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Hello and thank you for visiting MattsTennis.com.
I’m Matt Steverson, USRSA Master Racquet Technician and USPTA Certified tennis professional at Maitland Community Park. This site is designed to give you full insight into all my services, from lessons and classes at the park to full-service racquet stringing and grip replacement, and limited-quantity inventories of used and discontinued racquets.
I’ve been a tennis player since 1973, and was one of the players to start the program at NAIA powerhouse Auburn-Montgomery. I’ve taught tennis, either full- or part-time, since 1978.
I was one of the first stringers to be certified by the United States Racquet Stringers Association (USRSA) in 1986, and now hold the USRSA’s highest level of certification, Master Racquet Technician (MRT).
I self-published the newsletter Racquetech (some of which was featured on the Tennis Warehouse website), which helped usher in detailed equipment analysis, and examined ultra-lightweight racquet technology for the April 1999 issue of Tennis magazine. I’ve strung racquets at many top high school and college tournaments, and have handled tournament stringing for many top professional players, in addition to countless local casual and tournament players.
Do you need a racquet strung? Please click here to see my stringing rates. Please note, I’m also stringing racquetball racquets.
Please feel free to use my experience to help improve your game, either by using the tips and procedures outlined here, or by working directly with me. I can be reached by e-mail or by phone (407.701.9351). Also, check out my blog at groundstrokes.blogspot.com
Change of Place
Many of you who have been students of mine, and some who have watched from the sidelines, know of the recent turmoil in the Seminole County tennis programs. While ill-advised and largely unnecessary in my opinion, the Seminole County Leisure Services Department has taken it upon themselves to institute changes in the operations and staffing of Seminole County’s tennis programs. One of the changes has resulted in my departure as tennis professional at Sylvan Lake Park.
I felt that I had done an admirable job of building a program at Sylvan Lake, and that I had sacrificed a lot of time, trouble and income to do it. It seemed that these sacrifices were unnoticed and unappreciated by the powers-that-be at the County. Following what I felt was a poor offer from them -- one that would have me changing not only jobs, but locations, depending on which story you believe -- I decided to leave the service of Seminole County as of March 1. The decision to leave was not an easy one, and I still feel badly about leaving. Remember: I left the County, not any of you.
I am currently in the process of securing other locations from which to teach, and hope to be close by so that I can continue the relationships I have enjoyed with my students. I will be starting at Maitland Community Park on Monday, March 10, and will add other locations closer to the park as time goes by. Please stay tuned to this site for further information.
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I was fortunate enough to score tickets for the semifinals of the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island last month, and had a fine time. The facility is top-notch, and some of the tennis was excellent.
Unfortunately, Lindsay Davenport took ill and had to default to Maria Sharapova in one semi, but the second match between Alize Cornet and Dominika Cibulkova was pretty exciting, as were the doubles semis. I have a few observations following.
1.Cornet has a nice all-round game, and should vault up the rankings in the next year.
2.Cibulkova will always be height challenged, and her serve is a pretty weak arm swing.
3.All eight doubles players I saw – Meghann Shaugnessy, Nathalie Dechy, Victoria Azarenka, Elena Vesnina, Bethanie Mattek, Vladimira Uhlirova, Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual – in addition to both singles players, head net skills ranging from good to outstanding, but their knowledge (or at least execution) of the transition game was sadly lacking. Can we start teaching that again?
4.Bethanie Mattek appears to have lost 10-12# since I last saw her play, appears to be in very good shape, and is finally wearing “normal” tennis clothes. What a relief!!
5.Ruano Pascual looks like she works out for a living, rather than playing tennis! She must spend every non-tennis minute in the gym. She sets a shining example of work ethic, in my opinion.
6.Women’s tennis on clay is not shown in its best environment. A faster court would better showcase these ladies skills.
I ‘m saddened that this is Bausch & Lomb’s final year sponsoring the event: they’ve been a great partner with the WTA for many years. I hope the tournament finds a new sponsor and stays at Amelia for many more years. If you get a chance to go, do it. The club is great, the atmosphere superb, and the people are friendly. Besides, you may see me!!!
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As the year has passed, here is my Best of 2008 List:
**Nick of the Year: Bolletieri
**Nickname of the Year: “Lord of the Swings”, Bud Collin’s pick for Roger Federer
**Is This Too Much? of the Year: Didn’t it seem like Wilson replaced every one of their racquets in January?
**Tiebreaker of the Year: the Roger Federer/James Blake masterpiece in the second set of their Australian Open quarterfinal
**Match of the Year: Could there be any doubt? The epic Federer/Nadal final at Wimbledon should be required viewing for any tennis player forever.
**Racquet of the Year: Prince O3 SpeedPort Black
**String of the Year: Topspin Cyber Blue
**Stringer of the Year: Much as I’d like to pick myself, the nod has to go to Tim Strawn of Grand Slam Stringers for his endless contributions to stringers everywhere.
**Diamond of the Year (every year): Neil
**Player of the Year: Rafael Nadal
**Mystery of the Year: Who’s the WTA #1?
**Comeback of the Year: Serena Williams
**Drama of the Year: The seesaw fifth set between Federer and Nadal at Wimbledon
**Drama Queen of the Year: Serena Williams/Jelena Jankovic (tie)
**Technology of the Year: Wilson [K]Factor
**Turnabout of the Year: Novak Djokovic going from crowd favorite to hated from one U.S. Open to another.
**Bust of the Year: Marta Domachowska/Jimmy Connors (for different reasons)
**Newcomer of the Year: Dominika Cibulkova
**I’m In/I’m Out of the Year: Lindsay Davenport
**Seminar of the Year: Grand Slam Stringers Symposium
**Tennis Website of the Year: If you have to ask…
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