Stuart v. E. at Travis Country. Winner: E. 6-3, 6-2.
My Mojo: Solid At First, But The Balloon Slowly Leaked Air.
It was just about perfect weather for playing tennis tonight. It was just a smidge on the cool side, so that when I got moving, it felt like optimal exercise weather. When I started this match, I was in a great mindset, and I was moving really well. I had ample time before the match to center my mental gravity, though having a well-toned mindset just didn't seem to be enough as the match progressed.
My strategy felt really good at the beginning of the first set. My serve was not working as well as I would have liked, but it was decent, though I did double-fault two or three times in the first set. My opponent was playing really well, and seemed to get more energetic as time went on. My energy didn't appear to diminish, but my focus and rhythm seemed to slowly deflate. So by the middle of the first set, I was not getting winning combinations in as much as I had been. It wasn't so much that I was not keeping pace, but I just was not closing the points well, and I also saw my errors creeping up. So at the end of the first set, I was just not getting the games in, though we were having really good and energetic points.
When the second set started, I briefly revitalized and recalibrated, and I was able to get some aggressive strategy going. Also, my serve flared up for a few games and I was getting some well-placed, solid serves in the box with good spin control. That was helping me keep control during the points, though most of my game was baseline play. But once again, the balloon started slowly deflating. Plus, my opponent was getting much better net play than I was. I just couldn't seem to get good approach shots in that would get me to the net, whereas E. was getting there much more and getting some great putaway shots through the domination of the points she was getting by making solid approaches to the net. Also, I was getting to a lot of "impossible" shots just a tiny bit late, and shooting the ball off into the seventh circle of oblivion from the tip of my racquet. One good thing that I had going for me throughout the match was that my mental state was good enough to still feel competitive, even when I was down, and I never did get into that dejected funk that seems to keep a player from putting on a decent three-ring circus. My rhythm was just a a thimble-full off, though, and that put me under the bleachers for the last half of the match. And because of this, my footwork was not happening as well as it had been when the rodeo started. Those factors in my play, combined with the fact that E. seemed to be playing more solidly as the match progressed, just etched the epitaph on my tombstone as I gracefully exited to stage left, leaving the awards for another day.
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