Hi all,

Well, the American road trip Ana and I have been on has come to an end for now but only after we covered about 3,500 thousand miles in three weeks going between Atlanta, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Dothan, Alabama, Sea Island and back to Atlanta. That’s four states and three tournaments.

The tournaments Ana played were pretty big and therefore were highly competitive with a few top 100 girls playing each week. The States is a rich training ground for young tennis players, especially females, as there are so many players from around the world who live, train and who subsequently play all the tournaments and keep the competitive standards high. You can only bring a positive attitude here or you will get lost very quickly.

This was a perfect environment for Ana to go, and as it was her first time here it was a real eye opener for her and provided some valuable lessons. I don’t think she realised at first just how “aggressively positive” it was going to be here, but I really think she understands more now!

She was here to compete but also to do a lot of fitness as she is a little behind in her conditioning and there is no better place to do that than here. Unfortunately, she didn’t win too many matches out here this time so we had time to really work on her physique and I’m pleased to say that between the track, the gym and me, Ana has improved tremendously in this area. She has taken five seconds off her 200 metre times and added 10 kilos or more to almost every lift she does. Ana has also done some valuable work on her serve which should help her a lot in the future.

The most valuable part of this whole trip though has been immersing Ana in the “American way” for the first time. If you can win a lot of matches here it can be very good for your career and usually you need to come back a few times to achieve success and I’ve no doubt the next time Ana comes here she will be a tougher, more complete competitor due to this experience.

Next stop, Monte-Carlo,

Jez