Thanks to the Royal Flush 40+ 7.0 Team
Congratulations to the Royal Flush team for winning the 40+ 7.0M USTA Nationals Championship representing NorCal! I keep getting excited and forget to say something important - this is an amazing achievement. Everyone worked hard and contributed to the success, and you are all champions.
The Champions Who Delivered
Thanks to Don/Amy, Mitta, Paolo/Keri, and Bala/Judy - you won the semifinal and final. Your performance under pressure was simply outstanding.
Thanks to Johnny, Tomami, Laurie, and Ross - your wins in round robin provided a solid foundation and brought us to a great position for the semifinal and final.
Last, but most important, thanks to Soha for building up such a strong team with his hard work, so we can play together to achieve such an impossible achievement!
Individual Spotlights
Don and Amy - The Dynasty Builders
Don and Amy are really fantastic. They keep winning - from last year's 40+ 7.0 and 18+ 7.0 to this year's 40+ 7.0 national championship. I don't know if anyone in USTA history has such a continuous winning streak as national champions. Their consistency and excellence set the bar for all of us.
Mitta - The Bagel Master
Mitta performed incredibly well. Your first time playing nationals, and you just gave opponents two bagels! Then you played a key line in the Final, stayed consistent, and with a clear volley ended the match, bringing us to the championship. What a debut!
Paolo - The Master of Placement
Paolo, you are the master on the match. You can play and place the ball anywhere, and the opponent can only look at the ball and sigh. Every time before a match starts, I already count it as team 1:0, so we just need to win another line. If I were your opponent, I would feel so helpless. I still remember your impossible slice drop to finish matches (consecutively in 2 matches) and your smash that brought the team our first match win in the Final.
Keri - Cool Under Pressure
Keri, although you felt nervous, it didn't impact your performance at all. Look at your 4 matches - 3 easy wins plus the crucial first match win for the team in the Final. I saw you saving multiple impossible baseline balls and delivering lots of clear smashes. These are the solid foundation that allowed you to win 4 matches consecutively at nationals.
Bala and Judy - The Perfect Pair
You two are the perfect pair, and I should say the strongest 3.5+3.5 pairing in 7.0 mixed nationals. Starting with a bagel and winning the key match in the semifinal - the opponent had an unbeatable serve, but he felt so frustrated with Bala's perfect returns and Judy's volleys finishing at the net.
Although you lost in the final, first, the opponent was the strongest pair on their team, and second, you already knew the team had won, so you were relaxed. Trust me - you can beat anyone in 7.0!
Johnny and Tomami - The Comeback Artists
Thank you for winning against PNW D1. You lost set 1 but quickly adjusted and won back in set 2, then won the super tiebreak as the team's first match win. You know I felt so helpless when all 3 lines lost the first set, and I started planning to seek the #2 team (considering we were #3) as our opponents. But your win brought me back - I got my confidence again.
Besides that, Johnny also helped with scouting, providing so much important information about our opponents, and recorded our tears of joy for the Final win. Such a precious moment captured forever.
Ross and Laurie - The Mental Warriors
You also won another crucial match with PNW. We did a last-minute adjustment to let you play D2, and unfortunately, you faced their strongest pair. Really tough match - you lost with a close score in the first set, but you never gave up. Even when down, you turned it around and won the second set in a tiebreak, then won the super tiebreak. Such great mental skills!
For Laurie, I should also thank Ken. Ken took care of our nutrition and meals, letting the team just focus on playing and winning matches.
Our Captain and Leadership
Finally, let me spend time thanking our great captain Soha and co-captain Amy.
Although Soha wasn't physically with us, he always did the captain's work remotely - by WhatsApp chat group, by phone call, by WeChat, any tools he could leverage. He looked at all opponents' data, collected feedback from everyone, and then made the best decisions for the lineup.
You may not know this is the first year Soha acted as captain to run multiple USTA teams. Right now, he has won 3 sectional championships and 1 national championship. I cannot imagine, and I don't think anyone else has made such an achievement in USTA history in their first year. I forecast Soha will build his dynasty in the future for many years. Please stay close with Soha to continue this legend.
Amy is another legend. As a player, together with Don, they won 3 consecutive championships. But you may not know Amy also did a lot of work on team building. She helped recruit many good players - Don, Mitta, Judy - all from her recommendations. She's also a role model who motivates others and shares her experience with newer national players.
Although she got injured and couldn't play in the final, she had already built solid team members - Mitta and Judy performed perfectly, and we won the final!
Thank You to the Full Roster
Finally, let me thank all team members, especially those who did not attend this national championship. Because of you, the team won all the local, playoff, and sectional matches, so we could attend nationals to represent NorCal and ultimately win the championship!
The whole team deserved this championship. Without such a deep bench, we could not have reached the national championship.
Let's look forward and continue our legend!
To my Royal Flush teammates: You made this season unforgettable. Champions on the court, friends for life.