My first point...

Hello, 

Since you last heard from me I have had some great experiences. Including getting my ATP point.

When I first arrived in England for the grass tournaments, I had never played any matches on grass before, so was tough to keep up at first but got used to it eventually.

I had a rough couple of weeks in quallies, but then in the third tournament in a place called Frinton on sea, I met up with my coach Nick Turner. Nick helped push me through the qualifying rounds and into main draw where I managed to take down an Italian player ranked somewhere in the 900s, this gave me my first ATP ranking point. Was so good having Nick, his family and my good friend Marvin Barker there supporting me... big thanks to those mentioned. In the second round I faced Great Britain number 3 and Davis Cup player Daniel Evans who is ranked 300 and a very good player, I lost that match but took a lot from it!

This week in Dublin I qualified and played another Brit who is ranked about 640. I had a good first set but lost 3-6 6-4 6-1.

Feeling much more confident and ready to compete with the much higher ranked players after the last couple of weeks.

Bettink out!

On the road again

Since my last blog I have still been battling with my shoulder injury and was in Holland for a month doing rehab, getting back into some training, interclub and tournaments.

I played interclub matches for the ETV Volley Tennis Club, winning my singles and for the first time I played a mixed doubles which was certainly an experience, but we won so that helped the team a lot!

A few of the players from the academy and myself travelled up to Almere to do a Futures tournament. It was tough, I lost first round qualifying against a guy from Belgium ranked 720.  Didn't play as well as I had hoped!

Overall I had a good time in Holland, met plenty of nice people. The family and club took good care of me. I would like to thank Rhis Siegers, the physio on the off chance he sees this for the healing of my shoulder. Thanks Rhis.

Just last week I played my first tournament back on hard court in a small town in inland Spain. I still wasn't feeling that good mentally, although having a couple of good wins in the first rounds of qualifying was good before going down to the top seed in a tight 2 ½ hour match 4 and 4.

This week I am in Melilla, which is a small coastal town in northern Morocco, but Spanish territory, so I caught a ferry from Malaga to here, which was a peaceful experience as I just sat in the lounge for 3 hours. Lots of fog so no photos from the ferry. No extra fees for overweight baggage either!

Feeling a bit more positive this week, I am staying with a friend from Holland - Miliaan Niesten who scraped through into main draw. We are training hard together and trying to stay healthy, I have to remember I am now in North Africa and the water is not drinkable from the taps here like at home.

That's all from me for now, just looking forward to seeing some NZ faces soon in England!

Anton

Update from Anton .. 19 May 2011

After training on the clay courts at the academy in Holland it was time to head to Edinburgh. The accommodation was at the local university and quite a way from the tournament courts. I decided to move to a hotel that was closer and I was able to walk. Luckily I had a bye in the first round and won in the second round. In the last round of quallies I found myself subdued to a shoulder injury and was forced to cease play, which is rather frustrating. 
Fortunately my friend Miles Bugby opted to put me up in a place full of uni students in a town called Bath, they all had exams so Miles and I were left to do plenty of rehab work. Bath is 160 miles west of london and a good hour and a half on the train...

We were both entered into the next tournament in Newcastle but decided it would be in our best interests to wait until we were back 100% physically fit again, so we did a little sight seeing and tourist activities, taking some quick snapshots etc.
The next part of my journey led me to Wimbledon, London to stay with fellow kiwi Simon Gibbes who I traveled through Europe with in 2008/09. His family welcomed me with open arms and I had a very pleasant stay.

I ventured into London to do some touristy things which is a little out of character for me when traveling with the tennis bag. I got onto the London eye overseeing the whole of London. Such an experience for a mere 18 pounds.. though I regret not doing it in the night. If you are reading this and are going to London I would recommend you wait for a nice evening to go and do it!

Now, back to Holland after a bit of a rest! Keen and motivated to get back into routine, but physio went and cancelled that, so NO hitting until he gives the all clear. Still managing to go on some good runs and keep up with my fitness.

Regards
Anton

Anton's pictures of Antalya, Turkey

Pictures taken from the resorts in Antalya, Turkey. I did my own washing as it was 20 euros to do a load of washing.

Talking Turkey

Hi, my name is Anton Bettink. Thanks to TNR I have been given this opportunity to write this blog. I want to keep the Northern Region updated of what I am doing and how my tennis is going. 

In February I joined Marcel Vos, Marcus Daniel and Michael Venus in Antalya, Turkey, to play ITF futures tournaments on hard and clay surfaces.  For the first 2 weeks I trained with them before they went to the Davis cup in Uzbekistan. I stayed on to play in the tournaments having had some great wins and some tough losses, my best win was against a Polish player ranked 724 in the world and also getting into the main draw of one of the tournaments.

The tennis in Europe is a lot stronger than I have experienced. It has been difficult with the language of the locals and expensive to leave the resorts where the tournaments were held so didn't do any sightseeing. I did meet lots of great players form Sweden, Poland and South Africa and keep in regular contact with them, I even met up with Miles Bugby who I met last year in America. Miles was trained as a junior by TNR CEO David Frank. Small world! 

Having just arrived last week in Holland I will be training at Henk Van Hulst Academy. I am staying with a family in Eindhoven, they have 2 children around my age, one also trains at the tennis academy. Eindhoven is in the south of Holland and is one of the oldest cities. Each day we get up very early and catch a train and then a bus to the academy. When we arrive we do fitness, court practice and then do fitness and train again before we do stretching.

Marcus Daniel is also here with me so it is great to have someone I know who I can also learn from. It is then back on the bus and train at the end of the day, home cooked dinner and then bed. I will be playing some inter-club in the weekends. While the acadamy has a holiday break I'm off to the UK to join Miles to do ITF futures tournaments. After interclub has finished I will head to Spain or Italy to continue playing. 

Launching Soon!