Hi everyone. It was a little bit of a rough day yesterday. I lost my second round singles match 6-4, 6-2, but won my doubles match 6-3, 6-1. I’m starting to think I might be more of a doubles specialist. I am now sitting around here in Joplin waiting for the doubles final tonight.

My singles match yesterday was a grind. I played a guy who did not give me any free points. It was the type of match where I had to stay extremely focused on every point and not let up in order to pull out the win. It was a very weird match where I started out on fire winning the first 15 points. I don’t think that has ever happened to me before. I was up 3-0 love-40 on his serve. I also had more chances in the first set being up 4-2 with game points to go up 5-2. Things were almost going too well in the beginning that you almost knew things were going to let up, whether it was him stepping it up a little or my level dropping some. It was a very frustrating and tiring match both physically and mentally. The guy (Matej Bocko) is a very solid player who never beats himself. In order to beat a guy like him, you need to stay extremely focused for every point in the match. Staying focused is something that is so important against the good players because that loss of focus can cause a let down, which a good player is going to sense. Once he senses that let down he will take advantage and never let you back in the match. That is exactly what happened to me yesterday. It is pretty funny to think that you work so hard off the court so that physcially you feel great playing a long match in 90 degree heat, but yesterday I was tired mentally trying to stay focused and regain that focus during the match.

It was definitely a very frustrating match, but for the start of my career, it was another learning experience. Every one of these matches right now are experiences that if I take the right perspective from them it will help me mature as a player in the long run. I am looking forward to the doubles final tonight and hope for a good result. That is all for now.

CP

GEM Tennis: After writing this post Cory went on to win his FOURTH USTA Pro Circuit Doubles title! Cory and his partner Todd Paul defeated fourth seeded Diaz-Barriga/Poole 6-1, 6-2 in the final.