Skip to main content

I Fell Good... I Know That I Would...

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 had only one double fault at a non-critical point, and none of my serve games were broken. Most of the games during my serves were easy wins, except the game in which I had a double fault, we won that 40-30.

Despite great serving, my topspin BHs were no where to be found, I only had one winner hitting topspin and lost three points, so I kept slicing. My FHs were not too bad, but not close to what they usually are, still have close to a dozen winners on my FH and probably half-a-dozen losses. T.P. had one of his best nights though. So the combination of my serves and his solid play won us the match 6-3, 6-4. This was one of those matches that solidifies my position that serves are too important not to be developed to the maximum extent before any other shots.

It feels really good to start off the season with such a critical win. Sadly, our team lost the two other doubles matches; singles matches are to be played another day. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

First Singles Win!!! Finally I won my first singles match, and the best part was coming back from behind. I signed up for my club's ladder and issued my first challenge to a player that is about my level, knowing from the clinics we both attend.  However, the match was much tougher than I thought it would be.  This is ladder played based on Super 10 Pro Sets. We started with my serve as I knew I would serve better with the initial energy I have, and when my energy drops my first serves suffer quite a bit. As expected I was serving well, but my opponent wasn't phased by my flat or kick serves, and lost on my serve. Then I broke his serve, then he broke mine again and that's how it continued until 2-2. After that he kept breaking on my serves, but held his, shortly thereafter it was 2-5. Part of the problem was even when my first serves were good, I stayed passive at the baseline and not take advantage of the weak return of my opponent. This is partly due to tr...
Practice, Practice, Practice! There is no substitute for it, you know it. There needs to be a driver behind it though and an objective. The weakest attribute in game has been my serve since I started. As I explained in my previous postings, I have three different types of serves, but regardless of which I use, I had many double faults that resulted in too many games, sets and matches lost. Has to be fixed. I have been practicing off-matches, throwing 75-100 serves each time I get the chance; however, most of my practices have been during the round robin doubles matches. Believe me I had my share of nasty looks from my partners in abundance and I cannot blame them. At the same time I refused to back off from figuring it out, dropping my pace, or just putting my second serves in with a loopy. I keep trying and trying, hoping something will click. I think something did click this month. I cannot tell exactly what it is, I cannot pin point to a single mechanics, but I think few thing...
The Highs and Lows It has been an amazing four weeks since my last post. I have had many highs and few really lows. The ups and downs bring up new questions for me, and the main one is what is it that I am looking to achieve while enjoy tennis as a fun hobby. It is a competitive sport at the end, and without movement forward, staying stagnant is not for me. Although I keep my competitiveness in check for the most extent - otherwise it get impractical and unhealthy - I still want to be competitive on court both in singles and doubles, and continue to improve. Let me get back to this later on. For the highs: I was invited into my club's 4.0+ singles group to play regularly for practice matches, my serves have gotten very good with nearly excellent placement and pace, my volleys are improving, my movement on court has also improved noticeably specifically in singles matches, I am cutting down on my unforced errors and playing matches more intelligently with strategy. All of this m...