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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