US Blog

20 March, 2009 | 19:03

Hey everyone
 
Another update from the US, although at the time of writing I’m not in Indian Wells anymore, but Miami.

The last week I was playing in the desert, but without much success on the tennis court or otherwise, sad to say. Kevin ‘Ully’ Ullyett kicked my ass at golf. Don’t know what to say really, I was an absolute embarrassment. Serve me right for talking up my chances in my last blog I guess.
 
On a more positive note, the tennis was much better, even if we did lose in the opening round. The draw didn’t do us any favours with Del Potro and Nalbandian, but we lost what was a close match.

To be honest, it was a good one for me to play in so much as there’s nowhere to hide against guys of that caliber. You know right from the start that you have to put yourself out there and be aggressive. We had to go for it against two world class players, and we put in a good performance.

They say the worst time to play the singles players is in the first round, and I can totally see what people mean by that: the boys were up for it and gave nothing away.  Sure, we came up a little bit short on the day against two high quality players, but our tennis would have beaten a lot of teams that day.
 
Afterwards, I felt much better about how I’d played, and could feel that the ten days of solid practice I’d put in Miami had paid off.

I think I’ve made a few little breakthroughs in my game over the past couple weeks, and because of that I’m just looking forward to the coming months. Now, I’d really like to find a partner who’ll compliment the way I play.
 
So, we came back to Miami on Tuesday spent the last few days out on the practice court.

We also went to watch my friend Dani Valverdu playing for the University of Miami against Kentucky, who had Graeme Dyce in their team.

College tennis is so different from the Tour - everyone gets so fired up after almost every point they win for their team. In a good way. It was good to catch up with Dycey and see how he was getting on; he looked like he was playing some good tennis too.
 
The weather since we got back to Miami has been pretty crap, which sadly means I've not been able to reach my awesome tanning potential. On the positive side, the sun is shining today so the top is coming off faster than Jordan's.
 
Big match for Andy in Indian wells tomorrow against The Fed. I’m not really sure who I'm feeling for that match because you can never bet against Federer, even though Andy has beaten him the last few times they have played. He’s also come through a couple tough matches against Gonzo and Verdasco so he’s firmly "into" the tournament. 

Andy hasn't dropped a set though, is playing some great tennis and will certainly fancy his chances! One thing is for sure - the match has got BIG MATCH FEEL!
 
My prediction:  big match banter!

Catch you later!

Jamie