Rocky had a great start to the 2nd half of the season…2 tournaments and 2 finals. He had one win and one 2nd, to Kane. I know being home for the holidays and getting time with the family and time to rest was a key component in such a strong start.
The first weekend in January, Rocky was in his home town of So. CA and performed well, beating Alvaro Beltran in the semi finals in a tie-breaker to advance to the finals. When he showed up on Sunday to play the finals against Kane he showed up to play. It was a well played match with Rocky taking the 1st and 4th games and Kane taking the 2nd and 3rd games. It was back and forth in the 5th game with Kane squeaking out an 11-8 victory. This is the 1st time in 2 years Kane was pushed to a tie-breaker and once again it was Rocky.
Just four days later, the second weekend in January, Rocky was back on the road heading to NY for another Tier 1 tournament. Rocky and I were quite concerned how he would play as he caught the flu from his wife and instead of being on the court practicing he was in bed until Thursday when he left for NY. Thank goodness for visualization and videos as that is all Rocky could do. The toughest match of the tournament was playing Chris in the semi-finals. It was truly a barn burner as Rocky was down 2 games to 1 and in the 4th game Chris was serving for the match at 10-9. Chris went for a crack ace to win the match and Chris thought he got it, but it was called short by the ref ( a controversial call, but the HEAD Instant Replay cam proved the call correct.) Rocky got the serve back and tied the game 10-10 and eventually won the game 12-10, to force a 5th. It was all Rocky in the 5th, winning 11-5. Rocky then played Jose Rojas in the finals who beat both Ben Croft and Alvaro Beltran in tie-breakers to make the finals. Rocky played his best on Sunday and beat Jose in 3 straight games to get his 2nd tour victory this season.
Rocky is now preparing for National Doubles as he will be defending his title with Ben Croft Valentine’s Day weekend at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
Paola has her first Tier 1 tournament to start off the 2nd half of the season the last weekend in January 25-27, 2013 in OH and then in mid-February she will have the Mexican National Championships in both singles and doubles which determines the 2013 Mexican National Team.
