Jackson, MS
On March 29th we started the 9hr drive to Jackson, MS. Madison had to work a full day at Busch Gardens on Saturday, resulting in us getting a late start on the drive. This led to our arrival being close to 2am. Lucky for us, we had nothing scheduled Sunday except practice.
After the long drive, we slept in until about noon and when we went to practice, we came to a shocking realization. Leading up to this tournament we had been working crazy hours, even crazier than usual. This tournament marked the start of our 6 tournament run in the span of 2 months. We worked hard racking in the money to ensure we would be able to afford these tournaments. Due to being so busy, we managed to overlook a somewhat big detail about this tournament. It was on clay…
Thinking the tournament was on hard courts, neither of us packed our clay shoes. This resulted in us spending most of Sunday hopping store to store trying to find some clay shoes. It was no easy task! After about 3 hours, we ended up finding a pair that we had never worn before and were slightly nervous at the change. After purchasing the shoes snd trying them out during Sunday’s practice, we were pleasantly surprised at our new Head All Court shoes. We almost liked them better than the shoes we left at home :P
To our advantage, this tournament provided players with an opportunity to earn additional money on Monday. We both participated in a 2.5 hour pro am event which consisted of us playing points against the women’s league teams. This event allowed us to not only earn $110 each but it also allowed us to become close with some of the ladies resulting in a larger crowd at our match later on.
When the draws posted late Monday, we were shocked to find out that we didn’t play until Wednesday. It is uncommon, however, some tournaments split the doubles draw in half causing 8 teams to play on Tuesday and 8 teams to play on Wednesday. Having another day off allowed for us to connect with one of the moms from the clinic and set up a private lesson with her daughter. Through this connection, we were able to earn another $100 total for an hour hit. These opportunities prevented us from spending too much on this tournament and allowed us to not stress too much!
On Thursday, we faced a 16yr old junior player from the local club in Jackson, MS who partnered with a 15 yr old from Russia. As a result of facing a hometown girl, we had a large crowd of about 100 people. Although, no one was rooting for us. To make things more interesting, the wind was clocking in at 22mph with 41mph wind gusts. This made for some interesting tennis.
Despite the conditions, both of our games just clicked that day. We came out putting pressure on these girls, ending almost every point at the net. This was a type of pressure we could tell these younger girls had yet to face. Playing almost perfect tennis, we won the first set 6-2. Expecting these girls to adjust in the second set, we came out with the mid set that it was 0-0 and that we needed to keep the pressure. We succeeded at this goal, completely breaking these girls down. We ended up winning the match 6-2, 6-0. After the match, we were in agreeance that we had played our best tennis ever. Both of our games were “on” and we were complimenting each other so well. After this successful showing, we were ready to face the 2nd seeds on Thursday.
After the windy conditions on Wednesday, we were hoping Thursday would be better. Sadly, this was not the case. The wind was a consistent 25mph the entire match. In the round of 16, we faced the 2nd seeds from Serbia and Slovakia ranked 300 and 900.
These girls came out applying pressure on us which we were not prepared for. It was like rolls were reversed this match. Especially in the wind, it made it hard for us to counter and keep the ball away from the net person. The points were very unconventional and it was very difficult to have a strategy due to the conditions. We lost the first set 3-6 and actually went down 0-3 in the second set pretty fast. After resetting and agreeing to just go back to the basics and not over complicate anything, we battled back to 4-5. We unfortunately fell short 4-6 in the second. In contrast to yesterday, we did not play our best tennis. We were better than these girls, however, we were outplayed that day.
Despite our loss, we needed to be happy about getting a first round win at a W35k and also about getting our first win of the year. This win would help us pick up 8 WTA points and also help us get ranked in the top 1,000. This tournament was a great way to kick off our streak of multiple tournaments. On Friday, we made the 9hr drive back home to Wesley Chapel and on Sunday we would hit the road to Boca Raton, FL.
Total Points Earned: 8
Price Breakdown
Hotel: $773.9
Gas: $73.5
Groceries + food: $150
Tournament Entry: $20 x 2 =$40
Total Cost: $1037.4
Total Earnings: $526
