Monday Tennis results (21 Dec 09)--Playing for #1 again

I topped the substitute filled top 7pm group and will be playing Eric for the second time in 3 weeks for the #1 title.

We had two substitutions in our group (due to Christmas and holidays) and it basically meant that either Paul D or myself will have the chance of moving up. The two substitute players we had are Mark ( sub'ing for Luciano) and Steve Toubman (sub'ing for Ding Li).

I started out with Mark and though bumpy handled him 6-1. I didnt do anything special other pushing the ball deep and serve well. Then came Paul. We were going neck to neck pretty much till the end. Mid way through this match, i pulled my right groin muscle (or whatever it is called) and it impacted my movement--especially when i do a cross step and hit cross court back hand. In the end, i didnt play as good as i needed to against Paul and he got me 4-3.

At this point in time, I thought i have 9 games and Paul has 7 games. Paul can get a maximum of 14 (if he wins 7-0 in last match) and i needed to win 6 games to take other results out of equation. It was almost 0815 when we started our last match and the 0830 people were coming in. Steve and me had to pause our match (with me leading 4-0). Paul and Mark finished their last match and incidentally Paul won 6-1 taking his tally to 13. Steve would eventually concede the match.

I started playing the 0830 match and i have prior instructions that i go easy at 0830. May be because people complained or may be its a casual remark but i took it seriously and tried to work on my game as opposed to winning. I personally dont see any difference between 0830 and 7pm players per se (except Eric who is clearly a very good player). At the best, may be 7 pm players are a bit more consistent but thats about it. myself and jack played at 0830 for a long time before we became more regular at 7 pm.

I tried to go for too much using a new racquet against Bruce and he had me 6-1. Against Roger i only fared slightly better 2-5. I however wanted to win against Ed -my last match of the night. Ed is playing left handed (due to an injury to his right hand) and he is still quite a force to reckon with. As soon as i saw his left handed strokes, i used a "keep the ball deep" strategy and pretty much lobbed the ball deep every single time. Eventually i had a chance to open up the court with a cross court shot and would go for a winner (or induce an unforced error). I went up 4-0 and decided to try new stuff. I tried hitting winners and etc which worked briefly. It was also very tiring and my serve started misfiring allowing Ed to win the last three games --two of them on deuce.

I will get another shot at Eric next week. I caught glimpses of Eric vs Vishwas match and i thought Vishwas played very well-far better than i can. Still he ended up losing 2-6,1-6 --not too different from me vs Eric score line. My game plan next week is to serve smartly (than over powering) and be really aggressive. Yes, bagel score lines (ie 0-6,0-6) dont look good but what difference does it make if i lose 0-6 or 1-6?. I might as well swing well and lose on my terms than try to counter punch. I will still hold the baseline but this time, if i see even a slight opening, i will be aggressive and take it.

Jack won 11 games which kept him at bottom of 7pm (as you may know, it is impossible to drop down when one wins 11 games in this format). He came within couple of games of topping the group. Carl won 13 and Dave C won 12. Good result for him and should boost his confidence. However his next week draw just got tougher as he will face Luciano and Roger R along with Dave C. His wins against Dave C have become routine though Luciano and Roger R may be a tricky combo to deal with. However Jack has the weapons and game plan to tackle them. I think there is a strong possibility of a three way tie between Jack , Luciano and Roger R and it may come down to tie breakers.

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Monday Tennis results (14 Dec 09)--Humbling but optimistic

Depending on how one looks at it, it is glass half full or half empty. I played for #1 rank and came up short against a far better player than me (Eric). Eric beat me 6-1,6-1 so send me back to #3 at the top of 7 pm.

I went into the match ready to play and i couldnt ask for a better begining. I broke Eric right away and was 40-15 before he turned it on and won 6 games in a row. It almost appeared like he does a little better than me on every aspect of the game. The second set was in similar lines and except for game 3 which i held (at love) , its Eric all over.

I am not disappointed. While the scores may not tell the full story, there are at least three other games where i had break points but couldnt convert (mind you, there are full set games ie we dont play "No AD". In case of deuce, one has to win two points in a row). If i had won a couple of those games, this could be a far better result.

In the hindsight i question some of my strategies. I should have used spin serves more than fast serves as he was able to put most of my fast serves into play. It also took considerable amount of time for my serve to warm up. I also should have gone for broke more than i did.

It is still a good experience. As i said before , he had too much variety. I made adjustments all through out the match and he realized what i was trying to do within a point or couple and immediately made counter adjustments (ie i go after his backhand and he immediately starts slicing the ball deeper and shorter to deny me good looks , I try to go cross court with my forehand and he forces me to hit backhands, i try pushing and he comes up with ridiculous cross court top spinners).

The only thing i would say is, i didnt lose my baseline advantage. He beat me on all other flanks but not on baseline. Every single baseline rally , i stayed and out rallied him until he drop shotted me or hit long.

All in all it is a humbling experience and reality check. I probably have the game to beat everyone else except Eric on the ladder. But around the same time last year, i wasnt even competing at the top so it is a definite improvement. I just need to continue improving my game and add more offense. Also this is my first ever oppurtunity (not withstanding the racquet string less time) to play someone of Eric's calibre.

I stayed on after my 7 pm match and sub'd for 0830. This was by design. I wanted to play the best and last on the same time. I also wanted to use this chance to test a spare racquet. I had little trouble beating Dave A (5-2), Mike (5-2) and Rob L(4-3). There were some tight rallies and with Dave A i have like 4 deuce games (i won all). I capped the night winning the deuce game against Rob when we are 3-3.

(The irony is that i didnt win one single break point against Eric but then win every break point in the matches that are of academic interest from my perspective)

Jack came within one game of staying at the top of 7 pm. He and Paul D tied up at 7 games all but Jack lost to him 3-4 and hence lost in tie breaker. Jack fell to Luciano 6-1 and that result pushed him to bottom of 7 pm.

The draw for next week is out. I am drawn against Luciano, Ding Li and Paul D. I heard there are atleast two subsitutions in our group. So it is hard to predict the outcome of the group, especially if we dont even know who we are playing.

Jack's draw is ,once again not easy. He has Carl, Dave C and Wayne. He seems to have figured out Dave C and also having a good record against Carl this season. Wayne can go hot and cold and this group may go down to the wire. I predict that Jack will have far easier time against Dave and Carl than Wayne can and if he can keep the score close with Wayne, he is moving up!.

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Monday Tennis results (07-Dec-09) -- The move to the very TOP

Yes. This turned out to be a great week for ATP (Architect Tennis Players). In what could be termed as a seismic shift of tennis power towards counter punchers, Jack and me won our respective groups and are now firmly sitting at the top of the ladder. Jack will be playing at the top of 7 pm next week and I will become the new #2 playing for #1 next week.

Jack’s result is hardly surprising. As a former # 1 player in this ladder, most people have been expecting Jack's return to top of 7 pm for quite some time now. Two player substitutions in his block added with relentless counter punching from Jack made Jack’s path to the top, slightly easier than anticipated. It is almost like history repeating itself. It is around the same time last year, Jack started his (then) improbable run towards the top and achieved his career best #1 ranking in Dec 2008.

My result is some what surprising and may be bordering on shocking. I am playing one of the toughest groups and I have losing record against all the players in my groups. In fact I fully expected that I would drop down. Instead I have won the group and personally achieved a new high ranking at the ladder and I can check mark one of the goals I had in joining this ladder as met—that is to play at the very top.

These results ensure that Jack is guaranteed to stay at 7 pm for the next two weeks and I will be at 7 pm for the next three weeks. That would mean that, as of 01/01/10 I have spent two months at 7 pm, not a small achievement given the level of tennis in this ladder.

I started to the courts little later than I planned due to an unexpected errand. The Game plan I had was to stay aggressive. All these three guys (Wayne , Vishwas, Paul) are hard hitters and in general good players with enough fire power to strike winners when presented with a whisker of opportunity. During warm-ups I noticed that I was timing my two handed backhand pretty well. Even my forehand looked lot better. My serve looked off.

I started with Wayne and despite two deuce games, he raced to a 3-0 lead after losing the toss. I was disappointed but I tried to stay positive and said to myself that I should win at least one game. I won the next service game, broke him and again won to make it even at 3-3. The last game was a see saw battle until 30-30 and then Wayne pulled away thanks to two unforced errors from me to go 3-4 up on me. While I am disappointed that I couldn’t go 4-3 up on Wayne, I was happy that I at least got three games and keep it close.

Mathematically speaking, in this format, it is impossible for a player to drop down if he wins 11 games. Depending on other results, 10 games are good enough to keep someone in the same group most nights. The odds drop down with less games than 10 , but if one can get a 4-3 or better win in the “key” match, it is possible to stay up with 9 games.
By the same token, if a player wins 18 games, it is impossible for others in that group to catch up. Generally 14 games should move the player up on most nights.

My goal was to earn 9 games so that I can walk out feeling competitive regardless of me dropping down. I lost the toss and Vishwas went 2-0 up very quickly though there was a deuce game (I was leading 30-40 on his serve). I decided to slow it down a bit and tried to be patient and broke him back. I then held serve at love to make it 2-2. Another deuce game on Vishwas serve went to him and I held my serve to make it 3-3. Vishwas was simply good in the last game and I ended up with 3-4 result again.

With only 6 games to my tally, I didn’t fancy any chances of staying up at this group. I didn’t know how the other results went but got a feel that Paul D was playing very well as he has 9 games at that point. His 9 games tally meant that he had a one-sided result against Wayne or Vishwas. The only problem is that I don’t have a tie breaker against both of them as I lost to them 3-4. However if the match between Wayne and Vishwas ended up being one sided, I stand a chance.

Paul won the toss and elected to serve. I haven’t played him recently and his game tonight seemed to be more like a pushers game. He was either slicing the ball to my forehand or backhand but very close to the net OR sometime push the ball deep in. The hard hitting strokes that I remember him weren’t there and his serve wasn’t fast either. I don’t know if this is because he elected to employ that strategy against me or if this is his new game. I am used to playing this kind of a game and I usually can play this all night. His slices were biting especially on the backhand side but the two handed backhand helped me a lot. I tried putting the ball back in play more than he did and I raced to a 2-0 lead and then to a 4-1 lead. The pivotal game happened to be the fourth game when I was serving 2-1 and he was up 0-30. The sixth game was very important for me as winning it would put me at 11 games , guaranteeing a spot in this group for next week. Once I won that game (relatively easily), I had more confidence and Paul more or less has given up and I took the last game , thanks to unforced errors from Paul.

I came back and checked other results and realized that I won the group with 12 games. Vishwas is with 11 and Paul had 10 games. Wayne drops down with 9 games. This is where the scores play tricks. For example, if I had lost two more games and one of them to Wayne, I would have ended up on 10 points but still dropped down because of my 3-4 scores to Wayne and Vishwas. If I had lost one more game to Paul, I would have been even with Vishwas and he would have moved up because of his 4-3 score against me. Luckily those scenarios didn’t happen and I have moved up to #2 and will be playing the #1 player Eric next Monday.

The original goal I set out to achieve in October when I joined this ladder is met. I wanted to get to this level and I did. It is very unlikely that I will be able to beat Eric for a #1 spot but I will try. The next goal obviously is to try and stop Eric and then try to keep my stay at the top of this group as much as possible.

Jack draw isn’t easy next week. He will face the likes of Vishwas, Paul and Luciano. The good news is that he has found his range with his game and has enough arsenal to throw at these guys. A run to the top is probable.

The marquee Jack vs me match will have to wait at least one more week.

Another great week of tennis for ATP.

Monday Tennis results (30-Nov-09)

There were no substitution scenarios this week for my block and that meant that each player has to earn their spot. Even with all my standard pre-match rituals, I felt “energy less” when I started warming up for the first match.

Dan won the toss and held his serve easily though I was up 0-30. I was up 40-0 but eventually had to pull a deuce point. I broke Dan in his next game and held mine to go up 3-1. Dan held his serve despite another deuce game and broke mine to make it 3-3 but I broke him back to make it 4-3. There isn’t a whole lot to say about this match except that I wished I hit more shots to Dan’s backhand than I did. I also wished I was much more aggressive with my forehand –especially when I am gunning for his backhand side.

During the change over, I learnt the scores of other matches in my group and basically it is a 4-3 (Carl beat PaulS). What this meant is that all the players are within one game or less of each other and thereby making every game from this point that much more significant.

Paul S blazed through his service game after winning the toss against me. His serve has lots of pace and action and it is hard to read it unless one is used to that kind of pace. Like our earlier match, I held my serve easily to make it 1-1. Then I made some adjustments against Paul S for receiving his serve. Basically I slightly moved towards my forehand and opted to leave the “Down the T” serve open. I haven’t seen him hitting that serve and I thought I would take that chance. I am not sure if Paul S (aka Sandeep) read my adjustments but he kept pounding serves into to my forehand and an occasional one into the backhand. Using this strategy I was able to put the serve back into play and start the rally. I also made another adjustment and stayed at the centre of baseline during rallies. Along with this , I also tried to keep the ball in the centre (and occasionally deep) for my opponent. This way opponent has to decide which way he wants to go (ie towards my backhand or forehand corner) and often takes additional CPU cycles and forces errors.
I went up 5-1 before Paul served out the last game to make it 5-2.

Another glance of scores revealed that I have 9 games followed by Dan and Carl at 7 games and Paul with 5 games. While I have a 2 game lead, the door is still ajar for Dan and Carl. I need to win 3 games with Carl and Paul needs to win 2 against Dan to put me in the driver seat. I would need 5 games to insulate me against other results.Easier said than done.

I won the toss and barely held my serve at deuce. But I broke Carl back and held my serve to make it 3-0. It then went with serve for a 4-1 lead for me. I was hoping to win some more games but I over head score from the other court that Paul S indeed has 2 games thereby making the rest of two games , in NBA parlence, garbage time or inconsequential . Carl held his serve and I had a forgettable last service game (despite me fighting back to 30-40, trailing 0-40) and we ended the night at 4-3.

I have 13 games (Dan has 12, Carl has 10 and Paul S with 7) and will be moving up into top bracket of 7 pm. I surprised myself a bit with the result as this is one of the tough groups to pull out. This result also means that I will stay at 7pm for the next two weeks.

I stayed on and watched Jack play. He had little trouble against Dave C (5-2) and despite some hiccups stayed close with Lanh (3-4) and finished the obligatory 5-2 match against Dave A. He too ended up with 13 points and is moving back to 7 pm. It is the counter puncher Jack at Business and that’s exactly what he did – taking care of business!.

Its Jack and me back at 7 pm prime time next week though we aren’t scheduled to play each other. My draw is the toughest by far for me : Vishwas , Wayne and Paul D. There are no easy games and my struggles against hard hitters are well known and all these three players hit the ball pretty hard. I give myself an outside shot to survive this group and maintain a spot at this block. Jack’s draw isn’t easy but sans big hitters. He is drawn against Ed, Carl and Dan. He has beat each of them before and none of them have the fire power that neutralizes Jack’s movement and returning skills and hence has a good shot of clearing this group to move to the top of 7 pm.

All in all a good outing for ATP (Architect Tennis Players) and for at least one week, all is well in ATP.