My name is Duy

This past week has been one hell of a week for me. I had so many things in school going on and I was just panicking and felt like giving up so many times. So much stress and pressure that I felt mentally and physically drained by the end of the week.

A lot of the difficulties in school was my fault though. I decided to procrastinate so much and fall behind and that led me to having to frantically try to get everything done.

On Friday I finally felt a bit relieved after I was done for the week because I could relax and finally get to play some tennis. In the past few weeks I have been limited to playing tennis almost only once a week (that includes Intramurals). So I’ve just been trapped in my room or class studying or doing work and it’s been quite a drag honestly. I need to get my act together.

So after a tiring week I decided to play in this quarter’s team tennis tournament. I wasn’t planning on doing so at first as I was planning on just relaxing all Saturday long before going home for Mother’s day. So Friday afternoon I went to Tennis Club’s Hit-Around to hit for the first time. Haven’t been there in a while. I kinda miss hitting with a bunch of strangers. Anyways, I was surprised I was still able to hit as well as I have been in intramurals.

However, Friday night when I was going to sleep I had a very hard time sleeping. Obviously I knew I was nervous about the tournament. I was playing more to have fun than to pressure myself to try too hard to win. It would be nice to win but I don’t want to get down on myself if I did bad. I wanted to be more relaxed for Saturday.

When I finally got to the courts I had a hard time calming myself. I felt quite tense the entire tournament. I guess it’s just my personality to not feel relaxed in situations like this (Intramurals) or situations where I feel extremely nervous (tests). So in my first match I played men’s doubles against Sac State. I was lucky enough to play against Jeff. I was very excited but at the same time I was nervous because I was not sure how well I was going to do.

So we lost that set 2-6 but I thought I did pretty well. I was hitting my volleys a bit better than usual so that built some confidence there. However, as I played my next men’s doubles match against UCSC, I was extremely tense because I watched one of the players play before and I was quite intimidated. My first service game started out pretty well. I was able to serve two good serves. But something happened and I dropped four straight points on my serve. That was the result of 4 straight double faults. I don’t know what happened but I guess it was evident that I was nervous.

However, things got better. I think we were down 2-5 or something but we were able to pull it back up to 4-5. On my second service game I was able to serve how I normally would and held. We ended up losing it 4-6 but at least it felt nice that we were close.

In my last match of the day I got to play men’s doubles again against Chico State. This time I wasn’t as tense. I was actually tired. It was super hot and I wanted to get off the court. However, I guess I was a bit confident since I went into the match thinking “I think we can take these guys”. I was actually the better player on the court for that match. With two very decisive service games, we took the set 6-3 ending my set record at 1-2.

That last set I played gave me some confidence. I am able to believe that my serve isn’t a big weakness as it was before and I am also able to volley to a certain degree. I was able to leave the courts feeling a bit good about myself since overall I did a decent job on the courts.

Besides playing tennis, I had a great time meeting other players and hanging out with everyone. Meeting and just talking with the Sac State players was pretty fun. It was also nice getting to talk/hang out with Abigail again in person. If only I was able to get Andrew to come back to Davis but it would’ve been too chaotic for everyone. Also, thanks to Mitchell and Liz for coming out to watch me and Jeff play. ALSO, thanks for the Costco hot dog and drink, everyone was jealous!

One of the highest points for me was when Carl was about to play his last singles match and he wasn’t feeling well so I decided to be nearby to give him support (His teammates wanted to be in the shade a court and a half away). I sat at the fence and cheered Carl on as he was obviously a bit in pain and the heat wasn’t helping. It was somewhat exciting watching him play from that angle because I got to see exactly what kind of shot he and his opponent were hitting. Pretty cool stuff. I also acted as Carl’s personal caddy as he was tired and I wanted him to focus more on the match. He also hurt his shoulder so I didn’t want him to put too much weight on it. Even though Carl lost on sudden death point, I felt inspired by how hard he was playing and how passionate he was playing. It was one hell of a match.

Personally, I enjoyed the whole day at the courts. I got to hang out with people I rarely get to during the week or even during the quarter. Getting to meet people and hanging out with them really made me feel a lot better. This is one of the reasons why I love tennis so much: I get to meet and play with many different players and we are all connected by at least one thing and that is the game of tennis. This can be said about other sports as well but for me tennis has helped me meet many awesome people in my life and I would not trade that for anything else.

Thank you to everyone that made this day awesome for me. You guys totally lifted my spirits and I am able to feel more relaxed now.

Also a little early but I just wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to everybody!

Since today is Pi Day I decided to share an experience I had with Pi Day from high school.

So during my senior year of high school I was the Math Club/Mathletes president. Shocking? I know right? One of the events we collaborated with the math department was celebrating Pi Day.

I believe we were only allowed to serve pies to the faculty staff (there was some kind of district rule that we can’t serve to the students). So during both lunch times some of us will be in the math office cutting pies and serving them to teachers and other staff members that decide to come in.

I also remember the math department holding a Pi contest where teachers will recite as much of Pi as they can. At the end of the day the teacher who can recite the most places wins a prize (I forgot what the prize was). Funny thing was, the winner was announced during my 7th period (I had Spanish at that time) and my Spanish teacher actually won! Go Ms. Borrero (at the time!).

It was a pretty fun day getting to hang out with the math teachers. Our inner nerds were at its highest points.

Happy Pi Day Everybody!

So Kyle tested how many champions at each Grand Slam I can list as far as I can… so I will try this without cheating.

Australian Open:

1. 2012: NovakDjokovic
2. 2011: Novak Djokovic
3. 2010: Roger Federer
4. 2009: Rafael Nadal
5. 2008: Novak Djokovic
6. 2007: Roger Federer
7. 2006: Roger Federer
8. 2005: Marat Safin
9. 2004: Roger Federer
10. 2003: Andre Agassi
11. 2002: Thomas Johannson
12. 2001: Andre Agassi
13. 2000: Andre Agassi

French Open:

1. 2011: Rafael Nadal
2. 2010: Rafael Nadal
3. 2009: Roger Federer
4. 2008: Rafael Nadal
5. 2007: Rafael Nadal
6. 2006: Rafael Nadal
7. 2005: Rafael Nadal
8. 2004: Gaston Gaudio
9. 2003: Juan Carlos Ferrero

Wimbledon:

1. 2011: Novak Djokovic
2. 2010: Rafael Nadal
3. 2009: Roger Federer
4. 2008: Rafael Nadal
5. 2007: Roger Federer
6. 2006: Roger Federer
7. 2005: Roger Federer
8. 2004: Roger Federer
9. 2003: Roger Federer
10. 2002: Lleyton Hewitt
11. 2001: Goran Ivanisevic
12. 2000: Pete Sampras
13. 1999: Pete Sampras
14. 1998: Pete Sampras
15. 1997: Pete Sampras

US Open

1. 2011: Novak Djokovic
2. 2010: Rafael Nadal
3. 2009: Juan Martin del Potro
4. 2008: Roger Federer
5. 2007: Roger Federer
6. 2006: Roger Federer
7. 2005: Roger Federer
8. 2004: Roger Federer
9. 2003: Andy Roddick
10. 2002: Pete Sampras
11. 2001: Lleyton Hewitt
12. 2000: Marat Safin

So as you can see, it’s not that hard since a majority of the champions were Roger and Rafa haha.

The Australian Open this year was a great start for the tennis world. There were many great matches on both the Men’s and Women’s tour. As always there were plenty of upsets but overall the tournament had many great matches played. Although I mainly followed the men’s draw I did catch some of the buzz during the women’s tour.

This was also the first time I actually did something fantasy related. There was not a money prize or anything, it was more of guessing who will win which match. I did pretty well until the quarterfinals. I was hoping for too many upsets and ended up calling the bottom half completely wrong. But it was fun while it lasted. I did go 7 out of 8 calling who would make it to the quarters though (darn you Tsonga!).

I only want to focus on the semifinals of the men’s draw. Even though many players put up great efforts, no one was really able to beat the top four players in the world. Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and Murray all made it through their quarters pretty easily. To my knowledge I believe Federer was the only player not to lose a set coming into the semis but I am not too sure. I can recall though that Novak lost a set to the fighter known as Lleyton Hewitt, Andy lost a set to the young American Ryan Harrison, and Rafa lost a set to the always controversial Tomas Berdych. So this was a pretty big semifinals line up at the Australian Open.

Semifinal Match #1: Number 3 Seed Roger Federer vs. Number 2 Seed Rafael Nadal

As always, this match was extremely promoted by everybody. The ESPN team, the Australian Open broadcasters, the tennis forum community; they were all hyping this match up! Everyone was looking forward to this legendary rivalry kicking off again this year. However, I was not too into the match because I knew there wasn’t going to be much of a match. Why? Because not to be mean or anything but I am not interested in their match ups anymore.

After possibly their last classic match at the 2009 Australian Open final, some of their matches since then have not been up to par with that match. Yes, I remember Federer pretty much lost his serve in the fifth set to hand Rafa the match, it was still a pretty high quality match. Last year’s French Open final was not that great to be honest. There were many great moments but I was somewhat disappointed with the fourth set where Nadal stole the match after Federer pushed for a fourth set.

Time to talk about the match at the Australian Open. It was pretty high quality for the first set and a half. But when the city of Melbourne decided to celebrate Australia Day during the match, that is when it went downhill. Federer was up a set and I believe a break before play was suspended due to the fireworks. For some reason after the fireworks were done Federer lost everything. His serve wasn’t as lethal, his forehand was missing, and his backhand became vulnerable. I remember watching and asked, “where the hell did Federer from about thirty minutes ago go?” I ended up going to sleep because Rafa was just hitting balls to Roger’s backhand and hitting insane passing shots pass Roger. At the end of the match I realized that the match was a typical Rafa dominating Roger match. Big, whippy, Rafa forehands into the now weakened Federer one-handed backhand.

Although the match was somewhat disappointing, it was still a good match overall. Just it wasn’t up to my expectations. What I was really looking forward to was the Djokovic-Murray match. This was going to be an interesting match up because Murray started the year pretty well under his new coach Ivan Lendl. He won the title in Brisbane in the first week and was pretty much rolling through his draw. Novak was pretty much in-form all tournament long and looked to be on his way to defending the Australian Open title he won a year prior. Last year Novak beat Andy in straight sets to win his second grand slam title of his career. Not only that, it was the start to what was a historic year for the now world #1.

I did not expect the classic match that was to come. It was a back and forth kind of match where both players were firing groundstrokes from baseline to baseline. When Andy Murray won the second set, I knew this match was going to be a slugfest. I did not expect to watch them play for almost five hours. I almost gave up on Novak when Andy won the third set tiebreaker. I ended up taking a shower but when I came back and saw that Novak was up 4-1, I knew this one wasn’t going to be over for a while.

In the fifth set I thought it was going to be over when Novak broke Andy’s serve. However, Andy showed how he is a fighter and dug his way back into the match. These two gladiators were giving it their all. However, towards the end of the match Andy began to show some glimpse of the old Andy. He started whining and yelling at his box. Novak remained cool till the very end and he fell to the ground on his back after winning the bout with his good friend. The tennis fanatic I am, I stood up in the middle of the night and gave both players a standing ovation. That was one hell of a match.

Now it’s two nights later. Along with a group of friends, we were going to watch Novak play Rafa once again for the 30^th time. This time there was a lot on the line. Last year Novak defeated Rafa in all six of their bouts, including two in grand slam finals (Wimbledon and US Open). I was more excited for this match than the Federer-Nadal match obviously. Also on the line was Rafa’s confidence. Losing six finals in a row last year to Novak must’ve taken a huge blow to his ego.

When the match started we knew it was going to be a long match. Long rallies where both players were bombing each other with huge groundstrokes. Lots of breaks of serve like their match at the US Open last fall. It was over five hours later when we finally saw the winner of the match and the 2012 Australian Open champion. Novak Djokovic conquered his rival once more.

The match definitely took a toll on both players. They could hardly stand during the trophy ceremony (the Kia guy was really putting people to sleep). What I remember most is watching this epic match with my friends, even though most of them fell asleep. It was definitely more exciting than last year’s final.

I actually enjoyed this tournament a lot. There were several great matches and many great moments that I will remember for a long time. Many good matches and I had a lot of fun watching the matches. It’s a great start to the 2012 season and a good indicator that there are plenty of great matches to come!

Sorry I haven’t posted anything on here in a while. Been too busy with so many things. I promise I will get a lot of things out within the next few weeks. Expect a few posts by the end of this week.

Once again I am sorry.

It’s been a very long pass month and a half. So many things have happened. So many different emotions felt. So many decisions made…

It’s been a while since I posted something on here. I’ve been trying to be never really found the energy to until now since I finally made it back to Sacramento and settled in. I plan on staying here for at least a week but we will see.

It was an extremely long fall quarter and I am happy to make it out alive. Yet, there were many events that seem to have bothered me a lot. There were events that took place that made me happy, events that took place that made me depressed.

I don’t want to get into full detail on some of them because they are extremely personal and I only want a few of my closest friends to know.

I would complain about school, but I would be just like everyone else. At this point I have accepted the situations I put myself into academically and have to make the best of them. I can’t let school affect me as much as it did before anymore. I must keep a positive attitude and just roll through it.

Probably the only other thing I want to talk about now is people. It took me this quarter to figure out who my real friends are once more. I knew who they were at first but I had to filter out some of those who act like they are.  After everything I’ve been through this quarter, it feels great to have a group of people who I can call my friends. These people have been there for me all quarter long and have helped me go through so many different obstacles.

But there were of course those I filtered out. Hard to believe that a blog I posted a while back would cause so much drama. Well actually, not really drama. Not for me at least. I know you know who you are. I just have to say it was fun believing you guys were good friends of mine, but the way you reacted to my blog put a lot of things into perspective. I realized at this point, that thing I posted about is more important than me. I did not write that blog as a bash or attack but rather as an expression of how I felt about the topic. If you feel like I didn’t express my feelings but attacked your precious organization, then so be it. It just shows me how much I am worth to you.

I feel somewhat fortunate about the past fall quarter. I feel like I have a lot to look forward to now. I live in an apartment filled with friends who are there for me. I have friends who will be there for me. I just need to take better care of myself and start making better decisions. As long as I keep that up I will be ok at the end.

This is probably really random but I was watching the Incredible Hulk film earlier today and there was a scene that made me extremely curious. Even my housemates and friends that watched the film were wondering the same thing.

So there was a scene where Bruce Banner was making out with Elizabeth Ross but they stop because Bruce was afraid of his heart rate going too high to the point that he becomes the Hulk.

We were wondering what happens if they were getting busy and Bruce transforms into the Hulk while he is doing Elizabeth. I mean, when Bruce transforms everything gets larger. Has anyone been wondering about this too?

So many things happening right now. Everything seem to have changed. I don’t see the world like how it used to be anymore…