Nothing beats waking up in the morning with the sun shinning on your face, knowing you get to spend the entire day playing tennis on the grounds at Indian Wells. The weather is picture perfect, day after day, with incredible views that make any hick up in the day seem worth it. Aleks and i are up and at it first thing in the morning every morning starting in the gym with some cardio to start the day. We then enjoy two session's out on court. Typically the first session with just me and her to work on things, and the second with one of the girls to play some points to implement the things we were working on. This event host's both Men and women over the two week period which means it's just as hectic as the Slams are so for the first few days all players are granted one practice on site and the second has to be played off. This tournament is very well organized and there are no problems at all in coordinating practices off site close by. Tennis enthusiasts flock from around the world to come watch this event making the atmosphere very enjoyable to be around. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt which is just yet another one of the amazing places we get to stay. It always makes you feel amazing when you get the privilege to stay at these amazing hotels. Makes us focus and work that much harder knowing how lucky we are.
A Woz was seeded 30th and drew Flipkens 2nd round. I had scouted her match before and was very confident in the match up between the two. Aleks had been playing great in practice and the match i watched had many unforced errors and was not a very high quality showing. I had full confidence in Aleks the day she played her and thought it would be a decent match and Aleks would pull through. Unfortunately, Flipkens decided to play some of her strongest tennis that day taking complete control of the match and dictating winning 6-1, 6-2. Aleks tried her best and simply struggled a bit to find her game. It's always tough for a player when they loose their timing a bit to feel 100% confident in their game, especially at this level when the stakes are so high, and my job as a coach to to help my player through the rough patches and guide her when it's smooth sailing. The main thing is that we both believe and dig deep and do our best to stay focused until it's back to clear sailing. Tennis is such a mental sport, and our minds have to be as stress free as possible to be able to allow ourselves to play free. I think it's important to have a proper balance and because We have been hitting a ton of balls and Miami isn't for another week and few days, after a tough loss like this, i feel it's important to have a coupe days to clear the mind to be able to keep the hunger. When you rest the mind, it's still very important to keep the body active so i prefer to do a little fitness always in the morning with her and then do some fun activities in the afternoon like site seeing to get the mind off the our everyday routine.
My time has run up and i must head to bed but i leave you with this, When times are tough and your not playing the level of tennis your capable of playing, just remember, your only as good as your worst day. If you can except this, and find the drive to want to improve upon your worst days, you will be that much closer to being the champion you deserve to be.
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