© Parsa Samii

Hey everyone. It’s been a while since my last blog entry. Right now, I’m in Charlottesville, Virginia for a $50,000 Challenger event. This tournament is a step up from what I’ve been competing in the past couple of months. This is a really tough tournament with a lot of great players, including two top 100 world ranked players. I traveled to Virginia with my doubles partner Todd Paul. Since our rankings aren’t high enough we had both had to play the qualifying tournament to get into the main draw of the event. I played three really tough matches to qualify, fighting hard to win all in three sets and even saving a match point in my qualifying match against a tough player from Romania, Catalin Gard. In Challengers, it’s really nice because you gets ATP points when you qualify, as in futures you dont get any points when you qualify and only get 1 point for winning your first round. Also, Todd and I were fortunate to get a Wildcard into the main draw of doubles because of the success we’ve been having together.

In the first round of singles I played Scoville Jenkins. It was a really tough match that I lost 6-1, 5-7, 6-3. It was definitely a huge adjustment playing a guy like Scoville because he hits the ball so hard, and to be honest I was not used to the pace. That really showed in the first set where I lost 6-1. However, in the second set I started getting used to the pace of his ball and I started to feel more comftroable stepping up on the baseline to dictate more. That was a match where I had to focus extremely hard because any opening that you gave him he would step in and take advantage of his opportunity. It was definitely a different match than I am used to playing, but it was good for me to show myself that I am able to play with these guys. So much about playing with these guys is fighting hard and believing that you belong on the court with them. You can really tell the difference being at a challenger than at a future by how these players act both on and off the court. You can just sense this serious confidence that everyone here has about themselves and their tennis. Being here you can tell that these guys are on a mission to do whatever it takes to be successful. I think that this is something that is very good for me to see and understand this early in my career.

In doubles, Todd and I had a really good win taking out the number one seeds Treat Huey and Harsh Mankad. I thought that Todd and I played a really good and solid match. The team that we played has been having a lot of sucess together, winning a few challenger events in the past. This was also a good match for us to see how good we are together as a team. Treat Huey is ranked 160 in the world in doubles and Harsh Mankad is 103. So it is nice to see that we are able to play with and even beat players at this level. Our next doubles match is tonight against Donald Young and Kevin Anderson. Hopefully, we’ll be able to play well and pull out another win. That is all for now.

CP

Current ATP Rank Singles: 911

Current ATP Rank Doubles: 433

For the tournament draw sheet click HERE.

If you have any questions or if you’re interested in working with Cory Parr email GEM Tennis.