Luck be a lady

Hey there,

Hope this entry finds everyone well. It’s been a while but I have good excuses! ;P

So I just got back from San Diego as I joined the Wilson crew at the last stop of our tour to show off our new 2013 tennis rackets to partners, dealers/retailers and a few select juniors and club players. It was super insightful to hear the feedback on our products and to see everyone get psyched about our new revolutionary racket technology. We also had the Tennis Channel there to check it out, which was rad! I am not going to get into detail about it just yet, but let’s just say the words of Dead or Alive, these new Wilson tennis rackets “SPIN YOU RIGHT ROUND!!!” 😉

And you will definitely hear more about it in the weeks to come…. but if you are super eager, you might want to keep an eye on Tennis Channel! 😉

But for now, let’s talk about my Wilson peeps…… we have all been grinding it hard, giving that one big final push to the end of year and making sure we are lined up properly to have a great 2013. The tough part? Saying Ciao to a couple of my favorite people, Mario Vergara & his wife Melissa. They have been a big part of enjoying Chicago and I will definitely miss them! Between them and Kenny leaving, I feel a bit abandoned…. The good news, there are some additions to the team to help us continue to grow in the online space and give a different perspective on the tennis life. In the next weeks, you will see entries and postings from our new Digital Specialist, Lauren Adermann. Please welcome her! 🙂 I’m really excited to have another person to work closely with and we will also have another new member to the team, Anna, who will start in the next few weeks.

It’s been an extremely crazy 6-8 month GRIND, but seems like everything is finally coming together…

I have been quite reflective these past few weeks (might have something to do with getting a year older!) but I feel really lucky to have found my rhythm here in Chicago. The people I work with, the friends I have made, have really made it a fun experience. As most of my friends and family know, I am not a ‘winter lover’ and am a serious creature of habit, but right now I’m having a blast and can’t imagine being anywhere else.

I feel lucky to go to work and being excited to work with the team, bustin it, laughing and have intellectual debates on what we should do. If you enjoy and respect the people you work with, it’s a huge bonus. (Not sure if the crew feel the same about me, but anyway… ha) And out of the office, I have my spots. Piccolo Sogno AT LEAST once a week…Tony and Ciro are the best!!!! And Billy’s  Sunda & Underground when I feel like misbehaving… lol

Not sure why, but I have been always fortunate enough to have people look after me and they let me experience some cool s**t with them……and you will get to see  some of it coming up when Grigor Dimitrov hits Chicago with Wilson!! 🙂 ….. More to come on that….

Until later,

Tracy

Wilson General Manager Jon Muir doing an interview with Tennis Channel in San Diego

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

Wilson Team Goes for Gold!!!

Wilson is proud to have so many great athletes participate in this years games in London! COME ON!!

 

Wilson players competing in London.

 

 

Dream date

Hey there,

It’s been a while! 🙂 We have been super busy here in Chicago, celebrating the great wins at Wimbledon for the Wilson team (6 titles!), preparing for US Open and 2013! It’s been uber hectic around the office but good things are happening and I have loved being here to enjoy the Chicago summer. There is definitely fun to be had in this city…(more on that at a later date!)

So onto the important stuff…. everyone has their dream date or their “free pass list” right?! Mine would be something like having dinner with Ryan Reynolds at Piccolo Sogno, sharing a spaghetti neri Lady and the Tramp sytle (he better give me the extra meatball or shrimp!) or surfing at home in Indialantic with Kelly Slater followed by a beach bonfire!! LOL

Well that’s my dream but for others, it is to meet some of the world best tennis players to have a hit and some fun conversation over lunch….. Hence, our Win a Date contest! So FINALLY, after our required legal checklist, we can announce the winners…

Drum roll please……………………..

So the winners to have a date with Feliciano Lopez and Petra Kvitova are……………… 

William Thach & Jennifer Ray!!!

Our sincerest congrats and look forward to meeting both of you!

So now in the next few days we will try to coordinate these wonderful peoples schedules to meet up with our players schedules… not easy! But we’ll get ‘er done!

Wilson Tennis, making dream dates come true!!! 😉

Until later,

Tracy

PS You may want to check back on Monday, will have some cool stuff we will be putting on our website and social media pages. 🙂

Jennifer Ray will have a blast with Feliciano Lopez!!

William Thach is ready for his day in the sun with Petra Kvitova!!

Wilson Team Effort Brings the Funny

So I finally can go into depth on officially my favorite Wilson video I have done thus far!! 🙂

This Wilson Steam video is based on all those learning center ads you see on tv for the kids that are struggling at school and the learning center helps them get the best out of themselves.. blah blah blah.

It is my favorite piece we have done so far, the acting is so good that some of the feedback so far has been that people think we are being serious!! It’s a dramedy people!!! haha  Although I do think every junior tennis player has gone through these type of conversations with their parents after a tough loss though, right?!  😉

So how did we end up there?! So while I definitely had the Juice infomercial locked and loaded, I knew I needed something for Steam. After discussing my favorite informercials with Kari Brown, GM Jon Muir’s assistant (who has the great challenge of sitting accross from me daily) brings up a local ad that we see on tv often. The acting was so over the top awesome that we had to make it our own.

That’s what I love about this video, it was not just my idea…. so many people were involved and I feel lucky to work with so many cool and creative people!! We had Mario helped bring in some players, our juniors Gabby Andrews and Bryce Pereira, their fathers, mothers, coaches, aunts and uncles play the parents, my friend Brandis and her student Joe (he’s the kids that promises to try harder), Kei Nishikori makes an appearance, Robin behind the camera, cleaning the edits and then we had US Sales Manager Jeffery Adams do the voiceover! lol  Now for those of you who don’t know Jeffery, to have him talk as fast as he could during the “paid advertisement” part was the best part! It was definitely out of his comfort zone, but he did an amazing job! We did all his voiceovers in the IW hotel room and it looked weird with 3 of us sitting there, but it was super effective!! You guys have to pay attention to the great words he is saying UBER fast… someone very funny wrote it 😉  

Also, wanted to recognize a great addition to the Wilson team, Robin Fenlon. He has been our digital videographer on the videos you saw from Indian Wells through now. He is  amazing fun to work with…. just by chance I met him through a friend and he has been a great asset to our social media and instrumental in making the scripts that I have had on the pages for a while  come alive!! Psyched to work with him… and even more psyched about what we have planned Roland Garros… can’t wait to share it with you guys!!!

Until later,

Tracy

Jeffery Adams working the mic for Wilson vid!

Robin doin work

 

We’re baaaaaccckkkkk!!!! Indian Wells, here we go!

Sometimes you just need to get high!! lol Climbing the fence to get the shot of the Wilson Steam that we want on camera

Good morning everyone!

So it’s 1am here in Newport Beach, California and oddly enough I just woke up from going to bed at 11pm and I have to be up at 4:30am to head to Indian Wells…..I think it’s common when you know you have to get up early, that you really don’t sleep…. so thought I might as well takes this opportunity to write the 1st entry for IW! 😉

The last couple of days have been spent shooting video with Vika Azarenka, some of our young upcoming American tennis players and some local junior players…. it has been a blast!!!

I don’t want too give too much away, so I am going to let some photos from the shoot do the talking….

Hopefully the video is as funny as it is in our heads and as much fun as we had shooting it!!!

It’s off to the desert in a couple of hrs to shoot some more ‘Evidence’ for the Juice and Steam ads….. my boss Mike gets in today and we will be shooting some legality stuff…. rumor has it the wind is supposed to be killer next couple of days… hope it doesn’t become an issue…..

Will write more when I am not completely delirious… it was a long couple of days and the next two days will also be EXTENDED!!

Let’s cross our fingers we get some good stuff that you will enjoy. 🙂

Until later,

Tracy

Gabby Andrews is ready for her close-up with Wilson Steam tennis racket

Shooting the Wilson Juice tennis racket

Bryce doing his best acting with the Wilson Juice!

Wilson players through to the Australian Open semis

Wilson owns more Grand Slam titles than any other brand and the Wilson team is finding success down under.
We are deep into the draw of the Australian Open and will continue to root these players on as they vie for a 2012 title.

Roger Federer plays with the Wilson Pro Staff 90 tennis racket

Roger Federer plays with the Wilson Pro Staff 90 tennis racket

Roger Federer used his Wilson Pro Staff 90 to grab a straight set win over Juan Martín del Potro and set up the match up everyone was anticipating…. Fed vs. Nadal – 2012 Australian Open semifinals.

Roger Federer carries the Pro Staff legacy. The Pro Staff has been cherished by the game’s greatest icons, including Federer, Sampras, Edberg and Courier. With it’s braided graphite construction, this racket provides the perfect blend of control and feel.

Roger’s gear:
Pro Staff 90 tennis racket
Federer 15 pack tennis bag
Pro Overgrip white
Champions Choice String

Inside Fed’s Head: http://www.youtube.com/user/WilsonRacquet?feature=mhee#p/c/CFFA70455A6713ED/0/Yn2mvu1HJWw>

Petra Kvitova plays with the Wilson Steam tennis racket

Petra Kvitova plays with the Wilson Steam tennis racket

Petra Kvitová swings her Wilson Steam BLX tennis racket into the semis of the Australian Open after defeating Errani 6-4 6-4.

Petra’s gear:
Steam tennis racket
Tour 15 pack tennis bag red
Pro Overgrip Perforated white
W vibration dampener
Luxilon Alu Power 125

Interview goes overboard with Petra video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04b0zPAhc5E

Victoria Azarenka plays with the Wilson Juice tennis racket

Victoria Azarenka plays with the Wilson Juice tennis racket

Armed with the new Wilson Juice 100, Vika Azarenka is through to the Australian Open semis after defeating Radwanska 6-7 6-0 6-2.

Vika’s gear:
Juice 100
Tour 15 pack tennis bag blue
Luxilon Alu Power 125
W vibration dampener yellow

Inside the Life of Victoria Azarenka: http://www.youtube.com/user/WilsonRacquet?feature=mhee#p/c/045B09A310E7C768

Kei Nishikori plays with the Wilson Steam tennis racket

Kei Nishikori plays with the Wilson Steam tennis racket

Wilson Juice and Steam
With the success of Kei Nishikori becoming the 1st Japanese player to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals in 80+ years and 2 of the 4 players in the Women’s Semifinals playing with the new Wilson Juice and Steam, the rackets legality now comes into question….
Can rackets THIS GOOD really be legal?!
See the evidence: http://www.wilson.com/en-us/tennis/juice-steam/the-evidence/

Kei Nishikori spins Djokovic out of Basel

Kei Nishikori is continuing his strong run at the end of this ATP Calendar year.  Following his two singles wins in Davis Cup, Kei has reached the semi’s in Kuala Lumpur ATP (win over #11 Almagro), semi’s in Shanghai (win over #8 Tsonga) and this week in Basel, after a win over #6 Berdych, he now gets a HUGE win over world #1 Djokovic…handing Djokovic only his 4th loss of the year.

Kei is taking it to new levels….. this marks his 1st win over a world #1 and will likely be ranked within the Top 30 after this week. It’s awesome to see Kei going BIG…what’s the key to his new-found success? Could it be the racket? Could it be his upped fitness level? Could it be his coaching team? Who knows?! We are just proud Kei is doing well!!

GO KEI GO!!

 

Tennis for life!

Vamos Team Argentina!

Hey all,

Well, it’s been a really long September for the Wilson team.

After our long stint at the US Open, it was off to South Carolina to join our US Sales team and talk about 2012.We have some really cool new rackets coming in January and we were thrilled so show them off to the team. (For those of you that want a sneak peek, here’s a hint… check out our 2012 Wilson Tennis Apparel Fashion show on Facebook)

We managed to get plenty of on court time at this meeting. It is not very often that we all hit the courts together, so of course, we had to make it competitive and have our own Davis Cup/WTT competition… with a twist, of course!! 🙂 First, we had to come up with a team cheer…..yeah, let’s just say that it was not pretty, but extremely funny!! (ps My team definitely did not win this part!) So for the tennis, we had teams of approx 10, two courts going, and one court had to use junior tennis equipment and every team mate had to play at least one point. It was interesting to truly feel the difference between the transitional equipment and the standard and how it slows the ball down drastically and makes it that much easier for beginner kids and adults to play.  Of course, regardless of levels, everyone was super intense and I am happy to announce that my team, Team Argentina got the big W!! 🙂  Tour Manager, Mario Vergara was definitely the MVP of our team! lol Good fun!

Then after a good 5 days with the Wilson sales force, it was time to head to Saddlebrook in Wesley Chapel, FL for the USPTA World Conference. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be speak at this years conference and it was really cool to have many of the coaches and tennis people that I have respected and admired for many years support and attend my breakout to get to know more about social media. I feel lucky to have that experience and hopefully we got some people psyched on Twitter, Facebook, etc.!! 🙂

As an impending birthday approaches (yes I am getting old!) it is more and more apparent that tennis has brought me more opportunities than I could ever ask for. To have played from juniors to tour to teaching to now ‘the business’ , tennis really is the sport of a lifetime…. cheesy, right?! 😉

Well, that is my deep thought of the day…. now it’s all about 2012 and what we can do to get everyone crazy about tennis!

Until later,

Tracy