I’m Just Saying with Sam Sweeney

Former Prairie Ridge tennis player and boys varsity coach Sam Sweeney will compete in the mixed doubles portion of the U.S. Open National Playoffs next weekend in New Haven, Conn., with a berth in the main draw of the Grand Slam event on the line. Sweeney recently moved back to Crystal Lake from New York. He has won the McHenry County Classic for eight straight years. He plans to travel to Turkey this fall to continue his singles playing career. For now, Sweeney maintains a busy schedule, training in the morning and coaching privately in the afternoon in Hinsdale.

I do have a sense of loyalty and I’m pretty proud to be from Crystal Lake, Illinois and I really enjoy that time (in the McHenry County Classic) with a lot of my peers. So I guess I come back (to the tournament) just to be loyal and support local tennis. I love for the game to grow around the area and so I keep coming back. It’s fun. Growing up playing tennis here just built a lot of confidence and taught me to believe in myself and being away from here makes me realize how nice it was to grow up here. It’s a great place to be from.

Obviously, (the U.S. Open playoff) is a huge opportunity for me to play in the main draw of a Grand Slam. That’s something not a lot people get an opportunity to do in the sport – it’s like the highest level. But I guess I’m someone who wants more. I guess I’m kind of greedy. But I want to work harder to get better and I’m going to have to do that if I want (to qualify for the U.S. Open). But it’s a nice opportunity to play against the best competition and to step it up. I see it more from an experience perspective and I think half the battle in tennis is believing and proving to yourself that you can play against the best. I don’t care what other people think of me. I care about proving this to myself and not letting myself down.

I’m pretty cool (about the qualifier) – I didn’t get a lot of matches in this year, but that’s kind of played to my benefit. I’ve struggled in the past with just not closing out matches and I actually started seeing a sports psychologist. And so, in terms of (picturing myself in the U.S. Open), I’m pretty relaxed about it. I’m here and I’m going to just enjoy the moment and see what happens. I’m pretty calm about it at this stage. I guess maybe because it’s doubles and I’m more of a singles player at heart, I’m pretty relaxed. I’m not too tight or nervous at this point. But it’s going to be tough either way just because I haven’t had a lot of matches this year, my movement isn’t quite where I want it to be and my fitness could be a little better and so playing doubles makes me a little more comfortable right now.

For me at this point, (tennis) is almost like a bad addiction. It’s something where I feel like I get better every year. And so, for me, it just makes me keep pursuing it. I keep getting better and so I just have to work harder to get that much better every year and work on different aspects of my game. I love the 1-on-1 competition aspect of it I still love to compete and it’s a lot more grueling than people give it credit for.

I’m Just Saying is a regular Sunday feature. If there’s someone you’d like to see featured here, write to me at jarnold@shawmedia.com or send me a message on Twitter @NWH_JeffArnold.