The Icing on the Summer Cake

We are down to the last few days of summer for Tyler.  He is reading as fast as he can to finish his history book before the first day of school.  Oh, and then he still needs to finish his summer math packet and create all those crazy login accounts for his new, school-issued MacBook.  Wow!  Where did the summer go?  Actually, his summer has been spent on the tennis court!  He did take a few weeks off to go to youth camp and a youth mission trip, but other than that he was on the court every possible day.  Many days we drove from a private lesson to a clinic to a quick match with Dad or a friend.  He has poured his heart and 10 gallons of sweet into improving his tennis game.  He has played in quite a few tournaments this summer, and he continues to improve his game playing skills.  This weekend the girls and I took him to a tournament in Hoover.  I was a little frustrated that we had to be up there at 3pm for a SECOND round match.  Why are they starting this tournament so early on Friday?  Anyway, he played a great match and won 6-4;7-5.  Needless to say I was proud of him.  On Saturday, he played a match at 8 am and came from down 4 games to win 7-6; 6-1.  

Tyler played again a few hours later in the semi-finals.  It was a GRUELING 4 hour match in the HOT Alabama sun.  He won the first set 6-3; lost the 2nd 5-7; the 3rd set was tied 6-6 so they went to a 7 point tie breaker where Tyler won.  I was one PROUD mama at this point.  I could not believe how hard he played to the very end!  Then he turned around and played a doubles match less than 30 minutes later.  Good thing the doubles competitors were not that good because Tyler was having a hard time with his serve at this point.  He relied a lot on his partner who had not played since early morning!

We returned Sunday morning for the FINAL match for singles.  He knew his competition because they had played doubles together a few weeks ago at the State Close in Montgomery.  These boys battled for 3 hours on their court while other courts played and walked off!  Tyler won 7-5; 2-6;6-3.  This is his first BOYS 14 first place!  Yeah!!!!

 After receiving his trophy, he was given 20 minutes to cool off and rehydrate before his doubles match began.  It is after noon, and the other 3 boys have been sitting around waiting since 10:30 to play!  They pulled together and rallied to a 8-5 victory which put them in the doubles FINALS to be played in 20 minutes!  They played against the boy Tyler had just beat in the singles finals.  Again, these boys stretched this match out as long as they could!  They were tied 8-8 and went to a tie breaker were Tyler and his partner clenched the Victory!!!!

Now, looking at my FRESHMAN standing with his 2 trophies makes all the running around this summer worth it!!!  

 Congratulations, Tyler!!!!