Welcome to our Adventures

Recent UC Banana Slug graduates Colin Mark-Griffin and Marc Vartabedian are going to France to compete against the best tennis players France has to offer

As Banana Slugs, we led our team to two DIII NCAA National Championships and are ready to take our skills to the next level

Here is a map to follow us:
- green tent = current location , red = completed, blue = upcoming


View Tournament Locations in a larger map

Cheers

Friday, August 13, 2010

Barneville-Carteret Tourny





This tourny started the very next morning after the Coutainville tourny ended, so we got about six hours of sleep before we caught a ride about one hour north. Varta woke up and said to me, "I feel like i got beat by a bat repeatedly last night" and could barely move around the court to warm up. He ended up pulling out to rest his back and arm, after about a week in a row of matches.

I played my first round match at noon, against a 3/6 player (one ranking below me) and beat him in straight sets. The guy had a good forehand, but looked nervous to play me or something. I won 6-2, 6-2 and really worked on my game. Figured out my backhand return finally, just starting thinking about how Agassi hits his with a big shoulder turn (and yea, didnt exactly look like agassi but atleast it went in). Next round I played the same guy who beat Varti and I in the Coutainville to win!! His name is Cyril Contil.

I played so much better this time, and had a great match. Just yesterday he beat me 6-2, 6-3 so i was determined to play better. He came out strong, and I was still not steppin into my balls enough. He got an early break at 2-2 and won the first set 6-3. I decided to start moving into the court more and abandon my open stance forehands, and really took the second set by storm. I broke at 1-0, and started hitting winners and big serves. I took the second by breaking to win 6-2, and ended with a string of 2 backhand cross-court winners that were HUGGEE.

In the third, we were neck-and-neck for the first half hour. We each were holding serve, and exchanging big groundstrokes. I finally broke through at 4-3 to break after a great returning game, and finished some solid points at net. At 5-3, i had my chance to serve it out! I got down early 0-30, and ended up down 15-40. I hit two big serves to get it back to duece, and after four dueces, he finally broke me and i lost in the third 7-5. Dissapointing, but Im playing better and better.

Our Normandy tour is over and were starting a 24 hour trip down to the South of France right now. We both have found our games, and are ready to do some work on the Mediteranean.

No comments:

Post a Comment