30 July 2007 21:28, Another injury

Hi,

I’m sorry it has taken me a while to update you with my progress, mainly because the progress has been halted by a long and infuriating back injury. I have a disc problem in my lower back which is very sensitive and has to be carefully monitored. However, I now am well on the way to recovery, having been out now about 5 weeks, and it looks like my cardio fitness sessions at 7am, and endless amounts of stomach and back strengthening work has paid off. I am now back playing fairly close to flat out, in the best shape physical condition of my career and absolutely desperate to get back out onto the tour and do some serous damage!

Before I got injured I was on a massive high having played in the qualifying event for Wimbledon where I won a round against a player ranked 270ish 64 62 and then lost in a tight match against a player who is 120 in the world 76(5) 62. This was such a confidence boosting experience and a fantastic opportunity to see where the level I am aiming for is and how close I am. This also really showed me how my tennis can trouble (52 up in the tie break in the 2ND match) some of the best players in the world. Unfortunately this 2ND round was when I picked up the injury and haven’t been able to really carry on that momentum yet, but as soon as I get back into competing I am sure I will be able to make some massive leaps in the quality of my tennis and my ranking!

I will let you know when I am back into competing, which as I said will hopefully be very soon, but thanks a lot for all your support, and I hope you are well!

kind regards

Chris

28 January 2007 15:48 – Australia Futures

Hi,

I’m very sorry that I haven’t emailed you for such a long time, I had a few problems with my email towards the end of last year, so I thought id sent you an email update, but my dad told me that it hadn’t gone through.

Anyway, happy new year and I hope you all had a great time at Christmas as I did, it was nice to have a little (5 day) break at that time just to refresh the batteries…..it was much needed.

The email I tried to send you was one about the trip I had to Australia at the end of last year, September to November, which was a really long and challenging tour. I played 8 weeks of tournaments picking up a few ranking points to keep my ranking on the assent, but I struggled against the seeded players in the tournaments out there. I tended to play well against them in general, but struggled to beat them in 2-3 sets, I was often better for 1 set or even 1 and a half sets, but I struggled to maintain a high level for the whole match. Mentally it was a great challenge for me to go out there and try to compete for 8 weeks, this proved to be much harder than I had anticipated, however it was such a good learning experience for me and I’ve started off this year playing really well because of it.

At Christmas I had an intense fitness block which was 3 weeks long, so I have only played 2 tournaments so far this year. The first was a very strong futures in Sunderland which I lost to an Italian in the 1st round having received a wild card into the main draw. The next week was a challenger tournament, the last direct player into main draw was 280 in the world, but again I received a wild card which was an amazing opportunity for me as I haven’t played in a main draw challenger before. I played against an American player who has previously reached a ranking inside 90 so he was very good, but I played really well and took the 1st set, but lost 63 in the 3rd set. It was such a boost to see that my tennis can handle his level and come out on top for a set, but I just need to be able to keep that level for a whole match.

I’m emailing you from France at the moment where I’m playing some tough futures (all the futures at the beginning of the year tend to be really tough). I’m playing qualifying at the moment and I’ve won my 1st
two rounds in the qualies and have to play my last round tomorrow against a seeded French player, but I’m playing very well and feel really good about this week.

I hope all is well with you, and thank you again for your help and support,

Chris