Rocky walked away with the first ROLLOUT New Jersey Open Championship by beating Alvaro Beltran in an exciting 5 game match….7, 3, (5), (9), 8. It was a white knuckle match for me, the coach, because Rocky won the first 2 games and he was in complete control of the match and looked like he’d win it in 3 games. The champion that Alvaro is, dug deep and pulled out the next 2 games bringing it to a 5th and deciding game. It was back and forth until Rocky went up to a 7-3 lead, but then Alvaro had some great shots and got hot and went up 7-8….nerve racking. Rocky came up with 3 great serves at the end to force a few weak returns by Alvaro that Rocky capitalized on and he won it 11-8….what a relief. This was a sweet victory for Rocky as the last few times he played Alvaro, Rocky lost.
We have really worked hard on tweaking a few things in Rocky’s game physically so he would be more consistent on a few shots, and mentally we looked back over the previous matches where Rocky beat Alvaro and came up with a solid game plan. I believe BOTH these things we worked on over the past month helped Rocky play more consistent and with more confidence, two key components needed to win.
Rocky will be home for the holidays and will take only a little time off as right after the New Year, the first weekend in January, is the first Tier 1 event to start off the 2nd half of the season.
We want to wish you and your families a VERY Happy Holiday Season from Rocky, Paola, myself and my whole “Championship Team”. Enjoy!
