by Nadia Johnston
A Superbowl exhibition, beach tennis at Spring Break in Panama City Beach, three tournaments in Florida, one tournament in New York, and a regular partner. Add that all together and you have a very busy and quite successful start to the 2009 BTUSA season for me.
It all started in Tampa, FL with a Superbowl Exhibition, where BTUSA teamed up with the AVP Tour to show off our respective sand sports. This was definitely a BTUSA highlight for me. The Superbowl parties were a blast, Jimmy (Lorenzo) was chillin with Lil Wayne, and the mixed doubles team of “Team Sexy” (Mike Edison and myself) was born.
Panama City Beach was next for some Beach Tennis Spring Break style. I must admit being an Australian and never having experienced “spring break”, I was a little unsure of what to expect. What resulted was a beautiful beach (early in the morning before it was covered in beer cans), great weather, and a whole lot of College kids playing beach tennis. It was a great site!
Following the exhibitions, the 2009 BTUSA Tour got underway with the first stop in Clearwater, FL. A win there was a great start to the season., however the next event in Miami threw us a curve ball with some teams from Italy (the home of Beach Tennis) flying in for the event. Despite coming up short in the final, I felt like I personally played some of my best ever beach tennis, and really got a feel for how the game should be played.
Next stop was Fort Lauderdale, FL, and with another win under our belts there we then moved up to our backyard of Long Beach, NY to take that title as well. An added bonus in NY was a highly competitive and intense mixed doubles event, in which “Team Sexy” thrived on.
The biggest change for me this season has been teaming up with my old tennis buddy Nicole Melch. It has given a new element to my beach tennis game... a regular partner. This is something that I hadn‘t experienced, but that I am definitely liking.
So the wins in Clearwater, Fort Lauderdale and New York have put Nicole and I at the top of the women’s ranking, a position we will hope to take into the National Championships and hold on to. With the Maloney sisters not hitting the East Coast and myself not being able to venture west, the scene is set for a big showdown at the 2009 BTUSA National Championships. Bring it on!!!
Nadia Johnston is a three-time national beach tennis champion (2005-2007) and resides in Long Beach, NY.
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