Crossing A Bad Line

Sets 301-302:

Stuart v. D. at Caswell. Winner: D. 6-4, 6-0.

My Mojo: Starting Strong, Quick Deterioration.

I was really feeling good when I started this match. At the beginning, I was playing really well, and I was really happy with the amount of offensive play I was getting in. At first, we were trading leads. I won the first game, feeling like it was fairly easy. Then he won the next two games, and I was down 2-1. Then I picked up the next two, and was up 3-2. Then he took the next couple, and I was down 4-3. During the changeover, he asked me if I was seeing a pattern. I agreed.

I had been happy with my play, and chalked up my losses to nothing big; I just failed to correct a few times and I thought that I could easily adjust. But I didn't win any more games after this. It was like I just suddenly crossed a bad line. All of a sudden, I was not anticipating well enough to get to the balls early enough, and he was taking control of the points almost all of the time. I was also taking longer than usual to recover on the crossovers; probably it was because of the heat. He seemed to be having the same problem but was handling it better. I was trying to get good shots in so I wouldn't have to run so far, but my shots were all backfiring on me. He was hitting with really good topspin, and stayed consistent even though his shots were not terribly hard. And I was watching his form, which was very good. He was doing a good job of taking the offense, closing in, and closing the deal. I was being pulled to corners and then failing to properly recover, and then he would hit the predictable angle shot to the area of the court I couldn't get to. I was seeing this happen over and over, and still I was unable to do anything about it. I kept telling myself that I need to hit hard shots near the baseline, and then watching my returns come back weak too often from just barely getting to the ball in time to hit it, and then just barely returning it without the ability to control it. Toward the end, I felt like there was just about nothing I could do. And my serve, which had been in and out for the first six games, just checked out and went on vacation. At least I wasn't double-faulting a lot. I was getting my serves in the box, but not hitting them with enough pizazz to rumble on the points I served.

Though the score in the second set was lopsided, many of the games were close. I wasn't completely gazorched, but I was failing to get an edge, and that made the difference. Several games I was up forty-love or forty-fifteen, and he came back and won the game. This ate away at my mental state, and though I wasn't in a state of fury, I was mildly to moderately disgusted with my play. I was probably a little harder on myself than I should have been, because he was playing well and not making too many errors, and using great strategy.

I've now crossed the "300" line, so I'm pretty far ahead on the way to my goal, even though I'll take some time off for a vacation soon. I have been slowing down on how often I've been playing, but when I do play, I have gotten in a lot of sets with many of my opponents. I haven't been as aggressive as I was a few months ago on looking for opponents, but I'm also getting a higher number of people either turn me down (always the reason is "too busy right now") or just not respond. It must be the summer heat, I'm guessing. Afternoon matches are getting to me sometimes (today was no picnic, and part of the collapse in my playing quality was probably heat-related). But I'm definitely on track. I think I'll have met my goal but the end of October, which will make it within a year even though I started early, having started playing last November. I just hope that I can stay healthy and avoid severe injuries. Once I have met my goal, I think I'll try for 365 from the first of last January until the next first of January, which will add another 34 sets. Then I'll slow down on the number of matches I'm playing, try to get on the ball machine more, and try to get more lessons and drills in the mix. And I think I'll find something else to obsess on for a year and start another blog with some goal. I'll keep this one going; I'm definitely not going to quit.