In And Out Of Focus

Sets 203-205:

Stuart vs. C. at The Quarries. Winner: Stuart 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

My Mojo: Strong Focus Weakened Briefly, Then Came Back.

It's been an intense day. This was the third match that I played today that went three sets. So I played a total of nine sets today, and thirteen over the weekend. I felt pretty good starting out the match. I was a little sore, but well recovered from the loss of energy at the end of the second match I played earlier, as I had plenty of time to rest up.

As I started the match, in the warmup and in the first set, I was hitting really well. I was getting in a decent number of winners in the first set, and controlling most of the rallies. It seemed pretty easy to pull my opponent out of position and then shoot off a missile to an area that there was no way he could get to. Many of those shots were extreme angle shots, too, which is not usually part of my plan, but which I tried out with good effect. Most of my first serves were strong and well-placed and allowed me to keep control of the games that I served.

In the second set, my focus seemed to drift a little. I stopped getting in as many of my first serves, and the placement of my serves was not as devastating. My opponent was more successful during this set in winning by pulling me off position and then shooting to my blind side. I dropped behind early in the set and never recovered, though I did rally at the and to take a couple of games before he finally won the set.

In the third set, my focus seemed to come back. Actully, I think it came back toward the end of the second set, but it was too late; I already had pretty much lost that one. I was able to think through my strategy more and made less errors than I had made in the second set. I also benefitted from a number of shots he hit that were just outside the line and barely out, though I don't think this was the deciding factor. I won the third set with a more lopsided score, though some of the games were close and some were blowouts.