I Win Four Sets, Though The Last One Is Close

Sets 232-235:

Stuart v. C. at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart 6-1, 6-0, 6-2, 7-6(5)

My Mojo: Excellent, Dropped to Better Than Average At The End.

I continue my pattern of dropping in energy toward the end of a series of sets. But at least this time I was playing so well that I won all of the sets, instead of doing progressively worse to the point that I lose.

Lately, I have had a hard time getting matches. I did take about a week and a half in which I wasn't really looking, but last week I sent out a bunch of emails and only got a few takers. Some did say they would be willing to play later (maybe this week or next), but most didn't respond. It was probably the worst response I've gotten yet. Maybe people are burning out on hearing from me, in which case I need to find new people to play (which I am constantly doing anyway). Or maybe I shouldn't read so much into it.

But this one was a ladder match, so I was pretty sure we would play. It was really humid starting out, and when I first got to the site, there was a rainbow encircling the sun which was partly blocked by clouds, so I couldn't see the full circle. I could see about two-thirds of the circle at most.

I was afraid that it was going to rain, as the weather forecast was not conducive to dry ground. But there was a big hole in the clouds that went over Austin and the surrounding area. So I called my opponent to see if he wanted to try to play this afternoon, and he agreed to meet me on short notice, about an hour and a half after I called him. When he got there, he told me it was raining east and west of Austin, but we were still in the hole. Luckily it stayed dry for our match, with the exception of on tiny sprinkle for less than a minute which dried up quickly and didn't even affect play. I made the mistake of extending my right hand for him to shake, which is still messed up from my finger injury about a month and a half ago. He shook it firmly, and I felt crushing pain, but I didn't say anything. I don't think it got reinjured, but it hurt a lot, and I just have to realize that I can't shake hands with my right hand for a while.

The first and second sets were our ladder match, and I managed to get him to stay to play another couple of sets. I was playing solidly for the first three matches, maybe dropping a tiny bit in energy and focus toward the end of the third match. My serve was solid but not raging. In other words, I got them in and managed to keep an offense on most of them, but I didn't zing in winners that he could barely get to, except for a couple of times. But he probably got as many of those in on me as well. I was returning his serve consistently and sometimes even well enough to grab the offense. His net game seemed a little bit erratic; maybe he was just off that day. It seemed to tighten up by the fourth set when he played a much better all-around game.

Around the middle of the third game of the first set, we got into a fierce free-for-all close contact volley, which ended with him smashing the ball square into my face right between the eyes. It knocked my glasses off, and I staggered backwards and let out a yelp. But it was not as bad as it looked, thankfully. It bent up my glasses a little, and I had to bend the bridge and nose pieces back. My face smarted a little for a while. but I was basically OK. Good thing I got those bulletproof lenses. I took a few seconds to let the little cuckoo birds encircling my head fly away, and got back to playing. For the next few points, I kept pushing on different areas of my face to make sure it was OK, and the sting went away in a couple of games. I was winning the first set solidly throughout, though I thought the play was closer than the score suggested.

For the last few matches I have played, I haven't had that "luck/in the zone" factor working in my favor. But this match, I really did. My shots just hit the line, just zinged where he couldn't get to them, and just barely did what they were supposed to, whereas his money shots fell short or out.

The second set was a lot like the first. It was won by a lopsided score, but once again, closer play than it would seem from looking at the score. We had much better rallies this set, but this time I won all of the games.

We shook hands on the ladder match (this time I extended my left hand and shook his right hand upside down), and I asked him if he wanted to play some more. He agreed, so we played a third, and then a fourth set. In the third set, I was still playing well, but he was starting to pick up his game, and I did droop a little toward the end. In the fourth set, I was losing a lot of focus, and he was picking it up even more. I didn't feel all that tired, but I was just not concentrating as well. I also was starting to hit my first double faults, and was losing confidence a little bit for a few of the games. We kept pace on the first eight games, and each mostly won the games we served, bringing the score to 4-4. Then he moved ahead a game to make it 5-4. He was starting to really play well. I picked up the pace a little and we next two games. These few games were probably the tightest tennis we had played the whole time. We were both thinking well strategically, and most of the points were won on strategy rather than lost on errors. We kept neck-and-neck to go 6-6 and into a tiebreak.

I took an early lead on the tiebreak, but he started catching up. He got to within one point of me, but then I won both my serves to bring it to 6-3. Then he won both his serves to bring it to 6-5, one point down again. I served next, and won 7-5 when he hit the ball into the net after a few rallies. I asked him if he wanted to play a fifth set, and he declined, saying he needed to save some energy to work his shift later on that day. We probably wouldn't have been able to play a fifth set anyway, as it started raining about ten minutes after we quit playing. At least it rained at my house; I have no idea if it was raining near the park where the courts were, but it probably was.