Consistency Wins It For Me

Sets 126-127 (of 365):

Stuart vs. M. at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart 6-4, 7-5.

My Mojo: Steady

I was not too unhappy with my performance today. I still was not playing with the greatest form, but it was hugely improved from the past few days in which I was moderately disgusted with myself. My strategy was good and my placement was above average but my anticipation could have been a little better. All in all, it wasn't too bad.

M. was a pretty good player. I think he was a little bit better technician than me, but my level of conditioning is probably a little bit better. So it made for a good match in which each of us had different strengths and weaknesses. In both sets, he started out ahead, but I crept up steadily. One difference for me in this match was that I ended up leaning on my old serve to bring me ahead instead of bringing out the new serve. It wasn't that I didn't play the new serve, it was just that he seemed to have an easier time dealing with it than with my old serve. My old serve is like a trick, whereas the new serve is solid. The only thing is, if a player doesn't know how to deal with that particular trick, it works well. So he had a little bit of a hard time dealing with my tricky little gunpowder flash serve, and it was enough to give me momentum during a lot of the points I served.

He hit his ground strokes with solidity and topspin, and seemed to have a knack for breaking out with winners right when Iwas badly positioned, especially when he was at the net. But I just stayed consistent. Toward the end, his body language was telling me that he was tired, and so I just tried to keep consistent and minimize errors. I think he was trying for the same strategy, since he stopped whizzing fast topspin shots across the net as often as he had been previously. But in the end, I think I just made less errors than he did in the last few games, and I won the match.

"Actually, as a kid I wanted to be a tennis player, but I wasn't good enough, so I became an actor. Since then, I've just been lip-locking with gorgeous babes. So, let that be a lesson to all you little tennis players out there." --Matthew Perry