Falun
I ended my almost 6 week long sweep of tournaments with second round loss in Falun, Sweden, this past Wednesday.
Once again, the Swedish Tennis association was kind enough to award me a wild card to the main draw. In contrast to the tournament in Gothenburg the week before, I did not have to play a seeded player in the first round. Instead, I played my good friend Ekman who I actually shared a hotel room with over there. When we played this past summer he won in straight sets, but this time, I managed to win 6-3, 7-6 in a match were I played, and in particularly served, well.
In the second round on Wednesday aganist Brunström, another Swede, I was nowhere close of repeating my performance from my match against Ekman. I lost the first set 0-6 after playing tentatively and making way to many errors. In the second set I reached a reasonable level at least, but Brunström was stronger in the very last part of the set and won 7-5.
Over all, the tournament in Falun was quite successfull. I played one good match and picked up another ATP ranking point putting the total number of points at 6 which will give me a ranking between 1000 and 1100 when it updates this coming week.
I also played doubles in Falun, this time with Öhrvall. We grew playing tennis together in the northenmost part of Sweden. We had a good tournament together winning the first round before loosing in a close match to the second seeds.
Right now I am Gothenburg where I'll be training, studying and help out with arranging the Davis Cup tie between Sweden and USA this coming weekend.
Updates from Finland and Gothenburg
Unfortunately I lost the quarterfinal in Vierumäki last week. Paukko, my opponent from Finland, was simply too tough for me that day. I had some good chances to come back in the second set but he won 6-2, 6-4.
I left along with my travelling partner David to Helsinki the same day (Friday) and we managed to catch a direct flight back to Gothenburg.
The qualifying to Gothenburgs $15 000 tournament started on Saturday at Ullevi TK, my new club. The Swedish tennis association awarded me a wild card to the main draw, so for once, I did not have to pass qualies to make the main draw. Not playing qualies gave me an opportunity to adjust to playing indoors on hardcourt, which is quite differerent from playing outdoors on clay.
In doubles, I teamed up with Stotland, a very skilled player in doubles who played college tennis at New Mexico. We played a fairly good match, especially considering we've never player before, but our opponents were tough and beet us 7-5, 6-4.
On Tuesday, I played the first round of the singles tournament. I couln't keep my streak of winning five straight first round matches in the main draw. I lost to Ryderstedt, the number one seed ranked 257 in the world, 7-6, 4-6, 4-6 in a close match. Although I lost, it was a step forward for me. The matched showed to me that at least on a good day, I can keep up with players ranked way ahead of me.
I am writing this post in of the computer labs at Gothenburg University, right after finishing my first class as student at a Swedish university. The lecture in Economics was quite interesting and I am looking forward to the rest of the semester.
I am putting my tennis game first this semester which means that I will miss a considerable amount of classes. It will be a challange to deal with, but I hope my experiences and knowledges gained from being a student-athlete for four years will prove to be sufficient.
The same night as I came back from Finland, I moved into my new "apartment", located in Guldheden, about 1 mile from the city center. Considering the it's almost impossible to find a place to live at all, I am happy with what I have. The location is great which allows me to get around in Gothenburg conviniently and fast with the trams.
On Friday, I am taking off for Falun, located about 5-6 hours north of Gothenburg by train, for another $15 000 tournament. It will be the last tournament I will play for a few weeks as I will stay in Gothenburg to train, study and get settled in my new city. Having 5 ATP-points (international ranking points), my ranking will be somewhere around 1100 when it updates after the US-open.
As soon as I will get my new camera from the insurance company (the old one was stolen in Lithuania), I am going to take some pictures and put up on the blog.
Take care
