My apologies for not posting soon enough. Things have been little crazy at work , with my car, in my own life and ofcourse on Tennis courts. Now that the Holiday season is here, may be things will get little easier.
I had a two week reign in the ladder at the Primetime thanks to a 10 game win the week before.However i lost last week with a crazy 6 game stint that is hard to explain and will be playing tonight at the bottom half of the ladder. I will still remain at 7 pm unless i mess up tonight.
A quick recap on my 10 game win the week before. I was already assured of 7 pm prime time spot due to subs so i tried to take it little easy. I started with Mike the sub. There is a little bit of history between us. We both believe we are better than the other and probably dont respect other player's game enough. Last season i won against him but i lost the only time i played him this season prior to this night. The serve which was absent when i lost to him, came back in full swing and i had a 5-2 win against him. I played Richard next and despite dominating for most of the game didnt convert break points and ended up losing 5-2. I should have easily won against Bruce but i wasnt tryint to win games instead was trying to be aggressive and get some winners going. In that process i lost more than i should (credit to Bruce. he hit some awesome shots) and won my 3 games on serve to close the night with 10 games.
Last monday was the first time there were no subs across the ladder. I had the toughest draw of the night against Andy,Dave and Ed. My game plan was to manage 2 or 3 games between Andy and Dave (due to my poor record against them) and probably dominate Ed (he is a pusher!) to reach my goal of 8 games. What transpired is nothing but crazy unexaplainable pattern for me. Ed basically hammered me 7-0 despite a weak knee. All i can say is i wasnt patient in my rallies and paid the price. Whenever i was patient i did win the points but they came a lot less frequently. How he blocked my bullet serves i dont know. I believe i will have an answer for him next time i play him. Its probably time for him to show him the Pusher in me. As a sole consolation, i was able to serve some body blows with my serves.
I played Dave next. I raced into lead quickly thanks to my serve. Dave tries to stand up while recieving serve. This is often a good tactic against many opponents as it rattles their rhythm (also challenges the server to come up with good serve). I myself use this tactic , successfully against people with weak serves. I however love this challenge when i am serving. What really happens is when a returner stays close up to return a serve, he usually opens up some corner of the service box, he has less time to react and its hard to take a big cut at the ball. This particular tactic fails against big serves because ---less time to react, more open area for server to hit and chances of ball bouncing of the racquet are higher. I just went for my serves. I probably hit the hardest serves i ever hit in recent times. I aimed at the Body and corners and was very successful. I also went in with two first serves on several occassions and this completely threw him off. Somewhere in the middle of our match, he changed his tactic-- went back while recieving my serve and tried to push the ball more and ofcourse cheated on some points that were incorrect. In two games where i hit aces with game point on the line they were called out (one of them is in the centre of the box!). I won 3 games.
I played Andy next and my record with him so far is one game every match we played. I didnt have any reason to believe tonight will be any different. However i played well enough to win 3 games. two on my serve and one by breaking him. I played one bad service game on my racquet to be broken at deuce. I closed the night at 6 games. If only i executed well against Ed i would have stayed up.
Fast forward to tonight it is a toss up. Its a battle between Carl - The battle hardened veteran, Jack - The tennis Samurai, myself- the racquet slinger and a new comer Mike. I am not sure of Mike's game other than that he is a tall lefty. On paper based on the results so far, it is really a toss up as Carl, Jack and myself have a good chance of topping this block to move into prime time. To me the keys to victories of each of them are
Carl - will win if he cuts down his unforced errors. He probably has the most complete game in the group.
Jack - will win if he plays his usual counter punching game and use his variety. He has the best chance of the three.
Me - Will win if my serve is on. I got a good enough forehand to cause some concern for the Big Two above.
Jack's variety will be advantageous against the tall lefty Mike as Jack's drop shots might do some real damage.
If i were to bet on a winner today i guess it will be between Jack or myself.
On Badminton..I am slowly regaining my game. My smashes are getting better and better. Backhand is still an issue. My point construction is good but having a good partner who can close points is really the key. In Badminton Doubles , its important to have partners with complimenting games. One of my long time partner is no longer playing and i had most success with him because our game compliments each others a lot. My strengths are covering the Baseline ,ability to smash , strong defense and ofcourse forming and following a plan. This guy, for one is a far better player has more variety and ofcourse strong offense besides ability to follow the strategy. Over the years we had some memorable victories against opponents who are better skilled players. These days we rotate so much that its hard to play with a consistent partner.
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