This year Mark had another amazing opportunity--to play Hard Court Championships in Alabama. This was his last opportunity to play Boys 12s before starting to transition to Boys 14s.
We again decided to fly with Mark and because there was no convenient way to make it inexpensive, we chose to fly to Pensacola, borrow the Webers' car for a few days, and then fly out of Fort Walton Beach on the way back. It was a brilliant idea and it worked out beautifully at the end!
This was the check-in day. The boys all got a nice bag with some swag and coupons for food and free lunches. The tournament site had a LOT of courts but if the USTA National Campus was spread out, this place was crammed. Still, they had a pretty nice set up there (minus the parking).
In the mornings, before the very first matches, the kids are all greeted from the loud speakers and then they all walked up to their courts to the sound of "Sweet Caroline". It was actually pretty cool!
Mark had a very tough first match, three sets, but he pulled out a win over a boy with a higher UTR (universal tennis rating) than his.
Mobile was super hot. Extremely hot. That's Mark with his cooling towel on with ice and eating an apple sauce.
Towards the evening, he and Joseph Lee played doubles which was a two set match here. Unfortunately, although their match was close, they lost.
Mark spent some time in the shade, playing ping pong with the Babolat rep (who knows Cameron, Mark's coach). A bunch of boys were hanging out together here, playing games and spinning the prize wheel. Looks like no one cares about COVID-19 around here, right? That's one thing that was making me nervous with all the crowds and players and traveling...
Mark played another match the following day but, somehow, couldn't get around the opponent. The kid really knew how to push Mark's buttons and figured out how to beat Mark by not letting him play his game. Smart. Annoying though;). It was not a pleasant match, but such is tennis.
We drove around a bit as I was trying to find pretty places in the area. I probably took wrong turns as we didn't get anywhere fabulous.
Mark also lost his third match against a very high quality player on the following day. It was a good match but Mark was mentally too defeated, so it was tough.
I did drag him to Downtown Mobile for some beignets but that didn't sweeten the mood...
Mark had one last shot at getting some points from his fourth match. He played really well and yet lost again.
He definitely was better emotionally and kept his cool. It was also an umpired match, so that was pretty awesome.
And he received a sportsmanship token after this match.
Four matches was all Mark got as if he had won this last match, he could have kept going. It's all right! He gained invaluable experience and learned a ton. It was an amazing opportunity that he even could go to such a high level tournament. I hear we better get used to it as he is climbing his way up the rankings. This kid has loads of work to do but he is ready for it and ready to be patient with the road ahead.
Till next time! Hoping he gets into the National Champs in Mobile next year for the 14s!
Lyana.
P.S. We headed to Fort Walton Beach after the tournament, but that's a story for another blog post.
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