I know that you're really upset about the last weekend right yeah there was a l5 or and
you lost first round right yes to who do you know the guy didn't know he didn't know him was he good
he wasn't he wasn't so he just had like an off day yeah what was the score it was 10 8
in the third i was super tie breaker again and so you lost another tight one that's like the
second one in a row that you lost yeah that was super close yeah it's three match points
alright listen you got to forget about that and here's another chance to play i guess a quality opponent
is another chance to prove yourself you already played him a couple of times
right here is another opportunity to get your confidence back yes all right so what you're going
to do now is go you're going to run every ball down you're not gonna watch the ball go by you
you're not gonna watch the drop shots bounce two or three times before you get to them you're gonna
fight like it's the last set you'll ever play that's how you have to treat the set you're gonna
fight to the max and you're gonna play aggressive high percentage tennis okay all right aggressive
high percentage tennis you're not gonna push but your are not gonna come out here and blast the ball like
a like a madman you're gonna play aggressive high percentage tennis and you're gonna fight
like you've never fought before okay and then let's just see what happens all right come on
a great hold safin that's the way to start a match very good
are you feeling good right yeah you just keep plugging away now
you're up a break get the insurance break right here yeah so play this game with
a lot of intensity yep you get two breaks you're looking good for the set okay come on keep going
it's all right it's all right it's not a bad play actually it's just the
missing one step there one step and he would have had a volley
okay safin and that's where the insurance break you know it's so great that you got the insurance
break now it doesn't hurt that bad to lose the serve but like he's starting to get a little
bit into a groove maybe you're hitting like now a period where your your momentum is going a little
bit down and don't let it keep going further like reverse it right away and let's get another break
okay all right but you're playing really well just keep keep doing what you're doing
okay let's see what happens now here's the big game 4-2 serving
he's playing better man he's improving he's moving better he is on the right path
great game safin that was absolutely humongous right there so now again just
like the other game fight really hard this game you can actually like be more aggressive like
take a little bit more chances now you know but really try to get this game so that uh
in the second set you can serve first okay yeah yeah and not only that but it's going to be a
lot less pressure trying to close the set out at 5-2 then at 5-3 right all right come on all right
it's all right shake it off right here come on
put it away
come on safin not a big fan of the between the legs but good job anyway come on stay with it
This is like by far the best i've seen you play i'm telling you all the stuff that we're working on
and i'm gonna list it all i don't think i'm just making this up number one like your toss was more
at 12. i was really working on that yeah there's more body engagement on the serve exactly what
we're working on you were very selective when to come in you also are moving a lot better
you're definitely moving a lot better you're lighter on your feet you seem stronger you're
recovering better there's more adjustment in your in your footwork so this the work that you put in
over the last what three months it's now coming to fruition it's now finally starting to show up like
it wasn't showing up before but now it's starting to show up like you you look like a better player
i can see your legs look a little bit wider they look like you build some leg muscle you're
hitting the ball strong and you're playing a lot better now remember the last match you played
against milan remember the amount of half-court forehands you missed yes the amount of forehands
you missed to the deuce court at least 10 or 12 probably more you know how many you missed
today how many almost none almost none not only that but you were hitting winners to that side
come on safin so there is an improvement there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that
you've improved tremendously in the last three months if you continue along this path you're
gonna continue to improve and and i know you lost a couple of tough matches over the past like three
four weeks but don't let that discourage you it's part of tennis you just keep plugging away i have
undeniable proof now after you've played this set you lost the milan the first time six three
you lost the second time six one today you beat him six three if you played a little bit better
you could have probably beat them six one yeah so there's undeniable proof that your level has
gone up okay i know you you're like obsessed with utr and stuff like that if i was you i wouldn't
be so much i haven't checked my utr okay good i wouldn't just yeah just don't care about it who
cares i know that colleges go after i know it's important all that's true but in the history of
tennis nobody's ever became a good player by thinking about his utr it's a new thing
you go the old school way that would be my recommendation but since you are so into utr like
this guy used to be 13 utr you just beat him so whatever your utr is now it's probably not correct
because there's a lot more potential in you that what your current level suggests
that's what i'm saying there's more potential in you that what your current results are showing so
now you tell me what your plan is for the next for the immediate future for the next few weeks what
are you doing what are you doing this weekend this weekend i'm playing battle of boca that's what is
that that's a men's open okay yeah prize money i guess yeah okay i'm trying to find as many usta
tournaments L five L fours that i can play in the junior juniors yeah okay but when i'm not
playing that i'm gonna be playing the men's open just getting match play you wanna play
every weekend yeah okay great this is awesome no weeks off no you gotta play a lot of matches yeah
and just keep going man and keep going don't give up i know sometimes it's hard tennis when you
start losing a lot you lose a lot of heartbreakers you feel like oh my god you know what like what
what is this all about why am i even doing this but you just got to stick with it don't
you feel good now like after today it feels good right it feels good to play like this and to win
so just keep going man you'll have you know you can play like this
you will play like this in a tournament too you'll put together matches like this or just keep going
and you're going to be fine all right so now here's the important the important talk that we
need to have i am a little bit worried about your future only because there's not a lot of time left
and so what do you want to do as far as august well i think regardless of what happens with
tennis scholarships i do want to start college in august okay you want to start college in
august and you would like to play tennis right i would love to play tennis yeah of course okay so
do you have a preference or where you want to go to school right now i have a list of like five
schools i'd love to get into and eventually i can make my way on the team what is that can you tell
me to fight there's fordham university in new york i don't know that one that they're division one
okay i've played a few of their players they had some close matches okay uh there's barry
university over here okay i know the division two but the top division two school yeah i know barry
barry is very strong yeah i'd love to go there okay there is obviously yale university that's
just my dream school education it's ivy league okay and i'd love to play for their team i know
someone plays for their team good friend of mine okay number four would be columbia university they
also have a tough tennis team really interesting it's cool but it's not ivy league right uh no
what conference are they're in i'm not sure but i know they're not ideally okay go
ahead that's number four by the way mario ancic went there really the croatian
guy that used to be top ten he was semi-finals wimbledon you know mario ancic yeah of course he
went to colombia and became a lawyer wow i didn't know that yeah did you know that he's a lawyer now
he got a law degree wow i believe it was at columbia but never never mind keep
going and number five would be a long shot but princeton princeton they're a super good school
okay uh that's ivy league correct have you applied to all these schools i have applied always
yeah i'm really happy about that because i think it's i told you that many many times
i think it's a mistake to to play just tennis right it's a waste of your life it's a waste of
your life yeah if you want to try to play tennis for a year after you're done with college by all
means go ahead but don't do it now man because you don't know you don't know what's going to happen
you don't know what's going to happen maybe you want to start work immediately after college
maybe you want to get law school medical school i don't know what you're going to
do with your life but to waste one year it's it's no prospect of you going on
no you're not going on tour man it's just too it's too much of a gap i don't want to like
kill your dreams but no you're right we need to be realistic if you are losing in the first
round of second round of men's open you're not going to do much better in the futures
and it's not any diss against your tennis like it's just that level is a little bit higher right
now and i'm not saying that what could happen if you continue to develop in this way four years
from now when you have like uh you know a couple hundred matches under your belt maybe then you
are good enough to play at futures and win a few matches but right now no you're two you're too
green right now you're too green you're a little bit too green like you're too inexperienced you're
gonna get eaten up at that level yeah so to waste the whole year i don't think it's smart