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.