I didn’t play too well last week and only won 6 games. This wasn’t enough to keep me at the Top and I once again dropped down to bottom half of 7 pm.
The key issue was an injury I sustained during my 16 game performance. I hurt my serving shoulder and I can still feel the pain. I didn’t consider skipping last week but I am this week. If not for the threat of playing at 0830 , I would have skipped today.
I started with Dave and despite the fact that I didn’t get my first serve working managed to keep it tight till 3-3 though we exchanged a break of serve. In the 7 game, at Duece, Dave challenged my serve on the AD court. Till then I didn’t get a good first serve but I got an Ace down the T to win 4-3.
Then I went down hill. Rich killed me with a 7-0 drubbing. Since my serve wasn’t working, my forehand isn’t what it used to be, I have very little options to trouble Rich and he is in a good flow.
I thought I needed to win big off Luciano to have any hopes of staying up. He consistently sent the ball back and I never got a first serve in. It stayed neck to neck until 2-2 and then I lost the next 3 games. On another day, I would have atleast beat Luciano. Rich is certainly playing above my level and I don’t have a lot of respect for Dave’s game.
This injury to Shoulder also hurt my Badminton game. I had to wait until my very last match to win. Normally I win 70%-80% of my matches.
That brings me to this week. I will playing Jack/Carl and Dan. On paper I have a good chance but it assumes I serve well. I am on Tylenol and Bengae all day and we will see if it helps my game. All of them are equally dangerous players and work their opponent very well and can easily take over the match in a flash. All of them have some options to hurt their opponent be it jack with his Variety and Counter punching or Carl with a very well rounded attacking game or Dan with his lefty Forehand. My conservative view is that today’s winner is most likely between Dan or Jack while myself or Carl will drop down.
Bottom line for me… No Serve No games
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Best Performance -Monday Tennis Nov 24 (and preview for 01 Dec)
This was by far my best performance in the ladder with 16 games. So I moved up and will be squaring off in prime time today.
I didn’t quite expect it to pan out the way it did. The line up last Monday is quite imposing as I play against Carl , Jack and Mike M. Though I never lost to Carl, my record against Jack isn’t that good indoors and I never played Mike. I definitely sensed that I had a good chance to top the pool and move up if I played well.
I started off with Carl but before that during warm up I ran three circles around the tennis court. I felt winded but warmed up enough. We held serve at 1-1 and after that Carl never won and I finished with 6-1. There were some shots from Carl that on another day would have been winner but were out by a foot or so today. I did cut him some slack on some rallies where the ball was out as the action was happening too fast and by the time I was about to call he was ready to hit his reply to my returns. I played some good defense and some of my backhand placement shots worked well. The key again was my serve which held pretty well.
In comes Jack – The Tennis Samurai. Since I won 6 games with Carl, my mood was to get 3-4 games of Jack and I am less set for the night as I would either move up or stay on top of this block with that score. I broke his serve and then he broke mine to make it 1-1. Then I broke him again served good to take the lead. Jack came back aggressive and there was a game where he led 40-15 or something but I somehow pulled it back. Its been a long time since I served that well against Jack and that helped me win 6-1.
With 12 games, I assumed that I would top the pool and was considering going easy on last match with Mike M. Then I learnt that he won 7 games so far. So if he were to win 7-0 against me, or 6-1, he would be the leader. So I needed to win at least two games to ensure that I come out top. I lost the first game on my serve and I thought it wasn’t a good omen. Luckily I broke him the next game to keep the game on Serve. I won my next and that ensured that I will finish the Evening with a guaranteed prime time spot. From this point on I didn’t press too much. I tried to play some angles and used second serves to get some exposure. I attacked his backhand and passed him whenever he came to net. His lefty serve was effective in patches but wasn’t consistent or fast enough to trouble too much. I won the tie 4-3 to make it a 16 game night.
That brings me to today where I will be playing Richard, Dave and Luciano. I lost against Rich and Dave this season while I never played Luciano this year. I won against Rich and Luciano last year and never won against Dave. It will be interesting. My goal is to win 8 games.
Jack’s group is interesting. He plays Dan – the lefty, Paul and Mike. Carl dropped out as he wasn’t too successful against Jack or Mike last week. I guess it comes down to Dan or Jack. While Paul is a dangerous player, it depends on his form and I don’t think he can continue his hot streak for this many weeks in a row.
I didn’t quite expect it to pan out the way it did. The line up last Monday is quite imposing as I play against Carl , Jack and Mike M. Though I never lost to Carl, my record against Jack isn’t that good indoors and I never played Mike. I definitely sensed that I had a good chance to top the pool and move up if I played well.
I started off with Carl but before that during warm up I ran three circles around the tennis court. I felt winded but warmed up enough. We held serve at 1-1 and after that Carl never won and I finished with 6-1. There were some shots from Carl that on another day would have been winner but were out by a foot or so today. I did cut him some slack on some rallies where the ball was out as the action was happening too fast and by the time I was about to call he was ready to hit his reply to my returns. I played some good defense and some of my backhand placement shots worked well. The key again was my serve which held pretty well.
In comes Jack – The Tennis Samurai. Since I won 6 games with Carl, my mood was to get 3-4 games of Jack and I am less set for the night as I would either move up or stay on top of this block with that score. I broke his serve and then he broke mine to make it 1-1. Then I broke him again served good to take the lead. Jack came back aggressive and there was a game where he led 40-15 or something but I somehow pulled it back. Its been a long time since I served that well against Jack and that helped me win 6-1.
With 12 games, I assumed that I would top the pool and was considering going easy on last match with Mike M. Then I learnt that he won 7 games so far. So if he were to win 7-0 against me, or 6-1, he would be the leader. So I needed to win at least two games to ensure that I come out top. I lost the first game on my serve and I thought it wasn’t a good omen. Luckily I broke him the next game to keep the game on Serve. I won my next and that ensured that I will finish the Evening with a guaranteed prime time spot. From this point on I didn’t press too much. I tried to play some angles and used second serves to get some exposure. I attacked his backhand and passed him whenever he came to net. His lefty serve was effective in patches but wasn’t consistent or fast enough to trouble too much. I won the tie 4-3 to make it a 16 game night.
That brings me to today where I will be playing Richard, Dave and Luciano. I lost against Rich and Dave this season while I never played Luciano this year. I won against Rich and Luciano last year and never won against Dave. It will be interesting. My goal is to win 8 games.
Jack’s group is interesting. He plays Dan – the lefty, Paul and Mike. Carl dropped out as he wasn’t too successful against Jack or Mike last week. I guess it comes down to Dan or Jack. While Paul is a dangerous player, it depends on his form and I don’t think he can continue his hot streak for this many weeks in a row.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)