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.

Estoril

One of the best weeks of the year!! The hotel we stayed in was 5 stars and overlooked the ocean. James coach, Mark Merklein and I got up every morning and ran on the beach kicking the day off right.

Not a bad week of tennis for Mr. Blake. He ended up loosing the final in 3 sets but had to play the rest of his semifinal match only an hour before because it was suspended due to darkness and rain the day before. James was ripping the cover off the ball and looked at home on the clay. He did an unbelievable job staying positive and raising the intensity level every match. Keep your eye out this season for James…something big is going to happen!!

Roma

What a week in Rome. James Blake and Sam Querrey lost early in singles but had a great week of training on the clay. The Bryans got to the finals but fell to nestor and zimonjic. This was a very busy week with all the guys but everyone seems to be feeling great going into next week. The crew is breaking in all different directions over here. I am going to Estoril with James, Sam travels to Serbia, and the Bryans off to Munich.

I didn’t have much of a chance to take in the sites this time around but definitely enjoyed some great food with good people. Looking forward to Portugal!