South Korea

The ITF World Tennis Tour schedule is definitely not a player friendly schedule. As a player who is prioritizing hard court tournaments, looking at the weekly tournament schedule can be a frightening place. For a given week, my only options may be Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Turkey, and China. Those are my options...

And these tournaments are almost never in the capital or a major city, but often in the countryside or a small town only a four hour bus ride away. They don’t make it easy for us broke players to compete regularly throughout the year. When I put together my schedule for the upcoming months, it was mandatory that I planned trips to locations that had multiple weeks of tournaments. I was deciding between heading to China or South Korea and ultimately chose three weeks in Korea.

This was going to be my first time anywhere in Asia, and I was feeling nervous. In Europe and other places I had traveled, English was plentiful, but I wasn't sure how much English would be spoken in South Korea, especially since I would be traveling to two smaller towns, Andong and Gimcheon. But once I arrived and was able to purchase my bus ticket, everything was super smooth. The apps in South Korea made ordering taxis, food, and translations incredibly simple. South Korea, and many other Asian countries, are definitely technologically advanced and make traveling very easy.

Week one, I was seeded in qualifying and received a bye in the first round. In the second round, I played a routine match, winning 6–3, 6–4. In the final round of qualifying, playing for a spot in the main draw, I had a very competitive match in front of me. I ended up splitting sets and pulled out the third-set tiebreaker 10–7.

Now advancing into my second singles main draw in my last three tournaments, I was set to play Shinzi Hazawa, a Japanese player ranked around 700 ATP. I was super pumped and mentally ready, knowing this was another great chance to earn my first ATP point.

I got down early in the match 2–4, but immediately broke back for 3–4. I held to tie it at 4–4, and at 30-all, he gave me two double faults and I had the lead at 5–4 with one more hold to win the set.

I held.

6–4.

I was feeling confident but knew I needed to stay present and continue to battle.

It was 2–2 in the second set, 30-all, and I did exactly what he had done to me. I double faulted twice in a row to give him a free break. He took control of the set, and we held serve the rest of the way, with him taking it 6–4.

Unfortunately, I was beginning to lose my serve a bit, and my level had dropped from the first set. He broke me in the first game of the third set and began to heat up. His level of tennis rose, and he started dictating the match on his terms. I didn’t have an answer. He took the third set 6–1.

After winning the first set, I should have been filled with confidence and allowed myself to play loose and worry-free, but I played passive. I’ve realized that I do have the level to compete with guys like this, but I need to be able to maintain that level throughout the entire match. I can’t allow dips and sloppy games to change the trajectory of the match. I have to find ways, mentally and physically, to not let my level drop. This is the next step for me.

Week two, I cruised through my first two rounds of qualifying, winning 6–0, 6–0 and 6–1, 6–1.

Playing in brutal heat during the second match of the day, I faced another Japanese player for a spot in the main draw. I came out playing terribly, with my strongest shot, my backhand, making tons of errors. I lost the first set 6–3.

In the second set, I was scrapping together games. Down 0–40 and 15–40 in multiple service games, I continued to fight and pull out tough holds to stay in the match. Despite playing poorly, I found myself with a set point, up 5–4, 40–30 on his serve. We played a tough point, but he pulled it out and held.

5–5.

6–5.

6–6.

I fell behind in the tiebreaker 3–6.

4–6.

5–6.

6–6.

6–7.

7–7.

7–8.

7–9.

Ahhhh...

I dumped a backhand volley on match point—another error that still makes me sick to my stomach. But that's how it goes. This match was super winnable for me, and I walked away extremely frustrated with my level.

Sometimes during the second match of the day, or after a really long match, especially in the heat, your body becomes physically exhausted without you realizing it. I was making errors on my backhand and barely missing serves, probably because I had a little less power in my legs, and I failed to realize it was causing the inconsistency in my shots. It's something I need to recognize earlier. Even something as simple as reminding myself to use a little more knee bend on my serve could help compensate for the fatigue. Not an excuse, just another lesson learned.

The third and final week, I faced a tough South Korean player in the first round of qualifying. He plays at Vanderbilt and is a great player but didn't have any ITF points yet, so he was unseeded. He beat me handily 6–1, 6–1, bringing my run in Korea to an end. I was battling some yips in my game and was never able to establish myself in the match.

Out of the three weeks, I had three different results, but making the main draw one of the weeks was a success. Grinding through three qualifying matches every week is not easy, and I have to be proud of winning as many matches as I did.

Besides tennis, I really enjoyed my time in South Korea. I made a few new friends from Japan. We practiced hard, explored some of the bigger cities, and ate sooo much Korean barbecue. Like... every night. Sooo good.

I'm not sure how Koreans have such amazing skin and cosmetics when they're eating oily Korean BBQ all the time.

I also ate rice and meat for almost every meal, including breakfast from 7-Eleven, which definitely felt a little odd.

Another important note if you ever visit: pedestrians definitely don't have the right of way! Cars really don't stop, and I almost got hit a few times before I started proceeding with a little more caution.

Before flying home, I was able to spend a day exploring Seoul with my new friends before my 11-hour flight back to the States.

Next week, I will compete with my dad in the Father-Son U.S. National Championships in Claremont, California. This will be the first time we've ever shared the same side of the court. I haven't been this excited for a tournament in a long time, and we will be on a quest to win the prestigious first-place trophy, a Gold Ball!

→ Update: We got it!