Sets 560-562:

Stuart v. K. at Connally HS. Winner: K. 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2.

Sets 558-559:

Stuart v. TennisTitan at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart 6-1, 6-3.

Sets 556-557:

Stuart v. TennisTitan at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart 6-3, 6-1.

Sets 553-555:

Stuart v. C. at South Austin Tennis Center and Westlake High School. Winner: Stuart 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Sets 550-552:

Stuart v. S. at Williamson County Tennis Center. Winner: S. 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Sets 548-549:

Stuart v. W. at Little Stacy Park. Winner: W. 6-0, 6-1.

Sets 545-547:

Stuart v. I. at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart. 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Sets 543-544:

Stuart v. P. at Northwest Park. Winner: P. 7-5, 6-4

Coming Back After Some Down Time

Sets 541-542:

Stuart v. C. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner: Stuart 6-4, 6-0.

My Mojo: Steady and Tenacious.

It's been a while since I played. I need to start playing more often again. I don't know why I've drifted away from playing tennis more often, but I need to start trying to play at least once or twice a week again.

I guess I only have a certain amount of mojo to spread out among all of the physical things that I do. Now that I've gotten back into running more often, it seems like that has taken more of the edge off of my tennis game. But I felt like I played pretty well today.

One indicator for me was that my volleys were really on. Every time I came to net, it paid off. I had good directionality, didn't flub any into the net, and had "good hands" on the returns with just the right touch almost every time.

In the first set, I was a little worried. This is the third time I have played C., and he had beaten me both times before. In each of the previous matches, I felt like our play was close, but he just out-ground me. It seems like he is a grinding player, which is a lot like the way I play. Just stay in there and out last if you can, that's the strategy. Three-hour slugfests are the norm for my type of player, and if both of us play that way, it gets long and ugly, with each of us getting to everything, and long, engaging rallies.

But this time I was able to get a little more aggressive play in and cut off more of the rallies. Starting out the match, we were playing a little more evenly, but I felt like I was able to out-finesse him just a little. I didn't make a lot of errors, but I did double-fault a little more than usual, which was a minor annoyance, but not a deal-breaker.

The second set was when I really picked it up. Everything came into focus well, and I was able to have a good psychological outlook on the proceedings. I felt like I controlled the majority of the points, and for most of the games my serve was really on. In the last game, it seemed like he stormed back some, but the last point was definitely mine. This was a welcome comeback, but I probably should practice some before I play more matches.

Ladies, here's a hint. If you're up against a girl with big boobs, bring her to the net and make her hit backhand volleys. That's the hardest shot for the well-endowed--Billie Jean King

A "first-ever" for my blog...pictures!

The highs, the lows...the ecstasy and the agony...the stupid grins on all sides.

The Titan and I settle up at the end of the match.

Clash With The Titan (Again)

Sets 539-540:

Stuart v. TennisTitan in Yonkers, NY. Winner: Stuart 6-3, 6-2.

Traveling around the northeastern quadrant of the country, I stopped by to visit the TennisTitan in our series of back-and-forth matches. We had a little bit harder time this time finding time as I had stuff to do, and he had stuff to do. So my original plan of visiting him on the way up got changed around and I stopped through on the way back instead.

He was ever the gracious host, offering me a night's rest at his place since I was stopping through. Might be the last time for that, though, since he said he was starting to think about selling his humble home, now that he's been an empty-nester for a while. Sounded like he has a lot of memories invested in that place.

When I pulled into Yonkers, I had already visited most of the states in New England. Did my time in Woonsocket, RI. Spent a great time in Boston. Three days in Hartford, CT. Camped in Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire. Spent a lovely night in Bennington, VT. Hiked the tallest mountain in Massachusetts and the Adirondacks in New York. So the tennis thing was turning out to be the icing on top of the cake; the cherry on the whipped cream.

TT and I went to one of his usual haunts and started smacking the ball around. I was a little stiff, having just gotten out of the car about an hour before. But I started getting into the fluidity of the situation, and loosened up a little. In the first set, we were keeping pace a lot, and he was getting a lot of drop shots and winners in on me. I was not covering the court as well as I should have been, but I made up for it with my usual speed in getting to where I needed to be. And I started getting savvy on the drop shots, and getting ready to rush in if it looked like a shot was going to go soft.

My defensive game was top-notch. My offensive game...well, it's never that great anyway, so I can't really complain. The first set I took 6-3, and the first few games were tougher than the last ones.

In the second set, my serve started getting better, and I won more points from dominant serves. Also, there were more long rallies, which I tend to be able to take. My anticipation improved, and I was getting to almost everything, whereby in the first set I was missing some far-court shots. I won the second set 6-2, and it was off to the Chinese buffet for both of us. A fitting cap on the evening. Of course, the Titan blogged his match right away, and I've been quite the slug once again.

Sets 536-538:

Stuart v. M. at Little Stacy Park. Winner: Stuart. 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

Sets 534-535:

Stuart v. J. at St. Edward's University. Winner: Stuart 6-2, 6-1.

Sets 532-533:

Stuart v. G. at Vista Ridge High School. Winner: G. 6-3, 6-2.

Sets 530-531:

Stuart v. M. at Westover Hills. Winner: M. 6-2, 6-4.

Ballroom Blitz

Sets 528-529:

Stuart v. M. at Little Stacy Park. Winner: Stuart 7-6(5), 7-6(2).

My Mojo: Persistent.

This was one of those epic grinding sagas. You can probably tell from the score that it was seriously close all the way through. This guy baffles me with the kick on his ball. It never ends up where I think it will end up, and it is always different. I've played kick players before, and I usually just adjust to the kick. This time I was reacting almost instantanously, as the kick was different in intensity and directionality almost every time.

But I play a defensive game anyway. So I just ground it out, like I usually do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time it did. I think when a match is close it spurs me on, too, and often I'm able to eke out an extra effort at the end of each set. There's something about pulling an inner energy out of my body from a secret place (no juvenile comments). Anyway, I did just a little better playing my defensive game against a blitzkrieg offense.

Sets 526-527:

Stuart v. P. at Little Stacy Park. Winner: Stuart 7-5, 6-0.

Don't Slam The Door On Your Way Out

Sets 524-525:

Stuart v. F. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner: F. 6-0, 6-3.

My Mojo: Pathetic.

I think I was just too tired playing this match. It didn't go anything like I thought it would. Nothing was working for me, and I just emotionally melted down. I felt like I was covered with a blanket, and couldn't find the way out. Things just got worse and worse. He outplayed me with the game I play.

In the second set, I was able to utilize a Plan B that worked a little better for me, but still did not cook the enchiladas all the way through. I tried for a more offensive game, and tried to pull him to one far side of the court and then hit winners to the other side. I also rushed the net more, trying more of a "chip 'n charge" game (or at least as much as my ability would allow). Like I said, that got me more points, but did not buy my way into a third set. I was a mess when this match ended.

Would You Like Fudge With Your Super Salad?

Sets 522-523:

Stuart v. B. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner; Stuart 6-2, 6-2.

My Mojo: Untouchable At First, Then Stupendous, With Intermittent Fudge.

Sweet, merciful pizza, giver of life, you arrive just as my body is completely spent and replenish my fuel and electrolytes. More later when I can hold my fingers up.
__________________________________________________

OK, now I'm back and I'm recombobulated. So here's the back story.

After the previous match, I had a half hour to rest. And it put me back together well enough. But I didn't have time to get anything to eat. I started the match feeling like dynamite--explosive and powerful. The first four games, I just wiped almost every shot, and won 4-0. But he did get a couple good ones in. Two balls got hit over the fence (he slammed shots at me on both that hit my racquets and bounced askew) into really bad places. Not that they were bad places per se, but they were places that I had to walk all the way around the facility to get to. And it was about a ten-minute walk. When the first one went over, we just left it. But when the second one went over, we couldn't just play with one ball.

So I did my "walk of shame," (actually, there was no shame involved, just tedium) and got the balls. Somehow this break seemed to put a spell on my invincible mojo, because when I got back, I wasn't able to do anything right in the next two games and lost almost every point. Everything was all fudging up for me. My shots were erratic, my timing was in the toilet, and my mental state was kablooie. So now the score was 4-2.

Luckily, I tucked it back in, and was able to score the next two games. But they were definitely harder to win than the first four had been. In the second set, I had a major advantage in most games, but he pulled ahead in a couple of games in a mojo-busting fashion; once again, I didn't do almost anything right in either of those games. But I did take the majority of the games, even though it was a little tougher than before.

For the last two games, though, I REALLY started running out of fuel. I hadn't eaten in a while, and I was probably starting to get an electrolyte imbalance. Though I started feeling weaker, I still was getting good shots in, and that helped. So I won the last few games, with somewhat of a fight. But by the time the match was over, I could barely stand up. I had to go report my score, and had to wait quite a while in line, and felt almost ready to pass out. Since I couldn't get the score reported, I sat down away from the tournament desk for a while, and kept going back to try to report, but still couldn't get in for a while. And then when I did report, the guy at the desk turned to somebody else quickly before I could find when the next match was. I was starting to feel at death's door, but finally, about ten minutes later, I got to ask my question about when my next match was, and the guy at the tournament desk, who was filling in, said he didn't know. Then some guy came up and said I was supposed to play him right then.

Well, that would definitely not have worked. Maybe if I could have rested for half an hour or so, I could have pulled it together. I didn't want to play a fourth match today much either. I want inside and lay down for a while on the couch, and when I came back, the tournament director had come back from his game, and told me that I played at 9 the next day. I thought he had said earlier that my next match would be the next day, so I was grateful to get that confirmed. I was starting to strengthen some from the pizza that I gobbled down when I got off the court. I maybe could have played another match. But I don't think I would have been a very happy camper.

Time Keeps On Slippin'

Sets 520-521:

Stuart v. E. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner: Stuart 6-2, 6-2.

My Mojo: Confident.

What a difference time can make. This was a guy who had a similar style to the last guy I played, but I felt much better, and handled everything that came at me a lot better. The difference was partially due to my increased confidence. For some strange reason, I felt better about what I was doing. Maybe it's because I was already warmed up and didn't muck it all up in the warmup.

So I did well most games. My serve was on, and that helped. I was a little more aggressive, and that helped too. Plus, my lobs were working really well when he came up to net. My anticipation was decent, my strategy was good enough, and it all congealed into a pretty good game.

I was definitely a little peaked at the end of the match. They told me I'd be playing again in half an hour, and I figured that was OK. I recharged and meditated, and it worked.

The Big Kahuna Is Out Of Reach

Sets 518-519:

Stuart v. J. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner: J. 7-5, 6-4.

My Mojo: Diffuse and Leaky.

Dang, we had some close games. But I just didn't have the mental clarity today. I was mostly scattered to the winds. I was able to pull it together for a few games at a time, but I kept finding myself drifting like a leaf in an erratic wind. Also, he had really big shots that forced me into playing more defensively than I would have liked, and my reaction time was just a fraction of a second too slow at critical times. Sometimes it is about those critical shots. Mine were just landing right outside the lines, or falling just short of the net. You know that the mojo is not great when that is happening. When the mojo flows, the tight shots get you through the maze.

In the warm-up, I was hitting really haphazardly. Nothing was going where I wanted it to. But when I started the first set, I had pretty good focus, and my game suddenly tightened up. I won the first three games 3-0, and felt pretty good. But then came that dreaded mid-set loss of mental sharpness. Suddenly, in the fourth game, I was stranded on a desert island with howling monkeys. He played really well, and I did not react well, and I lost the next three games.

So now the score was tied up at 3-3. My resolve came back, and I was able to play more aggressively the next two games with success. So now I was up 5-3. But then, the mind-drain thing cobbled my psyche, and though we had some close games, I couldn't muster up more than just a down payment. I lost the set 7-5.

OK. I sunk my teeth into the court for the second set. I reacted well, and thought I played pretty good games. But he played flawlessly for the first two games. Though my confidence was down a little, since I had been playing my best but still had not been able to get a good tide, I roared back in the third game through good serves. So I was down 2-1.

Anyway, the plot simplifies at this point. He just broke serve one more time than I did. And I deflated at the end. So through we were both playing well, he dominated most of the games he served, and I mine, but I couldn't catch the right wave to surf my way to the Big Kahuna. C'est la guerre.

Kick Me

Sets 515-517:

Stuart v. M. at Little Stacy Park. Winner: Stuart 6-1, 2-6, 6-1.

My Mojo: What The ?

This guy had a kick serve like I had never seen before. I mean, I've seen kick serves, but this one had an underspin that just made it bounce in unpredictable directions, and I was constantly hitting it out of position. This gave him a tremendous offensive advantage on me, and I was scrambling to keep up.

In the first set, I was able to take a pretty significant advantage, eve though I was battling some significant nausea. My stomach was goinberserk on me, but I was still able to hold the set together. The weak stomach went away by the end of the first set, though.

But I lost my mojo in the second set, and could not bang his slammers back consistently. And the nausea came back really strongly toward the end of the second set. This time, I couldn't fight my way through it. It was really kicking my butt.

In the third set, I rallied. Although all of the sets were lopsided score-wise, the games really seemed more competitive than it showed in the score. There were a lot of really good rallies and some excellent strategic moves. Also, there were some definite pull-it-out-of-the-can moments for both of us where we had points that went back and forth on returns that nobody would have predicted that either of us would get back. All in all, a very good two-hour tour.

Just Not Quite Good Enough At The End

Sets 513-514:

Stuart v. P. at Northwest Park. Winner: P. 6-4, 7-5.

My Mojo: Pretty Good, But Winding Down At The End Of Each Set.

I was headed for the courts today and it started raining. Not a lot, but it was more than sprinkling, so I was apprehensive that we were going to be able to play. We were supposed to play at McCallum High School, but when I got there, the courts were hugely wet. Apparently, of all the rain that had fallen in the area, there was a deluge right in the three-or-four block radius right where those courts were. So I waited for my opponent to get there, and suggested we go to Northwest Park, which was a mile or two away. That was a good plan, as the courts there were relatively dry. Plus, I think they were a little more porous and able to deal with rain better. And it did sprinkle a couple of times while we were playing, but not enough to affect the games.

In each of these sets, I was playing neck-and neck with my opponent. But right at the end of each set, it seemed like my focus would subside right as his game tightened up. So in each set, I lost the last two games. I lobbed a lot when he came to net, and my lobs seemed to go long more than usual. That was a little frustrating. But he was good at getting them when they made it in the lines, so I started trying for passing shots at the net a little more. That seemed to be working better.

My serves were not too bad, though I double-faulted three or four times, and had some erratic moments with them. My ground strokes were solidly placed, but sometimes tentative. I think my backhand was really solid, even though it had tanked out in the warmup. I think sometimes when something is not working well in the warmup, I tend to be a little more careful in the actual game, and if that carefulness doesn't translate to tension, then I can get my shots calibrated a little better.

In the first set, I had come on strong the first game but then lost the next four. And from that 4-1 deficit, I managed to win the next three games to tie it up. Then, as I lost focus, I could not get it together for the next two games.

We were both the type of players who get to everything on the court, so it was a very physical game. That is the kind of game I usually like to play, but with somebody else who plays that way, it gets tough. I'm used to tough play, and kept reminding myself throughout the match that it was OK if this was tough and close. But I just could not close each of these sets.

In the second set, I was playing a little better, and was either tied or ahead for most of the set. But he came back from a 5-4 deficit, tied it up, and closed well on the last two games.

Twitching Like A Tasered Cheetah

Sets 511-512:

Stuart v. X. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner: X. 7-6(1), 7-5.

My Mojo: Delayed.

The keyword today was "sluggish." I seemed to get to everything just a teeny bit late, and was just reacting to the game rather than being a participant in it. That having been said, I did spectacularly well, considering.

Today was only a bit short of an hour and a half. We took very short breaks between games even though we both did a lot of moving around the court. My serve was a little better than it was in the last match, but not spectacular. I did get in a few whizzing winners, and that set the tone for most of the games that I won.

In the first set, I was getting slowly eaten. Munch, munch. I was down 5-2 due to the fact that my neurons seemed to be vacationing. But I started concentrating on anticipating the ball, and then I was at least able to hit it back and keep it in play. My confidence started crescendoing, and I won the next few games to the point that I was up 6-5. Then I hit the wall; my opponent not only came back to win the next game, but obliterated me in the tiebreaker.

The second set was more neck-and-neck through most of it, chiefly due to my serve having improved to the point that i was able to take charge or dominate in games that I served. But then when he served, I wasn't dealing with it well.

I have a hard time playing against a player with this style. He's got a "short-punch" game that doesn't give me much time to react. His serve was fast with not much backswing, he hit a lot of shots on the upbounce, and took a lot of contemplation time away from me. So, since I tend to play a defensive game anyway, I end up playing almost manic raw reactivity with a player like this.

Also he had a really good angle punch that was nailing me, especially when I hit shots that ended up short. He was good at taking advantage of those. So his serve games were dominant for him, and mine were dominant for me. I thought I'd do well in the second set after I broke his serve, but I was never able to wedge it open, and once he broke my serve to tie the score up at 5-5, my game shattered like a dropped mirror. I lost the next two games as my game spazzed out quicker than a tasered cheetah, and my fate was sealed.

Grueling Even By My Standards

Sets 508-510:

Stuart v. V. at McCallum High School. Winner: Stuart 5-7, 7-5, 7-5.

My Mojo: Mood-Swingy, But Steady At The Right Times.

Geez, this was a marathon. Two and a half hours of constant running around the court. We had so many games that went back and forth from deuce to ad. A few of the games lasted between ten and fifteen minutes. This was just a wear-down extravaganza. But I actually feel pretty good right now, except for my toes.

When I got to the courts, I realized, to my horror, that I had put on the wrong shoes. I absent-mindedly put on a ratty old falling-apart pair of totally unsuitable shows with holes in the bottom and cracks in the sides. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But I had little choice other than to play anyway. It was time and my opponent was there. Crapola.

So I played the first set, and it was pretty lackluster play on my part. But my opponent was making a lot of errors. Near the middle of the first set I was up 5-3, and then I just lost focus. I lost the next four games before I even knew what was happening. And my opponent played really well, too.

By the time the first set ended, I felt like there was gravel in my shoes under both of my big toes. I took my shoes off and my socks were soaked in blood. I had worn all the skin off of the bottom of both of my big toes from constant bad friction due to my cruddy shoes. Great. That'll teach me to wear the wrong shoes. And it was only the end of the first set. I still had at least one more to go.

The second and third sets were where the marathon play really started. I started out the second set playing well, but being outplayed by my opponent. His net play was starting to really improve, and my serve was not quite on (neither my first or second serves), and I rely on my serve a lot. So I was down 5-3 in the second set. I had also been starting to get really irritated due to having to rub my skin-deprived toes against the courts over and over again, and because of the fact that my piece-of-crap shoes were not letting me change directions fast enough.

But I pulled it together mentally, and managed to go to a calm place. The next two games were probably the longest ones of the who match. They seemed interminable. We just kept going back and forth from deuce, to ad, to deuce, to ad again, over and over. And then the one of us who was ahead would predictably choke, or the one behind would get in a beautiful, unreturnable shot. I was beginning to wonder what circle of hell this was.

I squeaked out these two long games and brought the score to 5-5. This really helped my confidence, and I won the next two games fairly easily.

In the third set, my opponent seemed to get that steely determination that comes from being behind, where you just dig in and say to yourself, "Not on my watch." Of course, I don't know what he was thinking, but his play got really aggressive and error-free. And I was falling apart both mentally and strategically. My errors increased, my toes hurt like hell, and I found myself screaming cuss words upon flubbing points. I got mad in my usual way, though; I would scream out an obscenity and then feel sheepish and stupidly laugh. I rarely hold on to the anger. Next thing you know, I was down 4-1, and the first three games weren't even competitive at all. I think I only scored about two points in the first three games of the third set. Elvis was nowhere near the building.

But then I did the same thing I had done in the second set and just brought it home. I stopped making as many errors, and started playing steadily and methodically. I won the next game to get to 4-2, then lost another game, when my opponent surged. So now i was down 5-2. Then I played really well in the next three games. I tied it up at 5-5. Now I was confident again, but I never would have predicted this outcome from how I started out the third set. By this time, my opponent's body language was starting to seem defeated, and I was feeling like I was in it for the long haul. The next two games were tough, but I squeezed it through the birth canal again and pulled out the set. It was two and a half hours after the start of the match, the pads of my toes were absolutely shredded (hey, what is the worst that could happen? staph infection, amputation, death?), and I did it.

Out Of My League

Sets 506-507:

Stuart v. N. at McCallum High School. Winner: N. 6-1, 6-0.

My Mojo: Completely Outclassed.

I was so out of my league in this match. This guy was so much better than me that there was probably no way I was going to beat him. I was lucky to win one game.

I mean, I'm no slouch. I've got a pretty decent game, but the strategy N. used against me was so good, I just couldn't get to the ball a lot of the time. And I'm the guy who has the reputation of getting to everything. Blarf.

Sets 503-505:

Stuart v. I. at Northwest Park. Winner: I. 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.

Close, But No Cigar

Sets 500-502:

Stuart v. A. at Austin Tennis Center. Winner: A. 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3.

My Mojo: Weak Like Little Girl At Critical Times.

OK, maybe that's an overstatement. I must have played pretty well to get a match that close. And I played my typical long grueling match; the type of play I'm usually comfortable with. But this time I just could not get it together at the critical times. My play just fell apart when I needed it to be there. My shots were off, my anticipation was fried, and my mental state was not focused enough. But I had the stamina, at least.

Sets 498-499:

Stuart v. P. at McCallum High School. Winner: P. 6-3, 6-4.

Sets 496-497:

Stuart v. C. at Vista Ridge High School. Winner: C. 6-0, 6-4.