Tennis Oct 13 and preview of Oct 20.

I started my Tennis ladder last Monday. It is a disappointing start to say the least. I won a total of 8 games. Though I still stay at 7 pm because I scored two more points than other regular Jack and we also have a Substitute player. So all of us at 7 pm last week……stayed at 7 regardless of the results.

The reason why I called it disappointing is because I put in decent amount of hard work in the recent weeks in terms of conditioning and matches. I expected to play better than I did last season (in all honesty, I didn’t play a single match this outdoor season that matched my performance last season) and came up short.

I started out with Jack. I raced to a 2-0 lead and was hoping to close out the match early. Jack came back strong and I didn’t help myself by poor serving. Just about every service game of mine I had opportunity to close out but allowed opponent to get back to Deuce and then lose the game. I was in some way lucky that I wasn’t serving at 3-3. I broke Jack even though he was up 40-15 and win the match at 4-3.

Next Match is with Dan and the scouting reports I have are bit inaccurate. He has an excellent topspin lefty forehand (as opposed to moon balls I originally assumed) and an average net game. In my own assessment, His game resembles mine in so many ways except that he puts more action on the ball and he has better net game. However I have slightly better serve and backhand than his and some non tangibles like strategy, mental aspects etc. That said, I only managed to win 2 games against Dan. He served 4 times and in 3 games I had game points that I didn’t cash. On my serve , I lost serve once having game points on my racquet. I failed in execution of my shots and of course I never got a first serve in. I lost 5-2.

I played the last match with Mike H who is substituting. I have won against him last year. I thought he improved a lot this year and added some variety. Despite me not getting any first serves in, I played very tight and stayed 2-2. However on the 2 game, I had a game point and Mike hit a volley tad long towards the side line. It was clearly out but he called it in and I gave him the point. It is my belief that a point will not make or break my result and I don’t give lot of credit to a result if it comes down to a single point as luck can play a role. I kind of lost the plot after 2-2 and couldn’t hold a service game despite staying 40-0 up. On his serve I would go 0-30 several times but couldn’t finish it. The last service game of mine (7 game) was pathetic and I lost it with out winning a single point.

With Jack, I know the games could go either way and we played way too many times and our rallies aren’t a big surprise to either of us. There were several long engaging fast paced rallies with Dan and Mike and it is different from what I played during summer. I am particularly happy with how I was rallying though I wasn’t happy with my offense.

Fast forward to today, I am going to play Jack, Paul and a Sub. I have won against Paul last year. Let’s see if I can continue my streak. I am positive I can serve better this time. Incidentally there is a little secret. Whenever I do lots of weights, I cant serve well.This is something I observed over several years. I am not sure of the reasons though I am guessing it must be something with flexibility of muscles or with my stretching. So I changed my work out routine last week and reduced the weights portion for the shoulder. Hopefully it will work out. Because of the Substitutions today, perhaps I will stay at 7 for next week.

A quick word on my Badminton season. It’s already 3 weeks into the season and I guess my performance is slightly below average. May be I will get better as season improves.

Summary (win- Loss) 8 -13 .