Jack lost a heart breaker against Dave. After splitting sets (i.e. one set each), Jack lost 5-7 in a tie breaker. I overheard a few conversations from their court and it appeared like there is little bit of drama. Dave's matches generally are of controversial genre.
Coming back to my match, once again my slow start killed me. Off late, this is becoming chronic and i am not exactly sure how i fix this issue. Even before i realized , i fell behind 5-0 after Luciano won the toss and elected to serve. A lot of it is my own doing and my opponent helped my losing cause by offering a steady diet of Moon balls. Going into the match, I knew i would be playing a lot of moon balls. I spent a lot of time last week, trying to put together a good game plan against Moon balls. In the end, the best option seemed to be what Jack has indicated last time i lost to this opponent. i.e., use my forehand and stay aggressive. At a minimum, i had to score points of balls that hang around service line.
From the very beginning, i had a choice of moon balls. Moon balls to Backhand, Moon balls to forehand, Moon balls in the center, Moon balls near the net , well you get the point. I decided to go down fighting. Jack and i talked about this aspect and we decided that i should Play to win and Not to play the defensive game so as not to lose the match. I took big cuts at the ball and i overcooked several shots. I also managed to hit a few winners but wasn't consistent enough. My serve didn't click and i also lost a couple of deuce games (i wouldn't win any deuce games this night --4 in total). Behind 0-5, I more or less thought the match was over. This opponent is a great front runner and with the way things were going, a comeback seemed unlikely. However a couple of easy points on my serve made it 1-5. Right around this time, a rally showed me that i might have some hope against moon balling opponent in the following weeks (I still didn't think i had a shot tonight as both scoreboard and clock are against me)
The rally itself wasn't special. All i did was i pushed back on few moon balls and then suddenly unloaded on them. This pace change up seems to have worked as my opponent couldn't read what was coming. Even then it wasn't easy as my opponent is one of the best in making opponents hit one more shot. The more i tried this strategy, the more it worked and i managed to get the score to 5-3. On His serve at 5-3, i took it to Deuce but couldn't convert on the break point and lost the set 3-6.
There is still 35 minutes of play left but i fell behind 0-2 in the second set. Both games went to Deuce but i couldn't convert. I more or less gave up on the night but wanted to make sure that the strategy/tactic i tried is at least practical if i face him in future. So i tried to be patient on rallies and picking moments to hit big forehands. I tied the match at 2-2 and then stayed on serve till 3-3. Then i held and broke my opponent for 5-3 lead in second set.
It is 0830 and the players from 0830 walked into the court. I asked my opponent if he can continue on another court OR if it is a wrap. I told him clearly that i understand if he choses to call it a night (and i meant it). He agreed to play and we moved to another court. I held my serve to make it even. In the tie breaker, I had even more moon balls, but i now had a measure of his shots and despite long rallies i jumped onto 2-1 lead and then to 6-1 lead. I finally closed out the tie break at 7-2. I credit Luciano for agreeing to continue playing and appreciate his gesture and sporting spirit. He had every right not to play after 0830 but by agreeing to play risked losing the match (and he did). It sure did change my opinion.
The win moves me to #1 again but sadly Jack will drop to #5. If he won, we both would have played the dream final one more time. Despite us both staying at top 4 more than two months, we only managed to play once at the top spot. It just shows how deep this ladder is. I am sad that jack lost but i see this as a minor blip and is only a week away from back to Top 4.
Next week i will be playing Dave. It wont be easy but i am looking forward to it.
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