I like playing against R.M., I like practicing with him too. He is a solid NTRP 4.0 level player, an impressive one at that as he has been playing only for 3 years. Self-admittedly he say he plays a tremendous amount of tennis; most mornings he tells me he hits with his spouse at 6 am, goes to work, then sometimes plays a match during lunch time, then most evenings he plays another match, all either singles or doubles, he probably plays at least ten or so times and 20 hours a week. So, he has probably squeezed 8 to 10 years of clinics, private coaching and match playing experience into those short three years. It is also notable that he is 60 years old and comes with an athleticism of a forty year old. He runs, gets to balls, never out of breath and knows the game very well. He has no apparent weaknesses; he has high-paced slice serves, flat and fast FHs and BHs, superb drop shots, and slices that will give you the finest salamis.
Needless to say during the total two matches I played against him, I lost 1-6, 4-6 and 4-6, 2-6. Today we had another match under our club's 4.0 league, which I am only participating because they could not find enough players to commit to late Tuesday night matches. I haven't won any matches in this league yet, but won a set from one of the players. It is safe to say I am the one with the least amount of match experience and my game is not as consistent as all the others in this group. R.M. is in the top half of this group of 12 players that come and go into the league.
Today was going to be just another bad-loss day having never won against R.M. and had only 3-hour sleep last night, I was feeling the weight on my shoulders as I was driving to the club, not mention the 2-hour practice doubles matches I played the previous night. I was ready to hand in the match 0-6, 0-6, I had absolutely no claims going in.
The match started and I told myself to at least work on minimizing my mistakes, and focusing on my own game without being too aggressive. I was serving well, I think I had only two double faults the first set. The first set was very competitive, and as expected I lost 4-6, but it lasted 55 mins. I was exhausted at the end, every game was going to deuce and each was a nail biter. I did not get tight, kept my composure, had many good shots and service returns too. I was so exhausted at the end of first set I thought the second set would go as usual, 1-6 or 2-6.
At the beginning of the second set I somehow found some energy from some place, I wasn't thinking about my tiredness and quite suddenly I was winning game after game. I was up 4-1, and at 30-30 he had me run from one corner to another (x4) with perfectly placed shots. Somehow I got to them, I have no idea how, but I got to them and my final shot was a perfect lob that dropped 1/2 in. inside the baseline. I had to breath and slow down before the next point, and R.M. gave me the time to do so, he is such a gentleman. I won the next point as well and we were at 5-1. He was serving and I had couple of great returns to his BH, and he had one double fault and I was now receiving for match point at 40-30. I could not believe that I could have the set 6-1 and probably win the 10-point tie-break due to my positive momentum and win the match.
As they say, never think about the possibilities, just play the current point regardless of expected outcomes. I don't know if this is true or not tough; I was not tight, nervous or feared making mistakes. I returned his first serve to his BH as usual, he returned to me an unusually perfect-height ball to my FH and I hit it with mastery to the corner of his FH, which he wasn't expecting, nevertheless he got to it barely and returned a defensive shot about 4 ft high off the net, and I was at the net anticipating such a return (I told you I was playing well), and this was the perfect ball for my lovely flying volley FH crushing the ball to his BH, and the set was to be mine. Unfortunately, I put the volley that I rarely ever miss to the net. Saying I was disappointed won't come close to the truth. From that point I lost the game and it was 5-2 now.
Serving for the set, I thought I'll change things a little and practice my serve & volley. It was a great game, I had good volleys, but I also had my first double-fault of the set, eventually losing the game. I still had a nice cushion lead with 5-3. Quite suddenly at this time, tiredness was catching on, my legs were giving me early signals of potential cramps and my feet just did not want to move. At the end lack of sleep I think caught up with me, regardless of how much my brain told it to keep going.
I just could not compete from this point on, although I was still running and making shots, I had just lost the spark. I lost the second set 5-7 and the match of course, but I was feeling very good with how I was able to play, smart, cautious but still taking the risks that needed to be taken. I came home tonight completely drained, but with a huge sense of accomplishment and happiness, feel like a winner.
It is true I think that we have to accept we will lose matches more often than we win, and the key is not to associate our self-value with losing in tennis; it is just a game after all and ton of fun.
Needless to say during the total two matches I played against him, I lost 1-6, 4-6 and 4-6, 2-6. Today we had another match under our club's 4.0 league, which I am only participating because they could not find enough players to commit to late Tuesday night matches. I haven't won any matches in this league yet, but won a set from one of the players. It is safe to say I am the one with the least amount of match experience and my game is not as consistent as all the others in this group. R.M. is in the top half of this group of 12 players that come and go into the league.
Today was going to be just another bad-loss day having never won against R.M. and had only 3-hour sleep last night, I was feeling the weight on my shoulders as I was driving to the club, not mention the 2-hour practice doubles matches I played the previous night. I was ready to hand in the match 0-6, 0-6, I had absolutely no claims going in.
The match started and I told myself to at least work on minimizing my mistakes, and focusing on my own game without being too aggressive. I was serving well, I think I had only two double faults the first set. The first set was very competitive, and as expected I lost 4-6, but it lasted 55 mins. I was exhausted at the end, every game was going to deuce and each was a nail biter. I did not get tight, kept my composure, had many good shots and service returns too. I was so exhausted at the end of first set I thought the second set would go as usual, 1-6 or 2-6.
At the beginning of the second set I somehow found some energy from some place, I wasn't thinking about my tiredness and quite suddenly I was winning game after game. I was up 4-1, and at 30-30 he had me run from one corner to another (x4) with perfectly placed shots. Somehow I got to them, I have no idea how, but I got to them and my final shot was a perfect lob that dropped 1/2 in. inside the baseline. I had to breath and slow down before the next point, and R.M. gave me the time to do so, he is such a gentleman. I won the next point as well and we were at 5-1. He was serving and I had couple of great returns to his BH, and he had one double fault and I was now receiving for match point at 40-30. I could not believe that I could have the set 6-1 and probably win the 10-point tie-break due to my positive momentum and win the match.
As they say, never think about the possibilities, just play the current point regardless of expected outcomes. I don't know if this is true or not tough; I was not tight, nervous or feared making mistakes. I returned his first serve to his BH as usual, he returned to me an unusually perfect-height ball to my FH and I hit it with mastery to the corner of his FH, which he wasn't expecting, nevertheless he got to it barely and returned a defensive shot about 4 ft high off the net, and I was at the net anticipating such a return (I told you I was playing well), and this was the perfect ball for my lovely flying volley FH crushing the ball to his BH, and the set was to be mine. Unfortunately, I put the volley that I rarely ever miss to the net. Saying I was disappointed won't come close to the truth. From that point I lost the game and it was 5-2 now.
Serving for the set, I thought I'll change things a little and practice my serve & volley. It was a great game, I had good volleys, but I also had my first double-fault of the set, eventually losing the game. I still had a nice cushion lead with 5-3. Quite suddenly at this time, tiredness was catching on, my legs were giving me early signals of potential cramps and my feet just did not want to move. At the end lack of sleep I think caught up with me, regardless of how much my brain told it to keep going.
I just could not compete from this point on, although I was still running and making shots, I had just lost the spark. I lost the second set 5-7 and the match of course, but I was feeling very good with how I was able to play, smart, cautious but still taking the risks that needed to be taken. I came home tonight completely drained, but with a huge sense of accomplishment and happiness, feel like a winner.
It is true I think that we have to accept we will lose matches more often than we win, and the key is not to associate our self-value with losing in tennis; it is just a game after all and ton of fun.
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