I made the picturesque* drive from Louisville to Lexington to help coach my school’s entrants in the KHSAA state singles and doubles tournaments hosted by the University of Kentucky. UK has enjoyed a lot of success recently in NCAA tennis losing to the eventual NCAA champions each of the past 3 seasons in the 2022 final round, 2023, and 2024 Elite 8s. (Losing to UVA, UVA, and TCU to be precise).

High School players from across the state face off in two singles and two doubles tournaments to determine the girl’s and boy’s Kentucky state champions.

My Quick Hits:

• Tennis players calling their own lines works out way better than one would expect. If a batter got to call his own strike zone, I think we’d see a lot of walks, but it speaks well of these high school players to make so many fair and reasonable calls.
• Most pro tournaments get more crowded with fans as the draw narrows. This event sees the players and cheering contingents generally leave when eliminated. Championship Thursday can be a bit quiet and sparsely crowded.
• Errors matter. I saw no paint drying push fests today. Sometimes, I did see points not being valued enough. A scintillating winner followed by an unforced error to start a game will leave the score at 15-15. There are no bonus points for cool-looking winners.
• Having said that, sometimes junior players overvalue points. A lost point should be quickly forgotten unless it carries a lesson that can help later in the match. One lost point need not turn into three. Brain Game Tennis provided some awesome insights that the very best champions in tennis history typically don’t win more than 55% of the points they play. Some of this is to be expected because nearly every ATP player has a formidable serve. Chasing perfection can doom a player.
• Doubles and momentum … can drive a coach crazy, but for today at least momentum swings good and bad did little harm.

* Picturesque if you like rolling hills, horse farms, race horses grazing, a castle [no joke], cool fences, and such.