It Takes A Couple Of Sets For Me To Reach A Comfort Zone

Sets 369-371:

Stuart v. E. at The Courtyard Winner: E. (Continuation of last match) Third Set 7-5.

Two more sets: A Tie. 6-1 (E), 2-6 (S).

My Mojo: Constricted, Then Suddenly Free.

The beginning of our play was finishing up the previous match that we had started. I won the first game with some great serves and most of them were not returned. After that my serve got tentative and my whole game became kind of imbalanced. I got down by 5-2, and then I managed to pull together enough game and focus to win the next three games and tie it up at 5-5.

Then my opponent really pulled together his game. He played better than he has probably ever played agaoinst me. He won the next two games decisively to win the set 7-5. Then in the whole second set (technically, it was the first set of a new match, I guess, or just an independent set, since the last set was finishing up the third set of a previous match) I felt like I was completely unable to respond to his game. His shots were almost flawless and error-free and I was mostly completely on the defensive.

It also didn't help that around this time I felt a very slight pull in my lower back; it wasn't enough to keep me from playing, but was just enough to change my balance a little. It wasn't really bad enough for me to consider it an injury, but I can tell it has created a susceptibility to an injury. As I write this, I still feel a slight weakness in my back and I wouldn't be surprised if some little movement at some point injures it a little, or a lot, more. Fingers crossed, and I need to do some strengthening exercises to head this off.

I continued my theme from the match with Y. about not being able to convert advantages in the games, as I got up 40-15 or 40-love and then watched the games evaporate away. Once again, this affected my mental state a great deal, and I started making more errors, especially on shots that should have been sure winners. This was driving me nuts, and the score quickly got to 5-0 in his favor. I did manage to serve one game toward the end in which my serves were focused again and powerful enough to win the game easily. So at least I didn't get bageled. But he took the next game pretty easily and won the set 6-1. To my credit, I was getting to shots that seemed almost impossible even though the ball was just coming off the tip of my racquet. I even remember seeing one serve thatI thought there was no way I would get to, saying "Good shot" as I thought it would be an ace, and expressing a cry of surprise as it actually got returned by my racquet as I got there just in the nick of time. But he managed to hit too many great shots to diverse places on the court, and eventually I would miss one and lose the point. The problem for me was once I barely got there, I was not able to direct the ball well, and I was just returning it into the court weakly, allowing him to take command. He was really getting good strategic direction on his shots and my defensive game was tried to the limit.

In the next set, I managed to get some focus back. I was catching more shots in front of my body instead of at the side or behind, and following through better. This was allowing me to be more aggressive and also close in to the net more. For the first four games we kept pace with each other, though I felt more confident in my play. Then I won the next four games to take the set 6-2. Some of these games were pretty easy, and some were tough. I asked him if he wanted to play another set as I felt pretty good physically (even though we had been playing some long rallies; this last set had probably the best rallies of the match). But he cited other commitments and could not play.