January Recap 2023

When the alarm clock woke me up at around 2.1.2023 a.m. on January 7nd, 2, I was still a little dazed at first. The New Year's Eve party wasn't overly long, but you can still feel it a bit on the 4nd day of the year. After 2 weeks of training, Christmas and meeting old friends between the years, it was now back to business. 50 tournament weeks in Oieras, right near Lisbon. A Challenger 75 and a Challenger 2022, both weeks I had arranged with Constantin Frantzen, a German who is also an up-and-coming doubles player. We had already played together once in spring 2016, at a Future in Switzerland, and know each other well from the Challenger Tour. Since we both played college tennis in the USA and have similar interests outside of tennis, the team chemistry was right. Many years ago, in 2016, I was in Lisbon for the first time. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and has an excellent climate due to its southern location. There are numerous nightclubs, restaurants and bars that provide distraction. In 2, after the tournament, I spent XNUMX days sightseeing and looked at all the monuments and castles near Sintra. This year, apart from tennis, I only went to restaurants and a few bars. Tennis players are also normal people, our profession is sport or our childhood hobby, but even then you need a balance. Before I concentrate on the sporting recap, one more insider tip. If you are in Lisbon, visit the LX Factory, it is a district with cafes, restaurants and bars, all very compact, with international cuisines from Japan to Mexico. And there is one of the best chocolate cakes in the world at Café Landeau.

From a sporting point of view, things went well in Oieras, we were able to reach the semi-finals twice and defeat a top 2 team once. I consider the semi-final at Challenger 100 to be the first good result since my last semi-final in Bergamo in November last year. I'm in position 75 in the double world rankings, so in order to get into the top 136 and top 100 I have to get significantly further in the tournaments than before. 80 results count for the world rankings, my weakest of which is 18 points, which is equivalent to a ¼ final in a normal Challenger. In order to move up further, I need titles or at least semi-final results in normal Challenger tournaments.

Directly after Oieras, we went to Tenerife. An island in the Canary Islands, so I had to unpack my sunglasses and sunscreen right in January. Please no pity 😉

Tenerife was a Challenger 100, here I played with Denys Molchanov from Ukraine. A very experienced doubles player who has already won several titles on the ATP Tour. Unfortunately, we were defeated in the first round with 67, 26 against Jonny O'Mara and Szymon Walkow. Despite the early defeat, I was able to learn a lot and develop my game. The experienced Molchanov gave me a few tips along the way. On Thursday it was time to fly home, and after a night in Stuttgart I drove to Oldenburg to play a team game in the Northern League for the HTHC (Harvesterhude Tennis and Hockey Club). The team games are fun and I can also play individually there, and they also help me financially. I always draw a lot of strength from team games like this and come back to the tour stronger.

The last tournament in January was the 125K in Quimper, the biggest Challenger category before the ATP Tour. After a 2 month break I played here again with my regular partner Fabian Fallert. In the first round we had to give up the first set against Gregoire Barrere (Singles Top 85 ATP) and Matthias Bourgue, but we remained steadfast and were able to win the game in the match tiebreak. Then it was again against Jonny O'Mara and Szymon Walkow, again we were behind set and even break, but were able to turn the game around again and left the court as winners after the match tiebreak. The atmosphere at the French tournaments is unique; I don't know of any country where tennis fascinates people as much as in France. Maybe it's because the original form of tennis was once invented by French monks. In the semifinals we met the French Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul, both top 60 in the world in doubles. Quimper is in the north-west of France, the match was on the center court and we had not 2, but what felt like 2000 opponents. The crowd was united behind the French and we had another bad start to the game. This time we couldn't come back and had to admit defeat in the semi-finals. Still a very good week, the semifinals of the 125K tournament are equivalent to my greatest successes on the Challenger Tour to date. In February, Fabian Fallert and I will play in Koblenz, among other places, and with a bit of luck also at one or two ATP tournaments.

At the end of this recap, I would like to give you an exercise to get February off to a good start in terms of tennis.

The so-called 9 drill, a drill to improve the second serve. I got this drill from Alexander Waske, one of the most successful coaches in Germany and one of the best servers on the ATP Tour at the time.

The 9s drill is about playing the second serve into the field 9 times in a row. You should try to reproduce the same serve 9 times. Like the kick to the outside. If you manage 9 serves in a row, the drill is successfully completed. Don't get nervous on the 8th serve, if you make a mistake you start again at 0.

Good luck and sporting greetings,

Hendrik