Not Quite There, And A Mysterious Finger Injury

Sets 184-186:

Stuart vs. E. at Austin High. Winner: E. 6-3.7-6(4), 7-5.

My Mojo: Not Quite.

I felt like I played reasonably well today, but not as well as I could have. My focus was a little bit diffuse and I was giving him opportunities for really good shots. The first set was the one that I felt I played the best even though it had the lowest score. The closeness of the games just didn't get reflected in the score and we had some really good rallies. Also I hit more winners in the first set. It drizzled a tiny bit during the first set, but never quite reached the critical mass of moisture on the court that forced us to stop playing.

In the second set, I didn't feel like I was quite playing as well, though we got to a tiebreak. Late in the second set, I slipped and fell on my left hand. But I did something with my right hand (I have no idea what) that injured my right pinky pretty badly. I either broke it or sprained it and afterwards I had a lot of pain when I moved my hand. My opponent mentioned to me that I should get some better shoes, and I looked down and realized for the first time that I had put on the wrong pair of shoes! I was wearing my running shoes instead of my tennis shoes.

My opponent asked me if I wanted to play a third set, and I agreed. I played OK, but not as well as he did, and he won the set. We finished just in time, as about a minute after we quit playing, it started sprinkling, but heavily enough that the courts soon became too wet for other players to continue playing.