OfFENCE?!

William Thach and Petra Kvitova

Hey there,

So yes, I know how to spell offense, but it’s a terribly horrible pun that I will explain!

Today Facebook contest winner William Thach met Petra Kvitova. William is a biochemical engineer that is a tennis fanatic. I was truly impressed with his knowledge of tennis, social media and most importantly, food!! So we documented the whole day (stay tuned for the video that will be out Monday August 27th) but let’s talk about what you won’t see on camera!

So after a great intimate lunch with Petra, William was nice enough to try and assist me with returning the table we used for the “romantic setting” … and who stops by to say hello from a long hiatus? None other than fellow Guinness World Record Holder Andrea Petkovic!!! It’s great to have Andrea back on tour, we’ve missed her so much and I’m so happy to have her smiling face back at the courts!! Anyway sidetracked… so William is helping me with the table and trips and takes down a fence!!! In front of Andrea!! Andrea says, “I don’t know these people!” HAHAHA Sorry, William…. no ofFENCE!!

So after that smoothness, we needed to grab some food and in my randomness, we went to try out some local food carts!!! As you foodies know, this is a huge trend in LA and is kind of growing all over…. especially, New Haven!!! LOL They had a whole road of carts and William’s Mom and I went for the Vietnamese, Robin went for Falafel and William went for Chinese…… I loved that William and his Mom were up for anything and joined us on a random food experience! We then went on an excursion for gelato and landed in New Haven’s Little Italy… which had NO GELATO?! REALLY?! Is that allowed?!

Anyway, all in all it was a good day, William was awesome and his best quality? Making fun of Robin! Asians stick together!!! haha

Tomorrow we have work to do: cover our Next Gen’rs and Exclusive athletes in Open qualies action!

Until later,

Tracy

Lunch dates are always filmed, right?!

Tracy Almeda-Singian, William Thach and Robin Fenlon

Summer of George?! How about Summer of Singian?!

Cy Dofitas, Mike Steck, Erika Offerdahl, Tracy Almeda-Singian & Mario Vergara after a successful US Sales Meeting with the Wilson crew

Hey there,

Well, I am going to make this a quick one as I have been up for about 19 hrs straight…..

Last week went really well and I am really proud to say that the 2013 videos were super well received and now all I have to do is negotiate music rights..kind of fun to do that since I never really am part of negotiations! Gonna utilize my lawyer skills! ha

All the other parts went rather well too, our whole team pulled it together and made things look amazing!! Not kidding when I say this, We have THE BEST TEAM!! Hands down….Seriously, it always keeps me motivated to see the crew so amped to succeed… nothing is better to help keep pushing you forward then to see others push the envelope when you are exhausted!!  Anyway, now we only have to make minor adjustments to certain parts of items to meet the language issues for each country… my fault, I did not think of that!! WOW, should’ve known right?! Rookie mistake with the new position.

Now that we are through sales meeting, my summer in Chicago is officially over… it’s been a blast to spend weekends with my friends, enjoy the great weather, restaurants and everything Chicago has to offer!!! I finally caught the Chicago Air Show for the 1st time!!  And got a killer view of the Blue Angels flying by my balcony!! AMAZING!!

US Open qualies starts tomorrow, but I’m in New Haven for tonight as we will meet up with Petra Kvitova tomorrow so she can meet her Facebook Win a Date winner William!!

I feel uber bad that I didn’t have time to catch up with the winner tonight as I have done for past winners, but seems like I am struggling to balance everything…. One thing is for sure, there was definitely work that needed to be done, so was glad to get it done….Just wrote 3 scripts for upcoming 2013 diddy with the one and only Federer… let’s hope the bosses like it!! 

Until later,

Tracy

PS Do you like the Seinfeld reference with Summer of George?!

Summer of George?! How about Summer of Singian?! ;P

Next Gen Lead Wilson Team into Semis

Wilson Next Gen are starting to come into their own and the 2012 Pro Staff & Juice tennis rackets continue to produce results.

MORE POTENTIAL. MORE DRIVE. MORE RISE.

WILSON MORE WIN.

Armed with her Wilson Blade 98, Next Gen’r Laura Robson reaches her 1st WTA semifinal in Palermo after defeating fellow Wilson player Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4 2-6 6-3.

Grigor Dimitrov swung his Wilson Pro Staff 95 to reach his 2nd ATP World Tour semifinal, defeating 3rd seed Ramos 7-6 7-3. He will now take on Ferrer for a spot in the Bastad final.

 

Alexandr Dolgopolov reaches the Umag semifinals after using his Wilson Pro Staff 95 to defeat Berlocq 6-4 6-4.

Wilson Exclusive athlete Barbora Zahlavova Strycova swung her Juice 100 into the Palermo semis

Jan Hajek reaches his 1st ATP World Tour semifinal of the year swinging the Wilson Juice to defeat Zopp 6-3 4-6 6-3

Want to celebrate Roger’s & Serena’s Wimbledon wins all day? Download their computer desktop wallpapers here

Victoria Azarenka wants to take a photo with you!!

1. Enjoy video

2. Follow @vika7 @wilsontennis on Twitter

3. Pick up a Wilson Juice tennis racket

4. Take a photo w/ Juice and tweet, ” @vika7 @wilsontennis Juice tennis racket = #MOREWIN”

And you just may get a ‘cool’ photo with Vika like ours below!

Good luck to all!

Until later,

Tracy

Goofin with Vika and Meilen

 

 

Rookie of the Year is Next Gen

So it’s Sunday night and I am watching 1993 movie Rookie of the Year as I type this blog… you know the movie, before Gary Busey became certifiably nuts, Home Alone star Daniel Stern directed & starred and Thomas Ian Nicholas as a super cute kid pre – American Pie status….

Guess it’s only fitting to watch this…… the movie is described as a Chicago boy who miraculously receives the gift of a powerful pitching arm to become a major league pitcher…. well,  every pro tennis player at one point was seen just as someone that had a special gift….. a big serve or great hands or tactician…. every athlete dreams of making it to the big time…. to have that breakthrough moment and have the admiration of all…

And almost every Grand Slam there seems to be someone who surprises us, elevates their game and captures our hearts… and perhaps becomes the ‘NEXT’ tennis superstar…. David Goffin was probably that great story at the French Open. Who will it be for Wimbledon?!

There is definitely some great potential out there and it is always fun to see who can take it to the next level and go from gifted to great.  We will be keeping a close eye on our Next Gen’rs in the first round, Laura Robson, Kristina Mladenovic, Arantxa Rus, Andrey Kuznetsov, Vasek Pospisil, Guillaume Rufin and many more…..

Would love to see these players reach their potential and become household names around the world!!!

GO WILSON NEXT GEN!!!

Until later,

Tracy

Guillaume Rufin swings his Wilson Blade tennis racket

Laura Robson plays with the Wilson Blade 98 Pink tennis racket

Getting to know Wilson Next Gen’r Jessica Pegula

Young American Jessica ‘Jessie’ Pegula continues to rise, reaching the finals of the $50,000 in Sacramento & the semifinals of $100,000 in Marseille to reach a career high #209 in the rankings this week. Using her Wilson Tour tennis racket, Jessie is a player to keep an eye on. Check out this short interview and hear what’s on her iPod playlist.

For Jessica’s playlist, click here

Favorite quote: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretsky

Craziest tennis moment:  Probably making 3rd round of the US Open doubles last year with Taylor Townsend. It was sort of a shock to me since I never considered myself an even average doubles player. It was definitely cool but if you ask anyone that worked with me previously, me making it that far in doubles is almost laughable. But it gave me a ton of confidence and now I’m almost top 100!

Stanley Cup or US Open trophy:  Both!

One word to describe your personal style:  Laid back

One word to describe your Wilson racquet: The best! I love it. It endures my racquet throws pretty well too. Kidding.

Top 5 songs to listen to before a match: Honestly I don’t really listen to music much before a match. So here’s what I do like

1. Anything Skrillex
2.  Anything Sammy Adams or Mac Miller.
3. Anything Luke Bryan.

MORE TITLES!!

Hey there,

Well, it’s Saturday and we have two brought home two Grand Slam titles from Roland Garros!!

Congrats to Mixed Dubs Champs Mahesh Bhupahti & Sania Mirza and Men’s Doubles Champions Max Mirnyi & Daniel Nestor!!!!

It’s really cool to have both teams playing all Wilson sticks!! The boys using the Six.One, which is probably the most popular racket on the ATP World Doubles Tour and Sania with the Juice….Did you know that MORE TITLES have been won with a Wilson racket than any other brand?! Sooooo Juice’y!!

What some of you probably also do not know is that Max and I have known each other since we were about 11 yrs old… we went to Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy together…. we were in Nick’s group and I am pretty sure I am the one who had the worst pro results out of all (Kournikova, Haas, etc) in the group…. that is, except for one other guy who shall remain nameless!! haha

Max is not only a great champ, but a great guy…. he represents Wilson so well at all times and we are lucky to have him… It’s really nice to see someone who has had great success in a sport be so humble and gracious and did not let success change him one bit. It’s often fun to see how people grow up and turn out… kinda funny we get to work together through Wilson!

And of course, we had to get Max and Daniel in the ‘beer commercial’ action so what better way to celebrate a Slam win then with this?! Enjoy!!

I’m in NY trying to enjoy some time with my Mom, so…..

Until later,

Tracy

2012 Roland Garros Men’s Doubles Champions Max Mirnyi & Daniel Nestor

2012 Roland Garros Mixed Doubles Champions Sania Mirza & Mahesh Bhupathi

 

Video Run

It’s 3:50am and I am wide awake! Not good when I have to run a 5k this morning!!!

Check out these videos….

#1 Eduardo Schwank has been on fire, getting through qualies and reaching the 3rd round with the Wilson Juice Pro, now he has the tall challenge of taking on Nadal later today.

#2 Petra Kvitova and her coach David show their acting skills. We had some uber talented peeps working on this video. Hey Cal, Munn and crew!

#3 Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau …. it’s no surprise these dudes are two of my favorites cause they are hilarious and they actually ad lib this piece. Think this is MEGA funny and I want to see it get more hits! Come on ladies, don’t see many better ways to spend 30 sec.

#4 Protest… as some of my colleagues said: “What’s more French than a protest?!” lol Check Paul-Henri Mathieu and Anne Keothavong in it. Help keep the Juice & Steam legal!!

Thanks again to all who sponsored my run. I will try to make you and Papa proud today!!

Until later,

Tracy

To donate to Pancreatic Research and support the Dash for Detection, click here

Balance

Although I am a Libra, balance is not something I do very well….heck, it’s 5am in the morning and I am writing a bloody blog!!!  ;P But sometimes we find balance, we find a way because there are events in our lives that change our views, our opinions, the way we live, etc… and that for me was Sept. 11, 2010, when my father passed from Pancreatic Cancer. Nothing is more difficult to deal with then the loss of a loved one and part of my healing process was to listen to my fathers advice and find a way to try and enjoy the great blessings we are given each day…….

I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to have great family, friends and a fun job that allows me to be around the sport I love and provides a platform that allows me to talk about the things I am passionate about… 

You may not know that pancreatic cancer is the nation’s fourth leading cause of cancer deaths, yet only 2% of all federal cancer research funding goes to pancreatic cancer. Research holds the key to finding better treatments and a cure, so that is why I am running the Dash for Detection in support of Pancreatic Cancer research, benefiting the Michael Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation and The Lustgarten Foundation this Saturday in Chicago.  Please support my run by clicking & donating here

So now back to the tennis talk!!   Yesterday we had a blast. I have to say I was super skeptical about our ‘protest’ to keep the Wilson Juice & Steam legal, but it actually turned out great!! It was super fun working with our Wilson France team…. We had Henri Leconte walk the streets of Paris with us, we had Paul Henri Mathieu stop by just before we started and then we had Anne Keothavong in a car thinking there was a serious protest going only to realize it was crazy Wilson!!! lol Check out the video. Test- can you tell what is shot with a professional camera and what clips are shot with the iPhone?! D**n iPhone shooting is more solid than you think!!

And after that it was a day of editing for Robin and I…. it’s great to have someone who edits much better than I do and now I focus on music for the videos!! lol It’s fun, but also not that easy since we make sure we use ‘street legal’ music so not to deal with royalties… so this makes Garage Band key!!!  DJ TSing in da house!! haha

In addition to the protest video, we also got a great video with Robert Lindstedt & Horia Tecau…. all I have to say is that these guys are hilarious and they took the concept to the next level!! I would like to take credit for the humor in it, but it was all them… gotta love guys who are willing to do anything for Wilson!! hahaha

So I gotta rap this blog up cause I have to pack…….

This trip from Rome-Florence-Vevey-Paris has been amazing both professionally and personally, but now it’s time for me to shift gears……

Back to Chicago this AM,

Until later,

Tracy

Eye Candy/Talent & Cougars

So it’s not an easy job but somebody’s gotta do it!!!. Yesterday was a fun day for me at the suite, there was a lot of…… well, how do we say it?!……TALENT… that came around….lol…….. I am not opposed to many good looking guys coming by the suite, being super nice and friendly…. so I just admire the view….Lukas Rosol, Joao Sousa, Horia Tecau, Robert Lindstedt, Feliciano Lopez & Eduardo Schwank all stopped by yesterday….. eye candy to the max…… it may have been the best looking day thus far All great guys, but think I am old enough to be their cougar!!! lol

Actually, one of the most frequent questions I get asked is: Which player would you date?

Well for the Wilson tour team, we have a policy that you do not date players or industry people….. This is important because tennis is sooooo small and as much as we (I) joke about the looks/talent, we really keep everything separated and professional. Not sure other brands are as serious as we are on this, but because tennis is so small, we all travel so much and are around the same people week after week, this is not an option…. what’s that saying? Don’t dip your pen in the company ink?!

Tennis is a company/small industry and definitely have to keep it kosher…..but think about the tennis players growing up on the road… it’s really not easy… Serious jr tennis players and pros leave their families and friends and are gone for 25+ weeks a year….Tennis is super international which makes it fun to experience all the different cultures, etc., but it can also reek havoc on your personal life……being gone more than 50% of the year, doesn’t really make a great base for a stable relationship….. in a new country every week, just trying to keep in contact with your loved ones via text, Skype, etc……you can never really replace one on one face time….. and if you told me 10 yrs ago when I retired from playing that I would be back on the road,with the same tennis traveling circus, I would’ve laughed in your face…  guess just like anything, it has its positives and it’s negatives!

So since we are on the dating theme for this entry, check out this fun video we shot with Alexandr Dolgopolov proposing to his…. well, you’ll see!!!

Will write more on this vid and our vid of our players who fought through the qualifying to make the main draw later, but gotta go get ready….today is the first day of main draw so it will be a long day at the courts….. 3 hrs of sleep total, but I am raring to go!!

LET’S DO IT WILSON TEAM!!!

Until later,

Tracy

Joao Sousa, Jacob Martin & Lukas Rosol at the Wilson suite in Paris