Wimby 2009

Lot’s going on this training week before Wimby; races, concerts, adventures in the village, and of course training! click on the pic to see the album...

Wimbledon Village

So if you believe it or not the story of the week was not James training for one of the biggest tournaments of the year…it was actually a race between coach Barker and I. James was hitting with Andy during the week and somehow started talking about who would win in a 100m dash between Brian and I. Andy backed me and James took Bri. It was pretty funny to say the least. Andy showed up to the track with his entire team. He made signs that said “Go Cordial” and “Brian Blows” and brought this huge stuffed rhino that was left in the house that he rented. It was quite the race! I took down Bri but just by a hair and while lunging across the finish line he fell face first scraping up his face and shoulder.

Queen's Club

Next stop on the tour was Queen's Club in London. James and Sam ended up playing each other which I guess has to happen at some point. They played a great match with James edging Sam in 3 sets. James continued to play great tennis all week and lost a close final to Andy Murray.

Next up is a training week in London before starting Wimbledon. Really looking forward to some good training sessions next week!! Wimbledon village here we come!

Rolland Garros

The French Open in the beautiful city of Paris. I can’t believe the only picture I took during this tournament was getting off the train from Germany with Robby, biscuit, and Sam.

Not the best tournament for the guys over here. JB lost a really tough match in terrible conditions. He was the last match to finish and it was freezing cold, windy and dark; tough conditions to play in to say the least.

Sam also lost a tough match where both guys served great but a few points here and there and the match is over. This is not an easy sport. These guys are pretty tough to be able to deal with wins and losses every week.

Next stop for me is a flight to Miami to visit Mr. Mark Merklien and his wife. Merk has been working on a home gym for awhile and I finally have a chance to check it out. Very excited to spend some time down there!

Dusseldorf

We just got to Dusseldorf, Germany for the World Team Cup. This is a unique tournament because its country vs country. Two singles matches and a doubles; best record of each group makes the finals. The USA is represented by Sam Querrey, Robby Genepri, and Mardy Fish. Looking forward to a great week here!

This is Robby’s first tournament back from a ruptured appendix. I know that’s not the easiest surgery to come back from because I had my appendix taken out freshman year of college during football season. He is 100 percent though and looking great!

Sam is getting more comfortable on the clay and is ready to dominate the dirt the rest of the season. He is partnering up with Mardy who is coming in this week as the secret weapon (doubles specialist).

More in Madrid

James looked good but ended up loosing to Federer in the third round. That loss didn’t hurt as bad since Roger went on to beat Nadal in the final. Sam played good but ended up loosing to Seppi in the second round. The Bryans had a rough first round loss and are heading home to regroup before the French Open.

I didn’t get a picture but we found a nice hill in the back of the tennis site that Sam watered with sweat. Not an easy workout but Sam dominated it! The guys continue to work hard everyday and push forward to the next tournament week after week. I am so impressed with the guys that I am working with…blue collar group.

Madrid

Madrid was the next stop on the tour. I am going to have to devote an entire blog to what Merk and I went through here. As you can see from the pictures we both got some pretty amazing mullets and you may be wondering how that came about.

Back in Rome we made a bet with James that if he finals or wins a tournament over here in Europe on the clay then we would cut our hair into mullets; safe bet right? Well, as it turns out James loves to make bets and there was nothing he wanted more than to have the two of us walking around looking absolutely ridiculous.

As soon as we got to Madrid Mark and I went down the street to the hair dressor, who spoke zero English by the way, and got some of the best-looking mullets in Madrid. It was actually pretty fun; we had her laughing by the end. It took her awhile to understand that we were doing this for losing a bet and not a regular haircut. Haha she didn’t want to do it because she said it would not look good. Oddly enough, the mullet is still in style over in Spain so we didn’t stick out too bad….different story at the tennis site though. We had plenty of jokes thrown our way. Haha good times; wore the hair proudly after the effort by JB in Estoril.