Tennis

As the boys' tennis season comes to a close this week, I am going to dedicate a blog post to my experience with tennis.

I started playing tennis the summer of 2014. I had played tennis in the past, here and there, but I had never really seriously put a lot of time into it. My goal was to be a part of the Loveland High School tennis team the following school year.

 

Since I had lots of free time in the summer, I decided to sign up for a tennis clinic 3 times a week, with high school students. Then, I eventually switched to private lessons with a coach, with whom I have been practicing for several months now.

 

When Semester 2 of school started, I tried out for the team, and made the JV. The start of our season was delayed due to weather conditions. In fact, we even practiced during hail once, with everyone wearing a jacket or some sort of warm clothing. Despite these setbacks, we did manage to get started with the season, our first match being against Elder, but this pushed our season's matches tighter together, which didn't allow for that many practices. In total, we played 18 matches, and won half with a result of 9 - 9. My personal record at the end of the season is 5 - 5 - 1 (I tied a match Set one: TB lost 4-7, Set two: TB won 7-4, and then it rained).

 

The coaches established a tennis ladder ranking for the 11 players in our team, and I was number 9. Due to the tight match schedule, we had few team practices during the season, so I didn't really have the opportunity to challenge my way upward in the ladder, but I hope to be higher up next year, at least in the top 7 players, which are the ones who play the most often.

 

  

I think a really cool thing about the team this year was that the JV "home" courts were actually the practice courts at the ATP stadium in Mason, where the Western & Southern Open international tournament is played every year. It's a really cool feeling to know that you're playing high school JV tennis on the same courts that Roger Federer warms up on!