Antonio Marcelin - He's loving TennisFortLauderdale.com

I've been a member of TennisFortLauderdale for almost 3 months now. I've played other leagues which I enjoyed very much but TennisFortLauderdale is the best so far in terms of self-scheduled matches, incredible tennis players with different style of plays, the professionalism that is shown with each individual meeting for their first match is off the charts.

Back home in Haiti, I've always played soccer and ping pong growing up, I kept those 2 hobbies here in the United States convincing myself I'm never gonna let go untill 10 years ago, a co-worker, who herself did not know how to play tennis but was so concerned about me driving 45 mns back and forth for a soccer game, has invited me to play tennis and i must say "there's no other sport better than tennis. Since then, I took it upon myself to make it a challenge where the sky is the limit. I teach myself from day 1 and had the opportunity to play or practice at least 5 days a week by spending countless hours online watching videos, learning from anything that's helpful to help elevate and move my tennis game forward weather it's footwork videos, forehand/backhand/serve/ slice videos, you name it.

I'm always online learning, relearning something old or new. I discovered TennisFortLauderdale through a tennis friend who was playing a scheduled match, and as I watched the two of them going to each other's face with skills, consistency, great shot selection, anticipation and the ability to cover the court almost from all angles. I said I should try, so he sent me the link, I joined the same day and I played him in the finals during the playoffs to become a champion. I will never forget the last point of that match, the emotions, and the joy I experienced.

My memorable match: I played against Carlos, one of the great players in the league, he was up a set, 5-0 second set and 40-30 match point. He hit a backhand crosscourt shot in the open and I was lucky that it went wide. I started walking towards the net to say " great match" but the ball landed (way-wide). We fought for another 3 mns till somehow he got broken. Well, that was a story in another story, surprisingly i happened to win the second set and went on to win the match. Ask me how I did it , I got (lucky). There's no other way. Sometimes luck is better than skill.

But it was not easy during the regular season and the playoffs. I met a bunch of great players who showed me what it takes to be part of the advanced level group, how much harder I have to work to get a point, a set, never mind a match.

Jessie, Tony, Luke, and Jeff just to name a few are some of my rivals, very challenging opponents whom I learned a lot from during warm ups and matches played. My game is very simple, nothing special in particular and that is why I admired those 3 players (Hsieh Sue-Wei, Iga Radwanska, and Ons Jobeur). No big power, no big groundstrokes but figured out a way to play smart and get the W. Lastly, the websites with players information and records are spot on and updated as we go. Hats off to TennisFortLauderdale crew.