Alejandro Noyola – Marathon Finals For Miami Veteran

Alejandro has been in the Tennis Miami League since four years ago. At the time, most of Alejandro’s friends didn’t play tennis competitively or even regularly, so he turned to Google to find a recreational league or tournament in the area, in which he hoped to meet eager, active players. He came across the league’s website, and he’s been playing two or three times a week ever since. Alejandro assesses his own level to be at least 3.5, maybe 4.0 on a good day. 

Born and raised in Miami, the 32-year-old MBA grad has accumulated an assortment of professional accomplishments, including a four-year stint in the Navy. Unsurprisingly, Alejandro is a busy man these days—he works for a major telecommunications company as both a Marketing Director and a Business Development Manager. He is also a single father to an 11-year-old daughter, who so far hasn’t shown signs to be a tennis fan. Instead, she competes in gymnastics, and as his proud father can attest, is very good at it. Alejandro is also a beloved master to a beagle and a golden retriever. As both a tennis player and a dog lover, Alejandro lacks no option for being active!

Alejandro’s involvement with tennis began at age 12. He picked up a tennis racquet for the first time while attending a summer camp. Nevertheless, he ended up dedicating most of his time growing up to playing team sports such as soccer, basketball, and football, and it wasn’t until he was 27 that he began playing tennis regularly.

Two aspects of tennis that Alejandro likes the most are the mental challenge and the competition. Other than that, he also enjoys the social side of tennis, and he particularly appreciates how easy it is to play the game as often as he likes.

Alejandro’s most memorable match is a very long and peculiar one: It took almost 9 sets to complete! In the Summer 2011 Season, Alejandro made it to the championship finals. His opponent was Dario Dejanovic, a long-time league rival. In their meeting in the finals, it began to rain hard in the third set. So, they both agreed to start again from scratch another time. The second time they played, guess what, it rained again in the third set! So, yet again, they decided to redo the match from scratch. Well, as they say, third time’s a charm; it magically did not rain in their third try. Not only that, Alejandro won it 0-6, 6-4, 6-1. (Impressive comeback, Alejandro.) 

Reflecting on the win, while no doubt happy about it, Alejandro humbly points out that in those three days of competitive back-to-back battles, things could have gone either way. Such is the wisdom of a Miami champion!