[peteyjones13]

Hey guys,

So I have a question for you. I've played tennis all my life, and I want to play 1 or 2 ITF futures tournaments. I'm 26, turning 27 soon, know I have zero future in tennis lol, but just would love the experience. Looking at the ITF website, I see that I can register. I'm just wondering, if there's an ITF futures tournament in Toronto lets say, would I actually be able to get into the qualifying tournament if I just applied for it? (assuming I've registered and paid the ITF fees etc.) Is it that easy? Or would my name go into a random draw, and I would be unlikely to make the qualifying tournament?

Thanks so much in advance for your responses. Tough loss for Milos today . Hoping for big things this year from Vasek/Peter!

[scarecrows]

hi

if you have IPIN you can register for any tournament you want. Of course you'll be at the bottom of the list since you dont have ATP points or Candian ranking. But usually there are many withdrawals even a few days before the event so if you live in Toronto you can go there when there is the qualifying sign-in even if you're not on the list and see if there is an empty place

[scarecrows]

last year Toronto Futures had many byes in 1st round qual

http://www.itftennis.com/mens/tourna...ent=1100024922

64 draw though

[peteyjones13]

I'm going to play qualifying at the futures in Toronto at the Donalda Club starting tomorrow lol. I have no idea if I'll be competitive at all or if I'll just lose 6-0, 6-0. We'll see!

[Snowwy]

Good luck.

[Snowwy]

Assuming that Peter is your name, and it may not be, there is only one Peter in the main draw. So you got to the second round of a futures qualifying draw

Actually though, I have never heard of anyone in your section (if that is you) so at least you avoided Eric Quigley.

I will be interested to see how Egor Kole... does, I played in an event that he was in (tennis Ontario) a few weeks ago.

[peteyjones13]

Hey guys,

I got crushed by Josh Graves, who was a tennis star at Northwestern, and has just recently graduated and will try his luck on the futures circuit. Right from the beginning I realized that I had no chance in hell lol. My groundstrokes are solid, but my serve is a joke. If I could get into a rally with him, I had a small chance of winning the point, but I rarely got in any rallies with him as his serve was amazing and hard to return, and my serve sucks. (Don't get me wrong, even in rallies he would win the majority of the points) Anyways, it was really cool to get a chance to play, and hopefully this Josh Graves guy goes somewhere so that I can say I played him lol.

[mayumashu]

Good stuff. I guess you were on the right surface for your game.

Would love to do what you did, just once, despite my age. Maybe if we get a Futures event in Halifax and I learn to hit a decent top-spin forehand... (Just the opposite - I can serve big and volley okay but have a very poor ground game. Hey, I played from 14 to 18 recreationally and started again a year ago, am now 41, so what can be expected?) It's all about having a go, realizing the experience.

[peteyjones13]

So I played the futures qualifying today for the Parkway tournament, and I won my match! lol.

I played a guy who was 50 years old. The level of our play was embarrassingly inferior to all of the courts around us.
It was an intense match. I won the first set 6-4, and was up 5-1 in the second set tiebreaker. He came back/I choked and he took the 2nd set breaker. In the third set, he was up 3-0. I started playing ridiculously conservatively just pushing balls back, chasing balls down, not missing. I battled back and won 7-5 in the third!

We both got extremely lucky playing each other in the draw.

I'm playing Josh Graves again tomorrow (who beat me 6-0, 6-0 my first futures qualifying match). I have no shot of winning, but I would be disappointed if I don't win 1 game.

Just thought I'd let you guys know my futures experience in case any of you are curious!

[peteyjones13]

Originally Posted by mayumashu

Good stuff. I guess you were on the right surface for your game.

Would love to do what you did, just once, despite my age. Maybe if we get a Futures event in Halifax and I learn to hit a decent top-spin forehand... (Just the opposite - I can serve big and volley okay but have a very poor ground game. Hey, I played from 14 to 18 recreationally and started again a year ago, am now 41, so what can be expected?) It's all about having a go, realizing the experience.

Ya man. It's just nice be able to say you played. I hope a futures comes to Halifax, or somehow, you get to play one some other way. All the best! And the guy I played today was 50, so your age is not an obstacle!

[Keech]

Originally Posted by peteyjones13

So I played the futures qualifying today for the Parkway tournament, and I won my match! lol.

I played a guy who was 50 years old. The level of our play was embarrassingly inferior to all of the courts around us.
It was an intense match. I won the first set 6-4, and was up 5-1 in the second set tiebreaker. He came back/I choked and he took the 2nd set breaker. In the third set, he was up 3-0. I started playing ridiculously conservatively just pushing balls back, chasing balls down, not missing. I battled back and won 7-5 in the third!

We both got extremely lucky playing each other in the draw.

I'm playing Josh Graves again tomorrow (who beat me 6-0, 6-0 my first futures qualifying match). I have no shot of winning, but I would be disappointed if I don't win 1 game.

Just thought I'd let you guys know my futures experience in case any of you are curious!

Oh wow, Peter! I see you on the qualie draw there! Very best of luck to you against Joshua Graves! ..Love your perspective on the whole thing. ..Please keep us in the loop on your activities

[Keech]

Originally Posted by Keech

Oh wow, Peter! I see you on the qualie draw there! Very best of luck to you against Joshua Graves! ..Love your perspective on the whole thing. ..Please keep us in the loop on your activities

oh and, most of all, Have Fun!

[peteyjones13]

Thanks for your kind words!

[156mphserve]

Awesome win, congrats

Doesn't matter his age or the level of play, you beat they player they gave you, and now you can say you've won a match in futures qualies

[mayumashu]

Way to come back to take the third set. Get a game of Graves and you never know, it might throw him a bit, then next thing you know, you get another. He could get injuried (play a few balls at his feet, test his ankles!), you never know. Be cool to play a guy in the 500s, if you somehow get through. All the best