Mark THE Watson

Mark has a busy life. It’s full of school, tennis, friends, YouTube videos of tennis matches and Dude Perfect. He has a busy tournament schedule and plays about 15-17 tournaments a year. On top of it, he is an excellent student no matter whether he is doing virtual school or in person. 

As I am writing this post “in the past", Mark is in 6th grade here, finishing up his school year of mixed virtual and in person kind of schooling. To some extend, virtual has been easier for him as he is a self-motivated fast learner. He had so much free time at home that he could do more tennis, watch more matches and play with Pepper. It was also easier in terms of traveling for tournaments as he could usually be present in class while connecting to his school in the car.

So as a solid 12 year old Mark was playing the last 8 months of his 12s tennis career which means he could play a lot of high level tournaments. In May, Mark got a chance to play in Marietta, GA, at an L2 tournament. 

This is Mark and a few of his buddies on warm up day. 

Fortunately, we were able to stay with James and Michelle for some great company and comfortable beds. They came to see Mark play his singles match on Saturday. 

Mark had a tough first match against his friend from TN, Tylan Lamb. It was a great three set match, but Mark lost. After that he faced Ethan Hu, another one of his friends, who is a very crafty player and is pretty much a backboard. Mark lost as well which was pretty devastating to him as two strikes and you are out. 

To add to the injury, he and Joseph Lee lost their first doubles match 8:5. Very few tournaments are like that for Mark. But it happens. 

We still celebrated by going out for ice cream. 

One of the things Mark knows that will happen no matter the result of his tournaments is that he is going back to training.  Win or lose.

We have been trying to focus on playing at least one practice match on weeks when he is not in a tournament. 

Here is is playing with Brianna, his friend from CTP. 

Still loves hanging out with Pepper. And she adores him. 

The many faces of Mark who doesn’t love getting his pictures taken. 

“I am not playing a tournament this weekend"

Mark is a deacon at church and is months away from being a teacher and be allowed to go to our church dances...whenever they might happen.

Bow tie.

More pictures of Mark than anyone because he needs footage for his Instagram page @mark_the_watson.

Got to chill with Robert at the Hurricanes game! Quality father-son time!

Representing Team Dunlop no matter then sport. 

I had to share this beautiful Mother’s Day card Mark made for me! He is the sweetest kid!

Mark’s also in the school band, percussion extraordinaire. His favorite song was Careless Whisper...which he practiced over and over again up in the playroom playing the bells. 

AND he got glasses! Basically, all this technology use is not very helpful... I noticed that he was looking weirdly when reading something on the phone or book. Now he reads with glasses...when he remembers. Wow, he doesn’t even look like himself in this picture! 😆

And that was a quick update on Mark. 

Lyana.