The start of the match went something like this…She served
first. The first point she hit a slice out wide ace. Next point I get the
return back into the court she hits a forehand inside out winner. Third point
she hits a bomb ace up the tee. 40-0 I miss the return. Good game! I figured it
was going to be a long day trying to return her serve, but I was up for the
challenge. Then next game I lost. I had a couple of game points but she hit an
inside out forehand winner on one, and on the another game point I missed a backhand.
Then my opponent had an easy hold, so I was down 3-0 quickly. During the
changeover I was thinking about what was happening in the match, and either I
was missing, or she was hitting winners. But more specifically on the longer
points she was winning most of them with her forehand on the run. So I felt
like I needed to pressure her earlier in the point. So let’s say, instead of
hitting a cross court after the return or serve I would go down the line. This
would get her moving and it would be unexpected because she would be looking
for the cross court. So if I went down the line, I was in control of the point
before she was, which worked to my advantage more (sometimes). However, with
this strategy there will be more errors, and in my case for the match there
were too many. So the next game I was serving and I was trying to attack off of
her return and looking to get into the net, where I am more comfortable. I was
getting my 1st serves in but either I missed my ground strokes, or I
set up the point and hit a good deep approach shot but she passed me. Now down
4-0 I’m thinking just keep playing aggressively, try to figure out of way to
break her and if I lose the set 6-0 just figure something out right now that I
can use in the 2nd set to tie it up. So the 4-0 game she is serving
and I decided to change up where I was standing to return her serve. I took a
few steps backwards, to give myself time to react and get a good clean hit on
the ball. I do that and was able to pressure her off the return. I even hit a
couple backhand return winners down the line on the Ad (left) side. So I ended
up breaking her serve and taking the game. Next game I’m feeling good after
finally breaking her, so I serve volley a bunch of times and take the game
easily. 4-2. The next two games where I different story ha. Lost the set 6-2.
Next set I continued to try a pressure her quick in the
points. And it was working. We both were holding serve easily, but we each got
a break of serve early in the set. And towards the end of the set, my a hit a
few too many ground strokes that didn’t have much on them, and she attack them
for winners. I was also rushing my shots, looking to get to net too quick and
making mistakes by hitting shots that I should not have gone for. And my
opponent when it came down to crunch time, she made me play and she came up
with some good shots. So she played well when she needed to and I didn’t. So it
was I think my 5th singles match back. I don’t have anything to get
mad about. I was proud of myself for competing and challenging myself to stay
in the match and figuring out ways to break serve. When I was down quick I was
still in the match saying come on and making a fist pump after winning a point.
Before I would have easily just given up or gotten mad, but I stuck with it and
made it a more competitive match. I was a point away from being up 3-0 and 4-3
in the second. And if I were then maybe the outcome of the match would have
been different. But that’s tennis. It’s all about getting momentum and taking
it away from your opponent.
We also played doubles later in the day and it wasn’t good.
We played the same team that I played last week in the semifinals. This time
around, playing with a different partner
and they playing the opposite sides they did last week we lost 6-1 7-5. The
first set was just a LOT of mistakes on our end. But in all honesty I didn’t
really get the ball much. The one game we won was when I was serving, and the
other time I served we lost it on a deuce point. There were two other games that
were decided by 1 point and the rest weren’t very pretty. Well I guess they
were because the winners our opponents hit were pretty nice. Haha I just didn’t
want to be on the receiving end. But in the 2nd set I ended up
playing ¾ of the court and my partner stuck to her ¼ . haha. She didn’t seem to
understand how doubles worked. Like for example, you need to move around the
court like you and your partner have a rope tied between the two of you. So if
I take 5 steps right, she needs to take 5 steps right. That way the court is
covered. Well in our case I moved 5 steps right, she moved 2 steps left,
leaving a humongous hole in the middle of the court that our opponents played
over and over again like the Boston Pops play God Bless America every 4th
of July. Hahaha. Some points I was a ball hog and moved around the court like
she wasn’t playing and we did pretty good. In the 2nd set our
opponents must have just got bored, and lost concentration because it was a
close set. We even had a set point at 5-4, deuce but we lost it (as you could
tell). But the 2nd set was much better than the 1st
(again…as you could tell). Oh well. It was fun to play. It’s always interesting
playing with people you don’t know haha. Always a next time. So that was that
tournament. Now I don’t have anything else planned really for the rest of the
year except training and making sure I’m healthy because I definitely DO NOT
want a repeat of this year. J
No comments:
Post a Comment