Sights set on a first win at Roland Garros

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.

Hey all,

Checking in this week from Trnava, Slovakia, the location of my second clay court stop on tour this season. The $100,000 ITF Pro Circuit tournament is hosted at a hotel with tennis facilities, so things have been logistically very easy here. As players, we tend to love tournaments that lend themselves to simplicity. There’s nothing better than rolling out of bed, heading downstairs to breakfast, and then walking to practice, all without having to schedule transportation or find means of transit.

Last week in Cagnes-sur-Mer, despite amounting to another singles loss, was an extremely positive one for me. My match against Teliana Pereira was high level, and it represented some of the best tennis I’ve played on clay to date. That said, it was still obvious that I had lacked competitive play, and it took me a bit too long to find my groove. Moving forward, I have every expectation that I will start on a more confident note and be able to play an even better match start to finish.

My practices here have been great—my coach and I are in a really nice groove, communicating well, and generating productive practices each day. Also, as a result of continued discipline in the realms of fitness, nutrition and recovery, my body continues to feel great. This is perhaps the biggest victory of the trip so far.

The week before a Slam is always an important week to compete hard and fine tune any weaknesses. This will be my first qualifying effort at a Slam in just over a year (previously I had gotten directly into the main draw), but I’m honestly excited for the challenge. I have yet to win a match at Roland Garros in the main draw or qualifying event, so I have my sights set on changing that this year.

One of the reasons Gibbs even has an opportunity in Paris is all of the hard work she put into rehabbing last month.

She shared the at-home techniques she used while rehabbing her injuries. The 24-year-old was hooked up to a Marc Pro Plus device to help her shoulder get back to health.

"It sends electrical current through your body that stimulates your muscle to fire, and it flushes out areas of your body that might be problem areas and stimulates blood flow,” explained Gibbs about the Marc Pro Plus device.

To help flush out the legs after a tough day at the gym, she wore a NormaTec PULSE daily.

"This is just flushing out the legs, making sure my circulation is really good,” she said. "And whenever I use this, I feel a lot less sore."