Gone With The Wind

Sets 15-17 (of 365):

Stuart vs. C at McCallum. Winner: C. 7-6(2), 6-0, 6-1.

My Mojo: Started out Above-Average, Deflated Quickly.

The weather was just gorgeous for tennis. It was probably mid-60's and mostly cloudy, with the sun poking out every once in a while. The only thing was that there was this very unpredictable wind, which came and went in gusts, and played havoc with both of our shots. C. remarked that we were more playing the wind than each other.

The first set, I was getting solid hits, good serves, good direction, good depth, and was holding my own well. It still wasn't enough to win the set and I lost in tiebreak. I think he was a better player but I had good tenacity throughout that match. In the next two matches, though, everything on my part seemed to just fall a little short. My money shots slammed into the ribbon at the top of the net instead of going over. My deep shots went too deep and went out. I was hitting too many defensive shots that he capitalized on well. The wind seemed to be knocking me for a loop, while he was able to capitalize on it, especially when he served with the wind at his back.

He got some really good smash serves in that I had trouble returning, even when I moved farther behind the baseline to try to get. I was not reacting quickly on the serves and lost a lot of points from either missing the serves, getting weak returns on them, or letting him get the offense on the points. There was one thing that I had going for me consistently throughout the three sets. I was hitting really good lobs that worked well for me and were timed right when he came to net. I nailed him on a lot of these.

In the last two sets, he got some really good angle shots, a few whizzing winners, and played spectacularly at the net when I couldn't get good offensive lobs in. All in all, I got in a few competitive games in the last couple sets, but not enough to win any, until the end. I got one final game at the end of the last set when he had me down 5-0; my mojo came back for one last gasp before it went comatose. I enjoyed the games and did not feel ground down. I could have played more games but for the fact that I wanted to save some oomph for another match this afternoon.