Chasing The Plock!

Spring season's first USTA 18 & Over League match was tonight, paired up with T.P. for #1 doubles court. I have to admit that I was nervous, much more so than any other match before. I think this was primarily because I wanted to win to improve my NTRP rating, I wish I did not want that as I put unnecessary pressure on me. Thankfully, T.P. game to the match pumped up, itching to get on court and confident, it helped me calm down and feel his confidence as well. I had been playing much more throughout the week than ever before, physically I was also a little weaker than normal, I was really hoping to play well, and I was mostly worried about my serves. When I am tired my serves are the first to go down hill and when my serves don't work, nothing else works. Thankfully, I had the best serving match ever. The pace and placement of my serves were eye opening, and our opponents took notice, waiting to return the serves 2-3 ft behind the baseline. The best parts were than I h...

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 a...