Another week over

Another week here in Florida is over. Another week filled with such promise, gone. Tennis is such a cruel sport sometimes. You can practice for hours on end but once you get into a match it can be a whole different story. You can play the best match of your life but you can still lose. The outcome is uncontrollable. Someone must win and someone must lose. It's just tough going week to week not playing the way I am in practice. I'm too focused on results right now and that needs to change. Maybe the next go around I need to just think screw it, I'm going to go for it and I don't care what the result is. Nobody wants to lose, but playing not to lose can be detrimental to anyone's game. Case in point this weeks match in Orlando. I played a former teammate of mine. I get out to a good lead then back off by playing not to lose. And guess what happened I lost. But now that I've calmed down about it I realized what I did and I can only try to fix the problem which is something I can control. But here's a recap.

First set I was nervous the entire time. My legs were tingling the whole time. Somehow I was still able to move. My first serve was complete crap. I probably made 5 first serves the whole set. I guess my 2nd serve was effective though. I was playing my game plan but still didn't feel relaxed. Still felt like I was holding back. I won the first 6-3.

In the second I continued to play my game and found myself up 4-2 when she called a trainer because she fell on the clay. So I sat down waiting for the treatment to be completed and then that next game I was up 40-15 on her serve. I get a forehand return which I hit cross court, she hits it to my backhand I run around to hit a forehand inside out and went after it but missed it long. Then the next point she aces me out wide. Then lose the game. Now 4-3. And lose the next 3 games. Still getting treatment and moving her wrist back and forth in between points can really screw with your head too. But I don't think that had anything to do with my loss. 

Then in the third set we change ends at 0-1 and I asked the umpire for a bag of ice because it was hot and humid, I wanted to try to cool down during change overs. But as I'm asking some other official comes over and asks her "Just real quick, what do you want for lunch?" They go back and forth about what's on the menu and I just walk to the other side of the court... I didn't get my bag of ice until 2 change overs later. When I had to ask again on the first changeover. Like really?!  Don't worry about us players busting our ass out here. I hope your lunch was delicious though! But in the match I got broken and that was enough. She didn't do anything to hurt me, nothing at all. I just over played everything because there was no pace and the balls landed up the middle and I tried to do too much. I'm kicking myself now because it's something simple to fix. And I was telling myself in the match what was happening I just couldn't physically do it. I did everything right until the middle of the second set but just stopped doing what was right because I wanted to protect my lead and not really win it. I had an aggressive game plan but I had a doubtful mindset. I wasn't fully 100% commited to playing aggressive. Tennis isn't like any other sport. Without a clock you have to win the last point, you can't just run out the clock like basketball of football. And that's something I need to work on. That killer instinct to finish off my opponents. I'm near the finish line in my matches I just need to sprint to the end. I have another tournament next week and I'm barely in the qualifying so it's a tough tournament but screw it right? I've already lost early in the past two tournaments so what's the worst I can do, break even. Time to just swing for the fences and stay focused on each point. One at a time. 

Florida^2

I'm back in Florida again after a few weeks break from tournaments. The start of the trip got off to a much better start than the last time I came down here. For starters my flight was on time, not cancelled. It even arrive 20 minutes early, unlike the 36 hours delayed. I flew into Orlando and on my flight were tons of little kids all excited to head to Disney. 3 of them sat in the row behind me. Surprisingly enough only a few times they smashed the tray table up and down but nothing to get upset over. Then once we landed in Orlando I waited for what felt like an eternity at the car rental agency. I swear they are just as bad as the post office. Take one customer, then go on break the next. Well anyway, I had a compact car reserved but apparently they didn't have one so the man upgraded me to an SUV. He tells me go out the doors, up the escalator to the left and look for my car in row H. So I did just as he said and all I could see was rows S-Z. I wandered around thinking I'm just alphabetically challenged and so I head over to the booth for help. The man said I was in the wrong spot so he said he would give me a new car and to trust him when he said I'll like what car he gives me. He gave me the ticket and said go to the U row and my car will be there. And lo and behold was a nice black ford mustang. It was awesome. I was psyched. So I hop in and off I drive 2 hours to Gainesville. And on the way I could have sworn I've died and got to heaven because my trip just felt unusal that every thing was happening in a positive way. Flight on time, ride was smooth, upgraded car, people were smiling driving by, and even given a thank you wave when I let them go ahead of me. I thought this is too good to be true. But what the heck I'll roll with it. 

So I get to Gainesville and had a few days to practice on the clay which was nice. Felt good not foreign like some times before. But first round of the main I'm up against a very good Australian junior. She's maybe top 40-50 in the world, played in the junior Grand Slams so she has experience. We get out there and I find myself down 0-2 real quick. She was swinging away and I was a bit anxious and missing too quickly. So I tried to slow things down a bit and relax during the point. Now found myself up in the set. Before I had won a game she was attacking and coming forward and won the points with great volleys. But I saw when she was volleying she was hugging the net too much. So the next few times I caught her off guard and threw up some lobs that she wasn't expecting. It worked in my favor and then I also took a few 2nd serve returns and really went after it and it may have got into her head because a few more doubles faults by her crept in. But in the 2nd set I was up 2-0 and stopped playing aggressively and then it became 2-2 but it was back to square one and just went back to playing my game style and it turned out to be enough to win the match. And I really had to let out a big sigh of relief because I was a bit worried going into the match. 

Then in the second round I was supposed to have one day off from playing but it turned into two. Rain washed out all the matches so the day before my second round I was unable to practice so all I did was some footwork and a light jog. But the day of my second round it was about 45 degrees, cloudy, and a little windy. I watched my opponent play her first round and saw a few things but my plan did nothing for me. She was sporadic in her previous match but against me not at all. I hit a few really good body serves and she somehow hit angle winners off them. She even had a few net cords as well that just bounced over. But I didn't play well enough to beat her. The conditions may not have worked in my favor. The balls were cold and not bouncing so every shot was landing in her strike zone which I didn't want to happen. But can't do anything about it now. I lost. What's done is done. Just for future sake I hope that I can adjust my game so that the conditions shouldn't effect my game. Or I should be able to make the conditions a non issue and not be an excuse for losing. I should be better then that. If I want to get my ranking up I have to be. And I think that it is something that is doable for me. And it's something I can start right away in my next matches. 

So that was my tournament. They say every loss brings experience, so I gained some this week. But now it is off to Orlando where I'll be in the main draw. So I hope I can continue to play aggressively, focused and really impose my will on my opponents.