Grindfest

Stuart v. A. at Connally High.  Winner:  A. 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

My Mojo: Level.

This ended up being the kind of grueling, work-it-till-we-are-both-bloody-stumps marathon that seems to be my home terrain.  Two and a half hours of constant running, back-and-forth add to deuce over and over again, and long relentless rallies.  In other words, home.

I started out a little slow, once again taking a long time to warm up.  I did win the first two games, but then lost five in a row through mostly my own errors.  But after being down 5-2, I rallied back with more precise play to win all the rest of the games in the set.

One of my opponent's strong points was knowing when to come in for the approach shot, which always came at my uncovered flank with blazing intensity.  At first I wasn't getting to any of these, but I started being better prepared for these as the match went on.

When he came to net, which he did a lot, he was inconsistent.  Sometimes I was able to get a passing shot or a lob past him.  He was using more of a chip-and-charge strategy (though not on every shot like a lot of chip-and-chargers do), whereas when I came to net, I did it more positionally.  Therefore, my net play was a little more consistent and I got some great angle shots in some of the time.

I felt pretty peaceful throughout the match, and it created a contrast for me with my opponent getting agitated at himself for missing shots.  I was fairly emotionally level throughout most of the match and for the first part of the match, it helped my play, but as I gradually lost focus, I was not getting the better end of most of the points.

In the second and third sets, I just could not seal the deal at the end of each set.  I would meet pace for the first part of the sets, and then peter out.  This seems to be a recurring motif lately for me in competitive matches.  Oh well, towards another day of play.

After the match, he indicated he was exhausted, but I joked, "What, you don't want to play another match?"  I actually would have if he'd said yes.