremely, extremely small. On the internet it's advertised as 14 square meters, and I would be surprised if it was much larger than 14 square feet. Once you unfold the couch into the supposedly 'queen' bed you barely have move to room around the flat. It really doesn't matter too much as having a roof over our head and a semi-permanent residence is good enough for me. But certainly worth mentioning.
We reside in apartment 2 of Residence Alphonse XIII.
