Midwest Level 4 Champion

Congratulations to Jack Dabek, who won the Boys 12s Midwest Level 4 last weekend in Perrysburg.  Jack was down 3-9 in the 3rd set tiebreaker in the 2nd round, and went on to win the next 8 points, and then his next 3 matches.

At the Boys 14s level 4 in Cincinnati, Rohith Koneru won 2 rounds in the front draw, and split sets with the 1 seed, Nick Williams.
Jonathan Zhuravel won 3 rounds and defeated the 3rd seed.

Connor Biernat won 2 rounds at the Boys 14s Midwest Designated tournament in Toledo.

At the Girls 16s Midwest Designated in Midland, Caitlyn Merzbacher won 2 rounds in the front draw and split sets with former National Champion Lauren Goodman.

At the Girls 18s Midwest Designated in Grand Blanc, Ashley Thai won 2 rounds and defeated the 7 seed Meika Ashby.

Tournament Champion

Congratulations to Temidayo Dairo for winning his 1st tournament over the weekend.  He won the Boys 14s in Chillicothe.

Racquet Club Girls Tournament

The Racquet Club of Columbus hosted a Girls 12s and 14s tournament over the holiday weekend.
Ashley Weeks was the Girls 14s champion.
Nicole Holman reached the finals of the 14s.
Angela Li was a finalist in the Girls 12s.

Thanksgiving Midwest Tournament

There was a Midwest Level 5 tournament over the weekend in Michigan.
Connor Biernat won the Boys 14s Doubles with Andrew Pregel.
Madison Spiess and Arya Dudipala reached the Girls 10s Consolation finals with Madison winning.
Neha Dudipala won the Girls 12s Consolation Final.

Thanksgiving Doubles Pie Tournament

The Annual Doubles Pie Tournament was held on Wednesday November 21st.  There were 4 divisions.
Congratulations to the pie winners:
C.J. Cash, Connor Biernat, Shuo Liu, Sarina Xie, Victoria Fan, Gordan Liu, Madison Spiess, and Shivam Patel.

Midwest Doubles Tournament

Congratulations to those who participated in the Midwest National Level 4 Doubles Tournament over the weekend.
Robert Cash and Jack Dabek made the Boys 14s finals.  Connor Biernat and Colten Clark won the Boys 14s Consolation.
Jeffrey Melvin and Nate Wallace reached the Boys 18s finals.
Caitlyn Merzbacher and Ellee Bullock reached the Girls 16s finals.
All 4 teams were unseeded and were 3-0 in 3 set matches.

Junior Mentorship Tournament

The Racquet Club held a Mentorship Tournament Saturday night.  This is an ongoing program in which Tournament Players from the Junior Program coach younger players on court as they play in a tournament.  There were 18 players in 3 flights and and 9 coaches.  Congratulations to the 10 and Under flight winners Anay Reddy and James Johnson, and the 12 and Under flight winner Alex Larzelere.  All the flights were very competitive.

2013 Midwest Tournament Schedule

2013 Midwest Tournament Schedule

USTA Regional Tournament Champion

Congratulations to Jack Dabek, who won the Boys 12s Doubles with J.J. Mercer at USTA Regional Tournament last weekend in Cincinnati.  They defeated the 2 seeds in the semifinals and won 8-6 in the final on Monday.

18s Team Tennis Nationals

The 18s Advanced team from the Racquet Club of Columbus competed at the Junior Team Tennis National Championships this past weekend.  The team was making their 3rd straight trip to Nationals.  There is an article on the USTA site about the team.
After the team lost a very exciting match to New Enland, the team won their last match against Southern to finish 7th.  They finished 2nd in their flight behind Florida.  The team competed against Florida, winning 2 out of 5 courts, and having the mixed doubles come down to a Match Tiebreaker.

Kelley Jiang and Caitlyn Merzbacher went undefeated, and won in girls doubles against a very strong Florida team, who won against the 1st placed Texas team.  Rachael Morales also went undefeated, coming back from a set down against Florida and Southern.  Rachael along with Ashley were on all 3 teams that went to Nationals.
Ryan Bibo improved in each match through the weekend, and made a big comeback against New England with CJ Cash to force a 3rd set, and also battled back to win key games against Southern.  CJ Cash also improved in each match in doubles and had a big win in singles in a Match Breaker against Southern.  Down 5-7 in the breaker, he won 5 straight points.
Ashley Thai and Jeffrey Melvin fought back from 5-2 down in the 2nd to force a Match Breaker against a strong Florida team, and won against Southern to clinch the victory.

14s Junior Team Tennis Nationals

The 14s Advanced team from the Racquet Club finished in the top 10 teams at Nationals in Cayce, South Carolina over the weekend.  The oldest boy on the Racquet Club team coached by Bryan Nibert is 12, and they won close matches against much older teams from Florida, Southern Cal, and Southern Sections.
Despite being injured, Erica Chen and Victoria Fan were undefeated in matches together. Colten Clark and Robert Cash were undefeated in doubles together.  Alexandra Cash and Jack Dabek were undefeated in the deciding matches and pulled 3 matches out against Southern, Florida and Southern Cal.  The team overcame an injury to Erica Chen, which gave up 12 games to Florida.  Robert Dong rocked a double bagel 6-0  6-0 against the Florida number one. Taylor Sprouse played brilliant second sets pulling out matches and keeping the team close.  Robert Cash came from 1-5 down against Southerns to win 7-3 in tiebreaker.  Players competed hard each match after losing to Pacific Northwest and Mid-Atlantic.
More info, photos and results are on the Nationals website.
Next weekend, the Racquet Club 18s team will be competing at Nationals.

OTCA State Championships

The OTCA State Championships were held Sunday.
Congratulations to Dublin Jerome and coach Tyler Stephen and Caitlyn Merzbacher.  They won the Division 1 championship for the 2nd straight year.  Jerome defeated Cincinnati Ursuline in the final 3-0.

In Division 2, Columbus Academy coached by Megan Martzolf finished 2nd, losing to Lexington.
Congratulations to the team, including Katherine Guan, Deepa Manda, Neela Nataraj and Annie Lavin.

State Championships

Congratulations to all of the girls who competed at the 2012 State Championships.

Caitlyn Merzbacher (Dublin Jerome) finished 4th in D1 Doubles with Ellee Bullock.  All 4 teams in the semis were from Columbus.

Ashley Thai (Hilliard Bradley) won 7-5 in the 3rd 1st round, and then lost to previous 2 time state champion Mehvish Safdar.

Ashley Tan (Dublin Coffman) was the only freshman in the D1 Singles draw.  She lost a close match 1st round to the 1 seed from Northwest Ohio Megan Miller.

Congratulations to Megan Martzolf who coached the D2 Doubles State Championship team from Columbus Academy - Andrea Ballinger / Hannah Wexner.
Rachael Morales (Hartley) won D2 Singles.
Francesca and Christina Dilorenzo (New Albany) were the D1 Doubles Champions.

Girls State Tournament

Congratulations to all of the Girls from Central Ohio who qualified for the State Championships this weekend, including:
Ashley Tan D1 Singles (Dublin Coffman)
Ashley Thai D1 Singles (Hilliard Bradley)
Caitlyn Merzbacher / Ellee Bullock D1 Doubles (Dublin Jerome)

The tournament starts Friday at 9:00 at the OSU Outdoor Varsity Tennis Courts.  Saturday will be held at Hilliard Davidson.
More info can be found here
Draws
D1 Singles
D1 Doubles
D2 Singles
D2 Doubles

Tournament Results

Congratulations to the following
Racquet Club Junior Indoor Open
B12s Champion - Ben Yan
B14s Champion - Connor Biernat
B14s Consolation Champion - Temidayo Dairo
B18s Finalist - Jeffrey Melvin

Elysium Compass Draw 14s
Champion - Jonathan Zhuravel
Finalist - Colten Clark

Midwest Level 5 Champion

Congratulations to Griffin Biernat, who won the Boys 10s Singles and Doubles with Devin Boyer over the weekend at at the Midwest Level 5 Championships in Dayton.

Ella Hazelbaker was a Girls 10s Doubles Finalist with Reagan Long.  Madison Spiess finished 3rd in Singles, defeating the 1 seed.

C.J. and Robert Cash were finalists in Boys 16s Doubles, defeating the 1 seeds in the semis.

Girls High School District Tournament

The draws are posted for Girls High School District Tournament that will take place October 12 - 13.
Division I will be held at Hilliard Davidson.  Division II will be held at CSG.
Division I Singles
Division I Doubles
Division II Singles
Division II Doubles

Congratulations to all of the District Qualifiers, including
D1 Singles
Olivia Kompa (Upper Arlington)
Emma Klebe (Upper Arlington)
Amber Lee (Dublin Coffman)
Ashley Tan (Dublin Coffman)
Ashley Thai (Hilliard Bradley)

DI Doubles
Caitlyn Merzbacher / Eleanor Bullock (Dublin Jerome)
Elaine Cloern / Audrey Berger (Upper Arlington)
Beniva Ganther / Andi Smart (Upper Arlington)
Natalie Hagy / Laura Hagy (Hilliard Davidson)
Ella Wilson / Chloe Shelvin (Hilliard Davidson)

DII Singles
Katherine Guan (Columbus Academy)

DII Doubles
Deepa Manda / Neela Nataraj (Columbus Academy)
Corey Naim / Sarah Mynes (Worthington Christian)

The State Tournament will be held October 19 - 20 at Ohio State.

Abby Leatherwood Joins Staff

The Racquet Club is excited to have Abby Leatherwood as part of the staff.  Abby played college tennis at Belmont, a prestigious university in Nashville, TN.  She played #1 singles and doubles.  As a junior Abby won the Wisconsin Indoor, and reached the finals of the St. Louis Gateway Championships.  She went 6-3 in the 3rd with NCAA champion and current WTA professional Mallory Burdette.

RCC Teams Going to Nationals

Congratulations to the 14s and 18s Advanced Teams for qualifying for Nationals.

Shoulder Band Exercise

Tubing Exercises

Midwest Junior Tournament Schedule

2012 Junior Tournament Schedule Level 1-5 Schedule

There is also a Regional Tournament October 27 - 29.  The deadline is September 27 at Noon.  There is Boys and Girls 12s and 14s in Cincinnati.

Racquet Club Junior Classic

Congratulations to all the Boys 10s who played their 1st tournament over the weekend.  Mitchell Montgomery defeated Dean Atway in the finals.  Anay Reddy and Nick Geelan also competed.
In the Boys 14s, Connor Biernat defeated Colten Clark in the finals in 3 sets.
Griffin Biernat was a finalist in the Boys 12s.
Evelyn Holman was the Consolation Champion in Girls 12s.

15 30 Digital Magazine

Check out the new edition of 15-30 Tennis Digital Magazine. There is a great article on NBA point guard Steve Nash about growing up playing multiple sports. There are many parallels between tennis and basketball, especially for the point guard position. Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish played high school basketball together. Nash talks about the the physical similarities, in athleticism, mobility, strength and flexibility, and also the mental toughness required for both.  He is one of the most creative players in the league, and discusses the similarities in creativity, vision, and ability to find angles.

 Also featured is an article by Allen Fox. Fox played at UCLA and coached at Pepperdine, and has wrote multiple books including two that are very good: Think to Win and Tennis: Winning the Mental Match.  The article talks about approaching every point with maximum focus, as you don't which points turn out to be the biggest points.  The average margin of victory in a close set is 4 points.

Tennis 15-30

Midwest Champions

18s Midwest Sportsmanship Winner

Congratulations to Arjun Venkataraman, who was the Sportsmanship Award Winner for the 18s Int Midwest Championships last weekend.  His teammates were Kevin Wang, Shuo Liu, Mary Carson, Laura Hagy and Natalie Hagy.

10s Midwest Sportsmanship Winners

Congratulations to Katherine Wang and Brian Pang who competed on the 10s Advanced team, and won the Sportsmanship Award at the Midwest Championships last weekend.

RCC the Midwest Junior Team Tennis Champions

Midwest Champions 14s Adv

The 14s Advanced Team won the Midwest Championships last weekend.  The Racquet Club is the only club in the Midwest sending teams to the Nationals.  The 14s team won 28 of 30 courts over the weekend.

The team included Jack Dabek, Robert Dong, Robert Cash, Alex Cash, Victoria Fan, Taylor Sprouse, and Erica Chen.

Midwest Champions 18s Adv

The Racquet Club 18s Advanced Team won the Midwest Championships last weekend, qualifying for Nationals for the 3rd year in a row.  The team beat a strong Paramount Medina team in their flight.  They defeated Scarborough 45 - 25 in the Final.

The team included Ryan Bibo, C.J. Cash, Jeffrey Melvin, Ashley Thai, Rachael Morales, and Kelley Jiang.  Caitlyn Merzbacher will also rejoin the team for Nationals.

Jason Liu Sportsmanship Award

Congratulations to Jason Liu, who won the Sportsmanship Award at the Team Tennis Midwest Championships last weekend.

Midwest Championships Final Four

The Junior Team Tennis Championships were last weekend in Indianapolis.  There were over 70 teams in the tournament.  The Racquet Club sent 6 teams.

Congratulations to the 18s Int team, who lost by 5 games to the champions in the semifinals, and finished 4th place.
Patrick Liu, Connor Geelan, Taylor Ruby, Corey Naim, Adrien Leatherwood, Rohit Joshi.

Congratulations to the 14s Int team, who lost by 2 games in the semifinals, and finished 4th place.
Michael Lin, Jason Liu, Temidayo Dairo, Nicole Holman, Ashley Weeks, Melinda Wang.

Robert Cash / Jack Dabek win Midwest Open

Robert Cash and Jack Dabek won the Midwest Open Doubles Championships this week in Cincinnati, defeating the 1 seeds Julian Hyman and Kobie Mueller 8-4 in the final.  They also recently won a round at the National Clay Courts.

Kevin Metka wins ITA Singles and Doubles Championship

Kevin Metka won the ITA Summer Circuit Tournament at Ohio State last weekend in Singles and Doubles.  He defeated Julian Childers (U of Illinois) in the final 6-3 6-0.  He also won the Doubles with Trevor Cox (University of Indianapolis).

Practice Sets

There is a great post on CAtennis about called 500 Sets a Year.  This is a great piece explaining that you can't replicate the practice that comes from playing matches.
Clinic and private lessons are huge parts of training.  However, if you don't go apply the training in playing sets, then you are missing a giant piece of the picture.

Here is an excerpt from the article

The reason people hate to compete is because people hate dealing with uncertainty, the small chance that they put their pride on the line and lose.  Yes!  You need to be able to handle that kind of pressure consistently, never let your guard down.  Its an absolutely necessary skill.  

For the parents who protect their kids from playing people below them, your child will never reach its full potential. 

Boys 10s Districts

Congratulations to Griffin Biernat for reaching the Consolation Finals at the OVTA District Championships.