Hello everyone....another trip and another blog.

After my training trip home to Minnesota, I set off for a 4 week/4 tournament trip. Since Indian Wells and Miami were the only tour events on (my ranking wasn't high enough to play this year), I set off to play 3 challengers and a clay court tour event in Morocco.

I knew points-wise there wasn't too much to be made, but I was hoping to continue to get better, work on some areas of my game and have the last weeks to start my pre-Roland Garros training sur le terre battu.

Sunrise

The 2nd week of Indian Wells and just down the road from Miami is the Sunrise challenger, which unofficially known as the strongest challenger in the history of the game. Everyone losing early in IW comes there to get some matches. Top seeds in the singles were Thomas Berdych and Robin Soderling who are both in the top 20.

In the doubles, I paired up with Bobby Renyolds. We got a nice first round draw of the Rochus brothers. Although very talented and ranked top 75 in singles, on each other's shoulders they aren't much taller than Karlovic and was a good a matchup for us. We took them 7-5, 6-2. Second round we took on #2 seeds, Cermak and Mertinak, both ranked in the top 30. One good set and a flawless breaker was plenty good for this one. I felt a little guilty knocking them out of the tourney as the night before Mertinak invited me to a Panthers hockey game with the Slovak crew. He is friends with Richard Zhednik (remember the guy with the freak accident 2 yrs back when he took a skate to the neck, that was him). Anyway, we got his seats right behind the goalie and went and hung out in the locker room after. Well....hung out as in, they hung out and spoke Slovak, I stood around and watched like a loser...but it was still fun. That was very nice of him to invite me, but didn't feel too bad sending them onto Miami early (they ended up making the quarters there.)

Semis presented another tough team and tough conditions. We were on the court, off the court with showers hitting us all day long. We ended up getting the first set and had to call the match for the night at 7-5, 6-6 (4-5). That was an interesting one to sleep on. Going out the next morning knowing the match will end in 10 minutes and potentially in 3 points. We got the first 2 on Bobby's serve. The following 8 points went on serve with no one really having a good chance to break until on our 3rd match point, I somehow snuck a lob volley over Polasek and dropped it on the baseline.

Into the finals later that afternoon and taking on another team of top 30 guys. This time Jeff Cotzee and Jordan Kerr came out better than us and took the first. We rallied back in the 2nd and again played a great superbreaker to take the title. A title that was only a challenger, but that felt tougher than winning Chennai earlier this year. I told the tournament director I would be petitioning the ATP tour for more points claiming this tournament was so strong. He wished me good luck.

Jersey, UK

No time to celebrate, other than a champagne on the plane as I had to head to England directly from the court. I caught a flight from Miami to London to the isalnd of Jersey (just off the French coast in the English Channel). This time I was pairing up with an old friend and partner, Travis Rettenmaier. He was pumped, I was confident and we came out ready to play some ball. We dodged to bomb serving players in the first round and played a great 2nd rd match.

In the semis, we played a good friend of mine, Harsh Mankad and Brian Battistone (if you haven't seen him, you can tube him...it's worth it). We were absolutely on cruise control in this one, up 6-1. 6-5, 30-0 serving for the match when all **** broke loose. Brian hit a winner return, Travis dumped an overhead, Harsh made an insane pickup off my poach and a double fault put us in the breaker. We serve a good breaker, but couldn't get a point on their serve. The breaker went on and on.....We ended up losing it 13-11 and Travis looked like his head was about to explode. He went from making insane reflex volleys and ripping return winners to taking 85 mph 2nd serves and chipping them into the bottom of the net. My errors were better looking, but equally effective at not winning a point on their serve. We actually got down in the super-breaker 7-4 before rattling off 6 straight points to win it. We decided 2 beers at dinner would be the best medicine to relax before the final the following day. I don't think Trav was going to be able to sleep after that one without at least one Stella in his system.

On a side note, while Travis and I were playing in England, our fathers were actually teaming up in the National Father/Son Indoors in Boise, Idaho. They were playing their semifinals just before we wrapped up ours. And lucky for all of you we have footage of that one!!!!

The clip starts with Butorac/Rettenmaier losing the first two games and quickly going down 2-5. My dad starts serving at the 1:20 mark in the clip and from there everything turns around...

Look out for the following....

- some early frustration from "the big cat" (Tim)

- Tom saving a match point with an amazing lob

- a solid "fist" high five

- an excessive amount of poaching

- some serious athletic putaways

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f30I14tc1KY&feature=related

But, the video cuts out in the breaker, which they win 7-0. I would include more about how Travis and I are playing, but its pretty similar to what you see here.

Watching this video in our room the night before the final was absolutely the highlight of Travis' and my week. We actually had security come to our room to tell us to quiet down as we shouted at the computer.

After the wild match the night before, I didn't know what to expect. We played a very hot British team of Fleming/Skupski who is coached by Louis Cayer....the same man who created the once successful team of Booty and Stretch. I knew this one would be very tough and I was wrong. I came out hitting the ball great and Travis was a man on a mission. He was making reflex volleys that I have never seen, and we rolled to the title 6-3, 6-4. Again, only a challenger, but it felt great to be on a roll. Butorac/Rettenmaier Sr did not fair quite as well as we did and only ended up with a silver ball for the week. Still a big week for two families!

St. Brieuc

From the Island of Jersey, we again had no time to celebrate as we had to be off to France as soon as possible. A glass of beer on the boat to France was all the we had time for as we had to get to St. Brieuc. You know when you get on those winning streaks and you feel you are going to win every match. Then you keep winning and you start to get a little...how would you say it...overconfident? Well, we got France, got a bye and rolled through a French WC team who had no answer for our crosses, reflexes and I-formation. But, as we were making our plan for what the winners check would buy, we were suddenly knocked out of the tournament by an Aussie duo in the semis. Streak over. And over with a thud. On a no-ad deuce point in the 2nd set, Luzak took a short forehand off my throat (not intentionally). Note to self....not as good as you think you are sometimes. It was a tough loss, we probably didn't prepare quite well enough, but we were still playing well and it was a good run for Travis and me.

Casablanca

My first ever visit to Morocco was quite an eye opener. Now, we are officially moving into NOT my favorite season...the clay court season. Even my girlfriend has come to hate the clay court season. She gets about half as many calls home as normal as I usually slip into some sort of depression-like state. Then as the grass season comes about, I usually come back to life. Well, this year, I have a new approach...I thought I would start off the season with a good clay courter, a singles guy, someone who could help me with some of those cross court battles from the baseline. I set up to play "the blanca," as its known on the tour, with Brazilian, Thomaz Bellucci. Thomaz is a big lefty who loves the dirt and even though he doesn't play much doubles, I thought he could be the right guy for me. It's quite funny when I spend my whole life analyzing every aspect of the doubles game, different tactics and strategies. Now, at the highest level of the game, I am choosing a partner that I can literally hardly communicate with. (Thomaz speaks Portuguese and Spanish, I speak English and some French). We opted with English for on-court strategy. I kept it basic, spoke slow and we got off to a hot start. Up a break early against Bopanna/Zovko, in the first round, I thought we were rolling. I had a little hiccup on my service games as Zovko was really zoning in hitting his backhand crosscourt. Here is our exact dialog:

Me: Thomaz, do you know I-formation?

TB: What is this?

Me: Where you start in the middle of the court and down.

TB: I have no idea.

Me: Ok, I am serving wide.

As we got down 15-40, I tried a new one.

Me: Thomaz, this time I serve backhand and you poach.

TB: What is poach?

Me: Umm...after my serve, you "cross"?

TB: Oh, you mean, "change?"

Me: Sure, do that.

We got broke.

But, we pulled out a tight first set breaker and rolled to the 2nd. Already off to a great start to the clay court season. Unfortunately, the next meeting did not fair so well. I really thought it would too. Over lunch, we discussed I-formation and some tactics for Hanley-Aspelin, but they were just too much. We lost 6-3, 6-3.

Looking back on the trip, it was pretty successful. I picked up two challenger titles, a semi and a first rd win in a clay court tour event. Things are looking up this season!

I'm off for the next couple weeks, taking a quick break and then having a training week back in Minnesota.

The next tournament schedule is as follows...you'll notice a new partner for the majority of it....

Rhodes, Greece Challenger (with Scott Lipsky)

Munich, Germany ATP (with Lipsky)

Bordeaux, France Challenger (with Lipsky)

Kitzbul, Austria ATP (with Ashley Fisher)

Roland Garros (with Lipsky)

- Eric

January 13, 2009 - 12:13pm

After spending a couple weeks at home training in Minnesota, it was time for me to hit the road again to start the 2009 season. This year, I decided to start my Australian Open warm-up season in Chennai, India. I had always wanted to go to India, because everyone who has been there told me that it's a very a life-changing experience.

I flew from Chicago to Delhi and had to spend my first night there and then catch a morning flight to Chennai. I had made a booking at nearby hotel and my only real task was catching a cab there. I walked outside about 11pm on a Friday night and it was absolute chaos out there. That night it seemed that every person in the world was a taxi and they all wanted my business! I finally found a cab that seemed to be somewhat legitimate and we were off to the hotel.

Now, I have been to a few countries in my day and seen my share of traffic, but nothing like this! There were no lanes, no rules and more types of vehicles than I had seen in my life. I mean who gets the right of way between a bus, a rickshaw (like a 3 wheeled cab), a man pulling a cart on his back or us. It was one of the more thrilling cab rides I had ever been on. Including going the wrong way on a 5 lane road because my driver said otherwise he would have to loop around to get to the hotel, that may have been the highlight.

I'm sure you have all heard about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) a few weeks back, so you can imagine the heightened security at the hotels. My only surprise was how it was used. They searched our car, sent the dog into the back and looked under the car with a moving mirror. Next, I went through the metal detector to get in the hotel and I set off the alarm. I quickly backed out and started emptying my pockets, but the hotel staff waived me through saying that this detector is not for me! What??? I thought this was crazy, but it was the same scene in Chennai too. Walk through the detector, alarms go off, then you just go in the hotel. I mean what is the point of this thing???

So, when I got to Chennai, it was time to start preparing for the tournament. I was playing with Rajeev Ram from Indianapolis, but his parents were born in Bangalore, India, so we had some hometown support there. Our first match we drew Indian wild cards Harsh Mankad and Yuki Bahmbri. It was quite a crazy draw because I had spent the last couple weeks in Minnesota training with Harsh.

We got through that match and the next one quite comfortably dropping only 8 games between the two matches. Rajeev, who also qualified in singles was really playing sharp, I was more or less just holding my own in the first couple.

The big key with playing in India is to not get sick. Everyone has their theories on how to beat it. Some players were literally only eating bread and rice, the Russian guys were convinced that all you needed was 2 shots of vodka after each meal and that will kill any bacteria, others had even crazier ideas. I initially was going to try live off mostly power bars and lay off the chicken curry. Then, I arrived, realized that Indian food is my favorite thing in the world and ended up eating different types of spicy curry for breakfast lunch and dinner. Its been about 10 days and I still haven't started turning yellow from malaria, so I think I'm in the clear.

In the semis, we were set to play the German team of Shuettler/Phau and they wound up pulling out due to Shuettler hurting his wrist. Its not the ideal way to make it into the finals, but we'll take it.

The finals on Sunday were quite exciting. In the singles, local wild card Somdev Devvarmen (and good friend of mine) was playing Marin Cilic. Somdev just graduated from Virginia last year and has only been on the tour 6 months, so to make the finals of a tour event was really exciting for him, and the whole country of India. He was on the front page of the Times every day and the stadium was absolutely packed for the final, which he unfortunately lost. But, he is a great player and even better kid and it was so great to see such a young kid handle all the pressure with a constant smile on his face. I was very happy for him.

We got the benefit though of playing right afterwards and there still probably 5,000 people still around to watch the doubles. Ever since the beginning of the Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati era, the Indians have been crazy about doubles. Rajeev and I picked up right where we left off in the quarterfinals and took the final 6-3, 6-4.

It was great to take my 5th title of my career, but it made it even more special to share it with Rajeev. He had so many friends and family there (including his parents who flew over from Indianapolis to watch) and it was the first title of his career. Now, my goal is convincing him to play with me more.

Since all the flights from India to Australia leave at night we had to head straight to the airport after the ceremony ended. It was actually quite cool walking through the airport, because the match had been shown all across the airport just 2 hours earlier. We also traveled to Australia with Bhupati, who is a national hero there. I've never seen a doubles player get treated like a rock star before, but they loved him in India.

This week I am in Brisbane training with former RTC pro Gareth Keating and I will be off to Melbourne on Friday to prepare for the Aussie Open.

More blogs to come this year....

Eric Butorac

Supported by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA)

http://www.itatennis.com/