It’s my Dad’s birthday and he’s 60. He has influenced me in every way possible (my mum too) and I’ve learned so much from him. If I’m standing next to my dad, everyone says that were twins in how we look and how we act. Honestly, I don’t see either. But, I believe it, because we get along so well. Happy to have him in my life.

While on the subject of family, my sister Hannah “hanzros” Rosen just moved to California. Sneaky massive moves from the baby bro. Damn.

I played my first match yesterday at Illinois and lost, but I’m proud of how I played. I went 3 sets with a very accomplished player, and I could have played better which is the motivating part for me! But wow, he is impressive. I’ll break down the match day because it was TENSE.

Ok so I’m supposed to play at 10. I hit with a player from China at 9 to warm up. I tested out my Chinese (Shoutout to Bates and Yang Laoshi) with a sentence or two, and he politely told me to shut up and speak english.

At 10, it looks like it’s bouta absolutely downpour. We ended up going out and coming right back in. Did the same thing once more. And then started the match indoors, which was a change of pace (literally), but I kinda liked it. Oh wait, my opponent liked it even more.

If a match recap is boring for ya, just skip the next paragraph and go to the videos where I’m absolutely pounding the tennis ball in my match yesteday 🙂

First Set.There’s not much to say about the first set because the sample size of points was rather small. He came about absolutely firing. Unbelievable tennis from him, and I held serve once. I think the first set took like 20 minutes which isn’t good. Second Set. Ok now were talking. I start to hold my serve, and I’m getting used to the pace of his shots, but I’m still not touching his serve. I was losing 3-5 and saved a couple of match points on my serve. He was serving for the match and played some loose points. Very uncharacteristic of him, and it gave me an opportunity in the match for the first time. I broke him, held my serve, and won the tiebreaker. Third Set. Same scenario as seven days ago, I was winning the opening game of the final set 40-15, and I got broken. Not good. He used that momentum well, and he steam rolled me in the final set.

I played well. Really well. I used all the tools I’ve learned over the past few weeks with Horacio. My serve was explosive and my forehand was like a whip. And my backhand was how I like my sushi: aggressive and rock solid. I didn’t keep up these new skills the whole match, but I really did well. I just relaxed my footwork at times and it got me in trouble.

Horacio is leaving for Florida now and I am staying in Illinois for two more tournaments. It’s a given that he helped my tennis (I’ve talked a lot about this), but on the road he’s taught me how to conduct myself at these tournaments especially with preparation and mentality.

Horacio and I ate dinner at the same Japanese restaurant four days in a row. Last night, they gave us 3 appetizers on the house. It was actually really fun.

I think I’ve found a theme song for this post, my mentality and possibly, this entire blog. I can’t stop playing this song. Sometimes I take the lyrics in a song, purposely take it out of context, and make it meaningful to myself. But with that being said, sometimes looking too closely is something that I wish I did less of in my life.