Tennis Results 08 Mar 2010 -- Great outing ,average results and Good Shoe

After somewhat disappointing results for the past couple of weeks, i finally put together a decent outing. I dont get to move to the top but i stayed at the top of 7 pm on my own merit, not relying on Arbitration /other results.

First of all, I played with my New Babolat Shoes that my wife gifted for my B'day. Ofcourse i did my research and indicated what i wanted to my wife , so i knew what i was getting. These are the most comfortable shoes i have ever played with. My current shoe is also a Babolat 'Team All court ' shoe and fairly comfortable but this new shoe just blow the old one away. I also have a HEAD tennis shoe that i use for my daily Running and that is no where as comfortable as this one. Grip, Traction, Ankle support, This shoe seems to have it all.

I also made a few changes in approaching the matches. I am still finding it hard to shed old habits and i am making a conscious effort to start small. First one of them is , i changed my dress code. I no longer am using my traditional red-white attire. Another ritual i didnt use tonight is the head band based one. Normally i use head band in warmups and then put it away during the match play. Tonight i chose to wear it all night long regardless of my results. Ofcourse, a sponsorship from NIKE may soon be on my way (i can always dream!).

In yet another first, i played Rich for the first time this season. Rich is an old timer and we have had many good encounters in the past. Games wise, i have won more than i lost to him so far. We went with Serve until 3-3. I had one oppurtunity to break his serve but i couldnt. In the 7 game, we went to deuce (despite Rich being up at 15-40) and i couldnt get the lift on a second serve as much as i would have liked and Rich crushed the return to make it a 3-4 night for me. I have however served several good serves , especially the ones down the T. I also played very positive tennis and didnt back off when there is a chance to go for more on the shots.

I played Ding next. The first game went to Deuce but i pulled a good first serve and then stayed on serve until i broke him to go up 4-2. I lost the last game on Deuce to make it 4-3 night for me. In what seemed to be a trend, i hit few good first serves and i also hit some good cross court forehands.

Carl is always a tricky opponent but we stayed with serve until i broke him to go up 3-1. Before our match, i learnt that he has 5 games and i had 7. So i knew that if i win 3 games, i am going to stay up regardless as Carl wont be able to catch me. On the other hand, if one wins 11 games in this ladder format, it is impossible for him to drop down. Once i had 3 games under my belt, i took it little easy but i won the last game of the night anywayz to go up 4-3 on Carl.

With 11 games, i didnt have to check other results as i knew that i will stay put. Since Rich has won 14 games, he will move up. Carl dropped down with 8 games while Ding has 9. If i played a little tighter perhaps i could have caught Rich on games to move up but my goal was to go for shots where possible.

I didnt feel tired whole night and its been a while since i had that feeling. I also liked the fact that i didnt back down to take a shot when there is a chance.One more average week and i will end up closing March at 7 pm-- not a small achivement considering the depth of this ladder. These days we have 3 levels at 0830 and two at 7 pm before one can play for #1. One needs 5 solid weeks of play before they can play for #1 spot. Another not so small achievement:I havent played at bottom of 7 pm since November meaning i have been the top 5 player or better for the past three months.

I am not sure if i am going to play next week but it will be a decision i make on Sunday. The focus on the remaining 1-2 sessions are on proper stroke execution and some fun. I am a little tired of always counting games and each and every point.

Last weekend, outdoor weather was good enough for me and Jack to play outdoors. We played a few tennis tie breakers. It was a bit windy making it very tough to play from a particular side of the court and whoever played on that side, ended up losing the breaker. However it was fun to play outdoors again and cant wait for the weather to get even better.

Tennis Results 01 Mar 2010 -- Sinking Ship?

Despite warm march weather, i had a lame duck session this Monday. I only won 6 games yet i managed to stay up due to Substitutions.

Its only after i started warming up , i learnt that Paul isnt showing up and Steve substituted for him. In the past, i had beaten Steve handily and while i am no longer playing close to the levels of tennis i played during Nov-Dec-Jan, I expected to handle him. Instead i was troubled by his cotton puffy shots and crafty slices. I struggled with my movement and serve. Its a long match, to say the least. We played 7 games for 45 minutes and in the end i lost 3-4.

I played Carl next and it was complete contrast. We went with serve first couple of games. I had oppurtunity to go up 3-1 when carl offered a break point (I was leading 2-1 and carl was serving) but i couldnt convert and we stayed with serve until 3-3. I surrendered my serve meekly in the last game to go down 3-4.

For the first time, i encountered Tom who is probably the best player in the ladder. He joined a few weeks ago and took time to move up the deep ladder (it takes 5 weeks before one can make it to top of 7 pm when starting down the ladder). I didnt win any games against him but i got several games at Deuce, though i didnt convert. He is more consistent and has good top spin ground strokes. His serve isnt over powering. I have good enough game to handle him though it is hard for someone to believe it when they saw me playing yesterday. We ran out of time when i was trailing 0-4.

As it turns out, Tim handled Steve well (7-0) and kind of helped me stay up at top of 7 pm.

I am disappointed on several fronts. I only hit a couple of winners but they werent strategic. I hit good backhand shots but nothing aggressive. I felt so tired playing Steve and i cant explain this either considering that i am putting lots of time on treadmill.

I have a few excuses/reasons/injuries that may explain some of these lack lusture results but neverthless bad performance. Ofcourse, when i embarked on this "improvement" strategy, i expected some nights where i would be off but when i actually had "off" , it was troubling. I guess i have to live upto it.

I will break from the ladder end of March. With four more sessions left in this month, i guess i will play two of them. I am thinking of playing atleast one (or two) of these at 0830 Pm against guys who return the ball back softly so that i can groove my topspin forehand. Its hard to get that kind of practice at top of 7 pm as the guys are too consistent and play deep.

Weather wise coming weekend looks promising and i am considering the possibility of outdoor tennis.