Don't worry I am not doing huge weights. This is just maintenance lower body to keep the strength/endurance I gained during my training block.
Ask me anything about being a professional tennis player
- Thread starter fpeliwo
- Start date
athleticstennis
Rookie
mm, I see. So when do you think you´ll go to Florida? If you go to South Florida where the futures tournaments are, you don´t mind if I go where you are playing at so one of your fans can see you?
I cannot use the Pure drive, way too much power for me to control. I used the Pure Drive+ until I was 13 and then it became too tough to control once I started to grow.
Last edited:
mikeler
Moderator
Where in Florida?
In January. I'm playing in Plantation, Sunrise, Weston, and Palm Coast, in that order.
Haha you don't have to ask my permission, I wouldn't mind at all.
I'm playing in Plantation, Sunrise, Weston, and Palm Coast, in that order.
roundiesee
Hall of Fame
Thanks so much for posting Filip, really appreciate this as most pros would not bother with us regular tennis fans, 
If you do happen to play in Asia, especially in Singapore, please do let your fans here know. We have a Singapore Challenger which takes place around February-March, so if you do have plans to come here, please let us know.
Best of luck!
If you do happen to play in Asia, especially in Singapore, please do let your fans here know. We have a Singapore Challenger which takes place around February-March, so if you do have plans to come here, please let us know.Best of luck!
Just wanted to say that I found this thread last week and have just finished reading all 36 pages - which I encourage everyone to do, particularly before posting a repetitive question.
Filip, congratulations on your success thus far and best of luck going forward. Your thoughtfulness and maturity is amazing and I'm thoroughly enjoying following this thread and will watch for your name from now on.
I was at the USO for two evenings during the 2nd week this year when a lot of junior matches were being played and wished I'd known your name so I could have looked out for you! Maybe another time.
If you find yourself playing some red clay tournaments in Europe this summer, perhaps you'll make it to Båstad, Sweden for the 250 event in July which is only a couple of hours drive for me so would be fun to come and cheer for your.
I'll ask one question while I'm at it. You've mentioned your favorite past players being Sampras and Agassi, but do you know much about earlier generations? Is it part of tennis training to also look at the history of the game, how it's evolved, and perhaps even pick up tips from past champions and legends? For example, have you watched old matches of Laver, Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Edberg, Becker, etc.? Or is the past game so far removed from today's game, players and equipment that young players don't even find it interesting to look at the previous eras?
Good luck in the coming year!
Filip, congratulations on your success thus far and best of luck going forward. Your thoughtfulness and maturity is amazing and I'm thoroughly enjoying following this thread and will watch for your name from now on.
I was at the USO for two evenings during the 2nd week this year when a lot of junior matches were being played and wished I'd known your name so I could have looked out for you! Maybe another time.
If you find yourself playing some red clay tournaments in Europe this summer, perhaps you'll make it to Båstad, Sweden for the 250 event in July which is only a couple of hours drive for me so would be fun to come and cheer for your.
I'll ask one question while I'm at it. You've mentioned your favorite past players being Sampras and Agassi, but do you know much about earlier generations? Is it part of tennis training to also look at the history of the game, how it's evolved, and perhaps even pick up tips from past champions and legends? For example, have you watched old matches of Laver, Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Edberg, Becker, etc.? Or is the past game so far removed from today's game, players and equipment that young players don't even find it interesting to look at the previous eras?
Good luck in the coming year!
mikeler
Moderator
Palm Coast might be a possibility for me to come visit. Thanks and enjoy your stay down here.
athleticstennis
Rookie
Ok, If you need hosting in Miami Beach, I am available or some transport help (for the first two tournaments), just message me.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
That's a full plate! Be forewarned...the Palm Coast event will probably dish out cooler conditions than the South Florida events. I visited two years ago and was very uncomfortable on the sidelines...highs in the 50's and gusty winds. Pray it's warmer this year!
AM95
Hall of Fame
Not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if I got invited to the tie.
Probably the most difficult shot you can ever do. Literally a once in a lifetime shot, haha.
Amelie Mauresmo
Banned
I have a question, what is Milos Raonic like? Is Milos nice and friendly? Have you ever asked Milos for advice about how to compete, train, or how to deal with the difficulties of being a tennis pro?
He's a really nice guy. I haven't asked him much, but he did give me a bit of advice on various things.
Towser83
G.O.A.T.
Thanks, it's good to know they treat you good.
That's also really good that you adapted to grass so quickly after you picked up your first win.
realplayer
Semi-Pro
Hey Filip,
I'm surprised you don't use a leather grip and overgrip. I like it much better than synthetic. Why do you prefer the synthetic grip?
My other question is about your racket. When you transferred from the pure drive to wilson you liked the k6.1 95 so why didn't you change to that racket as it is also known that a somewhat heavier and more headlight racket prevents injuries.
I'm surprised you don't use a leather grip and overgrip. I like it much better than synthetic. Why do you prefer the synthetic grip?
My other question is about your racket. When you transferred from the pure drive to wilson you liked the k6.1 95 so why didn't you change to that racket as it is also known that a somewhat heavier and more headlight racket prevents injuries.
I'm not sure, I've always just liked the feel better with the synthetic.
I did switch to the Ksixone 95, I used it for 4 years. I only switched to the Blade just over a year ago.
batz
G.O.A.T.
Hi again Filip - I still think that it's cooler than a penguin's arse that you're answering all our daft questions. Anyhoo - I thought I'd roll-out some TT classics for ya:
1. Should Roger retire?
2. Should Roger get a bigger racquet?
3. Is Rafa on a silent ban?
4. Is Rafa done?
5. Who will win the next 4 slams?
6. Who is the GOAT?
1. Should Roger retire?
2. Should Roger get a bigger racquet?
3. Is Rafa on a silent ban?
4. Is Rafa done?
5. Who will win the next 4 slams?
6. Who is the GOAT?
beast of mallorca
G.O.A.T.
Haha, I think that Roger is still doing quite well, so no.
He should use whatever he likes best. A bigger head may give him a completely different feel and mess up his game.
No idea about whether he is on a silent ban or not, although I don't think he is.
I'm pretty sure Rafa will be back strong.
I'm not a psychic, so I don't know. Murray/Djokovic will obviously be favourites, Fed as well.
I would love to be able to say Pete Sampras, but Federer's record speaks for itself. Until someone breaks his records, I think it is very tough to argue against him being the best.
We don't share lockers with the top pros when we are at junior slams. At futures and challengers nobody really hangs out at lockers cause they aren't nearly as good or big as at the slams. Everyone seems to be quite nice though.
librarysteg
Hall of Fame
There's a Challenger in Champaign, Illinois the second week of November...is that a tournament you'll be trying to qualify for? If not this year, I'll keep my fingers crossed for next year since this is a tournament I can get to.
Towser83
G.O.A.T.
You're so naughty, Batz :lol:
Not this year, I will be in Mexico for a futures tournament then.
Here's the second installment from Filip's blog in Cancun:
http://tennisconnected.com/home/2012/10/29/filip-peliwos-blog-day-2-in-cancun/
"Hey everyone,
The temperature here in Cancun is 26 degrees Celsius today, though it feels a good 10 degrees hotter because of how humid it is. It could be a lot worse, though. Been reading about Hurricane Sandy hitting the East Coast of the United States with 100KMH winds, so I hope that all of you caught up in that crazy weather are going to be okay!
As usual, this morning I did my warm-up in the gym. The club we are playing at is fairly new and has very nice facilities, especially for a Futures-level event. The gym has all the equipment you would need as a tennis player and the hard courts here are pretty much what I’m used to playing on back in Canada. After the short off-court workout, I hit with Gianni Mina for 45 minutes, working on my shots and trying to get a good feel for the conditions here. Gianni is from France and a lot of people say he looks like Gael Monfils. Beyond that, he’s a really good young player who used to be ranked #2 in the juniors and who put up a good fight against Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros in 2010.
Take a look for yourself here:
http://youtu.be/erWttnIhdgs?t=1m23s
After the first hitting session for the day, I took a little break, had lunch, and then hit the gym once again for a short upper body workout. During tournaments, I don’t lift heavy. Instead what we try to do is to do a few exercises to maintain the progress that we made during our training block a few weeks ago. Since tennis is such a physically demanding sport, it’s really important to not lose too much muscle while you’re traveling and competing across the world. I once heard that hockey players lose around 10lb of muscle during an NHL season; the same must be more or less true for ATP professionals as well. Because of that, I work on my strength even during tournament weeks and try to get at least 4000 calories of nutritionally dense food like pasta, vegetables and lean meats each day, though I am partial to a can of Pespi every once in a while (I hope my coach doesn’t read this! Haha).
In the afternoon, I played a practice set with Alexios Halebian. We’re the same age and played at the same junior tournaments around the world, so it was good to get a hit in with someone familiar. He made it to the finals of Kalamazoo this year, which is the national championship for all American juniors – a great result. Then he turned pro after the US Open juniors just like I did. Before arriving here, he has been playing Future events in Texas and California.
Here’s Alexios at the ‘Zoo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H84Bs1qVnhc
After that set, I practiced for another hour or so with George Jacminek, who is a fellow Canadian as well as my doubles partner this week. Here’s a short video clip of him practicing at another tournament. The commentary is pretty funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKyfp_-fzhs
I’m really feeling great out there, and starting to get into my tournament mindset. The draw happened today, and I will be playing a wildcard ranked in the 1500s in my first round match on Tuesday. Doubles starts tomorrow, though I didn’t have a chance to take a look at that draw just yet. Either way, at the pro level there are tons of guys who can play great tennis, so I never take any matches for granted. I’ll be sure to bring my best stuff for both singles and doubles this week.
That’s about it for now. Dinnertime is coming up soon and I need to take in some more calories!
Be sure to post your questions in the comment section below, and I’ll try my best to answer them in the next couple of days.
Take care.
Filip"
http://tennisconnected.com/home/2012/10/29/filip-peliwos-blog-day-2-in-cancun/
"Hey everyone,
The temperature here in Cancun is 26 degrees Celsius today, though it feels a good 10 degrees hotter because of how humid it is. It could be a lot worse, though. Been reading about Hurricane Sandy hitting the East Coast of the United States with 100KMH winds, so I hope that all of you caught up in that crazy weather are going to be okay!
As usual, this morning I did my warm-up in the gym. The club we are playing at is fairly new and has very nice facilities, especially for a Futures-level event. The gym has all the equipment you would need as a tennis player and the hard courts here are pretty much what I’m used to playing on back in Canada. After the short off-court workout, I hit with Gianni Mina for 45 minutes, working on my shots and trying to get a good feel for the conditions here. Gianni is from France and a lot of people say he looks like Gael Monfils. Beyond that, he’s a really good young player who used to be ranked #2 in the juniors and who put up a good fight against Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros in 2010.
Take a look for yourself here:
http://youtu.be/erWttnIhdgs?t=1m23s
After the first hitting session for the day, I took a little break, had lunch, and then hit the gym once again for a short upper body workout. During tournaments, I don’t lift heavy. Instead what we try to do is to do a few exercises to maintain the progress that we made during our training block a few weeks ago. Since tennis is such a physically demanding sport, it’s really important to not lose too much muscle while you’re traveling and competing across the world. I once heard that hockey players lose around 10lb of muscle during an NHL season; the same must be more or less true for ATP professionals as well. Because of that, I work on my strength even during tournament weeks and try to get at least 4000 calories of nutritionally dense food like pasta, vegetables and lean meats each day, though I am partial to a can of Pespi every once in a while (I hope my coach doesn’t read this! Haha).
In the afternoon, I played a practice set with Alexios Halebian. We’re the same age and played at the same junior tournaments around the world, so it was good to get a hit in with someone familiar. He made it to the finals of Kalamazoo this year, which is the national championship for all American juniors – a great result. Then he turned pro after the US Open juniors just like I did. Before arriving here, he has been playing Future events in Texas and California.
Here’s Alexios at the ‘Zoo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H84Bs1qVnhc
After that set, I practiced for another hour or so with George Jacminek, who is a fellow Canadian as well as my doubles partner this week. Here’s a short video clip of him practicing at another tournament. The commentary is pretty funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKyfp_-fzhs
I’m really feeling great out there, and starting to get into my tournament mindset. The draw happened today, and I will be playing a wildcard ranked in the 1500s in my first round match on Tuesday. Doubles starts tomorrow, though I didn’t have a chance to take a look at that draw just yet. Either way, at the pro level there are tons of guys who can play great tennis, so I never take any matches for granted. I’ll be sure to bring my best stuff for both singles and doubles this week.
That’s about it for now. Dinnertime is coming up soon and I need to take in some more calories!
Be sure to post your questions in the comment section below, and I’ll try my best to answer them in the next couple of days.
Take care.
Filip"
third installment of the blog
http://tennisconnected.com/home/2012/10/30/filip-peliwos-blog-itf-cancun-1st-round-doubles/
'Monday, October 29, 2012
Hey everyone,
In case you didn’t know, pro-level doubles is played without advantage points, which means that when you get to deuce, the receiving team chooses which side to return from, and the winner of the next point wins the game. Furthermore, when the match is tied at one set all, instead of a final set, we play a super tiebreak; first to ten points, win by two. This makes for short but intense matches where a few key points mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Earlier today, I played my first round doubles match today with fellow Canadian George Jecminek. It was extremely close and we managed to sneak out with a 6-4 6-7(5) 10-4 win. It was my first competitive match in over a month, as well as my first time playing doubles with George. Despite me being a bit rusty, we made a great start, won a few deciding points, and took the first set by a break of serve, 6-4. In the second set, we were ahead once again, 4-3 with a service break. However this time we couldn’t keep our lead. Our opponents fought their way back into the match, the momentum turned a bit, and we ended up losing in a tiebreak. Right after that, we needed to regroup to come out strong in the super tiebreak, which is exactly what we did. Our opponents were two Aussies with strong serves and returns and they liked to rush the net at every opportunity. Fortunately for us, George and I raised our game in the key moments toward the end of the match and won the match tiebreak convincingly by the score of 10-4.
I want to take a moment to congratulate Daniel Nestor for winning his 80th career doubles title in Basel yesterday. He’s a fantastic ambassador for Canadian tennis and a great role model for everyone on the Davis Cup team. His results speak for themselves, especially considering the type of match we played today – it takes a lot of focus and hard work to be able to execute at the key moments of a doubles match, like he has been able to do for the past years on the ATP Tour. I know he still has a lot of great tennis left in him. Maybe one day he’ll give me a few doubles pointers, too!
It’s been a long day so I’m going to call it a night. First round singles tomorrow. Wish me luck on Twitter at @FilipPeliwo!
Take care.
Filip'
http://tennisconnected.com/home/2012/10/30/filip-peliwos-blog-itf-cancun-1st-round-doubles/
'Monday, October 29, 2012
Hey everyone,
In case you didn’t know, pro-level doubles is played without advantage points, which means that when you get to deuce, the receiving team chooses which side to return from, and the winner of the next point wins the game. Furthermore, when the match is tied at one set all, instead of a final set, we play a super tiebreak; first to ten points, win by two. This makes for short but intense matches where a few key points mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Earlier today, I played my first round doubles match today with fellow Canadian George Jecminek. It was extremely close and we managed to sneak out with a 6-4 6-7(5) 10-4 win. It was my first competitive match in over a month, as well as my first time playing doubles with George. Despite me being a bit rusty, we made a great start, won a few deciding points, and took the first set by a break of serve, 6-4. In the second set, we were ahead once again, 4-3 with a service break. However this time we couldn’t keep our lead. Our opponents fought their way back into the match, the momentum turned a bit, and we ended up losing in a tiebreak. Right after that, we needed to regroup to come out strong in the super tiebreak, which is exactly what we did. Our opponents were two Aussies with strong serves and returns and they liked to rush the net at every opportunity. Fortunately for us, George and I raised our game in the key moments toward the end of the match and won the match tiebreak convincingly by the score of 10-4.
I want to take a moment to congratulate Daniel Nestor for winning his 80th career doubles title in Basel yesterday. He’s a fantastic ambassador for Canadian tennis and a great role model for everyone on the Davis Cup team. His results speak for themselves, especially considering the type of match we played today – it takes a lot of focus and hard work to be able to execute at the key moments of a doubles match, like he has been able to do for the past years on the ATP Tour. I know he still has a lot of great tennis left in him. Maybe one day he’ll give me a few doubles pointers, too!
It’s been a long day so I’m going to call it a night. First round singles tomorrow. Wish me luck on Twitter at @FilipPeliwo!
Take care.
Filip'
batz
G.O.A.T.
Cyber high-five to you for answering my asinine questions. You are definitely my new 2nd favourite player.
librarysteg
Hall of Fame
What time is/was his match today? Hope he wins!
diddlysquat
New User
Hi Filip,
I think it´s great to have a real pro among us and especially give some insight on your upbringing and how you got to where you are. I have an 8-year old who's started playing last year and just started playing local competitions organized by the Spanish Federation (We live in Spain). He picked up only last year like you and just started competing now. It's great to gauge how a person can become a real pro. I'll be following you closely and appreciate your feedback!
Do you see height as an advantage? Do you work out with weights as well? Also, I see there are quite a few Facebook pages of you. Which one is the real one so I can follow your progress. Thanks again!
I think it´s great to have a real pro among us and especially give some insight on your upbringing and how you got to where you are. I have an 8-year old who's started playing last year and just started playing local competitions organized by the Spanish Federation (We live in Spain). He picked up only last year like you and just started competing now. It's great to gauge how a person can become a real pro. I'll be following you closely and appreciate your feedback!
Do you see height as an advantage? Do you work out with weights as well? Also, I see there are quite a few Facebook pages of you. Which one is the real one so I can follow your progress. Thanks again!
diddlysquat
New User
Also, I see players suck on the energy packs and drinks. Do they really work?
I do think height is an advantage to some extent, mainly on the serve. I think that the ideal height is between 6'1-6'3.
I do workout with weights, a lot.
None of the fan pages are mine actually, haha. Only my facebook profile is real.
I haven't tried the energy gels, so I wouldn't know. I'm sure they work to some extent.
If you mean energy drinks as in Gatorade, Powerade, etc, then yes, they do work. Basically they rehydrate you a bit better than water. I would drink those in hot/humid conditions, as you lose all the electrolytes you need through sweat. Those drinks replenish the lost nutrients, whereas water cannot do that. Take it with a few sips of water on every changeover and you should be feeling good.
athleticstennis
Rookie
Have you seen the top 4 ATP in the gym lifting weights? If yes,What are their strength levels? How much they lift? What is your favorite exercise?
Haven't seen them working out.
I like bench/dumbbell press and bicep/barbell/hammer curls the most.
athleticstennis
Rookie
How much can you do dumbbel press, and bench press? and how much about bicep, barbell, hammer?
Thanks Filip for your answers.
Thanks Filip for your answers.
GoodVibrations
Rookie
A "spicy" question (as Marat Safin calls such questions) for you, Filip:
Describe the groupie scene at ATP events. Have you seen women actively trying to pick up players? Have you ever seen a player "accept" an offer? (You don't have to specify who!) What players on tour have the largest number of women all over them?
Describe the groupie scene at ATP events. Have you seen women actively trying to pick up players? Have you ever seen a player "accept" an offer? (You don't have to specify who!) What players on tour have the largest number of women all over them?
I haven't done max weight before, but most recently I've been doing 4 sets of 10 reps of dumbbell press with 65lbs each arm.
Biceps Im not sure, been doing 4 sets of 10 reps with 35/40 lbs each arm? Something like that.
Never really seen a situation like that (at least not a really obvious one), although I'm sure they do happen, haha.
cc0509
Talk Tennis Guru
athleticstennis
Rookie
How much you weigh? I know you are 511. How much it took you to get to these strength level? When you started how much could you lift?
I weight about 155lbs. Haha well I started when I was about 11 or 12 doing push-up and those sort of exercises, and moved up to light dumbbells. I've definitely improved a lot in the past year or so, gained some muscle mass as well (about 15 lbs since January).
athleticstennis
Rookie
Nice Filip!
Similar threads
