Horns Locked Until The Final Chip 'N Charge

Sets 221-223:

Stuart v. D. at Onion Creek Country Club. Winner: D. 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

My Mojo: Decent, But Fell Apart At the End After He Changed Strategy.

Now it is starting to get a little hot some days. Today it was pretty hot, and humid to boot. So I used a little trick that my daughter used to do when she played, and took a cooler with an extra towel on it. That way during the changeovers, I could put the icy towel on my face, arms, legs, neck, etc., and help cool down during the breaks. It works wonders. I'll probably start doing that more as it gets into the hot season.

During the first two sets, we went back and forth a lot. In the first set, he edged me out towards the end, and won the set. In the second set, we reversed roles, and I edged him out. The third set started out neck-and-neck, but then all of a sudden he started playing a particularly aggressive serve-and-volley game that just threw me off balance to the point that I didn't win any more games. He told me after the match that he felt that he was not getting any breakthrough, so he just started playing like it was doubles, since he was more of a doubles player. In this match, it worked against me. By the time I realized what was going on, he had already won two games, and I lost the third to lose the set just out of a failure to adapt. Hopefully, lesson learned.