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.

A Split Decision; Should It Count As A Technical Win For Me?

Set 494-495:

Stuart v. E. at Pharr Tennis Center. Winner: Split 6-2 (Stuart), 4-6 (E.)

My Mojo: Creaky.

Today, my daughter asked me if I wanted to go out and play some tennis. Which was strange for two reasons. First, she never asks me if I want to play; I always bug her to see if she wants to get out and hit some tennis balls. Second, I was just thinking about asking her if she wanted to go out and play when she asked me! Is that synchronicity or what?

I've really been lazy about playing lately. I think I've only played about three or four times in the last couple of months. I've got to get out on the courts at least a little more often than that. It's not like I haven't been active, though; I've been at the gym almost every day, among other stuff.

We originally were planning to play at the free courts in Patterson Park, but they were full. So we checked on Pharr across the street and they had a court open for us. So we ended up playing there.

The first set, I was holding my ground pretty well. Her groundstrokes were really good, and her strategy was strong, but my serve was totally wailing. I got in some really good serves including several aces and outright winners. My strokes were a bit on the tentative side, though.

In the second set, I wasn't quite able to win my service games through the power of my serve, and she came back from being down in a couple of games early, which put her ahead of me by 4-1. I did manage to make a strong comeback and won the next two games to bring the score to 4-3. After that, though, her strong groundstrokes and strategic maneuvering just got too good for me to overcome, especially since I was a little shaky anyway.

I tried to talk her into playing a third set to break the split, but she wouldn't play. I even tried to bait her by saying, "So you forfeit the third set and I win the match?" but that didn't work and she wouldn't budge. I might have pissed her off more by saying that she was 13 and ought to be able to play forever, while I was an old dude and still willing to play as long as she still was (or, heck, I might have even played with someone else who had walked up and wanted to play, but for the fact that I had to give her a ride home. But who knows, it's not a long walk home from there). Anyway, it was good to get out and play, even if it felt to me like an unfinished match. Also, the good news is that I don't think my knee is giving me problems any more.

Return Of The Clash With A Titan

Sets 492-493:

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

My Mojo: Rusty.

I hadn't been playing much, but when I got an email from TennisTitan telling me he was in town, I was definitely willing to play. Actually, I play just about anytime anyone asks me to, but the invitations don't seem to be coming too often now that I'm not playing all the time, and I haven't really reached out to others for games much lately. That has to change.

But I digress. TennisTitan was gracious enough to work me into his busy vacation schedule when he came town to Austin, so I took a couple of hours off from work during the day to play. It was nice having a long lunch and spending time outdoors in the middle of the day on a work day.

In the first set, we went back and forth a lot in the games, and they were close, though I had an edge. Mostly I felt like my own errors were the main thing affecting my game in this set. Like I said, I hadn't been playing much, and my game was showing it.

Luckily, in the second set, I started picking it up. But it seemed like the farther I got into the set, the less he put into it. As the set moved on, I felt like I had a better and better advantage. I won the second set much more easily that the first. Anyway, it was good to see this "invader from the north" again, and I hope to play again, maybe on his turf. And, of course, you can read his much more colorful version of our racquet battle on his blog as well. Titan, sorry I was such a slug about getting this posted.

Got Beat By A Little Girl

Set 491:

Stuart v. E. at Patterson Park. Winner: E. 6-2.

Man, my daughter was playing well today. Almost all of her shots were accurate, her body movement was great, and I was responding sluggishly. I was really tired, having worked out at the gym for a couple of hours right before this. But she told me I couldn't use that as an excuse.

Sets 488-490:

Stuart v. R. at Little Stacy Pool. Winner: R. 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Sets 486-487:

Stuart v. S. at Pflugerville High--Winner, S. 6-0, 6-3.

Back Again For An Encore, Send Flowers To My Agent

Sets 483-485:

Stuart v. E. at Pharr. Winner: Stuart 6-2.

Trying again to come back from my stupid injury. It's not a really bad injury; just a bad bone bruise to the back of my patella, but it is taking forever to heal. And once again, I can tell that it's not fully healed yet. Crap.

Good news, though. My daughter had quit playing tennis about two years ago, and she wanted to play a set with me! She is thinking about joining her junior high tennis team and wants to play some before playing competitively again. Though the score was lopsided, and I won by a large margin, she is definitely a monster-in-waiting. Once she gets her form back, she will probably kill me. I could tell by the great posture she had, and the killer shots that she got on me that were really well-positioned. For the first time in two years that she has played, not bad at all. I mean, she has a different body now; she was 11 when she quit, and now she is 13. And her shots that used to be well-controlled are now erratic sometimes, but I bet with about two weeks of solid practice, she will be back to where she was.

Stuart v. H. at Pharr. Winner: H. 6-2, 7-5.

After my daughter and I played a set, this guy came up to see if I wanted to play. Since I still had the court for another hour, I was happy to pick up another couple sets. Now this was where my rustiness came through. I was not getting it together well at all in the first set. I think the games were closer than the score reflected, but I was a little off on just about every variable. In the second set, I started sharpening my pencil a little, but still could not deal a decisive hand. I was just happy to play after being off for so long.

Back From The Dead

Set 482:

Stuart v. A. at Patterson Park. Winner: Stuart 6-0.

OK, I wasn't dead. I just had a knee injury that forced me to quit playing for a while. And I could tell during this set that it wasn't quite healed yet. I think it'll be OK in the long run, but I still need to take my time.

No Dang Tiebreak, Period

Sets 479-481:

Stuart v. J. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner: S. 6-1, 3-6, 6-0.

My Mojo: Uneven; On And Off And On Again, With A Touch Of Drama.

I played really well during the first set. I made very few errors, and just got the ball back every time, even though he had a majority of the power shots. And also, in the first set I was able to place the ball well so that he could not get tactical winners past me.

Sometimes a tennis game can be like one of those Russian eggs that has a number of eggs nested inside each other. There's the first egg, and then you open up the first egg, and you play your "first egg" game for a while, and then you come to a point where the next egg opens up. Often the next egg opens up at the beginning of a new set, but sometimes it can open up mid-set. Sometimes both of you open your next eggs at the same time, and sometimes one person gets to an advantageous next egg, while the other is still on the first (ever lost a set where you were up 5-0?).

My next egg opened up at the beginning of the second set, and was much weaker than my first egg. On the other hand, my opponent's next egg, which launched at the same time, was much stronger than his first egg had been. So I struggled throughout the whole next set, and I think the score was closer that the game was. I felt like I got whomped in the second set. I was returning the ball defensively and weakly, and that played to his strong point of hitting winners out of my reach.

When we finished the second set, we had about ten minutes left. My opponent wanted to play a match tiebreak, but I was not going along with that. I wanted to play a third set. I always let everybody know before I play that I don't like to play at the tennis centers, because we often can't finish the match. He tried to pressure me into the tiebreak, but I held firm, and I think it made him mad, and possibly made the quality of his game go down. So I won the third set in the next ten minutes (actually, we went a couple minutes over, but the next players got there late, and let us finish out a couple of points). So we were able to finish the set in the time allotted even though our play was kind of rushed. Our third eggs seemed to have emerged, and mine was consistent while his was half-hearted.

Now, I'm all for going along with the other player and playing a friendly game, but I don't like being pressured into a tiebreak. The rules of the ladder say that we play three sets unless both players agree, and I'm probably not going to agree to a tiebreak. I have done it before when I've been pressured into it, and I don't like it at all, although I wasn't completely happy with the way I won the third set in this match. But if you're reading this, be on notice; if we split, I want to play a third set!

Bad Weird Mojo

Sets 477-478:

Stuart v. J. at Austin High. Winner: J. 6-0, 6-1.

My Mojo: Horribilis.

I played worse than I have played in a long time. I couldn't even hardly get my racquet on the ball at all, and I had trouble getting to the ball. I knew I would get a lot of short balls from this guy, but I couldn't seem to get to the ones that he hit; they all seemed to be out of my range. His serve was also better than it had been every other time I had played him. So he played great, and I played crappy, and it was reflected in the score. I was dehydrated and the heat was getting to me, also, and my mood deteriorated. I left the court completely disgusted with my play.

Keeping The Edge

Sets 475-476:

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

My Mojo: Just Over The Line.

I feel like I am on a hot streak lately. Or maybe I am coming off of a dud streak. For a long time, I couldn't seem to get my game together, but for the last few matches, it has really coalesced. Today, I was hitting pretty well, and my strategy seemed to be one of error-baiting. I have played against enough people thatI felt did that with me that I put it into play. I just played consistently, and didn't hit super-hard, but hit shots with medium to high-medium power and mostly playing to my opponent's position. The games were actually closer than the score reflected, but I felt like I had an edge for most of the match.

One thing was a slight distraction. My back was really messed up, so I was wearing a back brace. It has been messed up for the last three days, and I have worn the brace for each of the times I played in the last three days. Also my left knee has been giving me some problems. So I have been good buddies with ice packs and hot baths for the last few days. Hopefully none of this will get worse.

A Mental Game That Briefly Crumbles

Sets 472-474:

Stuart v. C. at Vista Ridge. Winner: Stuart 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-2.

My Mojo: Solid Granite Turning To Sandstone For The Tiebreak.

This guy has beat me before both of the times we have played. But I really enjoy playing him, because we had really close and long matches and push each other to the limit. Tonight was no exception, except this time I won.

Throughout most of the match, I had good ball control and great consistency. The first and third matches I played much better, but in the second match, my error rate went up, andI made enough errors (and he hit enough winners) to go into a tiebreak.

Then the unexpected tiebreak we played messed up my mental state. I usually do a lot of mental preparation before a match, especially if I have had close matches with somebody that I have lost to several times. I visualize playing against that person's playing style for several days before the match, try to see myself hitting shots with good form, and get into a mental zone before the game. And that is what I did this time. It mostly worked, except he asked me to play a tiebreak that I wasn't familiar with. I figured I would end up having to play that tiebreak at some point anyway, so I agreed. But it really just crumbled my concentration. So I lost the tiebreak. I guess I can't completely blame it on that, because he played really well during the tiebreak.

But I didn'tlet that get to me, and I got my mental state back for the third set. I was able to hit a few more shots that were winners than he did in this set (though it did seem like he got some really good ones in, especially when I hit shots that came up weak and short that he was able to get an extreme angle on), and I also made less errors. I especially managed to avoid hitting shots long and got most of them right inside the baseline.

One thing that I lamed out on was my lobs when he came to net. They almost all seemed to come up short, and he returned them with overheads that I was rarely ever able to get to. But my serve was really on tonight.