u/Any-Memory-458

I'm looking for help getting my flame reignited on my fantasy project. I poured countless hours over a few years building a world setting for my fantasy concept and flew through the first ~60,000 words of my first planned novel. Then life hit. My laptop died and it was several months of saving before I got a new one, then as soon as I had that my wife and I were shopping for a house, a few months later and were finally settled into our new home and I finally feel like I have time again but it has been over 6 months now since I've done any work on my novel and I've been beating myself up about it. A few times in the last week I've opened up my document, stared at it for 30 minutes then closed the laptop without being anything. How did you find the spark to get back into your projects after life took you away for an extended period?

Me and another buddy, both super average 4.0's both in our mid 30's decided yesterday to full send it. Neither of us had anywhere to be, and there were no other court reservations for the whole evening. We had previously discussed how we had both always wanted to play a 3 of 5 match so we decided yesterday was the day.

Holy shit.

Talk about a whole other level of physicality. We were on court for over three hours by the time it was done. My buddy won the first two sets 6-2, 6-3 and was feeling hot but I knew there was a lot of match left to play. The third set went to a tiebreaker and I edged it out 7-4. That's when the match became completely mental. When I won that third set breaker, I pretty much won the match. The third set was an absolute battle and when my buddy lost and failed to close it out in three his whole demeanor deflated. That's when I realized the true torture of a 5 setter because even though my buddy had basically mentally conceded at that point, we still had to go through the motions of two more sets. I knew the whole time that if I wasn't careful, he could swing the momentum back in his favor at any moment which was a type of match pressure I never felt on that level before. Another grueling, leg-melting hour later, I took the 4th and 5th 6-4, 6-2. Both of our legs were shaking as we packed our shit up and made our way to the bar for a beer which I gladly paid for.

The whole experience gave me an understanding and appreciation for what it's like for the pros to have to stay tough through these whole marathons. And, made me more thankful than ever, for the standard USTA 2 out of 3 with a ten pt breaker format. Today my legs barely want to move, but the feeling of coming back from two sets down to win a match was worth every excruciating minute

Mensik, Tien, Fonseca, Jodar, and Blockx are all looking incredibly strong so far this year! And on the WTA side, Jovic, Mboko, and Andreeva have all been absolute pleasures to watch this year as well.

Who do you think has what it takes to stay the course and become a constant top 20 presence (besides mensik who has already essentially achieved this)?

Who do you see winning slams or making the top 5 from this crew?

Who did I miss? Ethan Quinn and Martin Landaluce were my first thoughts but they haven't seemed in quite the same class as the other 5. Let me know who you are most excited about!