As tears ran down my face from having to leave Sunny California, I only found them drying up just as fast due to the outrageous heat in Cincinnati. If you could get over the unbearable heat, Cincinnati is a great place. There were many complaints about the reason behind why we were staying in the farm land which was closer to the site rather then staying in the city where there were things to do? I actually loved the fact that we stayed where we stayed. It felt as if we were at the cottage.

We have typically been going out for nice dinners the past several months, however this week it had all changed. As we pulled up to the Marriott I noticed in a distance the wonderful Mexican/American food chain Chipotle. I’m not much of a fan for really spicy foods but the chicken bowl is on fire, and in a good way. This instantly made my week that much more enjoyable and I’m assuming Aleks for that matter seeing how she seemed to love her 3 soft chicken taco’s. How you got more guacamole then me everyday still puzzles me Aleks?

Eating is not all we did, believe or not and this being our third tournament back on the road now, we were pretty on track with what our goals were during practice. We had a couple very positive tough loses and have been determined to improve in those area’s. Aleks really came through with some solid work in practice and was really in control of her emotions. This area is the most important area I can recommend any young female tennis player to focus on mastering. You can be most gifted player in the world but without composure and control of your own thoughts, you run a risk of never getting a chance to find out what your true potential really is. This is a general statement I might add as I am referring too all the girls on tour in the top 100 excluding the top 10.

Aleks was able to have a very solid short but sweet run this week. She knocked off Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, a very solid baseliner with heavy top spin who loves to move the ball around. The focus and composure Aleks showed me in our warm up only told me that this was going to be a confident day and it was all business. This is completely random but I just want to say, “Business in the front and party in the back”. As I stood correctly, Aleks only needed 23 min to close out the first set 6-0 and go up a quick 2-0. She was playing very simple but confident tennis, a ton of racquet speed allowing her the freedom to play early and out in front which ultimately meant dictating play. Navarro had managed to fight back to 2-2 only to find herself under attack again by Aleks overpowering ground strokes and now introducing her ability to pick floating balls out of the air and hit winners off a volley taking the second set convincingly at 6-3.( A very very important part of the game to learn my friends)

Aleks faced her stunt double, Caroline Wozniacki again. We all remember the three set battle they had in the semies of Eastbourne in England. The first game of this match was a deuce add deuce add battle that resulted in Aleks’s serve being broken only to follow it up by a hold of serve and another break. Aleks did not let this bother her and instead used it to motivate her to play better. She was able to rid herself some of that beginning match jitters and was able to put her game together immediately now giving her a brilliant 6-4 first set. The second set was in Aleks’s hands but Caroline found a way to play a couple more solid pressure less points towards the end of the second resulting in a 6-4 win for Wozniacki. The girls found themselves in another third set grind only this time in the heat that basically say’s, “I own you I’m so hot”. They both started off swinging and played some great tennis, 1-1 then 2-2 then 3-3 but that’s when Caroline was able to string a couple more solid points together and gain some momentum of confidence winning herself the third set 6-4. Aleks was right in the whole match and it came down to a couple key points which made the difference in this match. She took a lot of confidence from this match and is now very confident for the Rogers Cup in Toronto next week leading into the big apple for the U.S Open.

Oh, we got a chance to go to Paramount King’s Island, an amusement park full of thrill seeking roller coasters. We ended up meeting up with a couple of other girls and their coaches and had a ton of fun. I’m not even going to pretend for a second that I wasn’t scared a bit when we went on drop zone. That ride is such a rush and as quickly as I felt like a badass for going on it, I look all around and there are kids the age of 11 not even strapping themselves in, that’s how bad ass they were ha-ha, could you imagine?!? So our last day in Cincinnati was full of emotions and has come to an end. We are now heading back to home soil to get ready for the Rogers Cup. If you see me with my camera filming please feel free to come up and say hi. Next time you might just be watching yourself in some of the video’s ;) or is this reason because I just don’t have any friends?

Stay tuned…