Tennis Acumen

Evan King: World Team Tennis

In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed American Evan King at the Champaign Challenger tournament. Here is a part of that conversation:

Tennis Acumen: And you have played World Team Tennis. Tell me about that. I've never, never talked to a World Team Tennis player.

Evan King: That's a lot of fun. it brings a team aspect back. I will say one of the biggest things about tennis as an individual sport is that rarely when you practice with somebody, do you want the person that you're practicing with to get better. In World Team Tennis I'm practicing with my teammates. If they're playing well, the team does well, we do better. We win more matches, all that kind of stuff. If I'm playing a practice set against other pros out here, I want to beat them. I don't care how their practice goes because I want to do the best I can do. If they're playing well, they can potentially beat me. That's not good, you know what I mean?

 

 

Tennis Acumen: Yes, it's super interesting.

Evan King: So, World Team Tennis is less pressure filled, and it is really a break in the season because, yes, tennis is an individual sport. You want to be number one, individually. At World Team Tennis, you all are coming together, men and women, singles players, doubles players all have a common goal. We all try to help each other out for those two or three weeks to get better. And, I mean, it's fun. There's music, it's a faster pace because they only play up to five and they have no-ad scoring. They play lets. So, they do little things that make it a bit more exciting and more fun. Coming together for a common goal in what's usually an individualistic sport is a pretty special thing. Yeah, I think it's fun.

 

More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.

Tags: @EvanKingChicago

Aleks Vukic: A Life Outside of Tennis

In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed Australian Aleks Vukic at the Champaign Challenger tournament. Here is a part of that conversation:

Tennis Acumen: So, Aleks, when you have free time, how do you entertain yourself or feed yourself? On tour and off? you do a lot of reading, listen to music?

Aleks Vukic: At home in Australia, I'll just go out with mates, have dinner, see a different friend each day. When I'm on tour, it's a bit different. Depends on which one of my mates is out on tour that week. We’ll go and grab dinner. Then, I'll have some alone time towards the end of the day. I enjoy alone time. Surf some stuff on the internet and go to bed and do it again. My life is not entertaining when it comes to that. I really enjoy the simple things.

 

Tennis Acumen: How about music and TV shows?

Aleks Vukic: I like softer EDM (electronic dance music). Hayden James or something like that (Hayden James is an Australian DJ, songwriter and record producer from Sydney, Australia.) I like Aussie artists and more low-key music. I always look forward to Spotify when new music comes out, always try and give it a listen. I love music. I think it's a similar to food where it's like every day feeling something a little different. I listen to like Mumford and Sons some days, and it just depends on the mood.

 

Tennis Acumen: Favorite foods?

Aleks Vukic: When I go back home, my mom makes an unbelievable Spaghetti Bolognese, so I love that dish. I love pastas. I like a good burger as well.

 

Tennis Acumen: Now, if you're sitting at home and friends are coming over, what would you cook? What's your ‘go to’ meal?

Aleks Vukic: I'm not a great cook, so I probably wouldn't cook anything. I would. I probably just order pizza, to be honest, just straight up.

 

More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.

Tags: aleks.vukic, Vuki_SMASH23

Tommy Robredo - 3 Memorable Tournaments

PETE ZIEBRON

A few weeks short of his 40th Birthday, Tommy Robredo will retire from professional tennis in Barcelona this week.

Three events in his career stood out to me as I look back at the Spaniard's career.

Robredo plays Cincinnati 2006 - Photo credit: Karl Corbett

Masters Series Hamburg 2006

Robredo took full advantage of the fact that both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer withdrew from the Masters Series event in Hamburg in 2006.  Nadal defeated Federer in the Rome Final in five hours and five minutes in five sets the day before Hamburg was to begin.  In 2006, first round BYES did not exist for the top eight seeds and concurrently, some events staged a best of five final.

As a result, Robredo, ranked 12th at the time defeated world number sixteen Radek Stepanek 6-1 6-3 6-3 to win his lone Masters Series title.  Prior to the final, Robredo dropped just one set, the opening set in the second round to Florent Serra of France.  He also defeated Mario Ancic in the semis and David Ferrer in the quarterfinals.

Roland Garros 2013

At the French Open in 2013, Tommy Robredo won three consecutive matches after trailing two sets to love!  Following a straight set win in the opening round over Jurgen Zopp of Estonia, Robredo dropped the first two sets in his second match against Igor Sljsling of the Netherlands before storming back and losing just five games to claim a 6-7 4-6 6-3 6-1 6-1 victory.

In the third round, Gael Monfils of France pocketed the first two sets when Robredo steadied his game to win 2-6 6-7 6-2 7-6 6-2 to advance to the round of sixteen.  Here, countryman Nicolas Almagro would again take a two sets to love lead before Tommy Robredo would ultimately prevail 6-7 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.

Reaching the quarterfinals, Robredo had little left as world number five David Ferrer rolled to the semis with a 6-2 6-1 6-1 victory.

Cincinnati 2013

Later in 2013, I would witness a match that featured extended rally after extended rally on Court 9 , the sunken court in Cincinnati.

As I headed to the Robredo- Stan Wawrinka second round match, an announcement was broadcast in the press box that Marion Bartoli's press conference would be starting soon.  Odd, I thought, Bartoli lost her match earlier today.  Yes, she won Wimbledon a few weeks prior.

The evening match between Robredo and Wawrinka went back and forth and the Swiss saved seven of ten break points against.  The final scoreline was 7-5 3-6 6-3 in favor of Robredo.  

The match was especially memorable for me due to the high caliber of play as well as the magnificent setting of Court 9 (the old Court 3) in Cincinnati.  Those that have been fortunate to watch matches on this court know how truly special it is from a tennis perspective.  Ironically, Marion Bartoli's press conference was to announce that she was retiring form professional tennis immediately.

Tommy Robredo is a Wild Card at the ATP Barcelona 500 this week.  His opponent is a yet to be determined Qualifier.

 

 

 

Aleks Vukic: Getting Started

In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed Australian Aleks Vukic at the Champaign Challenger tournament.

Here is a part of that conversation:

Tennis Acumen: All right, we're rolling. Nov. 16, Tennis Acumen in Champaign, Illinois at the 2021 Challenger event. With Aleks Vukic, from Australia. Aleks, one of the things our readers always want to know is how you got started in tennis. Tell me about that. When did you first discover the game?

Aleks Vukic: My brother, is six and a half years older than me, so he was playing and I was just picking up balls. He started when he was 11, so I must have been four and a half. And yeah, that's how I got into it. It was basically because of him. My parents didn't play any sports. He started playing and then I followed suit.

 

 

Tennis Acumen: When did you discover you loved it?

Aleks Vukic: Truly loved it? Probably when I got to college. I always liked it. Once I got to college, I really loved it, and that love grows every year I play. It started off slow because I was playing both tennis and soccer until 13. Only tennis now. 

 

 

Tennis Acumen: And how did you end up at the University of Illinois growing up in Sydney, Australia?

Aleks Vukic: I was in Florida playing a Futures tournament, and I was up against Jared Hiltzik. I played him and Brad Dancer, the coach here (at the University of Illinois) saw me. He said: “If you're interested in playing tennis at college, let us know.” After a few months on the pro tour, I realized I was not ready for it. I made the rounds at a few colleges and decided to come here.

 

 

Tennis Acumen: For a lot of years, I was a professional drummer. My mom was a musician, and when she saw me heading in that direction, she said: “You can do this.” But she told me how hard it was going to be. Did anyone ever tell you how hard it was going to be playing professionally, running your own affairs and all of that? Or did you have to discover that on your own?

Aleks Vukic: They told me it was harder to do a nine to five job. They said: “You would like this more.” And I said: “Fair enough.” I think you do a nine to five or something you don't really like, it's just too much. My parents kept telling me I just wouldn't like it and my parents know me best. So I trusted them.

 

 

More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.

 

Tags: aleks.vukic, @aleks.vukic, Vuki_SMASH23

 

Evan King: Getting Started

In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed American Evan King at the Champaign Challenger tournament. Here is a part of that conversation:

Tennis Acumen: How did you get started playing tennis?

Evan King: For me, I was just born at a time when my dad was obsessed with the sport. Yeah, he was super, super into it. I've got an older brother who would take me around and just throw us balls, hit back and forth. I actually started playing a lot at the same club that Donald Young was playing at, as well. My brother's a little bit older than Donald. They grew up playing with each other and I was always around. So, I've been playing pretty much as long as I can remember. My family has videos and pictures of me as a toddler, just running around with a racket.

 

 

Tennis Acumen: So, it was a natural. When it came to going pro, did you get support from your family?

Evan King: Their big thing was for me to finish college, which I did. So, I graduated University of Michigan and then, after that, they supported me in terms of what I wanted to do. And as long as I had a degree, they thought it was worthwhile. And I had a good enough college career where it merited the ability to go pro.

 

 

Tennis Acumen: And so, they could see it was a reasonable thing to do.

Evan King: Yeah, for sure. So, they definitely had my back on it, which was awesome. And then pretty soon after, I was doing well enough where I was breaking even. I trained a lot at Michigan. I was a volunteer assistant when I wasn't on the road, I was teaching lessons there to pay for a lot of the stuff as well. So yeah, it was it was pretty cool.

 

More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.

Tags: @EvanKingChicago

 

Photo of the Day: Juan Martin del Potro

Delray Beach, Florida, Juan Martin del Potro.....

In 2016, following wrist surgery, the popular Argentine returned to tennis after 11 months.

He had surprising success, beating American Dennis Kudla, Aussie John-Patrick Smith and  Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, all in straight sets... . In his first semifinal since 2014, he fell to eventual champion Sam Querrey. Here. he signs an autograph for an appreciative fan.