This week has been quite the rollercoaster for me. First I was excited for my friend Heath’s birthday, he is a bit shy for birthday celebrations, but I didn’t care about that, I still wanted to show up and cheer him up. So I went to Midtown Club last Tuesday afternoon where he was playing and gave him a hug and a little card. As I was so happy to see him smile, I noticed coach Luis Brest saw me and I knew I couldn’t avoid him. Well I’ve been avoiding him in a way for the last 2-3 months.
The reason for that is because as I mentioned in my previous blog, Consistency is the bedrock of suddenly, my coach Luis Orellana, was the one who really transformed my game. I can’t say I improved thanks to Midtown.
So, if you don’t know, coach Luis Brest is the director of the high performance tennis group in Midtown and he has been wondering why I haven’t been coming as often as I used to. Well this time I had to come up with an excuse, and I am just not that great at lying, I am sure he could tell I was lying when he told me that he will contact my mom to talk further.
And that is what happened last Thursday, while I was at school, coach Luis Brest reached out to my mom, and they talked over the phone. She was honest with him about my new coach, named Luis too :), and that I just wasn’t very happy that I was not challenged at Midtown and was always playing in the group with kids at a lower level than me, where all my other friends were put in higher level groups. I could understand that 3 months ago, but not now, I have definitely improved.
Long story short, coach Luis Brest told my mom that he was happy for me but that he couldn’t keep me there because I had a private coach and that was not allowed in Midtown.
That day when my mom picked me up from school and gave me the news, I was so angry, I felt that after more than 4 years of going there I was just kicked out, because I wanted to improve my game and found a great private coach.
My mom has been talking to me for a while about Saviano tennis academy, and this time she felt the urge to make the move. She called right away and was told to bring me to the academy that same day before 4:45pm to start practice.
I was so excited and really happy to be among a group of kids with a very good level of tennis. I got a t-shirt from the academy and all in all, I was just grateful for how things turned around, here I was practicing tennis at one of the top academies in the country.
A surprising thing was that I saw a girl, named Sofia, who used to play in Midtown, she also made the move to a better academy. I just felt that I was not alone.
Well yesterday, I was supposed to play in a tournament in Brian Piccolo Park, and I was so looking forward to it, but when I arrived, I was told that it had to be cancelled because one of the kids withdrew at the last minute and there weren’t enough players, mmm bummer.
My face had such a disappointed look, that I started looking for another tournament this weekend, and I found the Greene school tournament in West Palm Beach. Right away my dad registered me without hesitation, we had to drive an hour to get there.
This morning I woke up excited, ready to have some good breakfast, and stretch. Daddy packed the cooler, chairs and we were all on our way around 8:30 am. We arrived around 9:40 am, and saw a bunch of kids warming up. It looks like most of the kids were from that private school, the Greene school, a very expensive school.
This is a very nice area, and just from the cars, you can tell these people are wealthy. We saw many Teslas, Mercedez Benz, Porsche, and even a Rolls Royce pulled over.
Onto my first match, I played against Brandon Greene. That was a good match, we had good rallies, and I did an amazing angle shot.I ended up winning 4-1 4-1. The next match I played against Jack Shea, and I won 4-0 4-0. I gotta say that his mom was very nice, while he was cooling off from his previous match, she told me she could warm up with me.
Then the finals came, and I had to play against Robert Torocsik. He is a UTR level 3, and much taller and bigger than me. So I knew I was going to be challenged, but I was ready to fight. First set, I ended up winning in a tie break 7-1. The second set, he won 7-5. I knew I had my last chance in this 10 point tie break. I wanted to win so badly, but I had to keep reminding myself to just play the point. I fought so hard and won the tie break 10-5.
I gotta give it to Robert, because he really gave me quite a fight. But it was all worth it, the long drive, waking up early. My parents were so happy and proud of me. And I was proud of myself too. We called my coach Luis Orellana, when we got in the car, and he was very happy for me. I just feel so blessed to have met him, and very hopeful of my new journey with him as my private coach and in the Saviano tennis academy.
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