Stuart v. J. at Hunter's Chase. Winner: Stuart 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
My Mojo: Tenacious And Steady.
Yesterday I had gone to a group lesson at Pharr, and I think I had had the worst tennis day I had since I started this blog. I played like a three-legged frog in a field full of excited hillbillies. And my mental attitude was so melted that I knew a half hour into the lesson that I had no business being there. But, for some reason, I went through the motions anyway, though I was mostly playing worse and worse. And, surprisingly, I got a couple of near-perfect winner shots in. I guess in the scheme of things, it's not too surprising to have two good shots in an hour and a half. But that's how bad I had been playing; I played so poorly that I pretty much gave up. So I went home and went to bed early and comforted myself with the thought that after a good night's sleep and a day's rest, I HAD to do better than I had done at the lesson.
Today when I got up, I felt much better, and figured I would play better tonight. I was right, but I'll get to that later. Strike two happened when I went home for lunch, and on my way back to work, I got in a wreck in my car. It was definitely not my fault at all. Some lady turned left in front of me from the lane to my RIGHT as I was approaching to pass her on the left. She was stopped in her lane, and I started to pass cautiously and slowly, because I had no idea what she was going to do. Then I saw her left turn light come on, and I thought, "Oh, crap!" I slammed on my brake and came to a complete stop, and I thought she was going to change lanes. If she had just changed lanes, she might have cleared my car, but she actually turned left, and the back of her car clipped the front of mine. I tried to hit my horn, and I briefly thought of trying to go into reverse, but I didn't have time to do either of these things. I heard a sickening crunch, and I thought it was going to be worse than it was. Once, when I was in a city bus, I felt an impact that felt about the same as this one, and the car that hit the bus from behind had its front end totally crumpled in. So I prepared for ugliness. But we both pulled over, and amazingly enough, there was only some lightly scratched paint on my car and a panel that was moved inward about a quarter to a half an inch, but I don't think it was dented. There was some denting on her car, but not a lot. She admitted it was her fault, and agreed to work it out with me after we traded insurance info and I called the police. Well, if she doesn't come through, I don't anticipate the repair will be that expensive anyway, but I've got the facts on my side, that's for sure. Man, did I luck out. I mean, to have gotten into a wreck on a major thoroughfare with two cars pointed in different directional vectors, I almost could not have asked for a better outcome outside of not impacting at all. I was just amazed that it was such a good outcome, and thank Mithras that I was defensive and paying attention.
So now to the match. I got there late because traffic was terrible and my opponent told me to get off at an exit that didn't exist. So I overshot it, and then started panicking, because I was not familiar with this end of town at all, and had no idea where to go. Luckily, I backtracked and found it mostly serendipitously. So I was only about seven minutes late; no big deal, really, since I had had many opponents be later than that and I had taken it gracefully. So karma owed me, and besides, I was late because of the directions my opponent gave me.
In the first set, he was hitting some well-placed power shots that were forcing me not only to play very defensively, but just barely be able to return the ball and not place it well. I felt like I was in a box for a while, but slowly started adapting to his game, and relaxing into my responses. Unfortunately, that didn't happen before the first set was over. Still, the first set was very close, with long games and drawn-out points.
In the second set, I strengthened my play in mid-set (but not before I was down 4-1). I caught up, and then won the set by hitting more solid returns and playing for position more. Still, when I caught one of his bullet train shots late and did a barely-return, he usually managed to slam them down my gullet decisively. I benefitted in this set in a few points from rallies that consisted of his whopping power shot, then my weak return, then his well-placed cannonball, then my minimal return from a position that probably both of us thought I would never get to, then an error by him on an attempted put-away. Shots like that probably gave him the edge in this set, and that's really nothing for me to be proud of. But I did win, and it was a solid close. He had this monster serve on ad court that whizzed near the mid-line that he aced me on several times, but I got more and more used to that, and by the end of the second set I was getting most of those rather than missing them. Also, I was hitting a lot of shots on the frame of my racquet, mostly from badly reading the spin he put on the ball.
The third set is when I really shone. My play was getting better and better, and was very low in unforced errors as the end grew nearer. Plus, in the third set, my serve was getting me great advantages, and I was dominating more points on my serve. My returns were also getting more solid and aggressive. I actually felt my energy growing rather than draining. To top it off, I was hitting less shots on the frame as I got better readings on his spin and ball speed, and I was guiding the ball into the sweet spot of my racquet better. When we were at 2-2, I thought my plan would be to keep pace with him and then surge at the close, and that was pretty much what happened. And "keeping pace" is an understatement for what happened; I think we had some of the most drawn-out, nail-biting games of the whole match in the last set. Of course, I would have liked to take a lead early, too, but I figured his serve would give him too much of an advantage at first (which it did), and I would be better positioned to pull out the last-minute burst of energy than he would I think I might have dropped a game or two as his power shots briefly made a triumphant return, but then I played a tough, consistent game to tie it at 5-5, and won the next two games solidly, both breaking his serve, and taking the game I served through power on the serve. My movement and placement strategy had also been getting better throughout the third set, and in the last two games, my strategy was working better than it had the whole match. Another thing that I think helped my game in the third set was that I didn't get tired and frustrated, and I had a lot of patience. I was able to plan things out well, and more often than not, my plans worked. And I was ready for a long, dug-in, close contest.
When the match was over, I felt like I was still ready to play more. I even thought briefly about trying to see if he wanted to play another set just for fun, but I just didn't think he would want to at that point, so I didn't ask. I thought he might be at the point that I was at a half-hour into my lesson last night (discouraged and tired), and if that was the case, what good would playing more do either of us?
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