Almagro Retains Brasil Open 2012 Crown

World No. 11 Nicolas Almagro defeated Filippo Volandri 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in Sao Paulo Sunday to repeat as champion at the Brasil Open 2012. "This was not my best match here in Brazil, as I was tense and nervous," admitted Almagro. "But once again, I had control of my emotions, which is what I have always demanded, controlling the important moments. I think it's good to win a tournament and be able to think that I can still play a little better."

The top seed fired 18 aces, winning 88 per cent of his first serve points.  On his first match point, Almagro converted his fourth break of serve against the Italian to clinch the crown in two hours and two minutes. The Spaniard improved to a 7-3 record against Volandri, winning his fifth match in a row over the 30 year old. "I am happy. I am on a cloud, winning a tournament three times, and twice in a row," said Almagro. "It's hard. I got here and all I want is to continue working to keep improving in my career."

Almagro is the first wild card to win an ATP World Tour event since American Ryan Sweeting captured the US Men's Clay Court Championship trophy in Houston last year. All 11 of Almagro’s career titles have come on clay courts, and the victory marked his third triumph at the ATP World Tour 250 event, with successes in 2011 and 2008. When asked to select which one of the three stood out, Almagro said, "It is a hard question. I think all titles are equally important in your career. In 2008, it was an amazing tournament. I managed to beat Carlos Moya in a tough final. Then last year, it was the beginning of a run that I really could not have dreamed. I won in Brazil, I won Buenos Aires, and I was very close to winning Acapulco.
"It is always difficult to win two years in a row and this year was just as hard, because it was my third crown. Every title has a great place in my heart and is very difficult to choose one. I take all three and I hope that next year will be four."
Volandri was looking to end a title drought dating back to his win in Palmero six years ago. "I think I played another very good match today," said Volandri. "I tried my best and fought a lot. I think in the third set, I was playing better than him but he was serving unbelievable.
"This result is more than what I was expecting this week. It gives me a lot of confidence to keep on pushing through. If I am consistent, I can play with all the players, especially on clay."

How to choose tennis academy?

• Choose the program 

First, you need to decide the program and  how long you want to send a player to the tennis academy.

The main two types of programs are the summer camp and  professional program (compitition pro, academy training).

Summer tennis camp - a program for children from 6 to 16 years old in summer. Its better to start searching camps in March - April the latest, to be able to get all details, information about the academy and a visa (if required), and book tickets. In summer, the price of air tickets is increased. Many of the Academy will organize the camp, not only in the summer, but during the school holidays. If your child has a good tennis level, I would suggest choose a professional program for the summer period.

Professional program -  for any period of staying the whole year. Its always possibillity for joining groups any time during the year. I wont advice to come just for one week. A player will need time to adapt after the flight and get used to the training process and a new place. A minimum 2 weeks.  To evaluate the process of the traininig and understand  the whole idea you should plan your trip  for 1-3 months, then you can make right decision. 

If you would like to go to academy with a kid, you should inform the academy. Some academies dont approve parents in the training process of the kid.

• Choose the country

The basic countries, where are all the players are going for training, Europe (Spain, France, Italy) and USA, there are also plenty academies in Czech Republic, Emirates, Asia and Australia. 

• Pay attention to accomidation and meals for the player

Unfortanately, not all academies can provide accomidation in the academy. Most academies provide homestay (under 18 age) or apartments (from 18 age), or hotels. Situation with meal is more easier in all academies. They have cafes and restaurants inside.

• What academy is right for you?

There are 2 types of academies:

• Popular big commercial academies
• Small unknown clubs

Unfortunately, many academies are using the names of famous tennis players. No need to rely on a player name. Tennis bussiness is not easy to create in a few years. Create a database, find  an experienced coach, who can manage the process of training, good fitness coach, as well as people who are associated with tennis and understand a lot about tennis.

Some small clubs can also compete with other great academies. Plus, a small number of players and low prices for training, but the clubs have a problem with the visa in the long term.

Choose the academy with the experience more then one year. 

Check the number of players in the program. The more people, the less attention the player will get.

• Read the reviews

Try to get more information, who trains at the academy, if you play tournaments, you can meet coaches from the academies, watch how they comunicate with players, ask questions about their academy.

Reviews can help to get an idea of the academy, but dont believe them for 100%. Some reviews, that I read about academies, are far away from reality. 

• Is it worth to go to the academy? 

Yes, as the academy helps to understand the system of training, tennis player's lifestyle, each contry has different vision of teaching tennis.  

Davis Cup 2012: Spain -Austria in April

The defending champions’ next assignment will be a home tie against Austria in April 06-April 08.

Captain Corretja knows that it will be a very different proposition given the strength of Austria’s singles players, but has been encouraged by his team’s attitude this week, not to mention the number and variety of players he is able to call upon.

“There is only one team, we only have one team, but we have different players,” Corretja said. “We just use one team, and of course you need to pick players dependent on the surfaces, on the opponent, and that’s the only thing we play for, we don’t care about the other stuff, we just focus on our tennis.”

“It’s great to play home, of course, but lots of respect to Austria, they did great today, congratulate them, because it’s been a fantastic weekend for them as well, they had Russia at home which wasn’t easy, so it’s going to be interesting for us,” Corretja said.

Davis Cup 2012: Spain 5:0 Kazakhstan

OVIEDO, SPAIN: Spain confirmed its status as the leading nation in Davis Cup by BNP Paribas by completing a 5-0 whitewash of Kazakhstan on the final day of the first round tie between the two World Group nations.

The defending champions had sealed their place in April’s quarterfinals after impressive performances from Juan Carlos Ferrero and Nicolas Almagro in the singles on Friday, and Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers in yesterday’s doubles, but returned to the Palacio del los Deportes de Oviedo determined to show that they have the depth needed to retain the Davis Cup in 2012.

Evgeny Korolev replaced the injured Mikhail Kukushkin for Kazakhstan for the first of the reverse dead singles rubbers, hoping for a better performance on the court that he’d mustered in yesterday’s doubles. But Almagro, the Spanish No. 1, although not at the level he showed against Andrey Golubev on Friday, was too consistent for the Kazakh No. 3, needing just a single break of serve in the fifth game to take the first set 6-3.

Korolev stayed with Almagro throughout the second set, until forced to serve to stay in the match at 4-5. Fashioning match point off a Korolev error, Almagro converted it to win his fifth Davis Cup singles rubber 63 64 and put Spain 4-0 ahead.

The fifth and final rubber played out between Golubev and Granollers, making his Davis Cup singles debut. The 25-year-old Barcelona native did not disappoint, breaking to lead 3-1 in the opening set, before serving it out 63 as Golubev tried and failed to find a way back in to the match.

 

“When you start, you always dream to win, and if it’s 5-0 it’s even better,” Corretja said. "The main thing for me was to win, but today it’s important, when you go on the court you need to try your best, so I’m pleased to see that we also won again…thanks to all the team."

“Since the first day, we practise very well, we prepared the tie very focused, never easy to play on clay again after such a long time since the last tournament,” said Ferrero, who celebrated his 32nd birthday today. “It’s always nice to win 5-0, we expect that, but always you have to show it on the court, so we’re very happy about it.”

Happy Birthday Juan Carlos!!!

All of us, at some stage in our lives, will have spent our birthdays in a place out of the ordinary. For Juan Carlos Ferrero, though, he’s usually at home in Valencia, enjoying some much-needed post-Australian Open rest.

Not this year. Today, the occasion of his 32nd birthday, he was wrapped up warm on the Spanish bench, urging on his team-mates as they rounded off what has been a very successful weekend for the defending champions.

The crowd even sang ‘Cumpleaños Feliz’ to the Davis Cup stalwart, competing in his 17th tie this weekend, as he did a turn around the court before being thrown into the air by his team. New Spanish Davis Cup captain Alex Corretja followed the celebrations by presenting Ferrero with a birthday cake.

"I don't remember [the last time] that I spent my birthday here, usually I spend the day playing in Brazil, so it was very special to spend it here with all the team, here, very nice,” Ferrero said. “I expect something but I didn't expect the cake and all the people so I'm very happy about how they treat me here so I felt very special today.”

Many happy returns Juan Carlos. Here’s to a happy 32nd year!!!!