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.