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!