Playing the Clutch moments

I found very little time during this long weekend for myself but when i did, i happened to make another friend of mine into a serious tennis player. He is also a regular follower of my blog. I also looked at some of my sports video collection. A question suddenly came to my mind. How can one perform so well during the defining moments (aka Clutch moments)?

There are more than one word to represent this but basically Clutch movement , as it applies in sports is the time when the game is on the line and one's performance at that moment pretty much defines the outcome.

[eg:

1) final set tie breaker 6-6, serving at 7-8. Lose the serve, you go home. make the serve and you live another moment.

2) Break point down on the serve. Serve well and you can still take the game. Lose it and suddenly your opponent goes one break up.

3) In basket ball, you are taking the last shot (as the timer is about to expire) and you need to make the shot for your team to win

]

Sports all across are full of people who are great clutch players and people who choke when it matters.

I tried to analyze this aspect a bit. Arguably, i believe i am a good clutch player. I won a significant percentage of such moments than i lost (i would say i have a 80% success ratio). I enjoy such moments and relish them a lot.

While i agree that performance during defining moments/clutch moments requires a certain mental fortitude, i dont believe that it cant be acquired. I definitely disagree that it has to do with genetics.

I mostly used examples from the three popular sports i follow..Tennis, Basket ball and Cricket.

My analysis goes like this...In order to succeed during those moments, couple of important factors need to considered.

1) Technical strength : How technically sound is your serve/forehand/backhand OR your jumper or 3 point shot or Free throw shooting, etc

2) Sound Strategy : Ie attaching weaker side of opponent, employing a surprise factor, etc

3) Belief/Risk tolerance : This is the only aspect that cant be objectively established/measured.

Belief comes from successfully coming out of such situations time and again. It is basically a function of (1) and (2).

The biggest difference between a normal moment Vs Clutch moment is the additional pressure,Usually caused by the occassion. Having (1) and (2) will largely alleviate the pressure.

I agree there are external factors that come into play (if i lose this match, how do i explain to press? ) .

So how do we about building a successful Clutch moment Strategy?.

The easiest answer is keeping it simple.

TECHNICAL STRENGTH

first and foremost, when faced with Clutch moment, One has to rely on their strength. If your strength is serve, may be thats a possibility. If thats not an option (ie you are receiving during that game) then run down the pecking order. see if the Forehand is something you can rely upon. Basically chose something that doesnt break down easily and stick with it.

STRATEGY

This is where most people falter. This is not the time to be defensive or aggressive. This is the time to be controlled and stay with in your game limits. Ie dont aim for corners or lines but leave enough margin.

This is also the time to not make strategic blunders by leaving the door open. I cant illustrate this any better than using a NBA example.

What is the blunder?. Sacremento Kings , for inexplicable reasons, left open a player. They chose the wrong player-- NBA playoff's greatest clutch 3 point shooter , Robert Horry.

This match ultimately costed Kings the western conference championships (and by extension, The NBA championship for 2002)

What is an equivalent Tennis example?

(The moment is at 3:21 in the above clip)

Roger Federer had match points against Marat Safin in the semi final of Aus 2005. What is the blunder? Roger chose the wrong shot--between the legs shot. He had enough time to actually run around the ball and hit a clean forehand/backhand but he chose not to. It costed him a Grandslam.

Here is an example of a good strategy.

(The moment is at 6:33)

Rafael Nadal has a Championship point against Roger Federer. Yes, he lost the point (eventually would still win the championship) but he had a clear cut idea.

Technically he hit a forehand and he has a monsterous forehand.

Strategically he chose to attack Federer's backhand. This has worked 90% of the time and for him and no reason not to do it at this moment.

Belief was always there for him. One cant determine that from the video of this point but just the fact that he withstood Federer's on slaught, served from behind in the final set and still won 9-7 shows a lot.

Here is another example

Nadal saves not one or two but Three match points. Controlled aggression using his technically sound Forehand's monstrous TopSpin , Strategy of moving Djokovic all across the court and then believing that he can win.

To be continued..............

Monday 22 Nov 09 results

Not a whole lot to write about. It is rather a disappointing day for ATP (Architect Tennis Players) ie Jack and myself.

The injury worry wasnt too much a factor though it did impact me at times.

I started out with Ajay (who is sub'ing for Carl). I grossly underestimated his game. I saw him playing couple of weeks against Carl and basically didnt think that he is a good player. It turns out that he can belt the forehand pretty good and while his serve isnt great by any stretch does bite low. He threw in a lot of forehand winners against me and raced into a 2-0 lead. Even during warm up i noticed that he has a weak backhand and once i got a grip of his pace, started slowly attacking his backhand. I also warmed up around this time and my serve started clicking and that set the tone. He only one of the last 5 games and i won the match 4-3.

Wayne is red hot and there isnt a whole lot for me to say. My serve didnt bite as i would have liked and Wayne whipped me good with a 2-5 score line.

Jack had a forgettable night so far walking into last match with me. I had 6 games and Jack had 3. The race is now really between us to see who is going to stay and who is going to drop.

Jack, One of the exciting racketsmen from hartford, who counter punched 15 awesome points the other monday night , Never showed up. Jack wouldnt win one more game this night and we ran out of time with me leading 6-0 against him.

As it turns out, this one abandoned game costed me a place in the top 7 pm. Myself and Wayne ended up with 12 points (if i had won the abandoned 7 game against Jack, i would be at 13). I tried to talk to tournament director but i knew i dont have a whole lot going for me. I dropped my appeal once i realized that i was the third best this night (Ajay apparently had 14 games, Wayne and me tied at 12). Definitely didnt deserve to move up on default--but i was pretty confident that i could have pulled the 7 game against Jack--if for no reason other than that Jack wasnt himself.

The draw for next week (ie Monday 29) came out and I stayed put at bottom of 7 pm while Jack dropped down to 0830. This week's draw is very tough and absolutely no margin for error. I am drawn against Paul S(Sandeep), Dan S and Carl. Each of them proven winners at the very top.

I wouldnt call Jack's draw easy but he has the game to pull this off. He drew Dave A and Dave C and then Lanh. He has Dave A's number , coming off a 6-1 against Dave C the other monday and he never played Lanh.

Injury Scare

My preparations for Monday (23 Nov 09) took a hit with a hip injury. I am not sure when it happened but i realized it in the last week or so. I experience pain in the right hip couple of hours after a good run on a tread mill. Even though i observed it a week ago, i tried to plough through it. But now it came to the point, where it is really hurting me.

My wife scared me enough that i had to go and see doctor. The doctor ruled out any sciatic kinda serious stuff but suggested that i take it real easy for a week or two on running. He thinks i might have hurt my sacroiliac joint.

Though i am seeing considerable stiffness, i decided to play this monday after all. The major reason is that "I love to play". Then there is also te 7 pm thingy. If i dont play, i am definite drop down to 0830 next week and who knows what all i have to do get back to 7 pm. Lastly, too many tickets have been sold for Jack vs Me match---just kidding.

Some Ibuprofen, Bengae and some light massage , i hope to be good enough to play. It will be tough against Jack as he loves to make people run and thats where my injury hurts me most-with my movement. Wayne and Carl are tough too and i am hoping that i can do enough to stay at 7pm and deal with it next week at which time i hope to be rested and fit.

St(r)ing less Monday 16 Nov 09

That says it all. My racquet strings broke when I was 2-0 up against Luciano in my first match. I was rarely a factor after that. I was fighting myself (as I was terribly disappointed) and also the opponent. I so looked forward to this evening as I was awaiting a show down against the ladder’s best player Eric. With my racquet went my best shot against him-my serve. Though I briefly revived myself against Dan with a spirited 3-4 losing performance, I became an “also played” this evening.

I don’t have a viable spare racquet. I play the Babolat Pure Drive Team PLUS. It is an awesome frame (11oz, 100 inch,27.5 in long) and I string it with Luxilon big banger Alu power rough string. In Tennis parlance, I am using a polyester string and that generally aids top spin production. The strings are also durable but they don’t retain tension for too long. I do carry an extra racquet in my bag but that isn’t even close to my playing frame. This spare hasn’t been restrung in 8 years, has a 110 inch wide size and weighs 13 oz. I borrowed Jack’s spare. It is better than my spare racquet but still way off from being a player’s frame.

On the court, I cut a sorry figure for myself. I know I have no one but myself to blame. At some point, I could have forked 150$ or so and bought myself a spare players frame. Yes, I don’t use my first racquet all too much to need a second racquet. But when I had moments like I did this last Monday, I realized how a spare could have helped. Instead of thinking a “what could have been”, I probably would have had an answer. Especially when I tallied up the scores and it came out that all I needed to do was to beat Dan 4-3 (instead of my 3-4) score to stay at the top of 7 pm. That’s how close I was even with out my best shot.

After some deliberation at home, I decided that I will have a good spare racquet. I started looking at used racquets hoping that I can get them real cheap. Then came the shocker. My racquet is 4-5 yrs old and apparently used frames like mine still cost around 125$. Add the cost of stringing (my favorite luxilon) another 35$ and we are looking at 160$. A brand new top of line Babolat costs 180$ and usually they throw in a free string. In other words, if I pitch in an extra 50$, I would get a top of the line frame. I am sure if I look for deals, I may get that price much lower. I will be going with Babolat Aero Pro Drive plus (endorsed by Rafael Nadal) or Babolat Pure drive plus Cortex( endorsed by Andy Roddick). Of course, as soon as I start using the frame, it will be endorsed by yours truly as well.

In all I managed 5 games and will drop down. I was ineffective against Eric who trounced me with a bagel (ie 7-0). Dan ended up with 7 games(if I had won 4-3 ,we both would have 6 games and I will have the tie breaker). What’s more painful is that even with this racquet, I was leading Dan 3-2 with two games to go. One of the game went to deuce and my forehand went long to throw that game away and Dan played a good last game.

I will stay at 7 pm albeit at the bottom half. So it isn’t all that bad. I stayed after my match(es) to watch the 0830 draw unfold.

Tennis Samurai Jack showed up and counter punched his 7 pm ticket in style. I was there to watch most of Jack’s matches and this is one of the finest exhibition of counter punching tennis. Arguably, tennis has three major styles of play-- Serve and Volley, Baseline and All court. Serve & Volley is a lost art and we don’t have too many Pro’s playing that game though it is still effective at club level (eg: Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic, John McEnroe). Baseline is a style of play where players stick around baseline and generally play extended rallies (Andre Agassi , Ivan Lendl). All court is a combination of Baseline and Serve & Volley (Roger Federer).

With in Baseline style, we have two major types. Aggressive baseliners (Andre Agassi , Rafael Nadal) and defensive counter punchers. Counter punching is a style where the player absorbs and often uses opponents pace against him for majority of the shots but supplies their own juice occasionally. Good examples of Counter punching pro’s are Lleton Hewitt and David Nalbandian. In my opinion, Jack plays this style of tennis though he is equally adept at Serve & Volley.

This Monday night , Jack played counter punching to the T. During some of the rallies, I watched him push his opponent backwards foot by foot while yo-yo’ing the opponent side to side. Needless to say opponent lost the point. In fact most players lose such points. The only two ways out of such rallies are a) come up with a great winner-a low percentage shot as the geometry of the court works to their disadvantage b) counter punch back and hope that the hunter becomes hunted. This is also when Jack is at his best. In my opinion, this is his game. This is one of his great strengths. There arent that many players at this level, that can counter punch like Jack.

Jack ended up with 15 points and he played some outstanding players. True Jack has Dave A’s number and he beat him one too many times. But Jack inflicted a humiliating 6-1 defeat on Dave C and then a 4-3 on Paul S (Sandeep) , two outstanding players. In that process he also cleared any self doubts he may have besides sending out a strong reverberating message to his opponents—Jack is back! .

So Fast forward to next Monday, we will have the classic Jack vs. Me match. Home town fans will all be excited to their favorite home town player Jack back at prime time. The draw hasn’t come out yet but it is quite likely that we will have two other outstanding players to contend with. I will of course , have my racquet back restrung. Only three will survive and one drops down to 0830.

Monday Draw for 16 Nov 09

The draw for the coming monday came out and with it came a few good moves.First Jack is staying at top of 0830 and I moved to top bracket at 7 pm and ranked #5.This is very close to my prior highest ranking (#4 last year). Realistically ranks 3,4,5 & 6 all are same because they all are part of the same block and have an equal chance of moving up to play the #1 player. Semantically i have equalled my best ranking wise here.

I am drawn against Luciano, Dan and Eric. It will be a repeat match against Luciano and Dan from last week. Eric is THE best player in the ladder and only reason why he is playing down is due to his absence last week.He is clearly 1 full notch above the rest and so far he has pretty much swept all his matches against everyone else. What this means is that Eric is likely to move up. The remaining three will play for the remaining two spots at this block and the loser will drop down to bottom of 7 pm. I have a slim chance of staying up but will need an improved performance. If i play like last week, it wont be enough to sustain me at top bracket.

Looking at Jack's draw, this may be the week where he starts his ascension.He is drawn against Dave C, Paul S (Sandeep) and Dave A. Minus Dave A, rest of them are good players. Unless Sandeep is firing all cylinders on his serve, it will come down to Dave C and Jack. This is where Jack's dropshot becomes a weapon and Jack will move up a block to 7 pm.

Monday (09 Nov 09) results -- Good stuff

There were lots of substitutions tonight and I knew before hand that my place at 7pm is secure for at least one more week regardless of how I play tonight. I wasn’t really thinking about this aspect these days. I don’t mind playing at 0830 PM and if anything 0700 pm is slightly early for me. 0730 PM would be ideal but I don’t own the league.
It is only after I reached the courts that I was told there are approximately 7 players (out of 22) that called sick. The Tournament director had to rearrange the draw. He also mentioned something that I didn’t pay attention to but ultimately became a factor.

My new draw matched me against Wayne, Luciano and the lefty Dan. I chose to serve against Wayne and dropped my serve immediately to go down 0-1. I broke Wayne’s serve right away to make it 1-1. From here on the match went on predictable lines. Wayne would hit some good shots sandwiched between unforced errors. I didn’t have any trouble holding my serve and broke him one more time during the course to finish the match at 5-2.

Luciano chose to serve after winning the toss and he quickly went up 2-0 after breaking my serve. Luciano has been at the very top of 7pm for so many years now and this score line didn’t bode too well for me. Though I lost those two games, I kept up with him and in most cases played better than him-just faltered at the finish line. One of the games I lost was on a deuce point with Luciano’s ball hitting the net tape and falling on my court. I regrouped myself and broke Luciano’s serve and followed it up with a strong hold and then broke him again. At this time the score is 3-2 in my favor. This is where I lost focus a little bit and Luciano won the last two games to make it a 4-3 win for him or 3-4 loss for me.

Dan won the toss as well and chose to serve. I attacked his backhand (as I always do against him) and quickly went up 2-0. He won the next game to make it 2-1. As I served in the fourth game, the score was 40-30 when Dan called out what I felt was a completely incorrect call. As far as I can tell, my shot landed at least a foot and half inside the baseline. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes. This rattled me a bit. As I stood up to serve the last point of this game, I said to myself that I am going to win this at all costs. I tried to focus and hit one of the best clutch serves for an Ace wide onto Ad court. For several reasons I liked what I did. Not only was this serve the hardest I hit all night long, but it was hit to his forehand. All through the match I went to his backhand or into the body but for this one moment, I went to his forehand. With a lead of 3-1 and 3 games to go, I thought I can take two more games. I only managed to hold my serve and Dan served out the other two to make it a 4-3 win for me. Initially the match started at baseline and Dan quickly adjusted trying to come to net as often as possible. This did get him some initial success as I haven’t played left handed net rushers in the recent times. I figured him (at least for the night) quickly enough to negate some of that advantage but it indeed seemed like a good tactic.

In summary, I won 12 games in all. It so happened that I overlooked the Tournament director’s note that I am playing in a group of 6 (instead of the usual 4). In other words, the rankings will be between the 6 players and each of them played 3 matches. It also means , luck of the draw determined which two players one WONT be playing. Glancing through the result sheets, it looked like Vishwas and Dan finished at 13 points each. They both had advantage of playing Carl who probably wasn’t in his best form this night. I am at 12 points and Luciano had 10 and Wayne finished at 8. I can’t predict how the standings work out but I am guessing that I may gravitate towards the top of the 7 pm draw.

Though I lost the match with Luciano and didn’t take advantage of the leads I had with him and Dan , I could take several positives. It is an understatement that the match with Luciano had long rallies. There are several 20+ shot rallies. Good news is that I won majority of them. I also believe I sent a strong message to Luciano that I can stay with him in rallies. I tracked down just about every thing he threw at me and he had to win by taking a few risks playing slightly beyond his comfort zone. Credit to him that he was able to do that but at the same time I am also not happy that he took a point off me which could have brought the score to Deuce. I walked out of the match feeling that my game matches up very well against him. This is a consistent trend from my past encounters with him.

Continuing with the positives, I was consistent with the serve , movement and forehands. My improved fitness has clearly showed in the match against Luciano and I wasn’t winded. It is a different matter that I ran out of drinking water. I hit a few down the line and cross court winners against Dan with Two handed back hand.

I can definitely improve on my forehand and get back to my 2007-08 form so that I can be aggressive with it. I think I can also be aggressive from the backhand. I should learn to focus more especially when I am serving.

Jack took the day off being sick. He is still a bit disappointed at the results and wanted to work out a strategy. I know his game well enough to say that he will be back in the midst of 7 pm in no time.He has the game, weapons and enough variety to trouble the very best. Since several players didn’t play today, may be he wont drop down a block and this chance could be enough for him to start hitting big. [Dropping to the II block at 0830 pm would mean that the player will need at least two good weeks to make it to 7 pm].

The classic Jack and me match will have to wait a bit as we don’t know the standings for this week, it’s hard to predict. It could be two to three weeks depending on where Jack and I landed this week (ie top or bottom of 0700/0830). There are also substitution scenarios which we have no control over.

Monday (02 Nov 09) results - Serve Fest!

Serve-fest , A tough day of Tennis. This is how i would summarize this Monday's tennis. Even though i am playing at 7 pm, the end of Day light savings time on Sunday meant that i was really playing at 8pm. Just for the record, I hate Standard time and I love Day light Savings. I love to come out of work and see some sun light rather than greeted by dim street lights.That is also another reason why my watches (and clocks) at home are always set to Day light time.I dont change to standard time.

My line up is to Play Vishwas, Dave and Paul S. As i indicated earlier, All the three matches turned out to be Serve-fests. There are very very few rallies and the points were very quick. The tell tale sign is, we started playing at 7:20 and we are done with all the three matches by 0820. Ie we started 20 minutes late but ended up 10 minutes early.

This was the first time in the ladder where I encountered three big servers in a row. I didnt expect it and was grossly underprepared. To make matters worse, i didnt win the toss in any of the three matches and that meant that I am always playing behind. In the very first game of the night, I took Vishwas to deuce but two big serves from him quickly erased the break points. We went with serve until it is 3-2 and he broke my serve to go 4-2. I broke him in the last game to make it 3 (me)-4(Vishwas).Vishwas served exceptionally well but I felt like I am always in the match within striking distance.

Dave and i went with serve 2-2. Then he won 3 games in a row (breaking me once). The most disappointing tale of this match is that i had break points in two different games but couldnt convert. The score line read 5-2 in his favor.

As I walked onto next court for my final match of the night, the situation looked pretty dim. Unless i can pull off a big 6-1 0r a 7-0 kind of match, my chances are extremely slim to stay at 7 pm slot for the following week. I met with Paul S (we call him Sandeep for his resemblance to a coworker of mine/Jack) and it turns out he didnt have a spectacular night either. We both tied at 5 games each thus far. So the winner of this match gets to stay 7 pm and loser will drop down to 0830. Easier said than done. Paul S fired at me some of the best Twist serves i have ever seen. With so much of action of his serves , that kick very high and clocking around 90-100 mph, There is very little i could do.The only kink in his armour seems to be his ability to rally.He held his serves very easily. Not to be left behind, i held my serves comfortably to make it 3-3. This is where the Toss comes into play. Because he won it, he gets to serve the last game.I played a very gritty and determined game to break his otherwise impenetratable serve and finish the evening a little bit better with 9 games. Paul S dropped down as he won only 8 games.

Looking at the positives, I stayed at 7 pm and it was a hard earned win. Playing from behind on all my matches put a great deal of pressure on my serve but I more or less lived up to the task (I served 9 games and won 7 of them).I did impress myself with some of the serves as its been quite a while since i hit then. I attribute it to my improved fitness which was lacking all summer.Especially in the last match , I had to win my serve and then break Paul to stay at 7 pm. That i was able to do that is something i feel good about--especially the mental aspect of it. Another thing that i also noticed is that , when it came to rallies, i had the edge most of the times. The rallies were far and few tonight but when we did have them, i won most of them.

As far as the negatives go it is the usual. I was tentative at times in taking big cuts at the ball and leaving the door open for opponents. I dropped the ball short in the middle of court at times for opponents to take a big cut.I developed two handed Back Hand (2HBH) to specially counter the Dave's of the world. I rarely used it. Vishwas repeatdely attacked my Second serve and threw me off rhythm. Probably he is the only player thus far to attack my second serve as consistently as he did.

To make it further up in the ladder, I need to improve on all counts. That said, i find it very unusual that i run into Three big servers all on the same night. This is really a factor as I couldnt return some serves into play. Part of it due to lack of match practice. The biggest server that i ever faced this whole summer was my friend Sk.We played very infrequently and not consistent enough to feel comfortable against big servers.

The challenge next week isnt any less daunting. I am up agaisnt Dave (ugh! again) , Lefty Dan (who more or less is circling around the top of the ladder) and a red hot Wayne (who i played on my ladder opening night for a 3-2 score) who beat Richard and Jack. It will be a struggle to stay at 7pm let alone move up. On paper, myself and Wayne are the most likely ones to drop down.
Before wrapping up the night, I caught glimpses of Jack's match with Rich.Jack isnt as consistent as he was during the summer and made many unforced errors. Rich and Wayne beat Jack to push him down but Jack did enough to beat Dave and still stay at the top of 0830. To me this is a defining moment for Jack as his efforts to get out of 0830 arent coming to fruition.Sooner or later he is going to break free and display the level of consistency and efficiency ,that he showed in his run to the top last year.

Badminton season starts today at my club and i am very excited about it.Hopefully it will help my court movement and other intangibles that are common across racquet sports.

Monday Tennis Preview (02 Nov 09)

The draw for Monday (02 Nov 09) is out. True enough, I am playing at 7pm but got a tough draw. I have never played two of these players and the other one was Dave against whom I have a 1-2 record. None of these players dropped below 7 pm so far this season (Dave is a perennial 7 pm’er). While the situation for me is similar to last week, where I knew only player of the three, the difference is in their playing styles. A baseline-baseline game is definitely to my liking but Dave doesn’t play that. Looking at his record against other players, he has dominated so far and I will be lucky to get out with 3 or 4 games against him. I never played Paul (S) and Vishwas and judging by their record so far, they are equally tough to contend with. I need my serve to hold up and probably also take some big cuts with forehand. If I stay at 7 pm, I consider it to be an excellent result. Sure, I do want to challenge the best of the best. But around January time frame and I want to use the time in between to round up my game as much as possible.

Jack is playing at the top of 0830 and he has an excellent chance to move up to 7. So far Rich (twice) and Me (once) have been his road blocks for 7 pm but Jack has given himself so many opportunities that its only a matter of time before he hits purple patch. Lets not forget that he is a former #1 in this ladder and knows what it takes to get to the top. His draw has him against Rich, Wayne and Dave. He should have no trouble handling Dave and his consistency should prove too much for Wayne. Rich would be the iffy match for him but if anyone can handle Rich, Jack would be one among them.

Monday Tennis results (29 Oct 2009)

The Big night was upon me even before I realized. My pre-match preparations (Apply Icy-Hot, stretching, packing water bottle, etc) were a bit rushed as my daughter wanted me to play with her. I did reach the venue little earlier than usual and saw the line up. My line up starts with Dave then Jack and finally Rob—Format is 7 games per match.

I started warming up with Dave and he is really eager to get started right away. Being older than me, I assumed he would like to spend some more time warming up. He won the toss and elected to serve. He has a weird action and on the deuce court, he stands way too close to the centre line (I have observed him actually standing on Ad court and still serve into deuce court). His ball stays very close to the net and keeps low with a decent pace. He also rallies well and probably has a good court sense and knows where to put the ball (not to mention the slices). I managed to break his serve right away on a deuce game but I lost my serve also on deuce call even though I led 40-15 to make the score 1-1. We stayed on serve to make it 2-2. I became a little frustrated with the way things are going. Every game counts and this match looked like to a 4-3 situation. I tried to increase my depth a bit and tried to move him side-side. I went on to win the next 3 games to end the match at 5-2.

Then the match everyone is eagerly waiting for. As we expected, Jack and me are the front runners at this time.
Jack just finished hammering Rob for 6-1. This meant Jack has a 1 game lead on me (as my score was 5-2). Even before the match, I suspected that Jack is likely to win more games against others than I can win. If this match were to follow our usual pattern, I need to win at least 4 games to make it even. Jack won the toss and elected to serve and we both started a bit nervous. He went up 40-30 but lost the next two points to lose the game. With a few good serves here and there, I won the next game to go up 2-0. Over the past couple years, Jack and me played a number of matches and it isn’t unusual for one of us to jump into big leads before the other catches up and at times winning it all. I was expecting a come back but that didn’t materialize. I ended up winning all the 7 games. Other than playing consistent and a few good serves I didn’t do anything special. The score line definitely was a shocker. During outdoor season, both Jack and I lost a few times for such one sided score lines but never indoors.

This result meant that after 2 matches and with one more to go (with Rob), I am the clear front runner from this group. I had 12 points thus far, Jack has 6 and Dave has 8. I did the match and figured that I need 3 more games to take my tally to 15 and eliminate any possibility for others in this group to move up to 7 pm [If Jack or Dave were to sweep their last match 7-0, they could theoretically be at 13 (Jack) and 15 (Dave) but since I won over both, I will still move up in case of a tie]. Rob won the toss and started to serve. I thought he can hit some good forehands (especially into my back hand) and seem to have a good net game. He isn’t that consistent and I used that to my advantage and ended up breaking him twice while holding my games with a few well placed serves to take the 3-1 lead and reach my target of 15 games. I also want to see if I can better my best ever result in the ladder of 16 games. I won the last two games to close the match at 5-2.

I finished the night with 17 games- my best performance in the ladder thus far. As it turns out, Jack beat Dave comfortably (5-2) and finished with 11 games. Dave finished third with 10 games. Rob is likely dropping down a block with 4 games. I don’t think I played as well as the score indicates. I played safe in the rallies and I probably hit like 4 winners whole night. My serve held up well though some of my hardest serves were returned with interest and I had to scramble. Few rallies were exhausting and I am thinking it is due to lack of sufficient match practice. I run 2 miles a day at home with interval training and occasionally add a 1mile elliptical work out. This is as far as I can go at home given my schedule. I will be starting Badminton from next week and after couple of weeks of Tennis and Badminton I will have enough data around Mid-Late November to reevaluate my fitness.

The difference tonight was the anti-climatic game with Jack. He was predictable with his game. The trade mark Jack volleys weren’t there and his drop shots missed targets. On my other matches, I had a few giggles. The first one was when I saw Dave stepping up way into the baseline for my second serve. Obviously he was thinking of an aggressive return on my second serve and probably assumed some dinky serves. True enough, my second serve doesn’t have a lot of pace but it does kick up high and isn’t easier to take a big cut unless one has a good top spin shot.
The second one was with Dave as well. He indicated every single point that he doesn’t keep track of the score. Late into the match, I purposefully said I don’t remember the score and he was able to accurately tell me how the last 4 points were played and why the score was 30-30. I still like his approach as he is ensuring that score is known to both parties after every point and it can only be a good thing.