The Big Kahuna Is Out Of Reach

Sets 518-519:

Stuart v. J. at South Austin Tennis Center. Winner: J. 7-5, 6-4.

My Mojo: Diffuse and Leaky.

Dang, we had some close games. But I just didn't have the mental clarity today. I was mostly scattered to the winds. I was able to pull it together for a few games at a time, but I kept finding myself drifting like a leaf in an erratic wind. Also, he had really big shots that forced me into playing more defensively than I would have liked, and my reaction time was just a fraction of a second too slow at critical times. Sometimes it is about those critical shots. Mine were just landing right outside the lines, or falling just short of the net. You know that the mojo is not great when that is happening. When the mojo flows, the tight shots get you through the maze.

In the warm-up, I was hitting really haphazardly. Nothing was going where I wanted it to. But when I started the first set, I had pretty good focus, and my game suddenly tightened up. I won the first three games 3-0, and felt pretty good. But then came that dreaded mid-set loss of mental sharpness. Suddenly, in the fourth game, I was stranded on a desert island with howling monkeys. He played really well, and I did not react well, and I lost the next three games.

So now the score was tied up at 3-3. My resolve came back, and I was able to play more aggressively the next two games with success. So now I was up 5-3. But then, the mind-drain thing cobbled my psyche, and though we had some close games, I couldn't muster up more than just a down payment. I lost the set 7-5.

OK. I sunk my teeth into the court for the second set. I reacted well, and thought I played pretty good games. But he played flawlessly for the first two games. Though my confidence was down a little, since I had been playing my best but still had not been able to get a good tide, I roared back in the third game through good serves. So I was down 2-1.

Anyway, the plot simplifies at this point. He just broke serve one more time than I did. And I deflated at the end. So through we were both playing well, he dominated most of the games he served, and I mine, but I couldn't catch the right wave to surf my way to the Big Kahuna. C'est la guerre.