Steady And Solid Does It

Sets 88-90 (of 365):

Stuart vs. C. at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

My Mojo: Steady

Well, I broke my record for the highest player on the ladder that I have beaten. This wasn't a ladder match, so it didn't advance me on the ladder, but I couldn't believe once again that I had beaten a player this good. And the last time I played him, he beat me pretty badly.

His strokes were really powerful and he had some monjo topspin. His game sort of ramped up, though. He started off with serves that were not too hard, and groundstrokes that were moderate. But as the first set got farther along, his shots started gaining in power. That seems to be a pretty effective strategy, not only to ease yourself into it, but to get your opponent to not expect a lot of power until it is coming at him. And that's what happened to me the last time I played him. I started out OK, and then just had no idea what was hitting me.

This time I seemed to hold up pretty well. He was not going to flame out on errors like some of the people I played so I really had to control my errors and keep my shots deep. Also, when he got to the net, he was lethal, except for one thing. Almost all of my offensive lobs worked against him at the net. And that may have been what made the difference. It neutralized a good deal of his net game against me. And my second strong point was my net game when I got to the net. I managed to put away most of the points I hit from the net, and when he tried to lob me, they fell short and I was able to smash them. He was a really good returner. My serve was not bad, but it didn't have much of an effect on him. There were a couple that he returned weakly, but most of them were pretty solid. I was impressed that he seemed to be one of the best returners of my serve that I had seen.

So the first two sets I was able to edge him out, and I was a little stronger in the second set. He asked me if I wanted to play a third set, and I agreed. When the third set started, I was on fire for a while. It was mostly because I relaxed, and didn't care how the set turned out. I kept telling myself that I had already won, no matter what, and if I won this last set, it would just be the cherry on top of the whipped cream. I got up 5-1, and then he came back with a fury for a while. The vast majority of points for the next three games were controlled by him. His strategy was really good and he played with very few errors. And also, I started caring. That is usually my downfall. So he got to the 5-4 point that I have always thought is a good psychological advantage for the player that is down after he has won several in a row. But I managed to come back and win the next game to get to 6-4, mostly by relaxing and telling myself once again that it didn't matter. I was able to relax, and follow through more naturally, rather than hitting with tight, jerky motions. Whew. I had visions of losing this set 7-5 and not winning a single game after being up 5-1. I hate that.

I also felt like I didn't necessarily play as defensively as I did the other day against the other really good player I beat, though I did spend a lot of time on defense. But this guy was even higher than the last guy that I was almost constantly on the defense with. I was able to get some offense in on this match.