Australia's leading tennis academy
Marinko’s lead up to Davis Cup
Sep 8th
After spending a long year on the road Marinko returns back to Australia to prepare for Australia’s Davis Cup tie against Belgium. We welcome him with great pleasure at Griffith University Tennis Centre this week and if you see him around do come and say hi. Another great learning opportunity for all our Juniors in Pure Tennis Academy.
Welcome home Marinko.
The Big Smoke
Aug 23rd
As we get close to one of the biggest tournaments (US Open) of the year we head into the hustle and bustle of New York City.
We arrived JFK airport last weekend and we got in a rental car. It took us 2hrs to move 2 miles down the first highway we hit. It’s one large city with a lot of people. The way we see it, we better get used to the hustle and bustle now so it becomes normal by the time the tournament starts and its no big shock to the system.
The boys preparation has been great and they have done a solid week of training here in New York. With approximately 4 hours a day on court and 2 hours in the gym doing fitness and weights it hasn’t left much time for anything else apart from eating and sleeping. The boys did get a chance to see central park on one of their days off and enjoyed the city for what it is but apart from that it’s all work this week.
Dayne Kelly went and competed this week at the New Haven tour event. He came into the tournament having done a lot of miles in the legs and constantly improving his game everyday we were on the court. He ran into a tough draw playing Mikhail Kukushkin (ranked 80 in the world) first round of qualifying. The boys slugged it out and fought a tough battle. Dayne went down 46 36 but had only positives to take from the match as he created 8 break points and took Kukushkin serve to deuce on 5 occasions. It’s quite clear that Dayne can compete with the top 100 men in the world and it’s just a matter of time until he becomes one himself.
Dayne Kelly - Pushing the body to the limits
The US Open men’s qualifying begins this Tuesday and the boys are keen to get out on court and do some damage.
On another note; On the eve of the US Open I have been fortunate enough to be able to sit inside an ATP tour coaching conference with some of the worlds most exclusive coaches. A fantastic way of learning with such knowledge at the table, and a great way to keep my skills up to date. We may even be fortunate enough to have some of the worlds exclusive coaches visit our club as we are very quickly recognised as the leading academy in Australia with having 3 of Australia’s top 15 men onboard and some of our leading juniors are also stepping up to find the mark.
I hope you are all having a successful trip in Toowoomba and I look forward to hearing the results and I will see you all late next week.
Tip for the week: Don’t over complicate things. Find consistency in what you do and work extremely hard to get good at doing whatever it may be. The sport is not a complicated sport unless you allow it to be.
Marc Kimmich
Director / Head Coach of Pure Tennis Academy
LA and Vancouver
Aug 5th
Hi Everyone,
So the perks of the tour begin to shine and the finer things in life begin to appear with 2 spectacular venues back to back and the likes of Keith Urban entertain for us in LA tour event.
Marc at Keith Urban Concert
The boys (Marinko Matosevic and Dayne Kelly) went into the LA with high expectations and were hoping to do battle in the later stages of the tournament with the likes of Andy Murray and Sam Querrey, however that was not to be. Dayne went down in qualifying in a what some would call a one sided affair. However as much as the battle was one sided on the score board it had no sign of how tough the battle was. Dayne went into the match working on several things in his game (as he is a player who looks for improvement every week and is not about the short term results rather long term) so the match was always going to be tough for him. He managed to pull some of the things off but most of all it was another stage of learning and a very simple way for him to expose his game and reep the rewards for constantly learning (which showed in his following week).
Marinko on the other hand was still fighting a bad virus after his victory in Aptos, California. He tried his little heart out but at the end of the day his energy levels were just too low to be competing at that level. So it was another week of recovery for him and small amounts of training leading into Vancouver, Canada.
VIP Sky Lounge, Vancouver Canada
As we arrive in beautiful Vancouver the boys feel very at home and appreciate one of the finer tournaments in life. We settled straight into the practice courts with a 2 hour session after our flight however the boys felt a little tired after the flight so off we went to lodge ourselves in the ‘travel lodge’ hotel for the evening.
The next morning we moved into our beautiful housing. We are staying with a family in Vancouver that has been so kind to the boys and have offered to house us for the week (a lot of this happens in the USA and Canada). So being in a spectacular house over looking the ocean it’s hard to have bad preparation leading into the tournament (The boys trained very hard for the remainder of the week and had good preparation leading into the tournament).
Dayne went out to strike first blood in the tournament and did so very successfully with a ‘bye’ in the opening round. His next opponent was Adam Feeney (who has been in good form after qualifying and making 2nd round for his last challenger event). Dayne beat Adam 2 weeks ago in Aptos but he knew he would be in for a tough match. The first set went to Adam 6-4 and Adam kept his foot on the peddel to get to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd set. Dayne however, being the fighter that he is made his comeback. He crawled himself back into the match and reeled off the next 11 out of 13 games and won the second set 6-4 and got himself a healthy 5-1 lead in the third. Adam then started to hit out and things started falling into his lap. Fighting qualities were to be much admired by both boys and the standard was very high. Adam fired off all cylinders for the remainder of the match and reeled off 6 games straight to take the match 7-5 in the third. A tough day in the office but again a learning curve and much is to be learnt from matches like this. ‘Such is Tennis’.
Vancouver, Canada
Marinko opened up his first round match against follow Australian Matthew Ebden. It was always going to be a tough match however Marinko had his game plan and he stuck to it. He faced 3 set points against himself in the first set tiebreak being down 3-6. He fought them off and won the tiebreak 9-7. He then began to start playing some ball and he took the second set quite easily. 7-6 6-2. Once again, ’such is tennis’. He now plays follow Australian Chris Guccione in his 2nd round.
I hope you are all training very hard back home and I trust that your preparation for Toowoomba is going well. I look forward to hearing from you all on hear, even if it’s just to say hi.
Stay well and work hard guys and girls and Marinko’s words of inspiration to you all this week are: ‘fight the good fight’.
Marc Kimmich
Director & Head Coach of Pure Tennis Academy
ATP tour weekly update
Jul 23rd
Hello Everyone,
I trust that you are all well and are working hard on developing your games.
Our trip leading into the US Open has been successful and eventful after just week one. I arrived on Thursday just in time for quarter finals day at Aptos, California. After a 19 hour Journey to the tournament site Marinko and I (Marc Kimmich) went straight out on court to do a session. Marinko was striking the ball quite well and eager to get on for his match and compete. He definitely competed and came out on top after a tough 64 64 win over Stadler. After his match we went straight back on court to work on some things and we also started putting together a game plan for his semi-final match against Carsten Ball. After 30minutes we decided to pack up shop and hit the gym for another 30minutes or so before we headed back to the housing we had (10meters from the beach) in Aptos with Ed and his son Evan.
After a good nights sleep we woke up and had breakfast on the balcony over looking the beach. A perfect relaxing morning in preperation for Marinko’s semi-final. When 10am hit it was go time and Marinko was playing fellow Australian Carsten Ball. It was a fast paced match with big serves setting the tempo for the match right from the word go. Once again Marinko battled out a tough 64 64 to lead into his 3rd challenger final.
We woke up early on finals day after having little sleep due to some noises around the apartment. Marinko was on edge and his mind was all over the place. We arrived the courts after a rushed morning to find out Marinko had left some of his equipment behind which he needed for his match. After an attempted warm up (2minutes) we decided it would be best if I went back to get his equipment rather then warm up. I got back 2minutes before his match with his equipment and Marinko went straight out on court. Marinko was still on edge and very unsteady in his mind. He fought got down an early break 2-4 before his mind kicked in. From there it was time for Mr Marinko Matosevic to put his game face on. He rattled off 6 consecutive games and continued his running form to take out his first ATP challenger titled winning the match 6-4 6-2 against Donald Young.
After a quick celebration we headed off to Lexington, Kentucky. Dayne Kelly had already lost in qualifying and Marinko was very tired after his Aptos performance. Match day arrived the next day for Marinko and he woke up rather sick. He attempted to play his match and fought a tough battle but struggled to pull out a win. We are now in Los Angeles and his recovery has been good and both there training has been solid. We look forward to another successful week and I will report back to you all soon. Feel free to leave comments guys and I will do my best to get back to you all in a timely fashion. Bye for now.
Written By Marc Kimmich (Director & Head Coach of Pure Tennis Academy)
Marinko Matosevic wins title
Jul 23rd
Marinko Matosevic has claimed the first ATP Challenger title of his career with victory at the $75,000 Comerica Bank Challenger in Aptos, California.
The unseeded Australian didn’t drop a set all week and claimed the final 6-4 6-2 over third seeded American Donald Young.
After knocking off top seed Rajeev Ram (world ranking 97) in the first round, Matosevic went to beat fellow Australian & Davis Cup member Carsten Ball (world ranking 120) in the semifinals and Young (world ranking 105) in the title match.
For his efforts, Matosevic takes home USD$10,800 and a bucket load of rankings points.
On Monday, he rocketed up 51 spots in the world rankings to a career high world No.159.
Matosevic has had arguably his best year to date, qualifying for the main draw of two ATP events in Sydney and Indian Wells as well as reaching the final of another Challenger event in Ojai two weeks ago
Marinko Matosevic strides his way into the 2nd round at Indian Wells
Feb 8th
Australia’s Marinko Matosevic has scored an unlikely 6-3 6-0 win over Frenchman and world No.65 Michael Llodra in their first-round encounter at Indian Wells on Friday.
The 24 year old battled his way through qualifying, where he disposed of Illya Marchenko and former junior star Donald Young to qualify for the ATP 1000 event.
Despite going in as the underdog, Matosevic needed only 50 minutes to see off the former world No.34 to score one of his best wins on the ATP tour.
Llodra struggled against a fired up Matosevic who had 14 break point opportunities throughout the match and converted six.
Matosevic will now face ninth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round, while Australia’s Peter Luczak will face another Frenchman, Arnaud Clement, for a spot in the second round.