Sam Groth and Nicole Gibbs are giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at the world of professional tennis all year long in My Tennis Life. To read more updates from Sam and Nicole, go to tennischannel.com.

It’s been a pretty quiet week for me. I spent most of the week in Tampa training with my coach, Billy. After a couple of weeks away it was nice to get back and spend the week tuning up my game. It was a big change in conditions coming from the cold of Melbourne to the heat and humidity of Florida. The first couple of days were definitely a battle, especially when mixed with the jet lag flying from Australia.

It was a good week though. We got plenty of practice done, played a couple of rounds of golf, and got ready to head to California.

Advertising

I flew out Thursday afternoon, via Phoenix, and arrived in San Francisco on Thursday night. My housing family for the week were nice enough to make the trip over to the airport to get me.

This week's tournament is in Tiburon and it’s one of my favorite spots on the United States ATP Challenger circuit, for sure. It is across the Golden Gate Bridge and looks back across the bay to San Fran. It’s an early start for me this week, playing singles on the first day against Mitch Krueger. I haven’t always had my best results here, due to the slow conditions, but I’m ready to go and will leave it all out there.