TopSpin

Monday Tennis results (24-oct-2011) - 4 weeks in a row

2011-10-24T20:01:00.001-07:00

With so much stuff (crap) going on at work and lots of "to do's" at home prevented me from updating this blog.

After winning against Luciano on Oct 4, i assumed the number 1 rank in the ladder. Since then i have beaten Carl, Wayne and Carl again tonight making it 4 weeks in a row at #1. However i no longer attach any significance to the #1 rank. I am interested in becoming one of the top player at the outdoor circuits and in order to do that i need to focus on good execution and good offense. Most players in the ladder generally are defense oriented players and if one is patient and play defense with occasional offense, it isnt that hard to win against them and stay at #1. However in the outdoor circuits when we play top ranked players, they generate plenty of offense and cant just win with defense alone. My focus this winter is improve my offense while staying consistent.

Last week it was Wayne and it was a tough match. Wayne always plays me tough and i guess our games match up well against each other. We held at 1-1 and then I played from behind most of the set to catch him at 4-4 all along breaking each other's serve. At 4-4 i broke him and held serve to make it 6-4. After winning first set, i jumped on an early break and held and soon was serving at match point at 5-3. It is already past 10 pm cutoff but my opponent wanted to continue.I had a tough line call (i believe the serve clipped the service line and skidded off ) as my first serve was called out. However i threw in a cotton puffy second serve and he punished it and then on i lost the plot and eventually the set at 5-7. At this time we are way past our 10pm cut off. Technically if we stopped then , i would have won the match because of # of games won. Nevertheless my opponent still wanted to continue. With clock around 10:30 Pm or so, i really didnt want to play another set (as it would be way past 11 pm and unfair for the rep working the front desk). We ultimately agreed to play 'first to 3 games win the match'. He held serve easily and very quickly had break points on my serve. My serve was off all night but came through suddenly with Three clutch serves and suddenly it became 1-1. I broke his serve some what easily and went up 2-1. The last game was a tough one with several intriguing rallies but i prevailed to win 3-1. There arent any silver bullets in this match. It is lot of work and some lucky breaks in the end (to be fair, it shouldnt have come this far as i was leading 5-2 and just needed to win 1 of the 3 games and i couldnt).

Tonight's match with Carl was a bit anti climatic as compared to our match two weeks ago. That match was a tight encounter where i won 6-3,6-3. I had to pick my spots and hit serves into them and took chances on short balls to win that match. Carl was playing very tough that night and a couple points here and there would have changed the match's complexion. Compared to that tonight's match is a simple one. For one, my serve was on and didnt face a break point until late in the second set (actually serving for the match) . Compounding this ,Carl's game was off the mark and he made some uncharacteristic errors. In the begining of both sets, it would appear like he would blow me away and take the set but both times i survived the mini storm by playing some offense myself . In the end, it was a comfortable 6-2,6-2 win for me.

Jack played again (only for second time this indoor season) and it looks like he might drop from the Top4 group . This year we only have 12 spots and the way the format works is #1 vs #2 ; #3 vs #4 ; #5,6,7,8 (called as Top4) ; #9,10,11,12 (Called as Bottom4). He indicated that he won only 8 games tonight. Unless there are Substitution scenarios (which we dont have in his group) , 8 games isnt enough to keep one's spot.

It is surprising for me considering that yesterday (Sunday) Jack beat me 7-6 in a friendly outdoor match. While the conditions may be different, we both played for win and i lost the tie breaker. Given that warm up, i assumed Jack would handle his group and move up. His group doesnt have players that would pose him match up problems (on the other hand, he can pose night marish problems for some of the players).

Historically Jack makes his run to the top towards Thanks Giving and Christmas time. He hasnt played much lately and will need a couple more sessions to get his game grooved. I would pick him to move to the top in 4 weeks time (assuming he gets to play)

I am considering taking some time off from Gym. I am putting in a lot of cardio work at the Gym and i might have hurt myself in that process---my right shin hurts and feels numb after work outs. No doubt that fitness played a huge part in some of my results but i am thinking i can take a break and come back to Gym with renewed energy.

...And New Season begins

2011-10-04T03:33:00.000-07:00

The Indoor season is back. The outdoor season and the summer went so quickly as a blur. Next thing i know , it is all long coats, snow clearing and what not. Technically the outdoor season is still on as we probably have couple more weeks left before really cold weather sets in.

I did play little more outdoor tennis than last year (when i had an injury related to a shoe) this time. I played a local outdoor circuit with mixed results. I started off well, but as i played better players, i struggled and then in the knock out rounds i lost in pre quarters to a guy who would be eventual champion. More about that match at some other time but i played my worst match in recent times on that day. May be the next time i meet him ;)

Another good thing i did during the summer is focus on fitness. Thanks to a free bee thrown by my company, i have a free membership at the Gym at my work and i made full use of it thus far. While i am not yet at the fitness levels of 2005, i am definitely better than what i was last season.

The indoor season began two weeks ago on 26 Sept but i drew a sub. This sub is a strong 4.5 or 5.0 player and he clobbered me. Two games into the match, i realized that i cant win against this guy with defense and i tried to go for my shots. The overall score (which doesn't count towards my results) isnt worth mentioning but if we consider that i was 40-15 or 40-0 up at least 4 times and i had a bunch of break points that i didnt convert, i would say i matched up OK with him. In the end, he is simply a better player than me (His second serve is as good as my best shot--my first serve). The only thing that worked for me is my forehand into his backhand and i milked it as much as i can.

The other significant news of the opening night was the absence of my good friend Jack. Due to prior commitments, Jack couldnt make the opening night and it showed (poor ticket sales, non existent media coverage, etc).

Fast forward and yesterday was the second week at the ladder. As expected, i played Luciano. We had several memorable matches in the past and he is the #1 player of this ladder for few years in a row and is a tough opponent to beat , especially this early into season.

Playing outdoor circuit gave me a lot more insights into my game and one of the things i learnt is that my game matches well against counter punchers and defense oriented players while I have most trouble against 'run and gun' players with plenty of offense. Another benefit i had is that i dont feel as nervous before a match.

I broke Luciano's serve right away after a marathon game. However he broke me again and i broke him again. Serving at 2-1, i fell in a 15-40 hole again but a good serve and 'best rally of the night' that ended with me hitting an inside-in forehand down the line winner to pull it to deuce and then held on for a 3-1 lead. I would break him again for 4-1 lead. The key thus far is hitting aggressive forehands into my opponents backhand corner and camp on my backhand side to hit the next forehand. I was crisp on my movement and my shots had good depth and action.

Serving at 4-1, running north-south on a long rally, i pulled groin muscle which was very painful (Come tuesday Am, there is lot of swelling and pain is unbearable and i can barely walk from my bedroom). From this point on, i had trouble loading on my right foot and it impacted my movement. My opponent isnt a guy who gives up with out a fight and he broke my serve easily and then held to make it 4-3. Part of the issue was my shots werent deep enough and he was able to angle the ball closer to the net on either side--i cant even chase them full steam and not going to do it when i had trouble with Groin muscle. I made some adjustments and held the serve and then broke him to win the first set 6-3. The first set only took 70 minutes.

The new timings of the ladder (runs from 8pm-10pm) allows 30 more minutes of play than the previous seasons and so we still had about 40 minutes left. Apparently the rules say that if the players split sets and were still playing, they had to abandon the third set at 09:45 and play a 10 point tie breaker. The reason why i was thinking about a tie breaker is my inability to move crisply with the muscle pain. I was almost certain that if the match were to go the distance (ie tie breaker), the advantage is with my opponent.

I opened the second set with a 0-30 hole but settled in and held. I broke him again and then held to make it 3-0. He held his serve ,after a see saw marathon game which saw him erase 4 break points to make it 3-1. Another marathon game on my serve went my way after me saving a ton of break points to make it 4-1. The next two games were anti climatic and i closed the match with a deep forehand into centre baseline. While the score looked one sided, second set was a struggle for me internally as i couldnt move well and trying to cope with the pain. I couldnt get into good positions to take an aggressive cut at the ball and often ended up bunting it back.

Muscle pull not withstanding, i am happy with the way i played the first set and how i handled the second. It was a long match and even after 2 hours, i didnt feel tired and could have gone on for one more set easily (again not factoring the muscle pain). Several times i was stretched wide but i was able to pull off my legs and i didnt have trouble chasing down the balls north-south or east-west. The fitness hours i put in didnt go in vain .

The best comment was one of the players commenting that i was the guy to beat this year. I am not sure if it is true but i would like it to be true.

And in an important development, Jack took over as commissioner for our ladder. This will provide more structure and rigor and greatly enhance players experience. He plays very fair, often to a fault and is ideal candidate for such a role. The only flip side is to balance the number of players, he had to sit out yesterday. I would much rather see him play than him on side lines.

End of Indoor Season-Impressive Season Comes to an End

2011-04-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Its Official. Indoor Tennis season is over. After 7 months (season began on Sep 20), It is now officially a season with the April 28 session.

The last session also included prizes and i ended up finishing #3 for the season with a 25$ earnings.Considering that i missed a significant portion of the season due to my travel and injuries, this is a good accomplishment.

The highlights of the season definitely include me hitting the #1 spot quite a few times. In total, i had 7 weeks at #1. Prior to this season, i came close but couldnt become #1. The most significant achievement this season still is my run to the top after i ended up at the last position on the ladder due to travel and injuries. Even if one wins every week it will take 6 weeks for someone to become #1 and i did it in 7 weeks which in itself is quite an achievement.

The season ended for me the way it started.I won 17 points 6-1 against Dan,5-2 against Darren and 6-1 against my other favorite player in the ladder Carl. Both my serve and forehand clicked and i counter punched well.I probably hit a dozen aces and a good number of forehand winners.

Before the season began, my recipe to getting #1 was to work on cross court forehand,improve my backhand and work on fitness.I truly believed that i needed a better backhand and some more pop on my forehand to become #1. After 7 weeks of #1 with what is my most dominating season, my tennis game can be summarized as --"Hammer the serve and play defense". My forehand and backhand didnt improve much but they held steady. Instead my serve, especially the first serve pace, accuracy and consistency improved a lot.I am not sure how this happened either. Only big change since last year is that i am a little heavier (thanks to the addl 5 pounds i put on).

I dont know if my serve form carries forward or not. But as far as this season goes, i am arguably the best server in the ladder. Except for Jack, no one was able to read it well in the ladder. After the initial successes, my confidence in my serve improved. Originally i was only able to hit a couple of spots on court with my serve. Now i can go down the T or wide or into the body and i am able to do it on Deuce and Ad courts.Several times i was down break points and some of them are at hopeless 0-40 but was able pull those games with big serves. This clutch performance is the key to win close matches and moving up.My W-L ratio is very impressive.I lost to Luciano twice which caused me drop down in rankings. I lost once to Carl and Jack but it didnt cause any rankings impact. Next indoor season is quite far away and i plan to perform even better.Now that most players in the ladder have taken notice of my game, i expect even tougher games when we return in the winter.

Jack also had an impressive season capping with two appearences at the top of rankings as #1.His game came a long way and is one of the best counter punchers in the ladder today besides having a beautiful all court game.

The outdoor season is here and i plan to work on my game during the Outdoor season and have fun.Me and Jack are planning to play some local circuits during the outdoor season besides hitting and practicing with each other.

Lot of credit for my results belong to my good friend Jack. Besides being my hitting partner, His scouring reports, insights are always spot on and i can always count on him for support. He is also a very good sport often to a fault.I have seen him calling out balls in , in favor of his opponents.I have never seen him ever erring on a line call/score to his favor.People took advantage of him but he doesnt seem to mind and is a symbol of Tennis spirit. Another Colleague Dave ,Iron man, Canoe racing and Volley ball champion provided some great fitness tips to help me get fit faster.

I am eagely looking forward to playing in the warmth of the Sun and enjoying slight outdoor breeze. Outdoor tennis has its own challenges. Wind and sun become a factor. Court speeds are also a factor. It requires some adjustments from the indoor game.

I also plan to work on improving cross court forehand and backhand.

Hopefully i can repeat the magic of indoor season outdoors !.

#1 again. Monday Tennis results 21-Mar-2011

2011-03-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

Monday tennis results (07-Mar-2011)-- Three way Tie

2011-03-08T02:18:00.000-08:00

Jack , Wayne and I all ended up on 11 points. To further complicate matters, I beat Wayne (4-3) , while Jack beat me (4-3) and Wayne beat Jack (4-3) to make it a Three way tie.

Dan sub'd out and we ended up playing Sub John again who gave me lots of trouble the week before. This time around i was up 4-1 against him and then 4-1 against Wayne but kinda let them back into the matches to make it 4-3 against them. This time around i have served well and played a good strategy. I did have 3 deuce games against John and Wayne but couldnt convert them.

Jack played very well and i didnt react well to his game. I played too passive and jack used his drop shot effectively. we played last and towards mid point of the match, when Jack is leading 3-2, we knew the result of John-Wayne match and hence the winner of our last two games would move up automatically. Jack won his game and i held my nerves to hold on to my serve and make it 3-4. Though Jack won this match, we all tied on 11 games.

A quick look at rule book used by our commissioner states that in such cases where there is no clear winner, the higher seeded player is given the tie. Based on last week's performance, i was seeded higher than Jack and Wayne and perhaps i will move up.

The campaign to move to the top still continues though i only have 3 more weeks left. I am travelling the first two weeks of April and wont be able to play. Once i return from my trip, i want to focus on fitness and conditioning for the remainder of April as the outdoor season gets underway in late April. Regardless of my results in the coming weeks, It is still a great season thus far. I started at the very bottom (seeded 22) and was able to work my way up in a very short span. Assuming that i move up this week, i will be seeded #4 and that in itself is a great accomplishment though i wouldnt want to stop there.

Monday tennis results (28-feb-11) -- staying put

2011-03-08T02:13:00.000-08:00

Though i won 12 points and tied with Carl, i am staying put as i lost tie breaker to him.

The only shocking \ surprising part is that i happened to beat Jack 7-0. I lost 2-5 to Carl and 3-4 to a sub John. Had several opportunities to win a few more games but couldnt convert them.

The lopsided win against Jack is somewhat bizzarre. Last season i did have 13-0 against him once but Jack is playing too good now. I expect market correction to occur pretty soon and our scores will level off.

Update and Monday Tennis 21 Feb 2011

2011-02-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

7 weeks....Yes.. its been that long since i last updated this blog. I was out whole of January on Vacation visiting my folks and when i returned there is a ton of work waiting for me to pick up and clear off.

I did start my tennis action on the ladder 3 weeks ago. Since i was out of action for such a long time (8-9 weeks), I had to start at the bottom of the ladder. There is also the fitness factor. Since i got sick in December (Dec 02 to be exact) and lost the finals on Dec 06, i havent trained in about 2 months. It doesnt help that i added about 7-8 pounds to my weight , thanks to my vacation.

I however am determined to return to the ladder and make an impression. I started training again and its been 2+ weeks thus far. Traditionally i see noticeable difference in my fitness in about 12 sessions or so and i am almost there. However this only means that i am actually ready to train harder.I estimate that if i sustain the training program and intensity,it will be mid march before i can claim to be Mr.Fit.

The first two ladder sessions (feb 7 and Feb 14) were fairly routine. Since i am playing at the bottom of 0830 (feb 7) and top of 0830 (feb 14), i mostly stayed clear of the big guns who are feasting at the 7 pm. I know that i am going to win my matches but due to the nature of one-sided matchups at this (0830) level, to actually move up one needs to win them lopsided. In a traditional setup, we have scenarios where 11-12 points were enough to push people to the top but over this part of the world, that is not sufficient. We often see two players in a given group posting lop sided scores and it comes down to how big a margin was in their wins against players that lost.

In that sense, playing at 0830 was challenging as i set myself a goal that i need to be back at 7pm in 3 weeks (two good weeks is all needed to move up but i wasnt sure of my level of play). I was probably playing a little better than i expected and posted good results.

Feb 7 --> 6-1 (A llan) , 6-1 (B ruce), 3-2(Stev e) when we ran out of time.

Feb 14 --> 6-1 (T olu), 5-2 (B ruce), 5-2 (A llan)

Some of the matches arent as easy as the scores would indicate. I might have made it harder on myself by putting more pressure on me to win every game instead of playing normally and let the result become automatic. However the end result is to my liking and i have made my way back into 7 pm.

Fast forward to Feb 21 and for my first outing at 7 pm in 3 months, i got W ayne , J ason (sub by R obert) and D arren. W ayne is a bad matchup for me. He has lots of offense and generally goes for lines and placement with plenty of power. He is one of the very few players in the ladder that i have a losing record against. R obert sub'd for J ason and i have played him before. I did not play D arren but i had a false sense of confidence as i learnt that Jack had him 7-0 the week before.

W ayne was hitting hard and his serve was threatening. We stayed with serve for the whole match. I had a 3 break points on the second game of the match but i couldnt convert. Two good serves and then a decently constructed point. It was also that i wasnt sufficiently warmed up and my timing was off. I had scares on my serve and i came close to being broken on the 7 game but i survived all of them , thanks to some clutch serves. I came out 4-3. It came down to the deuce point on this 7 game and i didnt realize how important winning that point was until much later.

I didnt have too much trouble with R obert. However i am not looking to just win this match with him but to actually win as many game as i can so that i can establish a lead. I suspected that the winner of this group would be either W ayne or me. Since i had one game lead on my match with W ayne, i was hoping to maintain it , if not stretch it. I broke R obert on 2 game and soon i was leading 4-1 with his win coming from a very close fought game which i couldnt convert. He followed up with a very solid game after to make it 4-2. Serving the 7 game, i faced the possibility of losing one more game but i held serve comfortably to make it 5-2.

I later realized why i lost these two games. I lost focus and was paying too much attention to the other match between D arren and W ayne. D arren was playing really good and heading into the last match of the night with him, i wasnt so sure of my chances. After i learnt that he handled W ayne 4-3, i knew it will be a tough evening.

Like always i tried to summarize the equations and i had 9 points, W ayne had 6 and D arren has 8. It suddenly became a 3 horse race. My magic number became 13 , ie i need to win my match 4-3 or better. W ayne can only win (7-0) in his last match and he cannot score more than 13 and even if i tie with him, i own the tie breaker. Ofcourse, first i need to win my match or it would be W ayne or D arren moving up.

I have no idea how Jack handled D arren 7-0. My wife had a reason later on. D arren puts lot of back spin on the ball with a weirdo action and it was very hard for me to pick up. In addition, he was hitting his first serves a lot, with good placement and became very hard to control. He won the spin and won his first game easily. I fell behind 0-30 and then again at Deuce but somehow won the game. Even the second game had a similar story --he held serve with ease while i struggled a lot ,still it is 2-2. One shot he puts so much action on the ball that i expected it to land out. Instead it lands close to the net and then backspins. Since i cant get a read on these, i am often caught at baseline.As i tried to counter it by preparing to move in, he unleashed a few good forehands deep into corners. Add to this the fact that he was making lots of first serves and didnt seem to be tiring while i am huffing and puffing. One thing i did notice was that his backhand doesnt have the same action. The few balls i was able to get into that corner, i was successful in majority of them. I started to direct the action towards his backhand . It wasnt easy as he managed to run around or camp in that corner to hit forehands. This started yielding results. As the match went on, i could also read his shots better and when they landed close to the net, i was able to track them down and put them in tough spots for him. I broke him and went up 3-2. With two games remaining i needed one and i held serve comfortably by aiming at backhand. Now that i have 4 games, i knew i was going to move up. For a good measure, i broke his serve on the 7 game to make it 5-2.

With 14 points, i will move up but to use an idiom "out of the frying pan , into the fire". next week, i will be facing Carl, Rich and ofcourse Jack. It is a challenging round and if anything i probably will have the least chances. Both Carl and Rich bring plenty of offense and can take over the games with relative ease. Then there is Jack. He is playing pretty good and been extremely consistent at the top of the ladder. In addition he knows my game all too well. Add to it the fact that while i struggled against D arren , Jack schooled him 7-0. The reason why it was possible is because of his high level of play. I will need to lift my game couple of level above if i have to have any chance.

There is also a controversy which might impact me. There was a one game descrepancy in Jack's group , thanks to Dave---wonder why such things always have him. Depending on which version we consider, Jack could have moved up (and thereby saving me from facing him early in the draw) or Dave might move up. Ultimately it looks like Jack chose not to challenge and it means that i will have the toughest draw ever.

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-02T17:04:00.001-08:00

For all followers of my BLOG and tennis lovers.....Wish you all a Prosperous New year 2011.

Commitments outside of tennis resulted in me not updating my blog. I last played the ladder on Dec 06. I gotten sick over the weekend and almost pulled out. Nevertheless Tennis bug bit me hard enough that i showed up to defend my #1 rank. I lost to Luciano 2-6,0-6. I won the first two games of the match and all other games went to deuce but i couldnt convert. After first set, i ran out of steam and was a non factor.

The next two weeks are terrible for me as i fell in and was miserably sick. Visits to the doctor confirmed that i need to rest for a bit. At the same time my long pending trip to India has been confirmed and i will be out globe trotting for Three weeks starting II week of January. Considering all these things, i have paused on the ladder. I will be back in action from Feb 07 (or Feb 14).

Even if i wanted to , i am not in a position from a physical fitness perspective. I have played badminton twice and also Played an exhibition with Jack on Christmas Eve. I simply couldnt keep up with the level of energy to sustain top gear game against a quality opponent like Jack. I lost 3-6 and 1-4. In the past when i played tennis or badminton, it used to take an hour or so before i started to sweat and almost never got tired. In these 3 episodes, i started sweating almost after the start and felt very tired.

All this however results in me not able to challenge for #1 over the season. I will be far behind in rankings and Luciano will be able to build an unsurmountable lead. There arent many players that can challenge him successfully and they arent playing at the top of the ladder to play him.

Though it is a bit disappointing, Looking back, this is the best season for me results wise. I have been #1 for 5 weeks and twice defended the #1 rank. The only opponent who beat me in the ladder this season is Luciano. Despite several set backs during the outdoor season with injuries and etc, i still managed to achieve the goal of attaining #1 rank. Another important aspect from last season is that i am even more confident of winning.

Heading into New year, i have some ambitious goals.besides becoming fit, I want to play the "Circuit" during outdoor season (april - Sep) and then come back into winter ladder (Oct-) and this time maintain a sustained presence at the top. Ofcourse i am not ruling out the rest of this season ie from Feb - Apr. My goal is to try to become #1 one more time this season--tall order but possible if i can stay healthy.

Meanwhile Jack kinda had a slump but started his way back up and now is just two outings away from challenging the #1. I am sure he will do it again.

Ofcourse all this wouldnt be possible with out your support. Thank you all and wish you all a happy new year.

Tennis results 29 Nov 2010-- Another win

2010-11-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

After a tight set and a couple of games, I have won the match with Dave 6-3,6-1 and will stay at #1.Every Victory is sweet but this was extra sweet due to the opponent and the challenge he poses. My good friend Jack had a sub par performance but because he plays in the 7 games x 3 players format, he will more or less hold his spot in the Top quarter of the draw at #6.

I didnt get to the courts with right frame of mind as my family fell sick over the weekend and i am feeling some effects of it especially since i had less than 3 hours of sleep last night. My opponent , as is typical of him, had a few excuses himself.

I won the toss and elected to receive. No specific reason but i thought i can put some early pressure on him and also use that game to warm myself up {a tip i learnt from an online tennis forum}. Interestingly the game came down to deuce and on the following No-ad point , after a long rally, i hit a Down the line forehand shot that clearly clipped the line. My opponent even pointed where it hit the ground. I assumed i went up a break and started my serve and i announced the score as 1-0. After holding my serve ,i assumed i went up 2-0 but thats when i was surprised by my opponent who called the score as 1-1. I was a bit miffed but i broke his serve again and then held to move up 3-1. We then stayed with serve until i broke on his last game to win the set 6-3.

In the second set, I was indecisive as i couldn't decide between playing the Clock (as it is around 08:10 pm) Or play the full set. My original thought was as long as i win 3 games, the match is out of reach for my opponent as i didnt want to stay beyond 0830 PM. Starting to serve, i went down a break at 0-1 but broke him back immediately to make it 1-1. I saw the situation getting tight as I was 0-40 down on my serve. If my opponent gets the lead in this set, he may ask to continue beyond 0830 and if the score is close (or in his favor) it might not be good sportsmanship to decline that. Frustrated a bit, i hit 4 good first serves in a row and managed to get my nose in front. It was relatively smooth after that as i won the set 6-1.

I used tips from Jack and from an online tennis forum. Jack suggested that i keep the ball deep with some top spin. Online forum suggested that the best way to handle a slice (my opponent is one of the best slicers in the ladder) is with some slice of my own.

Next week, i will be playing Luciano again and it will be interesting to see what tactics Luciano will use against me. Based on substitution scenarios next week, it is very likely that the winner of our match will be playing Paul.

Tennis results 22 Nov 2010-- #1 again

2010-11-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

At first it looked like i would be blown off the court. Then it looked like it might be too little too late. Then i prevailed. It also needed a lucky break from an opponent , who isn't known for offering such breaks. I survived a hard evening at Tennis and managed to come out 3-6,6-3 ,(7-2) against Luciano.

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.

15 Nov 2010 Tennis results--New ranking order again

2010-11-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

Essentially Jack and I swapped places from last week. Coming into this monday, jack is at #2 and i was at #3. We finished the evening with me at #2 and jack at #3.

Even before I hit the courts, i knew i was going to be the #2. My opponent Dan sub'd out and that basically means that irrespective of how i played today, i would be the #2 and will have a chance to play for #1 next week.

Our Commissioner Steve played with me as a sub for Dan. My focus today wasnt as much as winning but try to get back the swagger on my forehand. I didnt hold back and hit some really heavy forehands. I won the first set 6-3 and was trailing 2-4 in second when we ran out of time. Ofcourse i was leading 5-1 in first set! . I havent hit as many aggressive forehands in a while and towards the later part of the set, i ran out of steam. In Second set, i still hit winners on the forehand but clearly running empty on gas.

The intention of hitting as many forehands and staying aggressive was two fold. One is to get my forehand back. Second is to prepare for moon balling battle in the near future. Given my last week's performance against Moon balls, i feel that some opponents might chose that option against me. Hopefully i prove them wrong. I have better feel for my forehand now and hope that it continues.

While my tennis outing is mostly uneventful, Jack lost a tight battle against Luciano. No matter what the result is, it wouldnt be surprising as we are talking about the best of best players in the ladder here and they have beaten each other before. Before the match, i was chatting with Jack and i felt he had a good game plan. I have paused during my match to watch their game and hence can speak as a spectator. It came down to a few points here and there but i personally felt that Jack didnt use the oppurtunities he had. While his court positioning is excellent, he occasionally charged the net but couldnt close the rallies and this allowed Luciano to get back into the rally. Jack was successful being aggressive but at the same time, also over cooked some shots in that process.

The result is a bit disappointing and somewhat anti climatic for Jack but in the big picture this is an insignificant result. Once Jack makes his offensive adjustments, he will do just fine against Luciano. Next week Jack will play Dave , our resident Slap chop specialist. It is never an easy match against Dave but Jack has more success against Dave than most players in the ladder.

My task is cut out next week. I will play Luciano. I expect a ton of moon balls and this time i hope to do a bit better. My serve didnt show up this monday either so i am hopeful that it will be back next week. One thing is for certain. I really dont want to play a one dimensional pushing game. Sure, it got me the #1 ranking but it didnt give me the satisfaction. Hitting a bunch of winners sure feels full and makes my tennis that much complete. So i will play Positive tennis.My biggest concern right now is my right shoulder. It is paining a bit since a week or so (probably started after my Badminton game wednesday) and will need to nurse it well to be ready for next monday.

08Nov2010 tennis results

2010-11-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

I lost my match against Luciano 2-6,2-6. However Jack won his match against Carl 7-6 and will move up. Essentially i will become #3 while Jack becomes #2.

There isnt much to write about my match. My serve wasnt working and Forehand wasnt working either. Luciano found a cash cow(point cow) and he just floated balls like in Badminton and milked me. For whatever reason, i didnt come up with a good strategy. It is not like i am not familiar with moon balls. I probably could have moved back a feet or two behind baseline and handled them OR i could have stepped in and taken them on the rise OR I could have hit some aggressive shots instead of putting back in play. Needless to say i made a strategic error and i paid for it. Despite the score line, the games are really close and this is with no serve. Basically i couldnt get my first serves in at all. In the second set, when the outcome is long decided, i hit couple of aces. Too little, too late. I probably have about 10% of my first serves in today.

I think this loss made me realize something. Chatting briefly with Jack, he pretty much summed it up. Luciano left balls hanging in mid court and i did nothing with them. Essentially i need to get back my forehand of the past. if not for my serve, i dont even belong in the top groups let alone #1 spot. My focus going forward is to restore the forehand and make it a weapon.

Ofcourse this will take time. But if i were to play this player again, i will be ready. It is unlikely that i will have as bad a serving day as i had today. I already have a game plan in mind and pretty positive it will work.

Jack put in a good show against Carl. From what i can see he is having fun and playing as good as ever. Carl is a dangerous opponent as he can fire off both sides. Carl is also coming off a big win last week and when in form , is one of the toughest opponents to play. I fully expected Jack to win though the final score 7-6(3) is too close for my comfort, in the end having a W is all that matters. Good job Jack.

Jack will be carrying the torch next week as he squares off against Luciano. My opponent is unknown at this time but i expect it to be Dan or Dave. I will be playing Next sunday so i am not certain if i going to play next monday. With Wednesday badminton in the mix, it is very tight schedule and also hard to give 100% on all these 3 nights. I will probably make my decision around friday.

Still, The road to #1 passes through Jack or me. One of us have been playing for #1 (or been a #1) for the last 5 weeks and tradition continues next week as well.

The Dream Final - 01 Nov 2010

2010-11-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

There was a lot of excitement and media frenzy over the dream final between me and Jack. In fact, we both did some promotion at a local pub on friday evening.

As expected, the dream final turned out to be a good match albeit a standard fare that me and Jack offered to our fans over the years. The match went along the expected lines with some service breaks and some good holds. Lots of rallies and some really tricky shots from both players.

In the end, we fell way short of time. When we stopped I lead the score 6-4,2-1 and hence i was deemed the winner. The score board doesnt say the whole story and there were atleast 4 (or 5) deuce games out of the 13 games we played. Those could have gone either way and i believe we mostly split the deuce games.

The way he is playing now, I can see why Jack is winning his matches. His serve created some issues for me. His forehand has improved significantly. His Backhand has always been solid. He knows when to pick his spots. He never let me gain any momentum and put me under constant pressure. When i tried to overpower him, he returned the shots with interest. Most of my serves, which could have been winners against other players came back with some interest.Despite trailing the match at times, Jack never gave up and constantly applied pressure and made a comeback several times.

In the end, like it does in most of our matches, came down to a few points here and there.I was lucky i got them. I didnt do any strategy in particular.This evening Jack controlled most of the rallies except when i got good serves in.

Unfortunately tonight is one of those nights, no matter what result it is, wouldn't have made me happier. I wanted me to win and i also wanted Jack to win.

With this result I will become #1 again and Jack will drop to #3 spot.

Our biggest achievement still is having both of us ranked #1 and #2. We did that Twice. Having already played 7 weeks, we have finished more than quarter of a season , may be half the season. Just to get some perspective, last year i played around 12 weeks in total.

Simply put, this is the most successful season for both of us. I am looking forward to us meeting again in the near future at the top of the ladder.

Magnificent!!! -- 25 Oct 2010-- The Dream Final is On (again)

2010-10-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

Magnificent !!

Oh , Oh, Magnificent

During my drive to the Tennis club, i was listening to U2 (the Irish rock band from Dublin) 's famous number "Magnificent". As we finished the evening, This tennis season was looking magnificent.

In a match befitting of his Tennis Samurai title, Reigning World #1, Jack successfully defended his world ranking in a pulsating final against Luciano. Defending the ranking is a tough act and in this process Jack has proved (again) that he belongs in the Tennis Elite and also set the history straight against a player he had losing record against.

CONGRATULATIONS JACK.

I have followed Jack's Tennis game very closely over the years and this season he is playing in an altogether different level. He showed great poise in winning a tie breaker when the match was tied at one set all. At this time his game is well rounded and he has found great balance in using his variety.

I can report more good news. Having not played last week (due to work commitments) i was bumped down to #3 and i had to play Dave. Though it wasnt pretty, in fact it was anything but that, i managed to come out a winner with a 3-6,6-0 and (7-5) tie breaker. In spite of falling behind twice (first game 0-5 and 0-4 in the tie breaker), i managed to fight back and pull the match.

Our respective wins means that the Dream final is on , again. Jack and I will be squaring off against each other next monday. For Fans who missed out the last time due to my schedule constraints, there will be another opportunity next monday.

I wasnt happy with my match at all. I started off slow and fell behind 0-5. This is only week 2 of my 5 week training and i was still erratic on my fitness and couldnt warm up fast enough. My opponent has one of the best Slice Chop shots and is good at deflecting his opponent players pace with biting slice. I definitely had difficulty timing my shots on his chops and slices.

I generally try to block out my opponents antics but unfortunately this opponents were beyond tolerable. I was ok with his meaningless ramblings about aches, pains, grips, lights and what not. I was even ok when he made blatantly incorrect calls. Where it struck a nerve was the fact that he would stand up to serve at the centre line with one leg on either court (This is against Tennis rules which clearly states that both legs should be inside the imaginary extensions of Center line and Singles line). He then tops it off with a commentary about how he could never lose a point and heavens forbid should it happen , is due to an opponent being lucky.

Though i fell behind 0-5, it could easily have been 3-2. I lost two of my serve games on Deuce (at No AD). Both times my first serve was called OUT. I didnt get a good look at first one but the second time it was blatant. My serve hit the T and skidded off with a very noticeable movement.

Another game was on his serve, At deuce, he hit a good serve but i happened to hit a good return albeit from an off position. I was certain my return was in but he called out.

I said to myself that at 0-5, i shouldn't give up and at least win a game. A bagel set would almost certainly result in my elimination (as my opponent just needs to win one game in second set to come out winner as he would have won more games than me). Before thinking second set, i at least want get my serve going which wasnt clicking. I played a good game with decent serves and made it 1-5. I broke his serve at love and made it 2-5. As luck would have it, i converted a Deuce game on my serve (though i was up 40-15) and made it 3-5. I would have one more deuce game on his serve,but i couldnt convert it and lost the set 3-6.

During the break , i didnt talk much with my opponent as i was still feeling cheated on line calls and more importantly on him crossing the center mark on serves. I resolved to fight better.

I stayed strong on serve and tried playing deep in rallies. Though his slice is still troubling, i got a measure of his shots and also was able to guess where he is going with his shots. Leading 4-0 (after a double break of my opponents serve), i stuttered a bit and fell behind 0-40. One ace, one service winner, one good rally bought it to Deuce. Another service winner made it 5-0.

This when my misinterpretation of rules almost proved costly. I assumed if i win the second set right away (ie giving less than 3 games to opponent) i would be the winner of the night because i would have won more games. I couldnt be more wrong. I broke my opponents serve again and made it a 6-0 bagel. I was ready to walk off court.

Ofcourse it wasnt that easy and there is more drama. My opponent went and spoke with commissioner , who made a ruling that we have to play a tie break. This completely threw me off and i was fuming. In the hindsight, i probably shouldnt be this animated(or agitated) but i can attribute it to my opponent antics. I am not in agreement with this ruling at all. We determine winners by "Sets" or "# of games" but not both. On one hand, this ladder rule book says that it is the # of games that determines the winner . Very recently , a match was awarded to a player despite losing first set because when the match stopped this player won more games (eg: player A lost first set 6-7 but lead second set by 3-1 when the play stopped. Player A was declared winner)

I didnt want to pick up a fight then returned to the court to play the tie breaker. My heart wasnt even in the breaker. I fell behind 0-4 and one of them was a bad call on my serve. I wasnt sure what exactly i did but some how pulled it back to 4-5 and it included two good serves (an ace and a winner). My opponent serving at 5-4, lost both points with good rallying and moved forward at 6-5. I won a rally on second serve as opponent went long handing me the match. He wasnt happy with that call but of course the ball though close was clearly long . In fact i was standing right behind where the ball handed and had a very good look at it.

I then started watching Jack's match.I only caught the tail end of the match (actually their tie breaker as they both had one set a piece). Jack closed out the match with an awesome backhand cross court passing shot.

All this sets up a dream final match for Jack and me. New computer rankings will have him retain his #1 rank while i will be placed at #2. This is actually an inverse of where we stood exactly two weeks ago.

We both will have our chances and barring any off night scenarios, it is likely to be a long match. Jack's current form makes him a formidable challenge for me but i am looking forward to the match. We waited for 3 years to play at the top of the ladder and finally it looks like it will happen. No matter who the winner is, the result isnt likely to change much. Having played a hundred or so times so far, we both won (and lost) against each other. Make it hundred +1 this coming monday.

What makes me really happy is the fact that , this season, Jack and I finally assumed control at the top of the ladder.In 6 weeks of the regular season, Jack and i were #1 at 4 of them. This fulfills one of the goals we both set for us--ie for us to play each other in the ladder final. Three years ago, we were players at 0830 hoping to move up and make a presence at 7pm. Though few players left,Most of the players still remain the ladder and we had some new talent coming in as well. From being a push over, when we made the 7pm cut to being the 'players to beat', our respective games have come long way. Though we cant bask in this glory forever, we at least need to pause a bit and enjoy the moment (yes, this isnt a Grandslam or a world champion ship.But we arent professional tennis player either. Bunch of self coached It technicians playing recreational tennis)

The season is very young and our tennis budgets are very limited. We will need to use Sub(stitutes) and have to fore go some ranking points so that we can stretch our tennis dollars into Feb/March. This and few other factors such as "off nights", "other players playing great tennis" and "new talent" means that staying at the #1-#3 spots will remain a constant challenge.

Driving back home, I felt good about Magnificent tennis season so far.

Magnificent !!

Oh , Oh, Magnificent

Monday Tennis results (11-Oct-10) -- The One -two Punch and Sold out tickets

2010-10-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

It was three years in the making but we finally did it. Staying true to the media exit polls and current form, Jack and I won our respective matches and setup a dream final next monday. When the new computer rankings come out next week, Jack and I will be ranked #2 and #1 respectively.Minutes after the results came out, Tickets for next monday's session were fully sold out.

Congratulations Jack !!

As widely predicted, Jack out gunned Dan in a pulsating 6-4,6-2 match. Playing in the court next to me, i caught glimpses of Jack's game and it looked like he handled Dan far more easier than i did though the score board doesnt seem that way. It is Jack's show once again and this time he also bought in his serve that posed problems for Dan. Dan simply had no answer for Jack's offense and had trouble penetrating Jack's defense. Though i couldn't see all of the match, it appeared like Jack used his full repertory of shots and used them at various points to take control of the match.In the brief post match interview ,One could tell from looking at Jack that he is very happy to fight for #1 rank come next week. Dan indicated that he was rushing as he was running out of time. Not having full details i wasnt sure what it meant.

Staying with the trend this season, i started the match nervous. During the warm up i saw Luciano hitting full range of shots --slices, flat shots, lobs and the whole suite. I wasnt timing the ball well during the warm up. I picked up a few things that helped me during the match.

Despite being nervous and some what tired, i broke Luciano after he elected to serve,to begin the evening but any happiness i had evaporated quickly as Luciano broke me back. We stayed on serve till 2-2. I broke him at 3-2 and then held through the set for a 6-4 win. There were some really tight moments and I managed to navigate them using my Serve and passing shots. Though the score board says i won 6-4, it wasn't easy.

Second set was far more to my liking. With first set under my belt, Luciano really needed to win the second set by at least 3 game margin to emerge as a winner. I broke Luciano's serve in the begining of second set and then held mine to go up 2-0. With Shot clock not on his side (it was about 08:15 and Luciano needs to win 5 games in a row in 15 minutes to have a chance), Luciano tried to force action but was broken at Love. Leading 3-0, I knew the match was more or less over. It is extremely unlikely that anyone can pull of 6 straight games in remaining 10-15 minutes (and i wouldnt have stayed beyond 08:30 this night). In any event, Luciano kind of went away after that and i won the set comfortably at 6-0.

The keys to my win are my passing shots and serve. It also helped that Luciano had an Off night.Luciano is one of the good net players in the ladder. He sneaks in almost unnoticed and can hurt you with his net game on both sides. I missed my first few passing shot oppurtunities in the first set and i am thinking that he might have been encouraged by that and was charging net more. I believe that my passing shots are underrated. In any event, i won a lot more than i lost on passing shot oppurtunities. Excluding the one game i got broken, i saved the only break point of the night with a clean Ace down the T.

I am thrilled that i managed to defend the #1 ranking successfully. It adds a little more credence to the player when he defends his title. Another confidence boosting aspect for me. Coming into this match, Luciano lead 26- 21 when considering the games played,against me. Post this match i turned it around and now i lead the head to head with 33-30.

Now the bad news for me. My work priorities will have me travel next week and i will not be able to play next Monday night to defend my ranking. Even sad for me is that, i will be missing the matchup against Jack. Despite the fact that Jack is playing awesome tennis and is probably the player to beat, I think i would have my fair share of chances against him in the final.Over the years , we played so many matches and there are no surprises when we play each other. Because of me withdrawing next week, i will be dropping to #3 and will be playing against #4 player the following monday (Oct 25).

But the Good news is that, assuming the Commissioner follows the rule book , Jack will assume the #1 rank as he is currently #2 and with the #1 player (me) withdrawing from next week's draw. As a former #1 player and as someone who reached #2 last year, Jack is a deserving #1 player and this result shouldn't come as a surprise. From a match up perspective, Jack might be playing Luciano next week and a strong showing would cement his place at the top.

Regardless of what happens during the rest of this young season, It is a great achievement for Jack and me. Over the course of three years, we talked several times about how we both should be playing for the title in prime time. We both contributed to each others game improvement and shared our scouting reports and other tips. Of course neither of us are planning to stop here and will continue improving our respective games.

While it is clear that Jack results are due to his improved game, my results are nothing but shocking. There are No noticeable improvements in my game. While my serve has gotten a bit more consistent, i have been known as a decent server in the ladder for quite some time. While a favorable draw could be a reason for #1 ranking, it still doesnt explain the mostly one sided results i have been having. I am winning 75% of the games played and that is way above my career average of 50%. So sooner or later i expect a market correction and my game to come back to earth.

New World Order , Double Impact and Monday Tennis 04 Oct 2010 resultsetc

2010-10-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

When the Computer rankings come out next week, we will have a new #1 and a change at #4 in the ladder. (Drum roll and applause please). Both Jack and I won our respective matches and therefore I have clinched the #1 rank after beating Dan 6-2,6-3 while Jack will move to #4.

Congratulations Jack. Jack is showing the form that catapulted him to #1 ranking two years ago, except that he is playing even better. He is one of the best counter punchers in the ladder and when he is playing this well, he is almost unstoppable. He will be playing Dan next week and I fully expect Jack to win that duel and move up to challenge the #1 rank in two weeks from today. He is playing Smart, serving well, playing the net well and his court positioning is awesome. if we manage to hold form, who knows?. we both might be playing at the very top of the ladder.

As you all know, Except for a little outfit that goes by the name ATP (Association of tennis Professionals) where players like Nadal and Federer play, every one else recognizes our ladder rankings ;)

#1 spot eluded me for quite some time and i have been at it for about 3 years now. Its been quite a journey. I still remember the first day i played in the ladder in 2007 October (when i threw away the last 3 games after i won first 4 against Warren thinking that i have won the match , not realizing every game counts). Finally i can check off the #1 ranking off my list.

Though the end result (6-2,6-3) and score seems like easy work, it was far from that today.
My serve wasnt firing today and i really had to do it the hard way. Dan ran me from side to side and front to back. Rallies were extremely long and there was a rally that i believe was like a 50 shot rally or something --i wasnt counting but that rally lasted 4-5 minutes. Despite being outgassed, serve not firing, No particular weapon clicking, i still managed to win. I did it with lots of defense and ofcourse some trade mark tactics.

Despite telling myself several times to chill a bit , i guess i put some pressure on myself. Last couple of weeks i played as if i got nothing to lose. This was predicated on the fact that i didnt have a good summer and tennis wise i did nothing to add to my game.I came to the court this evening very tentative having lost several finals before (last season i played for #1 rank 6 times--3 times it was Eric,Vishwas once , Luciano Twice. I had match points against Luciano and Vishwas but didnt convert). I knew tonight was a great chance as i am playing an opponent i have beaten before. Despite not wanting, these past facts were circling in my mind and made me nervous and tight.

Another rule change in the ladder also contributed to my nervousness. Unlike the past where winning sets carried a lot of weight, our commissioner switched to "Number of game won" approach. For example, if Player A won the first set 7-6 but was down in the second 1-3 when the play stopped, it is advantage Player B (as B has 9 games to A's 8) and he will be considered winner for the night. Though i think this is a bit unfair, there are really no good options here. We are playing in a time bound ladder where the courts need to be freed up for the next batch to come in and play.

The biggest disadvantage in this format is , if a player loses the first set by a big margin, it is almost impossible to stage a come back in the second set. In fact winner of first set can "run out the clock" (almost like running out Shot Clock in Basket ball) in the second set and virtually leave the other player no chance.

With this in back of my mind, i knew first set is extremely critical and that only added to the pressure.

After a brief Warm up Dan won the toss and elected to Serve. I did pick up couple of things from the warmup. Dan has an improved backhand and that he has got good slice. This was something different from when i last played Dan. Ofcourse this didnt change my game plan per se but was something i knew i had to factor in.

The first game was uneventful and Dan held despite me keeping it tight till 30-0. Serving from behind (as i lost the toss), i fell in 15-40 hole. This is when i said to myself to take it easy and if i lose the match, it is not the end of the world.With serve not clicking, i played some great defense to win the first point, hit a passing shot on second and at Deuce (we are playing No AD) i hit a service winner into Dan's Body to even the set at 1-1. I broke Dan at 2-1 after losing a rally which i believe was a 50 shot rally or something.

Entire night followed the same tone. I couldnt really hit winners off the rallies. Dan played very tight and i couldnt over power him as i was tentative and couldnt really rip winners. Serve wasnt particularly clicking but at the same time worked in patches to bail me out.The key was my defense which stayed sharp and really forced Dan to be conservative. i pinned him to the middle of the court to cut off the angles that his lefty forehand can come up with.After a while he realized what was going on but couldnt really counter that tactic.

Once i broke Dan and held my serve to make it 3-1 Dan was playing catch up and i broke him again and held to make it 4-1. I finally had good serving game to close the set out 6-2.

Now with a set under my belt, i looked at the time and we had about 30 minutes left. Normally this is enough to play out a set (Jack and i average around 23 minutes a set when we both play each other). My goal now (and this where this new rule change is not good for coming from behind) is to win 3 games and i will have effectively won the match as Dan won only 2 in the first set. I however have to watch out for some things. By winning first set at 6-2, i have a 4 point lead however i dont have the tie breaker in case we tie on the game won (as Dan was the prevailing #1 and he would hold the tie breaker) . What this meant was i only have a 3 point advantage. In other words, i have to make sure that i should not have more than 3 point differential.

Eg: If Dan was leading 5-1 OR 4-0 OR 6-2 in the second when the play stops, He would tie me on the total games and hence will win the evening.

Dan held serve albeit easily and played a great second game on my serve that went to Deuce. Luckily i managed to pull the game and even the tie at 1-1. I broke Dan on the next game and brought me a 2-1 lead. It is almost 0830 and i knew if i stop the play then, i would be the winner anywayz. Dan wanted to continue playing. I was tired and Dan's top spin shots started to wear on me. Players who got the court at 0830 walked in. Dan wanted to continue playing on another empty court. Despite my brain saying not to(tactics wise), i agreed to play.

The real reason why i agreed to play was to stay true to the spirit of the game. I am fortunate to play some good players who are extremely sportive. I remembered Jack , who still calls questionable calls in opponents favor , despite him being break point/match point down. I also remembered Carl ,Paul and Dan himself. All these guys are good sports and play the game in a fair and square manner. So i decided to continue and take the result whatever it may--even if it costs me #1 ranking. It isnt really that risky considering that i already have a 2-1 lead in the second and just need one more game to put the match away from Dan.

Luckily , despite me losing serve one more time, i managed to break Dan's serve enough times to win the set 6-3 and make it a convincing victory. Looking back at this very young season which is just 3 weeks old, i put up some impressive numbers. I played 52 games (39 won, 13 lost) for a 75% win.

I didnt expect to become #1 this season , this early. So how did i do it?. Sit on couch all summer and add 10 lbs to my weight. No running (ankle injury) , No works outs (not enough equipment or time at home. Not a lot of tennis matches (Ankle injury and Jack's availability).
Now that this has been done, what are my next goals? I will reflect on those items on another post.

Monday Tennis results (27-Sep-10) -- Double Whammy

2010-09-27T19:20:00.001-07:00

Unlike other posts, you dont have to read till the end to know the result. I am spilling the beans right away. Both Jack and I posted impressive results tonight. Jack finished with 15 games and I won both sets i played. Jack will make an appearance in the TOP 8 of the ladder while i will be at #2 and will have an oppurtunity to play for #1.

Both Jack and I are tucked away on different parts of the draw so there is no classic Jack vs me. My draw consisted of playing Carl in best of 3 sets. This is the new format our commissioner drew up this season. Not sure how long he will continue with this but essentially we have two singles matches at the top, followed by two groups of 4 at the 7 PM. Simply put,

#1 and #2 play a best of 3 sets match

#3 and #4 play a best of 3 sets match

#5,6,7,8 play the Top of 7 pm with each player playing 7 games each against other three.

#9,10,11,12 play bottom of 7 pm with each player playing 7 games each against other three.

The advantage of this format is that instead of traditional 10 slots at 7pm, it provides 12 slots.

The Night simply belonged to Jack.Jack draw is what i would describe as wild wild west. It originally consisted of Roger, Richard,Paul and Jack. This was tempered a bit by Richard's subsitution with Gabe. Regardless , Jack was playing in the toughest pool of the night. Squaring off against Roger to start the night, he fell in a 0-3 hole but came out 4-3 and followed it with a 5-2 rout of Paul and ended with 6-1 domination of Gabe to take his tally to 15 points. Though Roger kept close with 14 points, the night clearly was Jack's. I caught a few points during the breaks in my match and it was classic Jack counter punching, outrunning, volleying and some good hard court shots.

Congrats Jack..This win is definitely confidence boosting and could be the stepping stone in Jack's journey to the very top of the ladder.

Coming back to my outing, it is a bit different story.I played Jack on friday and won 7-5. I also played on saturday with another friend and had a good outing with 6-2 and 1-3 score line. I had a poor sunday. Jack and his friend Andy steam rolled me. They blitzed me with 3-0 score lines-twice. That is i lost all the 12 games i played against them. So i wasnt sure what to expect on Monday.

Carl and me were playing a best of 3 sets match as players seeded 3 and 4. I won the toss and elected to serve. The first couple of serves gave no indication whatsoever of the night i was going to have. Serving at 30-0, i hit the first ace of the night and from that point on, my serve lit up.

I broke Carl quickly to go up 2-0 and stayed strong to finish the set 6-0.

In the second set Carl held despite me having 3 break points to make it 1-0 on serve. Serving from behind, i fought off deuce points to make it 1-1. Then broke Carl, held my serve to make it 3-1 for me. Carl has a strong game and the score line read 3-2. We had to move to another court when i was leading "AD in" . We moved to another court and i finished the game with an Ace. I broke Carl again to go 5-1 and then blasted 3 aces and 1 service winner to finish off the night.

Once again, my serve was the key and it is an understatement. I dont ever remember serving this well. I thought i cant top my last monday's performance on serve. I was wrong. I must have hit a dozen or more Aces and a ton of service winners. It is more amazing if we consider the fact that i didnt win any points on my second serve. Every second serve i made today, Carl punished it with Winners. I am certain that i clocked close to if not more than 100MPH on serves. With Serve staying so strong, i was able to overcome an otherwise mediocre showing of my forehand and backhand.

Clearly there is something about Indoor courts that aids my game. Though i am serving a little bit better these days even outdoors, it isnt even close to how i am serving indoors. I have a theory that might explain. Firstly we use fresh balls indoors; These definitely help hard serves. Secondly, The Indoor club courts take the action on the ball. Ie if we put some spin on the ball, we can see it work In indoor courts better than outdoor courts.

Then there is the wind factor. Indoors offer the advantage of not worrying about Wind, Sun and etc.

Ofcourse there is another secret that i am not going to spill out now.

I havent figured out my next week's schedule. Originally i thought i would switch to sunday's ladder from next week for a few weeks to see how it works out. If it works out well, it would be a better fit for my schedule.

However because of today's results, I will have a chance to play for #1. It is a tempting offer and i will ponder a bit before i make a decision.

Tennis Ladder Opens for Season 2010-2011 (monday night 20-sep-10)

2010-09-20T19:56:00.001-07:00

Even before i realized, it is time for indoor tennis season. I have no idea what happened to the Spring and Summer. Injuries consumed most of the time. I couldnt train nor practice and basically this outdoor season is a dud for me.

Unlike other outdoor seasons, i didnt play much tennis and played even less number of players. basically i played tennis samurai Jack and may be once or twice another friend.Added to that i caught some viral infection (or bacterial for all i care) and it hurt my cardio. I couldnt last more than 3 games on Saturday when Jack invited me to play him and a colleague.I tried to hit with another friend on sunday and that lasted even less time.

I was contemplating pulling out of the monday draw for sometime before i realized that i had some time to kill. So i thought i might as well show up and swing fearlessly with out worrying about the results.

Originally myself and jack are on different parts of the draw and arent scheduled to face each other. However some last minute adjustmens to the draw meant that myself and Jack were going to play each other at prime time.

I started out with lefty Mike. I won the toss and chose to serve anywayz. Since this is a 7 game match, by serving first, i can serve 4 games as opposed to my opponent who can only serve for 3 games. Even in the event, i lose my service game once, i can still keep the match close because i can serve 3 more times. For reasons i cant explain, my serve clicked pretty well. we went with serve until i lead 2-1 . I broke mike's serve to go up 3-1 and then held again (on a deuce game) to make it 4-1. Mike also appeared a bit rusty and in the end it was a comforatble 5-2 score for me.

I have no idea how i managed that score line considering that i got so gassed out at times that i stopped chasing the balls. Also i was coughing too much and definitely needed to dial it down a bit.

My next match was with Ding. Despite leading 30-0 on my serve, i ended up losing my serve. I however broke him back immediately to make it 1-1.I held and then broke him to go up 3-1. I held my serve again to make it 4-1. Ding held and i got the last game on my serve for 5-2.

Ding made me run side to side , front to back. Already running on empty tank, this left me even more out of gas and options.

Both with Mike and Ding, i was able to serve very well. In fact , today is the most number of aces/service winners i ever hit during indoor season. Especially i dialled in on the Ad court serve. From that side , i was able to hit down the T or Wide with relative ease. My forehand wasnt working well and back hand is below average. Simply put the score board doesnt say the whole story.

Finally, the match every one was waiting for. me and Jack squaring off on Opening night. This is what our fans are looking for ever since me and jack confirmed our entries into the ladder. Jack is always a tricky opponent for me regardless of H2H (head to head) record. Because we play each other a lot, things that i do which pose challenges to some opponents, have minimal impact on Jack. For example, Jack can read my serve better than any other played i played against. He also knows the spots i attack often (eg:backhand corner) and he probably knows my weakness.

I won the toss and started the serve. My goal was to win atleast 3 games. Walking into this match, i lead the pack with 10 games, Jack had 6, Mike has 7 and Ding had 5. If i can win 3 games then results of other matches doesnt matter and i will top the group--ensuring a 7pm slot the following week.

Like most matches between us, this match went on predictable lines until 2-1. Though there were some interesting rallies , in the grand scheme of things, neither of us did anything different. I kept the ball in play and deep in the middle trying to keep Jack away from Service line area. Jack does most of the damage when the opponent leaves balls hanging around midcourt close to the service box area. He can go cross court or Down the line or dropshot or hit an approach shot. Basically at that point, he dictates the rally and often it is a short rally.

I broke Jack's serve to go up 3-1 and then held mine to keep it 4-1. At this point, i knew that i got enough points to lead the group. I decided to be aggressive on the last two games and not worry about points. I broke Jack's serve to make it 5-1. I was too casual on the last game(my service game) and went down two break points. Two good serves bought it to Deuce. I couldnt get a good serve on my last game and Jack played a good point to draw me to the net and then hit a good passing shot. I didnt even bother to chase as by this time i am spent.

In the end, i won 15 points (5 each against Mike, Ding and Jack) and likely to move up. Ding finished at 11 while Jack and Mike tied at 8 with Mike owning the breaker.

I am impressed with the way i played and was happy with the results but at the same time the underlying issues arent resolved yet. My forehand/backhand didnt work well. My movement wasnt good but i hope once i recover sufficiently from my illness, i will be alright over there. Just waiting to get better to start the training.

I cant be too harsh on myself. It is just the begining of the season. Given the miserable outdoor season i had, i am really not expecting to make a dent at the top of this ladder. I will be happy if i maintain a presence at the top of the ladder. Hopefully i will do better next summer and add enough ammunition to make a good run next year. For this season, my goal is little tempered.

So it is a decent start for the season.

I am not even sure if i play next monday. It depends on the weather (and fitness/health). if there is oppurtunity to play outdoor, i would rather play outdoor and save some $$. Jack is not sure if he would return next week either. It is unknown at this time if he will play at 7 pm or 0830pm next week. Jack loves the 7pm time slot and may return if he stays at 7pm.

A word about 2009 Cricket for charity

2010-09-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Apparently there was a press release about my 2009 cricket for Charity appearence.

http://sites.google.com/site/cricketforcharity/blog/cricket-tournament-to-raise-charity-for-dana-farber-cancer-society

It talks about the last ball catch i took to help my team win the Trophy. Even though its been a year, This little one day outing somehow ended up as good memories of recent times.

I havent played cricket in a long time. I wanted to play this season. Early May i went to participate in my teams practice session. I bowled a few overs and batted a bit and looked good. Clearly tennis game has impacted my cricket game and it was more evident in my batting when i tried to hit every ball after it bounced [in the past i used to quick step to the ball and take it on the rise, especially against slow/spin bowlers]. I thought i would play more cricket but injuries and other commitments kept me away.

Coming back to this 2009 episode, I wasnt sure if i would figure in the Hunts county team (this isnt my regular cricket team but teamed up with a few colleagues ). with 30 people in each team (only 11 get to play), Team management decided that they would alternate players so that every one would get atleast one match to play [teams are guaranteed two matches so they can accomodate 22 players overall].

I didnt get to play the first match for our team. I played in the second match. I got to bowl 1 over and i guess i made the most of it. I didnt give any runs but got 2 (or may be 3) wickets. One of them included a senior executive of our company. I wasnt trying to get him out as i knew he wasnt a cricket regular like me. I was spinning the ball in so that he can get a bat.

I guess that performance convinced teams management to put me in their eleven for the final.I never got to bowl though i would have loved to bowl especially during the later overs. When the game is tightly poised , cricket offers a nail biter excitement far beyond tennis. I enjoy those conditions. primarily becuase such situations require precise execution of game plan. Ie, if bowling during those situations, one's got to keep a tight line and length and try to have the batsmen in check. One loose ball and batsmen can crack a 4 or a 6 and the game can turn on a dime. I have been through several such situations and came out successfully more often.

The game got so tight to the last over (6 balls remaining). finally they needed 2 runs to win off the last ball. All through the match, i was fielding at the point (square of the batsmen) but used to vary where i stand based on what i percieved batsmen was doing. For that last ball, i deliberately moved to my right by about 10 feet. This is strictly gut feel but i also knew that this batsmen is more likely to hit to where i was standing than to my left based on his batting stance.

The ball was bowled, batsmen tried to go square and ball was in the air, i was already running for the catch . The real question at that time was if i fumble the catch. At stake was , batting team making a single run and tie the scores. In case of a tie, batting team would have won based on their net wicket loss. I took the catch fairly comfortably and my team erupted in joy.

The captain needs to be credited as apparently there was a discussion to move my fielding position to opposite side but he persisted anywayz.

I took home the ball that i caught as a souveneir. That game definitely rekindled my interest in cricket and brought back some great memories. The most dominant MCC cricket team that i was part of during early 2000's here in USA, my victorious college team and school teams from the days as a teenager back home.

It is one of those days where i happened to be in the right place at the right time. I took two catches, got 2 (or may be 3) wickets for the 1 over i bowled and didnt concede any runs. I played 1000's of matches since my childhood but never had a winning cup with this little effort.

Injury Update

2010-08-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

I am still recovering and havent played tennis a while. Basically Entire July and August of this year are lost for me due to the Ankle injuries.

It started out with Right Ankle swelling in July and early August it was left Ankle. After several tests and deliberations, the leading theory is that the new Addidas Barricade shoes i bought seem to the culprit. Interestingly enough both times when i started seeing Ankle issues, i was playing with these new shoes in the days leading upto the injury. Doctors theorized that i do have flat feet and this new shoes arent providing me with enough Arch Support, thereby putting enough stress on my ankles.

I am on the path to recovery and right ankle has already recovered while left ankle is around 80%. I do plan to start rehab exercises and also start playing some tennis , albeit reduced intensity.

With two full months lost to injuries, i am not in a good position leading into the winter season. With no new additions to my game, lack of match practice, lack of conditioning, all indications are that i am not going to challenge the very best in the winter season, if the season were to begin today.

At this stage, health is more important and i am putting more emphasis on ability to play some tennis than not playing at all. I have taken some time off during September and i am hoping that if i can put together a good september, it is still possible to regain some lost edge.

I estimate that i have about 6 weeks of outdoor season remaining. I can probably squeeze in 10-15 sessions of tennis at the best. I have to rework my plan and decided to focus on the following three aspects.
1) Conditioning/Fitness
2) Overheads
3) Cross Court Forehand

Conditioning/fitness isnt new and up until mid June i am probably one of the fittest guys before injury. Hopefully after rehab of my ankles, i can put in a few good weeks of Gym work and be back to full fitness.

Since i dont have time to rebuild and rework my strokes, i thought i would focus on items that doesnt need major work but are still impactful. I believe i have decent serve mechanics (and smash is my go to shot in Badminton) and hence overheads shouldnt be that hard to learn.By having good overhead shot, i can take away opponents Lobs.

This season (or whatever little of it i played), i was hitting the down the Line forehand pretty good. This has become a money shot in those few matches. Off late i am struggling with Cross court forehands , especially on consistency of that shot. If i can turn it around and make it consistent, my forehand will become formidable.

It is about a year ago, i added Two handed Backhand to my game and now my backhand is very consistent. If i can add overheads and strengthen my forehand , i will be within a shot when the Winter tennis league starts.

I hope to start playing tennis this coming weekend. My agent is working on the schedule ;)

Injury worries

2010-07-14T13:39:00.001-07:00

My tennis season never really took off so far. Rains and bad scheduling during most of June forced me to stay low on Tennis.

Towards mid june , i started to finally get into some rhythm. I played with Jack and few other friends and i seemed to find my range on some of my shots especially the Inside-out Forehand.

Just when i felt things are looking up, wheels seem to come off my Tennis Wagon.

During Independence day Long weekend, i ended up with a golf ball sized swelling on right ankle around peroneal tendon area. I am still awaiting MRI results and root cause is unknown. After few days of being unable to walk, now i can do most of my usual work but there is still some pain and it may take some more medication and diagnostics before i can start my rehab.

I then have to restart my fitness efforts and simulateneously also force some tennis action. Probably it wont be until August before i get back into rhythm. That leaves with Just August and Septemeber to make improvements and get ready for Winter tennis season. All of a sudden, the outdoor season looks very very short.

I plan to resume tennis from this weekend , albeit in a limited fasion.

While it isnt a whole lot encouraging, The best thing to do now is be optimistic and look forward. Infact i made the two handed backhand change very late last year (around september time frame) yet i ended up with decent results.

The plan for me is to work on my forehand and make it more explosive. Even some what subtle improvements in forehand and Serve can go a long way for me to go deep into winter ladder.

I also joined a local tennis circuit though i am yet to play a single game.

100% Badminton

2010-05-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

My penultimate Badminton session for the season (the last one will be today) was a surprise. I played more than a dozen matches and won every single one of them. I cant remember in the recent times when i had that winning record. I did play against tough opponents and sometimes with a mismatched partner but still ended up winning matches,some of them pretty close.

Last time i remember having a 100% record was almost 4-5 yrs ago.

I dont think i played anything beyond ordinary but i guess i executed well. I had my 'around the head' forehand working and these days i am really moving well--thanks to all the fitness efforts at the gym.

I will be wrapping up the Badminton season tonight, a pizza session followed by light hitting. Traditionally the last session is light on intensity and more like a gathering. Until November, Badminton hits a pause around this area. While there are some places where Badminton can be played, i generally hit a badminton hiatus from May to November. As always, some players drop off for next season while some new players come in.

I enjoy racquet sports and Badminton is one of my all time favorites right behind tennis. I played it intermittently as a kid but since 2002 i have been a regular at this Badmiton club for 7 such seasons. I believe it has helped my tennis game and in general my winter blues.

End of a Badminton season signifies full fledged outdoor tennis and activities. It also reminds me that another season (and year) passed by and i am older by another year.

2009 Winter Ladder Conclusion

2010-04-29T06:17:00.000-07:00

While i didnt attend the last official day of Monday night ladder, I was told that there are prized for the top three performers of the season. I didnt expect it but i came in Third behind Luciano and Vishwas.

This prize is another way of confirmation of improvements i made in my game. Arguably there are few more good players (Eric and Tom ) who have consistently beaten me but they didnt play long enough to rake in ranking points. Just like in ATP tennis, one has to play long enough to sustain ranking points.

I knew that i came in third based on the stats website though there was a slight disagreement on who came first between my stats website and the tournament referee.

Even officially, 2009 Winter tennis came to a close. Wednesday night Badminton has two more weeks left before it winds down and will open up my schedule significantly. Hopefully weather will also become more consistent rather than the flaky 70 degree today, 45 degree tommorow weather.

I played Jack over the weekend and despite me taking a 3-1 lead , Jack ended up with 6-4 score. Conditions are extremely windy and i didnt adopt well. Making matter worse, i didnt even play aggressive (the style i really am trying to play). Jack's consistency carried him through. I was way off on my serve and ground strokes.

Winter Tennis Wrap up

2010-04-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

With Outdoors warming up and Winter looking like a distant memory, Its time to Close the Winter session of Tennis and look for free tennis outdoors.

My last session was mid March and i didnt play in the ladder after that. Despite that i still remained at the top bracket of ladder until mid April before i pulled out. In any case, the last ladder session is on next monday and i am not playing.

This Winter ladder has been a great experience and i definitely went much further than i ever did. In summary , Even with all the top players (like Eric) in the ladder, i played as a legitimate #3 or #4 and at peak of the season i could arguably be the #2. I became a perennial fixture at the top of the 7pm. This season also established my Two handed Backhand and my movement and defense are more refined.

We also established a Tennis website with all the scores.

http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=24230:5:6207439575252990::NO:::

My 2009 Winter season stats read as follows.

Games won-211,Games Lost-218,Win/Loss Ratio: 00.492

Some of these stats are skewed because of my miserable results towards the late season (not to mention some drubbing by Eric). Still winning 211 games isnt a small feat.

Thats all history now and outdoor season has begun. I havent played any serious matches yet and in any case my results wont be spectacular any time soon as i rebuild my strokes. I am tinkering with my strings, grips and ofcourse forehand. As experience shows, these things take time and during that period results can be disappointing. My goal is to become #1 next winter session and i want to use the outdoor season to arm myself. So i expect Jack to hammer me all over the place during the first few sessions before i can see some good results.

Considering that i played for #1 six or seven times, i am not that far off from being a #1. I have put a lot of work on improving fitness and that should help me practice harder and smarter during the 5 outdoor months. I will be taking some tennis lessons to work my forehand and make it formidable. I will probably doing some video taping and several ball machine drills.

This time of the year also has a few more things to look forward to. NBA playoffs and follow LA Lakers. Ofcourse French Open and Wimbledon are around the corner and USopen is only a few months away.

Out goes Winter, Here comes Outdoor Tennis!!

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

2010-03-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-03-02T09:13:00.001-08:00

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.

Tennis results Feb 22, 2010 --- Staying Put

2010-02-23T14:09:00.000-08:00

I won 9 games in total. 3-4 against Luciano, 2-5 against Al (sub) and 4-3 against Dave C. I tied with Dave on total # of games but will get through in a tie breaker. Luciano won 10 games and will be moving up.Al is a strong 4.0 player and that shows!!

I didnt play with any plan intentionally. I just tried to play and hit shots and tried to be positive. Net result is that i have hit more winners from both flanks and felt good on those shots. However my alternate week of tennis has hurt my consistency --a neccessary keel in my game.

It didnt help that i struggled with breathing issues all through the week and i am currently undergoing tests for my doctor who thinks it is allergies.

Tennis Results Feb 08 2010-- Couldnt get it done

2010-02-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

I lost to Paul in a disappointing 3-6,6-1, 5-7 (tie break) game. My game wasnt on and i didnt really get good bearings on my game. I didnt serve well or played well. In the second set i did have occassional flashes of good serves and good passing shots but thats it.

After 6 attempts at #1, it wasnt to be this year. I plan to come back stronger and better next year and hopefully get the job done. The feeling i had after the match is still livid in me and hope that fire burns in me and forces me to practice and play better.

I am not planning to play next week and may play the week after. That gets us into March and i may continue playing alternating weeks until end of March. If there is any oppurtunity to compete at the top, i may be tempted again but i am not eagerly looking forward at this time.

I havent been to Gym since last saturday as i have trouble putting weight on my left leg ankle. I plan to rest till it feels better and then resume work outs and conditioning. I am planning to take some tennis classes in March /April and supplement them with good practice so that i can reinforce what i learnt during the outdoor season.

Overall the season so far is still a very successful season for me. I played consistently at the top and been at #2 for about 6 weeks out of 17 weeks I played so far and been at 7 pm for 15 weeks (just the two weeks i needed to get out of 7 pm). I have beat every player except two (Eric & Vishwas). Made good improvements in Backhand.

So a lot to look forward and learn for the Outdoor season-- Cant wait to take on Jack and Andy outdoors.

More Monday Tennis stuff (01-Feb-2010)

2010-02-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

Its official now. Commissioner decided that i have enough points to move up (factually i do!) to move up and play for #1 next week. One slight change is that i will be playing Paul as he beat Vishwas last week to remain at the top of ladder World Rankings. My challenge remains still tough as ever with the only change being that i happened to beat Paul in the past.

A few other items that i felt worth mentioning are that i will finish February at 7pm regardless of how i play the remaining sessions. If we consider the fact that last year and year before, i struggled to make 7pm cut ,to Now , a regular presence at 7pm is a big turn around.

The win against Luciano is also satisfying. Strategy wise i have the best possible plan to play him that is still within the limits of my game --attack the Backhand. In the past, i would jump into big lead with this strategy but somehow let it slip by. This time, i sustained the same urgency through out. I was also helped by the fact that Luciano chose to attack the net and helped me rip some passing shots.

I probably will play next week for one more shot at Paul and #1 -- too much of an oppurtunity to pass up.

I have started working on strengthening muscles. I am trying to build a platform for first couple of weeks before i start pushing myself very hard. I am hoping that if i can build a strong core that will go well with my current cardio stamina for a strong Spring-summer-fall Tennis season.
I have approximately 8 weeks left before we are in April --possible start of outdoor season. It isnt a lot of time but can be done if i execute correctly. I need to clear my head from getting bogged down with Tennis results for the rest of the season and look at the big picture as i decided i would early january.

I have also got commitments from some of the players in the ladder that they would play us (me/Jack) during the outdoor season. This variety and experience can go long way in improving the game.

Badminton season is in full swing as well. I am playing good in patches but no where near to the standards i used to play couple of years ago. Some of that has to do with my doubles partners and their desire to stick to game execution plans. However my level also dipped mainly because of not paying enough focus to results. May be during march and april, i will try to push more on Badmiton.

Monday Tennis 01-Feb-2010 -- For Arbitration

2010-02-02T06:54:00.001-08:00

I didnt play on Jan 25. Originally i was planning to sub to save money but later on i was forced to do it because of terrible bout of cold. That past weekend was so bad that i couldnt as much watch tennis let alone play. After lots of antibiotics and traditional cold remedial measures, i started feeling better. All the while i tried to catch up on Australian Open. I was disappointed that Nadal and JustineHenin lost. I am glad Roger Federer won because every grandslam he wins now puts him that much further ahead of Pete Sampras. I think at this time, Federer has left behind every other great player and is in his own place as the closest one can get to Tennis Perfection.

Despite me not playing, Luck was on my side and a player substituting for me made a good showing and allowed me to keep my spot at the top of 7 pm. This definitely is luck because i wasnt expecting it. So the line up for this past monday (01 Feb 2010) has me against Luciano , Ding and Carl.

Heading to the courts, i wasnt feeling great , to put it mildly. I have no reasons other than that the i havent fully recovered from the cold. I did resume my Gym workout during the past week but wasnt pushing myself. In the past, i played anywhere from awesome to worst when i felt like this and i wasnt sure which mode will my game be when i am on the court.

After the warmup, i won the toss with Luciano and started serve. Two good first serves and 30-0--didnt have to play at all. Then things went offline a little bit but i ended up winning with a great first serve at Deuce. Luciano held his serve though i fought to Deuce. I broke Luciano later on to go up 3-1 and held on for a 5-2 score line. I felt cold and tired but i was happy with the score line for couple of reasons. First of all, i have hit a decent number of forehand winners --some of them cross court passing shots when Luciano tried to get close to the net. This is a good step towards my goal of rebuilding forehand though long way to go.

I won the toss with Ding and lost my serve right away. This is the first time i am playing Ding and he has excellent touch and very good shots overall. Even though i had three chances to break him, i couldnt and he was up 2-0. At this time, i thought i wouldnt even make the par of 11 games needed to stay at the top of 7 pm. Despite stuttering, i held my serve mostly due to Ding's unforced errors than my game plan and then broke him to make it 2-2. I have a better read of his game now and held my serve more comfortably and then broke him again for 4-2 lead. I however lost the last game meekly to end the match at 4-3. The highlights for me are a Nadal like around the net post forehand winner and some good defense.

Carl elected to serve and came out blazing and raced to 2-0 lead. His shots were falling and his game was on and that meant that there isnt much i could do other than weather the storm. I broke him back--thanks to a net chord and we are back on serve at 1-2. I still was able to crack a good inside in forehand winner against Carl , which is one of my highlights for the night.

We had to stop the match as we ran out of time. As it turns out Luciano and Ding couldnt finish either. With no empty courts to continue , we had to call it a night and leave the standings for our Tennis Commissioner to figure out.

When we stopped play, Here is what we have

Player ---NumberofgamesWon (RemainingGames to play)
Ding --------8 (2)
Luciano---- 10 (2)
Carl-------- 8 (4)
Satish-------10 (4)

I am not sure how our Commissioner would resolve this but i feel good about my chances of topping the group. Since i won against Luciano, if we only consider the 'games won' at the time of stoppage, i will still move up.

If we apply some kind of projections to the remaining games, the only scenario where i wouldnt move up is when i lose all my remaining games. In fact i have to lose atleast three of my remaining games for anyone else to move up.

Here is some more of that 'projection' stuff.

Luciano moves up if he wins all his remaining games(2) AND Carl wins all his remaining games (4)
Carl moves up if he wins all his remaining games (4) AND Luciano should lose atleast on eof his remaining games.
Ding will not move up regardless of results of remaining games.
I will move up if i win two games out of remaining (4).
Myself and Luciano will not move down
Ding is likely to move down unless Carl loses all of his remaining games (4)
Carl will move down if he loses all his remaining games (4).

I feel good about trying to be little bit aggressive and getting some winners but long way to go. Despite coughing most of the night and feelin a little tired, i was moving pretty well and putting the ball in right places.

I am assuming that i would be moving up for another showdown with Vishwas, who beat Paul to remain at the top. I havent yet decided if i should play next week or stick to my alternate week schedule. Because it is another shot at #1, may be i should go and try.

What do you think?

Monday Tennis (18 Jan 2010) - So close yet So Far

2010-01-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

I came short one more time in the contest for #1. I lost to Vishwas in a very close 0-6,6-2,10-12 contest. I had two match points to close the contest and become #1 but it wasnt to be.

However it is surprising that i even came this close. I was blitzed and bagelled in the first set. Except for the first game on my serve, i never even came close to a game point in first set. I wasnt warmed up enough and i didnt follow a good plan. I also lacked depth on my shots. Vishwas repeatedly attacked my backhand and i couldnt defend well.

After first set, i am in two minds. Do i just play and fold or do i want to fight. I lost quite a few matches against Vishwas and i thought i needed to show some fight. I also considered that this is probably my last match before i go into rebuilding mode and hence give a good shot at it. I have considerably warmed up and i made some adjustments to my court positions. I held my serve after a tensely fought deuce game and Vishwas held his. From this point on, i took over the set and broke him twice to make it 6-2.

One set a piece and off to a super tie breaker. Vishwas did offer to play a full set but it is already 0820 and i didnt want to play late as i wanted to catch some AUstralian open tennis action on TV. I kept pace with Vishwas until 7-7 though i had mini breaks in between. I was leading 9-8 and was recieving when he hit a great forehand shot to make it 9-9. I was leading again at 10-9 when i was serving. My first serve,i believed was in but was called out and we rallied on second serve before i took an ill advised net approach. After 10-10 , it was all Vishwas. He broke me on my next point and then held serve (my return hit the net) to win the evening.

Tough loss for me but i am not terribly disappointed. I didnt think i would win considering how poorly i played the first set. That i came back and made a match out of it is in itself a good thing. It would have been great to win once and be a #1 for a week. But my objective isnt to be a #1 for one week or two. It needs to be sustained. Just like how i am consistently playing the #2 spot, i need to do the same with #1. It is a fact that my game needs more weapons.

Best approach would be to work on those weapons and come back even stronger next season. For all practical purposes , there is less than 6-7 weeks of real season left before its time to be ready for outdoor season. Out of these, my budget will only last half of them.I have already put in significant time on Cardio and waiting for a break to start working the weights. Unlike last season, i want to be ready and be in shape for the next season.

I am planning to sub for next week and will only be in action the week after.

Top seeds withdraw-- (Eric and Jack pull out)

2010-01-15T08:45:00.001-08:00

Eric and Jack pulled out of the ladder effective today. Inside sources report that unresolved sponsorship issues forced the topseeds pull out. This change is all set to alter the landscape of the monday night ladder for the rest of the season. Eric's been undisputed number #1 at the top of the ladder. Jack's pull out is expected as he made his plans clear to his fans last week when he indicated that next monday would be his official last match for winter season.

With me scheduled to pull out from last week of January, the ladder will look much different in february. There will be three open spots at the top of the ladder and more importantly the exit of two counter punchers (Jack and me) will make many players draw easy and the #1 spot is within reach for many other players as Vishwas remains the only consistent top seed. While it is tempting for me to stay longer in the ladder and become the #1, i want to look at the big picture. I dont want to be #1 in a weak ladder. The objective for me in joining the winter ladder is to improve my game and match up against the best. In this ladder, i matched up against everyone but Eric (and Vishwas). My next steps would be to improve my game , work on the weaker areas, re tool and come back for another shot at the players of that calibre. I believe

I still plan to sub alternate weeks. Unless there is a major development, My current plan is to play on Jan 18, Feb 1 and Feb 15. After Jan 18 session, I will be in rebuilding mode. I plan to rebuild my forehand and i want to use the remaining 3 or 4 sessions to test a few things out and have the plan ready for Outdoor season in April. I will also be working on my fitness --especially adding some muscle.

This developments also mean that Jack and me may not meet again the winter ladder. We are exploring the slight possibility of playing each other while sub'ing.

In Summary, Its been a great run for Jack. He struggled a bit during early phase of the ladder but picked up steam in December (he always does!) , quickly became a fixture at the top of the ladder, became #2 and came within a whisker of reclaiming his #1 ranking. There are several players in the ladder who would exchange their season for jack's in a heart beat. Though primarily a counter puncher, He is one of the few "All court" players in the ladder and is very comfortable at the net as well as baseline.

Hope to see him back soon.....

Monday Tennis results (11-Jan-2010) -- Classic

2010-01-12T06:48:00.000-08:00

By titling 'Classic', i wasnt implying my performance. The title accurately describes Jack's performance playing for the #1 against Vishwas. In the end, he came up a bit short but he was tantalizingly close to reacquiring his #1 ranking--basically a tie breaker away. Jack lost to Vishwas in a champions tie Break after making it one set all. He won the first set 7-6, playing some outstanding tennis. Yes, i was playing my match on Court #2 while Jack's match was on Court #1 and i was able to watch some of the action very closely. Though there are some unexplainable ,passive shots by both players, for most part, they played top class tennis befitting players of #1 and #2 ranks. Jack outplayed Vishwas in many rallies, used his variety to throw Vishwas off balance forcing him to take low percentage shots. Vishwas eventually steadied the ship in second set and prevailed in the tie breaker. Jack played a classic match!.

My draw consisted of Carl, Paul and Roger R. A few weeks ago, i would have seen this as a slightly easier draw. However my game dipped in the last couple of weeks and my motivation is lacking. Apathy towards results set in and i was looking to see if i can jolt myself and get back to the fighting ways. My serve wasnt firing today either.

I broke Carl on his serve the very first game. I played an excellent reflex shot on Deuce to move up and then came up with another down the line one handed backhand touch shot on Deuce (on my serve) to go up 2-0. I broke Carl again to go up 3-0. Serving 1-5, Carl hit a great shot on Deuce point to make it 5-2 for me. I am glad i won this match 5-2 but it could easily be 2-5 if the deuce balls bounced the other way. My serve wasnt clicking , my forehand is consistent but nothing great. My backhand did a lot of heavy lifting. I also moved well. Historically against Carl, it was always my ability to get back balls into play that caused him trouble and it was true yesterday. I moved well and cut off his angles and returned them back.

I started with Paul even more tentatively , losing first two points for 0-30. I pulled back and won the game with some good consistent rallies. I broke Paul on his serve to go up 2-0 before he broke back to be on serve at 1-2. I broke him again and held mine. This pattern continued for rest of the match for a 6-1 score for me. Once i got up to 4 games, Paul , i believe got disappointed and appeared like he threw the last two games away(he definitely did threw away the last game). Paul's strategy , which he used successfully against many opponents, is to engage in rallies. He uses a back hand slice to draw opponents to the net and then he forces the action by a) going for a deep shot and attack the net b) another biting slice c) defensive rallying.

A year or two ago, Paul had one of the best slice serves. These days , his serve lacks that sting and mostly gets the point started. His slice has very good bite and can easily throw off an opponent. My game matches up well against defensive sets and i was able to stay in the rallies and occassionally earned some easy points with my serve.

Entering the last match, I had 11 games to Roger R's 9 games. Incidentally he had good matches against Carl and Paul to get to 9 games. Carl has 5 while Paul collected 3 games. This basically meant that either Roger or me would be the winner of this group. I need three games to become the winner as i have a two game lead over Roger (Winning three games makes my tally 14 while Roger would only have 13 even he wins the other 4 games). I started out by breaking Roger's serve and went 1-0 up. He broke me back to make it 1-1 and then we held our serves to make it 2-2. At this time, it was 0830 and the next group of players walked in. After some shuffling, our match was moved to court #1 where Jack and Vishwas were playing. We had to wait a bit for them to finish before we could start off. I knew i needed one more game and i can then call it a night while Roger assumed that we were even in games (ie he thought i had 9 games entering last match). After a brief warm up, we started off and i broke Roger to go up 3-2 and also secure the group win. I then held my serve and then basically experimented in the last game--which back fired. I won the match 4-3. Even in this match, my serve worked only in parts but it definitely worked when it mattered--serving at deuce. The key however was my movement and ability to put the ball back into play.

With 15 games, i will be moving up to challenge Vishwas for #1. This victory also ensured that i will finish January at 7 pm regardless of how i play. Another interesting stat for me is that this will be my fourth week as #2. Outside of this academic stuff, in reality, i believe that i am probably a top 3 or top 4 player right behind Eric and Vishwas. Considering that i struggled agains these two players and mostly won against every other player, the results do attest that.

Jack will still play at the top of 7pm and try to move up for another shot at #1. I wish i could beat Vishwas next week and Jack to win his group and we both play for #1. That would culminate a strong Winter tennis season for us. We both plan to start sub'ing from last week of january and very unlikely that we would contend at the top beyond January.

You can check out our scores (usually a week delayed) here.

http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=24230:6:2554599036473778::NO

Monday Tennis results (04-Jan-10) -- Disappointing

2010-01-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

My first tennis session of the new year ended on a sour note. For the first time, i had a legitimate chance to become #1 as Eric pulled out this week and it was a match between me and Vishwas.

Simply put, i needed to win two sets against Vishwas and i am the #1. However my busy vacation week caught up to me. Too many movies, late nights and lack of sleep left me physically and mentally spent and Vishwas took over the #1 with 6-2,6-1 demolition. My serve was way off and my forehand and backhand were too weak.

It is disappointing but i guess i have to pick up the pieces and move on. Even if i were to be a #1 for a week, it wont change the fact that Eric is really the true #1. I wish i could have kept these games competitive.

Before this season, i am most comfortable with standard Tennis sets (ie win 6 games with difference of two and with AD). Now i have adopted to the Ladder format and i am struggling a bit with Tennis sets.

All said and done, it boils down to my serve. My backhand , which has improved since last season (due to the Two handed backhand switch) and my serve are really keeping me in contention. My forehand is consistent but not powerful. My fortunes fluctuated with my serve and when it is down, my results are down.

Regardless of results, i will have two more weeks at 7 pm and with One good performance, i can complete January at 7pm. I am fast running out of Budget dollars and will need to start subng pretty soon. I estimate that i have 4-6 sessions left and if i play continuously, i will run out of it by second week of february. one school of thought is to play alternate weeks thereby stretch into Mid March.

The Big news of the night is the arrival of new world #2 -- Jack. Yes, Jack topped the 7pm group and will be playing Vishwas for #1. Exactlty a year ago, Jack was ranked #1 and now he is one good week away from reclaiming his spot. Gentlemen, It is the change of Guard at EHRC. Jack is contemplating subng as well due to budgetary reasons and so he will do his best to stay at the very top as long as possible before he pulls out.

Here is the website to check the scores.

http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=24230:6:5159308771439474::NO

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-02T07:33:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year every body!!

Another year ends and a fresh year(and a decade) begins. As i look back on my tennis in 2009, it appears as a mixed bag.

I probably had the most inconsistent summer in 2009. I played very less, I lost more matches and for most part, my wins arent convincing. My work consumed a lot of my summer and that is a significant reason in my results. But another reason is that i lost my TopSpin forehand. Yes, most of my game is about forcing opponent to hit one extra shot, but i also used to hit a few winners here and there , based on the oppurtunities. This year, i rarely hit winners, if any. Even my serve was off most of the summer.I scraped through matches mostly on defense.

The only positive change is that i started playing more two handed backhands. I have gotten more and more comfortable with the Two handed backhand.

At the end of summer/mid fall, my weight ballooned up by almost 12 pounds and i didnt even like the look of myself. With Winter about to set in and the winter ladder about to begin, i needed some serious work. I realized that I cant really improve my game by much (not enough oppurtunities for practice) but i thought i will work on my fitness and i did. Fast forward to Jan 2010 and I am into my fourth month of my regular work outs. My weight returned to normal levels and ofcourse my cardio is very good.

The improved fitness and the Two handed backhand helped me get to my personal best showing in the ladder (at #2). Last year i never played for #1 and i only made a couple of appearences at the top of 7pm. This year, despite increased competition due to influx of new talent, i am a 7pm player so far (I played 0830 two weeks to clear the 0830 blocks and move up).My serve has returned for most part though it isnt as consistent. I still dont have my forehand but i guess i will have to live with it for this winter sessions.

All in all , i guess i improved as a player in 2009 especially with a Two handed backhand and some good results in the winter ladder.

I have been playing non-stop in this winter ladder and i am planning to take it easy towards late january and eventually drop out of ladder sometime in february. While a difficult decision, i have to do this as my tennis budget more or less runs out. Other reason is that i want to focus on muscle building (and ready for Spring-summer 2010) and i cant do this while playing the ladder in a competitive manner. As some of you know, My tennis performance dips for few weeks if i do muscle building. Lastly i want to use some of the monday evenings to play and train my daughter so that come summer, she can be ready to be coached.

Finally, my buddy Jack had a solid season. He had a strong outdoor season in 2009 and except for a slight early wobble in the winter ladder, he is back to where he belongs.

Time to get ready for New Year and New challenges.

Monday Tennis results (28 Dec 09)--back to #3

2010-01-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

I didnt offer much competition for Eric and with a 0-6,0-6 effort, i am back at the Top half of 7 Pm (at number 3 spot).

Jack did very well and guess what? The first tennis outing of the new year features the marquee matchup between Jack and me. The group consists of Carl, Paul D, Jack and me. Another tough night to survive.

My outing with Eric is uneventful. I came up very lethargic and he came out sharp. I could have won a couple of games by playing defensive and some junk ball tennis , but i chose not to, as i didnt see the value.

That rounds up my last match of the Decade.

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

2009-12-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

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.

Here is the website to check all our latest and greatest scores (only updated once a week though)

http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=24230:6:1499791700576585

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

2009-12-20T13:03:00.001-08:00

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!.

Btw, we have all our tennis scores online. It is built using Oracle Application Express and took less than a weekend of effort to build. It is also Hosted on oracle Cloud-- talk about tennis cloud!.

http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=24230:6:1499791700576585

I love this tool. One of the very few rapid application development tools that has Database and UI included.

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

2009-12-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-12-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Playing the Clutch moments

2009-11-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

I found very little time during this long weekend for myself but when i did, i happened to make another friend of mine into a serious tennis player. He is also a regular follower of my blog. I also looked at some of my sports video collection. A question suddenly came to my mind. How can one perform so well during the defining moments (aka Clutch moments)?

There are more than one word to represent this but basically Clutch movement , as it applies in sports is the time when the game is on the line and one's performance at that moment pretty much defines the outcome.

[eg:

1) final set tie breaker 6-6, serving at 7-8. Lose the serve, you go home. make the serve and you live another moment.

2) Break point down on the serve. Serve well and you can still take the game. Lose it and suddenly your opponent goes one break up.

3) In basket ball, you are taking the last shot (as the timer is about to expire) and you need to make the shot for your team to win

]

Sports all across are full of people who are great clutch players and people who choke when it matters.

I tried to analyze this aspect a bit. Arguably, i believe i am a good clutch player. I won a significant percentage of such moments than i lost (i would say i have a 80% success ratio). I enjoy such moments and relish them a lot.

While i agree that performance during defining moments/clutch moments requires a certain mental fortitude, i dont believe that it cant be acquired. I definitely disagree that it has to do with genetics.

I mostly used examples from the three popular sports i follow..Tennis, Basket ball and Cricket.

My analysis goes like this...In order to succeed during those moments, couple of important factors need to considered.

1) Technical strength : How technically sound is your serve/forehand/backhand OR your jumper or 3 point shot or Free throw shooting, etc

2) Sound Strategy : Ie attaching weaker side of opponent, employing a surprise factor, etc

3) Belief/Risk tolerance : This is the only aspect that cant be objectively established/measured.

Belief comes from successfully coming out of such situations time and again. It is basically a function of (1) and (2).

The biggest difference between a normal moment Vs Clutch moment is the additional pressure,Usually caused by the occassion. Having (1) and (2) will largely alleviate the pressure.

I agree there are external factors that come into play (if i lose this match, how do i explain to press? ) .

So how do we about building a successful Clutch moment Strategy?.

The easiest answer is keeping it simple.

TECHNICAL STRENGTH

first and foremost, when faced with Clutch moment, One has to rely on their strength. If your strength is serve, may be thats a possibility. If thats not an option (ie you are receiving during that game) then run down the pecking order. see if the Forehand is something you can rely upon. Basically chose something that doesnt break down easily and stick with it.

STRATEGY

This is where most people falter. This is not the time to be defensive or aggressive. This is the time to be controlled and stay with in your game limits. Ie dont aim for corners or lines but leave enough margin.

This is also the time to not make strategic blunders by leaving the door open. I cant illustrate this any better than using a NBA example.

What is the blunder?. Sacremento Kings , for inexplicable reasons, left open a player. They chose the wrong player-- NBA playoff's greatest clutch 3 point shooter , Robert Horry.

This match ultimately costed Kings the western conference championships (and by extension, The NBA championship for 2002)

What is an equivalent Tennis example?

(The moment is at 3:21 in the above clip)

Roger Federer had match points against Marat Safin in the semi final of Aus 2005. What is the blunder? Roger chose the wrong shot--between the legs shot. He had enough time to actually run around the ball and hit a clean forehand/backhand but he chose not to. It costed him a Grandslam.

Here is an example of a good strategy.

(The moment is at 6:33)

Rafael Nadal has a Championship point against Roger Federer. Yes, he lost the point (eventually would still win the championship) but he had a clear cut idea.

Technically he hit a forehand and he has a monsterous forehand.

Strategically he chose to attack Federer's backhand. This has worked 90% of the time and for him and no reason not to do it at this moment.

Belief was always there for him. One cant determine that from the video of this point but just the fact that he withstood Federer's on slaught, served from behind in the final set and still won 9-7 shows a lot.

Here is another example

Nadal saves not one or two but Three match points. Controlled aggression using his technically sound Forehand's monstrous TopSpin , Strategy of moving Djokovic all across the court and then believing that he can win.

To be continued..............

Monday 22 Nov 09 results

2009-11-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

Not a whole lot to write about. It is rather a disappointing day for ATP (Architect Tennis Players) ie Jack and myself.

The injury worry wasnt too much a factor though it did impact me at times.

I started out with Ajay (who is sub'ing for Carl). I grossly underestimated his game. I saw him playing couple of weeks against Carl and basically didnt think that he is a good player. It turns out that he can belt the forehand pretty good and while his serve isnt great by any stretch does bite low. He threw in a lot of forehand winners against me and raced into a 2-0 lead. Even during warm up i noticed that he has a weak backhand and once i got a grip of his pace, started slowly attacking his backhand. I also warmed up around this time and my serve started clicking and that set the tone. He only one of the last 5 games and i won the match 4-3.

Wayne is red hot and there isnt a whole lot for me to say. My serve didnt bite as i would have liked and Wayne whipped me good with a 2-5 score line.

Jack had a forgettable night so far walking into last match with me. I had 6 games and Jack had 3. The race is now really between us to see who is going to stay and who is going to drop.

Jack, One of the exciting racketsmen from hartford, who counter punched 15 awesome points the other monday night , Never showed up. Jack wouldnt win one more game this night and we ran out of time with me leading 6-0 against him.

As it turns out, this one abandoned game costed me a place in the top 7 pm. Myself and Wayne ended up with 12 points (if i had won the abandoned 7 game against Jack, i would be at 13). I tried to talk to tournament director but i knew i dont have a whole lot going for me. I dropped my appeal once i realized that i was the third best this night (Ajay apparently had 14 games, Wayne and me tied at 12). Definitely didnt deserve to move up on default--but i was pretty confident that i could have pulled the 7 game against Jack--if for no reason other than that Jack wasnt himself.

The draw for next week (ie Monday 29) came out and I stayed put at bottom of 7 pm while Jack dropped down to 0830. This week's draw is very tough and absolutely no margin for error. I am drawn against Paul S(Sandeep), Dan S and Carl. Each of them proven winners at the very top.

I wouldnt call Jack's draw easy but he has the game to pull this off. He drew Dave A and Dave C and then Lanh. He has Dave A's number , coming off a 6-1 against Dave C the other monday and he never played Lanh.

Injury Scare

2009-11-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

My preparations for Monday (23 Nov 09) took a hit with a hip injury. I am not sure when it happened but i realized it in the last week or so. I experience pain in the right hip couple of hours after a good run on a tread mill. Even though i observed it a week ago, i tried to plough through it. But now it came to the point, where it is really hurting me.

My wife scared me enough that i had to go and see doctor. The doctor ruled out any sciatic kinda serious stuff but suggested that i take it real easy for a week or two on running. He thinks i might have hurt my sacroiliac joint.

Though i am seeing considerable stiffness, i decided to play this monday after all. The major reason is that "I love to play". Then there is also te 7 pm thingy. If i dont play, i am definite drop down to 0830 next week and who knows what all i have to do get back to 7 pm. Lastly, too many tickets have been sold for Jack vs Me match---just kidding.

Some Ibuprofen, Bengae and some light massage , i hope to be good enough to play. It will be tough against Jack as he loves to make people run and thats where my injury hurts me most-with my movement. Wayne and Carl are tough too and i am hoping that i can do enough to stay at 7pm and deal with it next week at which time i hope to be rested and fit.

St(r)ing less Monday 16 Nov 09

2009-11-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

That says it all. My racquet strings broke when I was 2-0 up against Luciano in my first match. I was rarely a factor after that. I was fighting myself (as I was terribly disappointed) and also the opponent. I so looked forward to this evening as I was awaiting a show down against the ladder’s best player Eric. With my racquet went my best shot against him-my serve. Though I briefly revived myself against Dan with a spirited 3-4 losing performance, I became an “also played” this evening.

I don’t have a viable spare racquet. I play the Babolat Pure Drive Team PLUS. It is an awesome frame (11oz, 100 inch,27.5 in long) and I string it with Luxilon big banger Alu power rough string. In Tennis parlance, I am using a polyester string and that generally aids top spin production. The strings are also durable but they don’t retain tension for too long. I do carry an extra racquet in my bag but that isn’t even close to my playing frame. This spare hasn’t been restrung in 8 years, has a 110 inch wide size and weighs 13 oz. I borrowed Jack’s spare. It is better than my spare racquet but still way off from being a player’s frame.

On the court, I cut a sorry figure for myself. I know I have no one but myself to blame. At some point, I could have forked 150$ or so and bought myself a spare players frame. Yes, I don’t use my first racquet all too much to need a second racquet. But when I had moments like I did this last Monday, I realized how a spare could have helped. Instead of thinking a “what could have been”, I probably would have had an answer. Especially when I tallied up the scores and it came out that all I needed to do was to beat Dan 4-3 (instead of my 3-4) score to stay at the top of 7 pm. That’s how close I was even with out my best shot.

After some deliberation at home, I decided that I will have a good spare racquet. I started looking at used racquets hoping that I can get them real cheap. Then came the shocker. My racquet is 4-5 yrs old and apparently used frames like mine still cost around 125$. Add the cost of stringing (my favorite luxilon) another 35$ and we are looking at 160$. A brand new top of line Babolat costs 180$ and usually they throw in a free string. In other words, if I pitch in an extra 50$, I would get a top of the line frame. I am sure if I look for deals, I may get that price much lower. I will be going with Babolat Aero Pro Drive plus (endorsed by Rafael Nadal) or Babolat Pure drive plus Cortex( endorsed by Andy Roddick). Of course, as soon as I start using the frame, it will be endorsed by yours truly as well.

In all I managed 5 games and will drop down. I was ineffective against Eric who trounced me with a bagel (ie 7-0). Dan ended up with 7 games(if I had won 4-3 ,we both would have 6 games and I will have the tie breaker). What’s more painful is that even with this racquet, I was leading Dan 3-2 with two games to go. One of the game went to deuce and my forehand went long to throw that game away and Dan played a good last game.

I will stay at 7 pm albeit at the bottom half. So it isn’t all that bad. I stayed after my match(es) to watch the 0830 draw unfold.

Tennis Samurai Jack showed up and counter punched his 7 pm ticket in style. I was there to watch most of Jack’s matches and this is one of the finest exhibition of counter punching tennis. Arguably, tennis has three major styles of play-- Serve and Volley, Baseline and All court. Serve & Volley is a lost art and we don’t have too many Pro’s playing that game though it is still effective at club level (eg: Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic, John McEnroe). Baseline is a style of play where players stick around baseline and generally play extended rallies (Andre Agassi , Ivan Lendl). All court is a combination of Baseline and Serve & Volley (Roger Federer).

With in Baseline style, we have two major types. Aggressive baseliners (Andre Agassi , Rafael Nadal) and defensive counter punchers. Counter punching is a style where the player absorbs and often uses opponents pace against him for majority of the shots but supplies their own juice occasionally. Good examples of Counter punching pro’s are Lleton Hewitt and David Nalbandian. In my opinion, Jack plays this style of tennis though he is equally adept at Serve & Volley.

This Monday night , Jack played counter punching to the T. During some of the rallies, I watched him push his opponent backwards foot by foot while yo-yo’ing the opponent side to side. Needless to say opponent lost the point. In fact most players lose such points. The only two ways out of such rallies are a) come up with a great winner-a low percentage shot as the geometry of the court works to their disadvantage b) counter punch back and hope that the hunter becomes hunted. This is also when Jack is at his best. In my opinion, this is his game. This is one of his great strengths. There arent that many players at this level, that can counter punch like Jack.

Jack ended up with 15 points and he played some outstanding players. True Jack has Dave A’s number and he beat him one too many times. But Jack inflicted a humiliating 6-1 defeat on Dave C and then a 4-3 on Paul S (Sandeep) , two outstanding players. In that process he also cleared any self doubts he may have besides sending out a strong reverberating message to his opponents—Jack is back! .

So Fast forward to next Monday, we will have the classic Jack vs. Me match. Home town fans will all be excited to their favorite home town player Jack back at prime time. The draw hasn’t come out yet but it is quite likely that we will have two other outstanding players to contend with. I will of course , have my racquet back restrung. Only three will survive and one drops down to 0830.

Monday Draw for 16 Nov 09

2009-11-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

The draw for the coming monday came out and with it came a few good moves.First Jack is staying at top of 0830 and I moved to top bracket at 7 pm and ranked #5.This is very close to my prior highest ranking (#4 last year). Realistically ranks 3,4,5 & 6 all are same because they all are part of the same block and have an equal chance of moving up to play the #1 player. Semantically i have equalled my best ranking wise here.

I am drawn against Luciano, Dan and Eric. It will be a repeat match against Luciano and Dan from last week. Eric is THE best player in the ladder and only reason why he is playing down is due to his absence last week.He is clearly 1 full notch above the rest and so far he has pretty much swept all his matches against everyone else. What this means is that Eric is likely to move up. The remaining three will play for the remaining two spots at this block and the loser will drop down to bottom of 7 pm. I have a slim chance of staying up but will need an improved performance. If i play like last week, it wont be enough to sustain me at top bracket.

Looking at Jack's draw, this may be the week where he starts his ascension.He is drawn against Dave C, Paul S (Sandeep) and Dave A. Minus Dave A, rest of them are good players. Unless Sandeep is firing all cylinders on his serve, it will come down to Dave C and Jack. This is where Jack's dropshot becomes a weapon and Jack will move up a block to 7 pm.

Monday (09 Nov 09) results -- Good stuff

2009-11-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

There were lots of substitutions tonight and I knew before hand that my place at 7pm is secure for at least one more week regardless of how I play tonight. I wasn’t really thinking about this aspect these days. I don’t mind playing at 0830 PM and if anything 0700 pm is slightly early for me. 0730 PM would be ideal but I don’t own the league.
It is only after I reached the courts that I was told there are approximately 7 players (out of 22) that called sick. The Tournament director had to rearrange the draw. He also mentioned something that I didn’t pay attention to but ultimately became a factor.

My new draw matched me against Wayne, Luciano and the lefty Dan. I chose to serve against Wayne and dropped my serve immediately to go down 0-1. I broke Wayne’s serve right away to make it 1-1. From here on the match went on predictable lines. Wayne would hit some good shots sandwiched between unforced errors. I didn’t have any trouble holding my serve and broke him one more time during the course to finish the match at 5-2.

Luciano chose to serve after winning the toss and he quickly went up 2-0 after breaking my serve. Luciano has been at the very top of 7pm for so many years now and this score line didn’t bode too well for me. Though I lost those two games, I kept up with him and in most cases played better than him-just faltered at the finish line. One of the games I lost was on a deuce point with Luciano’s ball hitting the net tape and falling on my court. I regrouped myself and broke Luciano’s serve and followed it up with a strong hold and then broke him again. At this time the score is 3-2 in my favor. This is where I lost focus a little bit and Luciano won the last two games to make it a 4-3 win for him or 3-4 loss for me.

Dan won the toss as well and chose to serve. I attacked his backhand (as I always do against him) and quickly went up 2-0. He won the next game to make it 2-1. As I served in the fourth game, the score was 40-30 when Dan called out what I felt was a completely incorrect call. As far as I can tell, my shot landed at least a foot and half inside the baseline. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes. This rattled me a bit. As I stood up to serve the last point of this game, I said to myself that I am going to win this at all costs. I tried to focus and hit one of the best clutch serves for an Ace wide onto Ad court. For several reasons I liked what I did. Not only was this serve the hardest I hit all night long, but it was hit to his forehand. All through the match I went to his backhand or into the body but for this one moment, I went to his forehand. With a lead of 3-1 and 3 games to go, I thought I can take two more games. I only managed to hold my serve and Dan served out the other two to make it a 4-3 win for me. Initially the match started at baseline and Dan quickly adjusted trying to come to net as often as possible. This did get him some initial success as I haven’t played left handed net rushers in the recent times. I figured him (at least for the night) quickly enough to negate some of that advantage but it indeed seemed like a good tactic.

In summary, I won 12 games in all. It so happened that I overlooked the Tournament director’s note that I am playing in a group of 6 (instead of the usual 4). In other words, the rankings will be between the 6 players and each of them played 3 matches. It also means , luck of the draw determined which two players one WONT be playing. Glancing through the result sheets, it looked like Vishwas and Dan finished at 13 points each. They both had advantage of playing Carl who probably wasn’t in his best form this night. I am at 12 points and Luciano had 10 and Wayne finished at 8. I can’t predict how the standings work out but I am guessing that I may gravitate towards the top of the 7 pm draw.

Though I lost the match with Luciano and didn’t take advantage of the leads I had with him and Dan , I could take several positives. It is an understatement that the match with Luciano had long rallies. There are several 20+ shot rallies. Good news is that I won majority of them. I also believe I sent a strong message to Luciano that I can stay with him in rallies. I tracked down just about every thing he threw at me and he had to win by taking a few risks playing slightly beyond his comfort zone. Credit to him that he was able to do that but at the same time I am also not happy that he took a point off me which could have brought the score to Deuce. I walked out of the match feeling that my game matches up very well against him. This is a consistent trend from my past encounters with him.

Continuing with the positives, I was consistent with the serve , movement and forehands. My improved fitness has clearly showed in the match against Luciano and I wasn’t winded. It is a different matter that I ran out of drinking water. I hit a few down the line and cross court winners against Dan with Two handed back hand.

I can definitely improve on my forehand and get back to my 2007-08 form so that I can be aggressive with it. I think I can also be aggressive from the backhand. I should learn to focus more especially when I am serving.

Jack took the day off being sick. He is still a bit disappointed at the results and wanted to work out a strategy. I know his game well enough to say that he will be back in the midst of 7 pm in no time.He has the game, weapons and enough variety to trouble the very best. Since several players didn’t play today, may be he wont drop down a block and this chance could be enough for him to start hitting big. [Dropping to the II block at 0830 pm would mean that the player will need at least two good weeks to make it to 7 pm].

The classic Jack and me match will have to wait a bit as we don’t know the standings for this week, it’s hard to predict. It could be two to three weeks depending on where Jack and I landed this week (ie top or bottom of 0700/0830). There are also substitution scenarios which we have no control over.

Monday (02 Nov 09) results - Serve Fest!

2009-11-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Serve-fest , A tough day of Tennis. This is how i would summarize this Monday's tennis. Even though i am playing at 7 pm, the end of Day light savings time on Sunday meant that i was really playing at 8pm. Just for the record, I hate Standard time and I love Day light Savings. I love to come out of work and see some sun light rather than greeted by dim street lights.That is also another reason why my watches (and clocks) at home are always set to Day light time.I dont change to standard time.

My line up is to Play Vishwas, Dave and Paul S. As i indicated earlier, All the three matches turned out to be Serve-fests. There are very very few rallies and the points were very quick. The tell tale sign is, we started playing at 7:20 and we are done with all the three matches by 0820. Ie we started 20 minutes late but ended up 10 minutes early.

This was the first time in the ladder where I encountered three big servers in a row. I didnt expect it and was grossly underprepared. To make matters worse, i didnt win the toss in any of the three matches and that meant that I am always playing behind. In the very first game of the night, I took Vishwas to deuce but two big serves from him quickly erased the break points. We went with serve until it is 3-2 and he broke my serve to go 4-2. I broke him in the last game to make it 3 (me)-4(Vishwas).Vishwas served exceptionally well but I felt like I am always in the match within striking distance.

Dave and i went with serve 2-2. Then he won 3 games in a row (breaking me once). The most disappointing tale of this match is that i had break points in two different games but couldnt convert. The score line read 5-2 in his favor.

As I walked onto next court for my final match of the night, the situation looked pretty dim. Unless i can pull off a big 6-1 0r a 7-0 kind of match, my chances are extremely slim to stay at 7 pm slot for the following week. I met with Paul S (we call him Sandeep for his resemblance to a coworker of mine/Jack) and it turns out he didnt have a spectacular night either. We both tied at 5 games each thus far. So the winner of this match gets to stay 7 pm and loser will drop down to 0830. Easier said than done. Paul S fired at me some of the best Twist serves i have ever seen. With so much of action of his serves , that kick very high and clocking around 90-100 mph, There is very little i could do.The only kink in his armour seems to be his ability to rally.He held his serves very easily. Not to be left behind, i held my serves comfortably to make it 3-3. This is where the Toss comes into play. Because he won it, he gets to serve the last game.I played a very gritty and determined game to break his otherwise impenetratable serve and finish the evening a little bit better with 9 games. Paul S dropped down as he won only 8 games.

Looking at the positives, I stayed at 7 pm and it was a hard earned win. Playing from behind on all my matches put a great deal of pressure on my serve but I more or less lived up to the task (I served 9 games and won 7 of them).I did impress myself with some of the serves as its been quite a while since i hit then. I attribute it to my improved fitness which was lacking all summer.Especially in the last match , I had to win my serve and then break Paul to stay at 7 pm. That i was able to do that is something i feel good about--especially the mental aspect of it. Another thing that i also noticed is that , when it came to rallies, i had the edge most of the times. The rallies were far and few tonight but when we did have them, i won most of them.

As far as the negatives go it is the usual. I was tentative at times in taking big cuts at the ball and leaving the door open for opponents. I dropped the ball short in the middle of court at times for opponents to take a big cut.I developed two handed Back Hand (2HBH) to specially counter the Dave's of the world. I rarely used it. Vishwas repeatdely attacked my Second serve and threw me off rhythm. Probably he is the only player thus far to attack my second serve as consistently as he did.

To make it further up in the ladder, I need to improve on all counts. That said, i find it very unusual that i run into Three big servers all on the same night. This is really a factor as I couldnt return some serves into play. Part of it due to lack of match practice. The biggest server that i ever faced this whole summer was my friend Sk.We played very infrequently and not consistent enough to feel comfortable against big servers.

The challenge next week isnt any less daunting. I am up agaisnt Dave (ugh! again) , Lefty Dan (who more or less is circling around the top of the ladder) and a red hot Wayne (who i played on my ladder opening night for a 3-2 score) who beat Richard and Jack. It will be a struggle to stay at 7pm let alone move up. On paper, myself and Wayne are the most likely ones to drop down.
Before wrapping up the night, I caught glimpses of Jack's match with Rich.Jack isnt as consistent as he was during the summer and made many unforced errors. Rich and Wayne beat Jack to push him down but Jack did enough to beat Dave and still stay at the top of 0830. To me this is a defining moment for Jack as his efforts to get out of 0830 arent coming to fruition.Sooner or later he is going to break free and display the level of consistency and efficiency ,that he showed in his run to the top last year.

Badminton season starts today at my club and i am very excited about it.Hopefully it will help my court movement and other intangibles that are common across racquet sports.

Monday Tennis Preview (02 Nov 09)

2009-11-02T06:49:00.001-08:00

The draw for Monday (02 Nov 09) is out. True enough, I am playing at 7pm but got a tough draw. I have never played two of these players and the other one was Dave against whom I have a 1-2 record. None of these players dropped below 7 pm so far this season (Dave is a perennial 7 pm’er). While the situation for me is similar to last week, where I knew only player of the three, the difference is in their playing styles. A baseline-baseline game is definitely to my liking but Dave doesn’t play that. Looking at his record against other players, he has dominated so far and I will be lucky to get out with 3 or 4 games against him. I never played Paul (S) and Vishwas and judging by their record so far, they are equally tough to contend with. I need my serve to hold up and probably also take some big cuts with forehand. If I stay at 7 pm, I consider it to be an excellent result. Sure, I do want to challenge the best of the best. But around January time frame and I want to use the time in between to round up my game as much as possible.

Jack is playing at the top of 0830 and he has an excellent chance to move up to 7. So far Rich (twice) and Me (once) have been his road blocks for 7 pm but Jack has given himself so many opportunities that its only a matter of time before he hits purple patch. Lets not forget that he is a former #1 in this ladder and knows what it takes to get to the top. His draw has him against Rich, Wayne and Dave. He should have no trouble handling Dave and his consistency should prove too much for Wayne. Rich would be the iffy match for him but if anyone can handle Rich, Jack would be one among them.

Monday Tennis results (29 Oct 2009)

2009-11-02T06:33:00.001-08:00

The Big night was upon me even before I realized. My pre-match preparations (Apply Icy-Hot, stretching, packing water bottle, etc) were a bit rushed as my daughter wanted me to play with her. I did reach the venue little earlier than usual and saw the line up. My line up starts with Dave then Jack and finally Rob—Format is 7 games per match.

I started warming up with Dave and he is really eager to get started right away. Being older than me, I assumed he would like to spend some more time warming up. He won the toss and elected to serve. He has a weird action and on the deuce court, he stands way too close to the centre line (I have observed him actually standing on Ad court and still serve into deuce court). His ball stays very close to the net and keeps low with a decent pace. He also rallies well and probably has a good court sense and knows where to put the ball (not to mention the slices). I managed to break his serve right away on a deuce game but I lost my serve also on deuce call even though I led 40-15 to make the score 1-1. We stayed on serve to make it 2-2. I became a little frustrated with the way things are going. Every game counts and this match looked like to a 4-3 situation. I tried to increase my depth a bit and tried to move him side-side. I went on to win the next 3 games to end the match at 5-2.

Then the match everyone is eagerly waiting for. As we expected, Jack and me are the front runners at this time.
Jack just finished hammering Rob for 6-1. This meant Jack has a 1 game lead on me (as my score was 5-2). Even before the match, I suspected that Jack is likely to win more games against others than I can win. If this match were to follow our usual pattern, I need to win at least 4 games to make it even. Jack won the toss and elected to serve and we both started a bit nervous. He went up 40-30 but lost the next two points to lose the game. With a few good serves here and there, I won the next game to go up 2-0. Over the past couple years, Jack and me played a number of matches and it isn’t unusual for one of us to jump into big leads before the other catches up and at times winning it all. I was expecting a come back but that didn’t materialize. I ended up winning all the 7 games. Other than playing consistent and a few good serves I didn’t do anything special. The score line definitely was a shocker. During outdoor season, both Jack and I lost a few times for such one sided score lines but never indoors.

This result meant that after 2 matches and with one more to go (with Rob), I am the clear front runner from this group. I had 12 points thus far, Jack has 6 and Dave has 8. I did the match and figured that I need 3 more games to take my tally to 15 and eliminate any possibility for others in this group to move up to 7 pm [If Jack or Dave were to sweep their last match 7-0, they could theoretically be at 13 (Jack) and 15 (Dave) but since I won over both, I will still move up in case of a tie]. Rob won the toss and started to serve. I thought he can hit some good forehands (especially into my back hand) and seem to have a good net game. He isn’t that consistent and I used that to my advantage and ended up breaking him twice while holding my games with a few well placed serves to take the 3-1 lead and reach my target of 15 games. I also want to see if I can better my best ever result in the ladder of 16 games. I won the last two games to close the match at 5-2.

I finished the night with 17 games- my best performance in the ladder thus far. As it turns out, Jack beat Dave comfortably (5-2) and finished with 11 games. Dave finished third with 10 games. Rob is likely dropping down a block with 4 games. I don’t think I played as well as the score indicates. I played safe in the rallies and I probably hit like 4 winners whole night. My serve held up well though some of my hardest serves were returned with interest and I had to scramble. Few rallies were exhausting and I am thinking it is due to lack of sufficient match practice. I run 2 miles a day at home with interval training and occasionally add a 1mile elliptical work out. This is as far as I can go at home given my schedule. I will be starting Badminton from next week and after couple of weeks of Tennis and Badminton I will have enough data around Mid-Late November to reevaluate my fitness.

The difference tonight was the anti-climatic game with Jack. He was predictable with his game. The trade mark Jack volleys weren’t there and his drop shots missed targets. On my other matches, I had a few giggles. The first one was when I saw Dave stepping up way into the baseline for my second serve. Obviously he was thinking of an aggressive return on my second serve and probably assumed some dinky serves. True enough, my second serve doesn’t have a lot of pace but it does kick up high and isn’t easier to take a big cut unless one has a good top spin shot.
The second one was with Dave as well. He indicated every single point that he doesn’t keep track of the score. Late into the match, I purposefully said I don’t remember the score and he was able to accurately tell me how the last 4 points were played and why the score was 30-30. I still like his approach as he is ensuring that score is known to both parties after every point and it can only be a good thing.

Next Monday draw released- Conspiracy Theories abound

2009-10-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

The draw for next Monday evening came out and it gave plenty for Conspiracy theorists to ponder around. I am pretty sure this draw is going to cause some concerns amongst the players as well.

As expected, I moved up a block. The shocker was Jack stayed put at top of 0830. This development means that the marquee match up of Jack and me takes place next week (assuming we both commit to playing) albeit at 0830 as opposed to primetime 7 pm. Tennis fans all over would be disappointed to see us playing on what’s equivalent to a court 13 at Usopen at Flushing meadows Or Court 11 at Wimbledon as opposed to an Arthur Ashe at Us open or Centre court at Wimbledon. Some fans even likened this to Sampras and Agassi meeting in Quarter finals instead of much later in the draw.

These theories aren’t completely with out reason. Rich and Jack are two former #1’s in the draw playing low down the order at 0830. Rich despite topping the group last few weeks chose to stay at 0830. However this week, he moved up to 7pm and we are not sure why.

The draw is now written in stone and barring any substitution/retirement scenarios, Jack and I will have to square off. The bad news is that only one of us can move up to 7pm. The good news is that Jack and I have a combined 50% percent chance of moving up. We will play with Rob and Dave. I haven’t played them but I believe Jack did. This means Jack probably has a slight edge as he has played against all the 3 players he is going to face Monday.

I also like my chances though not by much. It largely depends on my serve and forehand staying consistent. I am not particularly known for jumping right off the gate and this format where every game matters wont bode particularly well for me. If I can repeat the start I had last Monday, I have an excellent opportunity to move up-again. As long as I don’t drop down, it will be a good result for me.

Monday Tennis results (Oct 19)

2009-10-21T11:54:00.001-07:00

My pre-match preparations were spot on (ie getting gear ready in time, popping in Contacts, applying Icy-hot on knees, start driving to the club in time) but I was still nervous before my first match. As it turns out, the format for this Monday was little different and I was scheduled to play 4 matches- five games each. In other words, the winner would be the one who wins most of their 20 games.

I started with Steve who was substituting for another player. Though I have played him in the past, I am not familiar with his game. He isn’t a power player and he relies on slices and spins and works the point. I chose to serve and I am still nervous enough for a 30-30 score line. At that point, I had two good serves in (the second one , an Ace down the T) to go up 1-0. I felt a whole lot better when I broke him to go up 2-0. For the rest of this match, I basically stayed consistent with my game and Steve made series of unforced (and forced) errors for me to go up 5-0.

I elected to serve against Wayne and held serve comfortably despite hitting three second serves. I never played Wayne but I watched him play Jack and I know he has a powerful (but inconsistent) forehand. He hit three forehand winners to make the score 1-1. I made some tactical adjustments and tried to keep the ball deep and in the centre. This worked and I held the serve and broke him to go 3-1. Serving the last game, I was up 40-30 but left the ball too short for him to crack couple of cross court forehand winners to force deuce. I repeated the same mistake for the last point (mostly expecting that it is hard to hit three winners in a row) and he won that game to make the score line 3-2.

Heading into match with Colin, we both had 8 games each (Wayne probably had 6) and it is very likely that the winner of this group might be the winner of our match (ie Colin or me). I scouted him playing an earlier match on my next court. He has a powerful (but inconsistent) first serve and he doesn’t seem to have a second serve. He has an excellent Two handed backhand that I would love to have and also has a respectable forehand. He won the toss and offered to receive but then changed his mind after realizing that this is a five game match( and first to serve can serve three games while the opponent only gets two). I won the first point on a rally and second on a double fault. This appeared to put some pressure on him and I quickly went a break up. I held serve comfortably through out. There were some very hard shots hit by him but some how I tracked them down and was able to rally with him and despite an occasional winner, he wasn’t consistent enough to win games and I ended up at 5-0.

At this point, we ran out of time and our Tournament director (as I call him) decided to end the night and abandon the fourth match. With 13 games (and only losing two) , it is very likely that I move up a block. In Summary, My serve held well despite occasional stutter. My defense made the difference. My new tool, Two handed back hand was consistent and in some cases far exceeded my expectations.

Though this result is not completely unexpected given my past results, I don’t want to get too carried away. I don’t want to put any additional pressure on myself by trying to challenge the top and best of the ladder right away. The goal still remains to peak around January and make a run to the top. Bigger challenges wait next week as I will be playing more consistent and experienced players in the journey to the top of the ladder.

Regardless of the results, I enjoyed my time on the court playing a different set of opponents. I have played a lot with my friends (Jack, SK, SS) that there aren’t much surprises and our games seem to follow a predictable pattern. In the ladder , except for Jack, I don’t know others that well and that gives a more match like atmosphere.

It looks like my good friend Jack had a great outing as well. Incidentally he won 13 games and is primed to reappear at 7pm. This means that the marquee match between me and Jack will have to wait at least one more week if not more.

Summer Summary and Welcome to Winter Ladder 2009

2009-10-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

I once again joined the winter ladder for 2009 -2010 and will open tonight. The ladder started few weeks ago but chose to skip the first few weeks, mostly for schedule reasons and partly for conserving $$ especially when some outdoor tennis was still possible.

What I did during outdoor season:

Work took precedence and I spent most of my spring and summer working late nights and weekends and what not. Didn’t really get a chance to play as much except for an occasional evening or weekend outing. To make matters worse, I didn’t exercise and added around 10 pounds to my frame. Whatever little tennis I played, I mostly won by bunting the ball back and trying to make less unforced errors than my opponent. I probably took out the ball machine 2 may be 3 times and didn’t really do much either. Bottom line, this is the worst tennis outdoor season I had since I actively started playing tennis 5-6 yrs ago. I also had knee issues and doctor figured out I needed lots of D vitamin.

From Mid September things started looking better at work and my schedule became little better. I also was able to get my basement arranged and was able to set a spot for my treadmill, weights and elliptical machine. I started working out , initially low impact and now moderately intense. So I got the weight under control (dropped around 6 pounds). I proactively tried to play outdoors as much as situation permitted.

Fast Forward :

I probably wont get back to the fitness or game levels I had during 2007/08 when my forehand and serve are pretty good. Fitness wise I am in a good shape but I haven’t been match tested enough. The only players I played are Andy , Jack and Sk (if I discount the matches against SS early in spring).

Sometime after mid last year, I lost my sting on forehand. I am not sure why. I also realized that one of my tennis Idols Rafael Nadal also has similar issue. Here is an excerpt from Tennis.com on him.

>>>
Increasingly, one of the most feared shots in the game, Rafa's forehand, seems loopy and is starting to look like a liability. (I haven't seen Rafa hit his forehand so ineffectively at any time , not even in 05-06. Heck, he was more aggressive against Fed in Miami 2004).. Rafa is hitting the ball with too much spin and elevation but with no depth. Every time he gets the ball on his forehand he cannot gain control of the pt like he used to before. His down the line forehand is AWOL and he's pushing with his bh instead of attacking. He returns serve from 3-4 meters behind the baseline, but doesn't move in at all as the rally progresses. Rafa is getting pushed back (further behind the baseline) as the match goes on and he's getting increasingly frustrated because he knows that he really has no weapons to hurt a half decent hard court player with his game at the moment
>>>
This more or less also depicts my Forehand. I quickly need to discover my forehand form back.

I have developed consistency on two handed back hand. I am hoping this would provide me the edge when I face attacking players who attack my backhand. However I haven’t gotten used to the movement that is needed to compensate for the extra step lost while hitting a two hander backhand. In the grand scheme of things, this is another tool to have in my tool kit. I can still play with 1HBH just as I used to.

The Badminton season this year also got rescheduled and will start in first week of November. I believed that Tennis and Badminton for me, fed off each other. My tennis game greatly benefited from the badminton reflexes and court movement. My badminton game was better because I was able to use my tennis court coverage and some tennis like shots. At some high up level, these are similar sports and the intangibles are common across them.

Last year I went as high as #3 (though I was seeded #4) in the ladder. The goal this year is to improve on that result though I want to give more emphasis on staying aggressive.

Tonight :

I am opening up at the very bottom of the ladder ie Bottom half of 0830. I don’t remember playing any of the guys on my half of the draw and that adds a new challenge as well. The way the ladder stands right now, it will be quite an effort to get to the top. The very fact that we have two former #1 players at this ladder playing at 0830 (Rich and Jack), last year’s champion is now placed a distant fourth should provide a sense of what I am up against. Having said that all my game lacks right now is “match practice” and once I have some good matches under my belt, I can match up with any in this ladder.

As I prepare for this match ups, my going in position to not to win it all right away. My target is to make a run at the top around January. This will give me sufficient time to get good match practice and also be strategically ready to face the tennis heavy weights.

While it is a disadvantage that I don’t know how my opponents tonight play , it is both ways. They don’t know my game style either. Traditionally in such cases, the guy with a better serve usually scrapes through. My serve though not as consistent as I like it to be is still a decent one and I hope that can provide me the edge.

A quick work about my friend Jack . Tennis Samurai Jack had a good first week but then went out meekly in the second week and is now starting at 0830. He is safely tucked away in the top half of the draw and we don’t face each other tonight. His counter punching game should pose problems for all the guys on his side of the draw and I like his chances of scraping through for a 7pm slot next week.

Weekend Tennis & NBA

2009-06-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Weekend was really hectic. I got stuck with work and had to work until 3 AM saturday AM before i got to sleep. That took my whole saturday off rhythm. However i found time to play with a friend/neighbhour of mine. This player has one of the most potent serve and can get creative with his shots. When in flow, it is tough to stop him.

I played a good game with good serves, nice defense and some memorable winners. Hitting forehand winners always feels good and its been a while since i hit a few. My 2handed backhand held up well. I lead 5-2 and was one point away from wrapping up the set when my friend some of the best tennis to pull me back 5-3. I broken his serve in the next game and won the set 6-3.

We started second set but took up on an offer made by some guys on other courts for a doubles game. We played two sets and won them both. Both my friend and me were on with our serve and our baseline game. This pretty much helped us win our games easily and our opponents have a weak link in them (as one player isnt too good).

All in all, feeling good about my game so far.

Another great development. LosAngeles Lakers win the 2009 NBA title. I cant be any happier.Kobe Bryant is the greatest player i have seen (I wasnt into NBA during days of Michael Jordan)

Welcome Again

2009-06-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

My blog has been dormant for a long time. There are several reasons but the net result is i didnt get to blog.

Several things happened in these 5-6 months but nothing too significant. My winter tennis season was ok but nothing great. I came close 3 or 4 times within a game to become the #2 and play for top spot at my club but didnt. Towards Feb, for cost reasons i skipped several monday's of tennis and was a non factor at the top of the ladder. There are no real new lessons learnt. The weakness in my game continue to persist (poor backhand, one dimensional baseline play, etc) while the strong aspects (good passing shots, reliable serve, etc) continue to help me with better results against certain opponents. I struggled on some nights with poor performances and then bounced back with some great results.

My winter tennis season can be summarized as "few good moments".

Badminton season is also a mixed bag. Actually i wasnt playing well at all for a long stretch of time. I have a good forehand smash and pretty good court coverage in Badminton. My technique isnt good but i can make up for it with tactics and some smart plays. I usually followed bad nights with some good performances and towards late season (April/May), i got back my game and ended up playing well.

I tried to explain why i played badly (Tennis & Badminton). My knees were hurting badly and that hurt my game a lot. I rely a lot on my movement and some explosive strength. I saw my doctor and we went back and forth. We started with Physical Theraphy which did nothing to help me. Finally Doctor ran some blood tests and figured out that i am running extremely low on Vitamin D. I started supplementing it and i feel much much better.

I played some outdoor tennis and i felt better and better. Now i need to put some hard work in the GYM and practice a lot.

I also made a significant change to my game. I more or less dropped One handed Backhand in favor of Two Handed Backhand. The change isnt seemless but isnt too bad either as i often tinkered around with 2HBH all along my tennis life. Now i got to a point that my instincts force me to use 2hbh though i am still struggling with positioning and getting to the ball.

I need offense from my backhand and i gave enough reign for 1HBH and now its time for a change. The end goal for me is to move further up on the Tennis ladder.

Another good development. LosAngeles Lakers are one game away from NBA championship!!!.

Dropped down from Primetime (+ Preview of 08 Dec)

2008-12-08T13:52:00.001-08:00

I didn’t play too well last week and only won 6 games. This wasn’t enough to keep me at the Top and I once again dropped down to bottom half of 7 pm.

The key issue was an injury I sustained during my 16 game performance. I hurt my serving shoulder and I can still feel the pain. I didn’t consider skipping last week but I am this week. If not for the threat of playing at 0830 , I would have skipped today.

I started with Dave and despite the fact that I didn’t get my first serve working managed to keep it tight till 3-3 though we exchanged a break of serve. In the 7 game, at Duece, Dave challenged my serve on the AD court. Till then I didn’t get a good first serve but I got an Ace down the T to win 4-3.

Then I went down hill. Rich killed me with a 7-0 drubbing. Since my serve wasn’t working, my forehand isn’t what it used to be, I have very little options to trouble Rich and he is in a good flow.

I thought I needed to win big off Luciano to have any hopes of staying up. He consistently sent the ball back and I never got a first serve in. It stayed neck to neck until 2-2 and then I lost the next 3 games. On another day, I would have atleast beat Luciano. Rich is certainly playing above my level and I don’t have a lot of respect for Dave’s game.

This injury to Shoulder also hurt my Badminton game. I had to wait until my very last match to win. Normally I win 70%-80% of my matches.

That brings me to this week. I will playing Jack/Carl and Dan. On paper I have a good chance but it assumes I serve well. I am on Tylenol and Bengae all day and we will see if it helps my game. All of them are equally dangerous players and work their opponent very well and can easily take over the match in a flash. All of them have some options to hurt their opponent be it jack with his Variety and Counter punching or Carl with a very well rounded attacking game or Dan with his lefty Forehand. My conservative view is that today’s winner is most likely between Dan or Jack while myself or Carl will drop down.

Bottom line for me… No Serve No games

Best Performance -Monday Tennis Nov 24 (and preview for 01 Dec)

2008-12-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

This was by far my best performance in the ladder with 16 games. So I moved up and will be squaring off in prime time today.

I didn’t quite expect it to pan out the way it did. The line up last Monday is quite imposing as I play against Carl , Jack and Mike M. Though I never lost to Carl, my record against Jack isn’t that good indoors and I never played Mike. I definitely sensed that I had a good chance to top the pool and move up if I played well.

I started off with Carl but before that during warm up I ran three circles around the tennis court. I felt winded but warmed up enough. We held serve at 1-1 and after that Carl never won and I finished with 6-1. There were some shots from Carl that on another day would have been winner but were out by a foot or so today. I did cut him some slack on some rallies where the ball was out as the action was happening too fast and by the time I was about to call he was ready to hit his reply to my returns. I played some good defense and some of my backhand placement shots worked well. The key again was my serve which held pretty well.

In comes Jack – The Tennis Samurai. Since I won 6 games with Carl, my mood was to get 3-4 games of Jack and I am less set for the night as I would either move up or stay on top of this block with that score. I broke his serve and then he broke mine to make it 1-1. Then I broke him again served good to take the lead. Jack came back aggressive and there was a game where he led 40-15 or something but I somehow pulled it back. Its been a long time since I served that well against Jack and that helped me win 6-1.

With 12 games, I assumed that I would top the pool and was considering going easy on last match with Mike M. Then I learnt that he won 7 games so far. So if he were to win 7-0 against me, or 6-1, he would be the leader. So I needed to win at least two games to ensure that I come out top. I lost the first game on my serve and I thought it wasn’t a good omen. Luckily I broke him the next game to keep the game on Serve. I won my next and that ensured that I will finish the Evening with a guaranteed prime time spot. From this point on I didn’t press too much. I tried to play some angles and used second serves to get some exposure. I attacked his backhand and passed him whenever he came to net. His lefty serve was effective in patches but wasn’t consistent or fast enough to trouble too much. I won the tie 4-3 to make it a 16 game night.

That brings me to today where I will be playing Richard, Dave and Luciano. I lost against Rich and Dave this season while I never played Luciano this year. I won against Rich and Luciano last year and never won against Dave. It will be interesting. My goal is to win 8 games.

Jack’s group is interesting. He plays Dan – the lefty, Paul and Mike. Carl dropped out as he wasn’t too successful against Jack or Mike last week. I guess it comes down to Dan or Jack. While Paul is a dangerous player, it depends on his form and I don’t think he can continue his hot streak for this many weeks in a row.

End of a Two week Vigil at Top (and preview monday night 24 Nov)

2008-11-24T08:34:00.001-08:00

My apologies for not posting soon enough. Things have been little crazy at work , with my car, in my own life and ofcourse on Tennis courts. Now that the Holiday season is here, may be things will get little easier.

I had a two week reign in the ladder at the Primetime thanks to a 10 game win the week before.However i lost last week with a crazy 6 game stint that is hard to explain and will be playing tonight at the bottom half of the ladder. I will still remain at 7 pm unless i mess up tonight.

A quick recap on my 10 game win the week before. I was already assured of 7 pm prime time spot due to subs so i tried to take it little easy. I started with Mike the sub. There is a little bit of history between us. We both believe we are better than the other and probably dont respect other player's game enough. Last season i won against him but i lost the only time i played him this season prior to this night. The serve which was absent when i lost to him, came back in full swing and i had a 5-2 win against him. I played Richard next and despite dominating for most of the game didnt convert break points and ended up losing 5-2. I should have easily won against Bruce but i wasnt tryint to win games instead was trying to be aggressive and get some winners going. In that process i lost more than i should (credit to Bruce. he hit some awesome shots) and won my 3 games on serve to close the night with 10 games.

Last monday was the first time there were no subs across the ladder. I had the toughest draw of the night against Andy,Dave and Ed. My game plan was to manage 2 or 3 games between Andy and Dave (due to my poor record against them) and probably dominate Ed (he is a pusher!) to reach my goal of 8 games. What transpired is nothing but crazy unexaplainable pattern for me. Ed basically hammered me 7-0 despite a weak knee. All i can say is i wasnt patient in my rallies and paid the price. Whenever i was patient i did win the points but they came a lot less frequently. How he blocked my bullet serves i dont know. I believe i will have an answer for him next time i play him. Its probably time for him to show him the Pusher in me. As a sole consolation, i was able to serve some body blows with my serves.

I played Dave next. I raced into lead quickly thanks to my serve. Dave tries to stand up while recieving serve. This is often a good tactic against many opponents as it rattles their rhythm (also challenges the server to come up with good serve). I myself use this tactic , successfully against people with weak serves. I however love this challenge when i am serving. What really happens is when a returner stays close up to return a serve, he usually opens up some corner of the service box, he has less time to react and its hard to take a big cut at the ball. This particular tactic fails against big serves because ---less time to react, more open area for server to hit and chances of ball bouncing of the racquet are higher. I just went for my serves. I probably hit the hardest serves i ever hit in recent times. I aimed at the Body and corners and was very successful. I also went in with two first serves on several occassions and this completely threw him off. Somewhere in the middle of our match, he changed his tactic-- went back while recieving my serve and tried to push the ball more and ofcourse cheated on some points that were incorrect. In two games where i hit aces with game point on the line they were called out (one of them is in the centre of the box!). I won 3 games.

I played Andy next and my record with him so far is one game every match we played. I didnt have any reason to believe tonight will be any different. However i played well enough to win 3 games. two on my serve and one by breaking him. I played one bad service game on my racquet to be broken at deuce. I closed the night at 6 games. If only i executed well against Ed i would have stayed up.

Fast forward to tonight it is a toss up. Its a battle between Carl - The battle hardened veteran, Jack - The tennis Samurai, myself- the racquet slinger and a new comer Mike. I am not sure of Mike's game other than that he is a tall lefty. On paper based on the results so far, it is really a toss up as Carl, Jack and myself have a good chance of topping this block to move into prime time. To me the keys to victories of each of them are

Carl - will win if he cuts down his unforced errors. He probably has the most complete game in the group.

Jack - will win if he plays his usual counter punching game and use his variety. He has the best chance of the three.

Me - Will win if my serve is on. I got a good enough forehand to cause some concern for the Big Two above.

Jack's variety will be advantageous against the tall lefty Mike as Jack's drop shots might do some real damage.

If i were to bet on a winner today i guess it will be between Jack or myself.

On Badminton..I am slowly regaining my game. My smashes are getting better and better. Backhand is still an issue. My point construction is good but having a good partner who can close points is really the key. In Badminton Doubles , its important to have partners with complimenting games. One of my long time partner is no longer playing and i had most success with him because our game compliments each others a lot. My strengths are covering the Baseline ,ability to smash , strong defense and ofcourse forming and following a plan. This guy, for one is a far better player has more variety and ofcourse strong offense besides ability to follow the strategy. Over the years we had some memorable victories against opponents who are better skilled players. These days we rotate so much that its hard to play with a consistent partner.

Moving up in the Ladder! (Mon 11/3)

2008-11-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

I have won enough games (12) to top the group and I will be playing in Prime time next Monday. Incidentally this will be the first time this year I will be playing at the very top of the ladder and I am very excited about this opportunity.

I started the evening with Lefty Dan-the sub. During the warm up he gave me enough indications of the potential trouble he can cause. He has a nice slice two handed backhand that is very consistent and he can drop it close to the net or hit it close to the baseline. I have a feeling that he might have used the warm up to probe my game. I won the toss and elected to serve. He was surprised my serve and I had little trouble winning game 1. I couldn’t handle his serve either as he used his lefty wicked side spin from his Deuce court to spin away from my backhand. Though I got some balls in play whenever I played on the right side of the court, he was smart enough to dip the ball low and short or way deep into my back hand corner. I served the next game well to go up 2-1. This is when I made a good adjustment on the return of his serve by standing on the side tram lines when he served into the left court (ie he serves from lefty Deuce court). I kind of challenged him to hit down the T if he can. My theory is that even if he manages to hit some into the T, I can use my forehand to neutralize the shot. This strategy worked well and I broke him to go 3-1 up. This is when I played a bad game. I rushed my serves and went for too much on my shots to lose my serve at 3-2. He held the next game to make it 3-3 on my two back hand errors. I held serve to make it 4-3.

I played Jack next. For some reason I felt tired and winded going into this match. Like most of the time we played, there were lots of service breaks. I won the toss, elected to serve and lost the game. He held serve to make it 0-2 for me. I won the serve to make it 2-1 and then broke him to make it 2-2. I lost the serve again for 2-3 and broke him for 3-3. I couldn’t hold serve in the last game and I lost 3-4. He played two unbelievably good games and I played Two very bad games and that pretty much sums it up for me.

Heading to the last match of the day with Carl, I had 7 games to Jack’s 8 (he won 4 with Carl and 4 with me). Having played both Jack and Dan-the sub, I predicted that Dan might pull through as there are some aspects of his game that I felt would be difficult to deal with if one is playing him the first time. So I thought if I can win 4 games against Carl I still might have a shot at moving up assuming Jack doesn’t blow out Dan. Carl won the toss and (not surprisingly) elected to serve. He won quite easily for 1-0. I served a love game to make it 1-1. Despite some fight Carl held for 2-1 and I had little trouble in making it 2-2. Having reached my target (of exceeding previous week’s result) , I thought I will try to win the night by playing slightly more aggressive and apply additional pace and spin. I blocked his serves to put them in play and then hit some good passing shots to break him to go up 3-2. I held my serve easily to make it 4-2 and broke him again with some good array of baseline rallies and closed out with a cross court passing shot. To win the match 5-2 and make it a 12-9 win-loss for the evening. Tennis Samurai Jack had a good evening with 10 games though he fell a little behind in the last match with Dan-the sub.

The things that stand out are I cashed in all break points (I didn’t save any break points either and lost serve 3 times), I hit good passing shots and I served well. There are still gaping holes in my game that needs to be plugged and I also need to replicate my movement I had this evening for the next sessions.

Next week will be a big challenge. I will be playing against the likes of Dave, Luciano , Bob and perhaps Andy/Richard/Dan. I never played Bob. I have won the solitary matches I played against Luciano and Richard—both 4-3 scores. I lost the only matches I played against Dan and Dave. In 14 games I played, I won only 2 against Andy. So you know what I am up against. I need to serve exceptionally well and take my chances to have any shot at these guys. In other words, I have the game to beat most of these guys (excl Andy) but it largely comes down to execution.

Monday Tennis Preview 03 Nov

2008-11-05T07:25:00.001-08:00

As expected it will be Jack, Carl, I and a sub battling out tonight at the bottom half of the 7 pm for a place into 7 pm Prime time. It is going to be as tough as it can get. In some ways last week was little easier in the sense that I have no chance against Andy and Carl/Paul are some what susceptible against consistent players. This week it will be the Tennis Samurai Jack who plays consistent and good tennis and then Carl –my record against him not with standing, can easily topple me.

My goal is at least win as many games as I did last week (8) and see if can Improve my result by a game or two. If I play like last week, I will give myself a good chance to top the pool unless the Sub happens to be an excellent player. I don’t think my game has reached the levels of last year where I can dominate players. So my wins if at all will be small and margins will be less whereas some of my opponents can win matches with lopsided scores which is a huge advantage in the ladder. This is a long season and I want to build up my game properly and withstand the game styles of various opponents.

The build up into tonight is rather normal. After last Monday’s tennis, I played Badminton on Wednesday (skipped Tuesday swimming due to Diwali) and that’s more or less it. I didn’t get a chance to do any Gym. In any case I want to rest a little bit after last Badminton session. I had a very good session and my game is returning to normal and my smashes showing good penetration and I appear to be moving well. However I felt fatigued last Thursday and hence I decided to skip Gym for the week and instead try to get some rest to recharge batteries. The flu shots on Wednesday didn’t help either.

We will see if the rest is going to help or hurt me tonight. I happened to watch the Paris masters cup final between David Nalbandian (one of my fav players) and Jo Wilfred Tsonga. Tsonga served the lights out and played as well as he did in this years Australian Open. Nalbandian played good to win a set but in the end couldn’t handle Tsonga’s serve.

Some Improvement – Tennis 10/27

2008-10-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

I managed to win exactly 8 games – the target I originally set for myself. I had mixed results overall but there is certain upswing in my game and hopefully it will continue.

I started out with Carl. During the warm up I noticed that he has far better game than I thought he did. I won the toss and elected to serve. I quickly fell behind 0-40 but then pulled 2 great serves and a second serve winner to get it to Deuce and a service winner to pull out the game. From then on we went with Serve and I ended up with 4-3. There were some engaging rallies and I played some great defense to put pressure on him.

The toughest assignment for me was with Andy. I played him last year and managed to win 1 game. Well I ended up with the same result this time. Simply put he is a better player in every aspect except serve where we are even. I served very well but couldn’t get enough spin on the ball and this allowed him to bunt back the return. I only managed to win couple of rallies as he is really very good with volleys, overheads, approach shots, backhand, topspin forehand, etc. While I lost badly, I lost to a better player and I also fought very well. More importantly, he realized that he had to attack my backhand to win the points and that gives me further encouragement that my forehand and serve do belong in there with some of the best.

Last match is with Paul. This is when I ran out of steam and didn’t get good serves in. I quickly fell behind 3-0. I then made some strategic adjustments. I basically slowed down. I used my second serve as first serve and then also controlled rallies well with slow paced shots and some decent placement. This was enough to win the rest of the games and the end the night with total 8 game win.

I will stay at 7 pm even though all players showed up as Paul managed to win only 7 and hence he is most likely to drop down. Jack though achieved his target of 6 games in the prime time is going to drop down as that number isn’t enough to keep him up. So next week it will be Carl, Jack, I and some one from 0830 (or a sub). On paper Carl has the best chance to move up next week followed by Jack and then me. However if I play like I did yesterday against Carl, I will have a shot at prime time if I am lucky.

So the serve started kicking in. Forehand is improving. If I can get some more efficiency on them, I am golden.

Badminton 10/22 and Tennis Preview 10/27

2008-10-27T07:24:00.001-07:00

My confidence hasn’t been too good lately and I am not sure how to fix my game woes. So I went to badminton with very limited expectations—after all just about everyone is beating me at just about every sport these days. I don’t think I have that much left in tank either after Monday tennis and Tuesday Swimming.

To my surprise, my badminton showed some signs of revival. My signature shot – Forehand smash came to life and I started enjoying the game. I rely on few shots (and I am not skilled enough to have a lot of shot options) and if they don’t work, my goose is cooked, boiled, fried and roasted. I dominated with Smashes and with my movement and though I didn’t count I probably ended up with a winning ratio of 80% or so.

I am not sure if I can fix my Tennis troubles so easy. I am missing easy forehands and I am way off mark on my down the line shots. My tennis game relies on 3 important factors. Movement, Forehand and Serve. Though painful, my game can usually handle if serve or Forehand goes off but not both. My game cannot handle loss of movement. Last year around this time, I am whipping forehand passing shots off net rushers and hitting inside-ins like crazy. I also had few good serving days which allowed me to dominate most of the opponents—sometimes serving them off the court. Now that’s past. For the past few weeks, I cannot buy myself a decent forehand pass or a reliable serve (except for a moment or two).

I still play at 7pm this week due to technicality (I may remain at 7 next week as we have a Sub this week). I will be playing Paul /Carl and Sub. I have won handily against Paul and Carl last season though Paul handed me a 5-2 drubbing last week. My game plan is pretty much to try and enjoy the game. I don’t expect to dominate today and my target is to win 8 games.

It is a long winter season and I have plenty of time to rebound and enter into the prime time. For a change I won’t be playing Jack, the Tennis Samurai this week. He entered into the prime time for his excellent play last week. Who knows it may be a while before we play- especially if he sets up a base at the top quarter.

Monday Tennis Oct 20

2008-10-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

I managed to get just 5 games out of 21 games. I have no reasons/explanations. I didnt play too bad but didnt play right or used the right shot at the right time.

Against Paul i started well broke him the very first game only to surrender my serve.
The worst was yet to come. I dont know what happened but i left court open or didnt put the shots deep enough. I managed to win just two games. one on my serve and one on his.

I played a Sub Henry. Very good consistent player with excellent Topspin forehands and a decent backhand. He held his serve and i held mine (for the first time with some booming serves). Then i lost the plot. Towards the end, i realized a mistake i made all summer and tried to correct it--too late. i ended up with 1 game.

Against Jack, more or less same story though this time it was based on my intention to stay aggressive and practice the forehand. I know i could have slowed down the game and played defense and probably win more games but i more or less decided to focus on long term. I won two games.

Part of my problem (apart from Serve) is the diminised winners from Forehand. Usually i get 4-5 winners a set (thats last season anywayz). I dont remember hitting any in recent times in any match. While some of it can be attributed to better play from opponents, it has also to do with a shift in technique.

In order to hit a good topspin forehand , wrist has to stay loose and have a smooth low to high motion. All summer i hit forehands with tight grip and tight wrist. This helped my defense but hurt my offense. I should have caught it during my ball machine sessions but i had very few of them and most of them are to practice backhands. It occured to me yesterday as i was watching Henry and i tried to match his forehands.

So, now i know how to fix some of my issues. Whether it will be enough i dont know. Yesterday's results are hard to swallow. I doubt that all other players have improved so drastically and i have fallen so much behind in one summer.

Given the recent results, i need to start slowly and build up. Do the Hard work and Start focussing more and win more games. Focus on hitting forehands. My game can withstand loss of serve or loss of forehand but not both. In any case i rather have my forehand back. The serve will come in.

I may stay at 7 pm mostly due to Technicality than my performance. If i do drop to 0830 its no big deal. Afterall i didnt play well enough to be at 7pm. I will try to climb up again.

Tennis Oct 13 and preview of Oct 20.

2008-10-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

I started my Tennis ladder last Monday. It is a disappointing start to say the least. I won a total of 8 games. Though I still stay at 7 pm because I scored two more points than other regular Jack and we also have a Substitute player. So all of us at 7 pm last week……stayed at 7 regardless of the results.

The reason why I called it disappointing is because I put in decent amount of hard work in the recent weeks in terms of conditioning and matches. I expected to play better than I did last season (in all honesty, I didn’t play a single match this outdoor season that matched my performance last season) and came up short.

I started out with Jack. I raced to a 2-0 lead and was hoping to close out the match early. Jack came back strong and I didn’t help myself by poor serving. Just about every service game of mine I had opportunity to close out but allowed opponent to get back to Deuce and then lose the game. I was in some way lucky that I wasn’t serving at 3-3. I broke Jack even though he was up 40-15 and win the match at 4-3.

Next Match is with Dan and the scouting reports I have are bit inaccurate. He has an excellent topspin lefty forehand (as opposed to moon balls I originally assumed) and an average net game. In my own assessment, His game resembles mine in so many ways except that he puts more action on the ball and he has better net game. However I have slightly better serve and backhand than his and some non tangibles like strategy, mental aspects etc. That said, I only managed to win 2 games against Dan. He served 4 times and in 3 games I had game points that I didn’t cash. On my serve , I lost serve once having game points on my racquet. I failed in execution of my shots and of course I never got a first serve in. I lost 5-2.

I played the last match with Mike H who is substituting. I have won against him last year. I thought he improved a lot this year and added some variety. Despite me not getting any first serves in, I played very tight and stayed 2-2. However on the 2 game, I had a game point and Mike hit a volley tad long towards the side line. It was clearly out but he called it in and I gave him the point. It is my belief that a point will not make or break my result and I don’t give lot of credit to a result if it comes down to a single point as luck can play a role. I kind of lost the plot after 2-2 and couldn’t hold a service game despite staying 40-0 up. On his serve I would go 0-30 several times but couldn’t finish it. The last service game of mine (7 game) was pathetic and I lost it with out winning a single point.

With Jack, I know the games could go either way and we played way too many times and our rallies aren’t a big surprise to either of us. There were several long engaging fast paced rallies with Dan and Mike and it is different from what I played during summer. I am particularly happy with how I was rallying though I wasn’t happy with my offense.

Fast forward to today, I am going to play Jack, Paul and a Sub. I have won against Paul last year. Let’s see if I can continue my streak. I am positive I can serve better this time. Incidentally there is a little secret. Whenever I do lots of weights, I cant serve well.This is something I observed over several years. I am not sure of the reasons though I am guessing it must be something with flexibility of muscles or with my stretching. So I changed my work out routine last week and reduced the weights portion for the shoulder. Hopefully it will work out. Because of the Substitutions today, perhaps I will stay at 7 for next week.

A quick word on my Badminton season. It’s already 3 weeks into the season and I guess my performance is slightly below average. May be I will get better as season improves.

Summary (win- Loss) 8 -13 .

Winter Sports Season 2008-2009

2008-09-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to my Blog. I haven’t posted in a long time. I guess I oversubscribed to too many tasks. However the good news is that I think I can be regular again and keep this going.

One of the key reasons is also due to the fact that I haven’t done much this outdoor season. In the past few years, I have been improving my game and adding some significant feature every season (2005 – Serve, 2006 - Topspin Forehand, 2007- Inside In forehand, etc). This season I added nothing. If anything my game went south. I bought a ball machine but never really had time to use it much. I may have gotten 6-7 sessions out of it at most. Though it is disappointing, the time was spent on family commitments and with my Baby who will be two years old in January.

The highlights of my 2008 Outdoor tennis season are getting a ball machine, and some key wins against few friends of mine. One of them is Sundar, an excellent player. He is seldom out of position, has a great balance and excellent footwork and racquet feel. His mastery in sports goes beyond tennis and is equally good if not better at Badminton, Basket ball and Golf. Though he didn’t play as much Tennis as I did in the recent past, he is a formidable opponent and though I came close, I never won against him in my early days of Tennis. We haven’t played in last couple of years but we did this time and I was able to win this time. I played with Jack, SK and Andy- a new entrant into our tennis group. A word on SK. He and me started playing tennis as novices few years ago and learnt the game grounds up. He has the most venomous serve I have ever played against and is a brilliant shot maker.

I wasn’t originally planning to sign up for the winter ladder due to our family schedule. Towards early September things have changed and our family schedule has gotten much better. I was considering joining Ladders and evaluating the two clubs from my neighborhood. One of them offers Sunday evening schedule and I think that suits me much better.

My 2008 badminton season starts this Wednesday. It is really hard to play tennis on Monday and Badminton on Wednesday and then have a long break in the week. I also have my daughters swimming on Tuesday and this pretty much ties up 3 days of the week. A Sunday Tennis gives me better spread of the week. The only issue is the club that is offering Sunday tennis isn’t the one I played last year. I would love to play at the same club.

Talking about ladders, the ladder is out for this year (assuming I join this club). Here is an Analysis.

Welcome to the 2008-2009 Tennis Ladder. The ladder schedule runs from Sep 29 2008 to all the way into May 2009. As most of you know I made significant progress in the ladder last year and hope to keep the momentum going. Though the ladder begins today I wont be playing until Oct 20 due to other professional commitments (Wife’s B’day, an Exhibition match, an airport pick up, last but not least budgetary considerations etc).

Here is the current draw and lets try to break it down.

------------------------
7:00 Pm Show time Top bracket

Jay
Ed
Luciano
Dave
Bob
Carl
-------------------------
7:00 Pm bottom bracket

Richard
Paul
Dan
Jack

--------------------------

0830 Pm Basement ladder

Satish
John V.
Rob L.
Mike M.
Faez
--------------------------

With the current form of most of these players unknown (except for Jack and Satish), I am basing my observations on last season’s performance. It is entirely possible that they have improved upon their game.

A star studded 7 pm line up! The draw lends itself to some great mouth watering matchups. Some notable omissions from the draw include Warren and Ramon, Two very good players with devastating backhands, Thomas – a regular Sub last year with well rounded game, Frank- a classic counter punching pusher and Bruce- the perpetual shot maker. Last year top seeds Andrew and Matt are no longer in the fray and that should have allowed many players in the current draw to entertain some hopes of topping the ladder. At 0830 there are couple new players making their first appearance and it will take sometime before the ladder shakes itself out some sense of normalcy is returned.

On the top half of 7 pm, I think Dave and Bob will move further up and probably remain regular fixtures at the top (assuming Jay and Ed are mostly Guest appearances). Dave has a good serve and takes the ball early in rallies. While he isn’t an exceptional mover, he has good court positioning and he can get into opponents head with his antics. Bob has a good serve, excellent forehand and backhand and can also volley well. In my opinion Bob will top the ladder. Luciano game lacks offense and relies on pushing the ball into open court. However he has plenty of action on his slice shots and has a low bouncing serve. In one my blogs from last year (http://gumsat.blogspot.com/2008/02/monday-night-tennis-feb-11.html) I thought he was a polished pusher/counter puncher. I don’t believe he will stay in top bracket of 7 pm and will be pushed down to bottom bracket. Carl is a great baseliner with one of the pleasant looking cross court forehands. He had to deal with injuries during past season and assuming he stays fit he will be a regular fixture at 7 pm.

The bottom half of 7 pm is slightly less complicated as it appears now but that may soon change due to the format of the ladder (after a couple of weeks , players with similar results get grouped together). Except for Dan I have played with the other three players in this group. Paul is a good player who started very strong last season but struggled towards the end and played mostly the basement matchups of the 0830 group. He has a good forehand and powerful but inconsistent serve and can cause some damage if he improves his consistency. Though I didn’t play Dan, I saw him play and also have some scouting reports on him. His soft loopy shots can throw an opponent off his rhythm and his consistency should help him win a few matches. However I don’t see him as a regular fixture at 7 pm and he will probably move down to 0830.

At the bottom of the 7pm, we see the most improved player of the ladder Jack –the racquet wielding Architect from East Hartford. Having played with him a lot for the past two seasons, I have a very good sense of his game. He has steadily improved his serve, his backhand and forehand. He has taken his consistency to another level. He presents the biggest challenge for any players in his group in two key areas a) fitness b) extended rallies. An opponent is forced to hit several extra shots to win a point or take more chances than they are comfortable taking. In general all his matches will be longer than average and there will be lot of running and that can exhaust a tired/unfit opponent. Though he lacks a signature closing shot or fire power offensive weapon, he will more than make up for it with his variety in the game—drop shots, lobs, smashes, volleys, baseline rallies. His game matches up very well against most of the players in his current group. In my opinion he will top the bottom 7pm group and make his way into the top bracket.

At the bottom cellar of the draw, at 0830 pm, I will be battling with bunch of new comers and some old timers like Mike and Faez. On paper, I should be topping this pool and make my way very deep into 7 pm—perhaps a top bracket berth. However tennis is not played on paper and with couple of new entrants I think this pool is anything but decided.

My outdoor season wasn’t that great and it was only recently that I got my serve and forehand back. In other words I am still trying to get my game to the level it used to be while most others might have added a thing or two to their repository. However I am putting lot of work into my fitness recently after several false starts and I am also trying to add some practice sessions and salvage whatever outdoor action is left before winter sets in. The results are encouraging and on a positive note, though I didn’t have a spectacular outdoor tennis season, I didn’t have dismal results either. I managed to still win most of matches against all players I played this summer and only lost a few sets.

Having demonstrated my staying capability at 7 pm, the goals this year for me are to move to top bracket of 7 pm and stay there for a decent time (ie couple of weeks at a minimum). I don’t have any set goals for badminton other than to enjoy the game.

Overall I am very excited to start the winter tour of Badminton and Tennis. I will keep you posted more regularly and I will need all your support.

Triangle Offense & Tennis 5/17

2008-05-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in a while (yet again) as I have been very busy attending family and work responsibilities. The other reason is that I haven’t done anything spectacular in the recent times worth posting.

Despite the busy schedule, I managed to play Tennis last Saturday (5/17) and Badminton last Wednesday (the season was of course over) and managed to cheer World #2 Rafael Nadal to master series victory and Los Angeles Lakers to a lead in Western conference finals.

First on Tennis. Jack and I squared off once again on Saturday evening. Weather was decent with only occasional breeze but enough to provide some advantage from one side of the court. As you all know my knees have been bothering me (for no real reason..yet) and impacted my movement in many of the past matches. For this match, I had some preparation time and I warmed up a bit before heading to the courts. My game relies heavily on my ability to chase down balls and put them back in with topspin at strategic locations on opponent’s court.

I started off the game by breaking jack’s serve and then holding my own. There were some good rallies and one or two long deep rallies. I didn’t go with any particular strategy. I wanted to focus on the “low to high” swing motion of the racquet that generated top spin and that’s what I did most of the match. I took care of the transition game (ability to move back and forth, switch from one kind of shot into another) and picked spots to go aggressive. I won 6-2. In the second set , I was leading 5-0 and 40-30 up when I lost focus (and energy) and Jack seized the opportunity to play some fantastic tennis to make it 5-3. Realistically 5-0 is a steep deficit to overcome (though many people have done it in the past) and I won the set. All in all a good match. My serve is also showing some signs of life and it bodes well for me. I was happy with my backhand. I managed to hit a few aggressive shots and I believe my defense from backhand improved a bit- thanks to ball machine.

On Sunday I watched how Rafael Nadal won against Federer in the master series final. This is a best of 3 sets final and Roger federer had sizeable leads in both sets only for Nadal to fight back and take the match away. Federer led 5-1 in first set, lost 7-5. While lot of analysis can be done (and some already done at Tennis.com) I observed some useful stuff for me. It is no secret that I am big fan of Federer and Nadal with me taking Nadal side when these two great players square off. My game at a very very very vague level resembles that of Nadal while I do show some characteristics of Federer’s game.

In Recreational Tennis, there are some main offensive strategies.
1) Your strengths Vs Opponents weakness
You use your strengths (eg:forehand) to target opponents weakness (eg:backhand)
2) Your strengths Vs Opponents strengths
You match up your best shots (eg: cross court forehand) against opponents (eg: forehand)
3) Hide your weakness
You try to hide your weakness (eg: backhand) and play more on your strengths.
(eg: run around your backhand and hit forehands)
4) Hide opponents strengths
You don’t give your opponent an opportunity to hit his strong shots.
Eg: Keep the ball to in the middle of the court to cut away angles.
Or hit towards backhand corner so that he can’t hit forehands etc.
5) Your Strengths
You don’t care what your opponent does or doesn’t. Instead you focus on your strengths and go along with them.
Eg: Hit a blistering array of forehands and over powers your opponent.
6) You feel innovative
You don’t care what the score/result is. You play what you deem fit and what makes you enjoy the game.

There are several more but mostly variations of the above. Also there isn’t one single strategy you would use whole game. In reality, in a given point, one may use all of the above strategies. The best strategy would be to carefully monitor the game, score and analyze the situation and vary your strategies.
Eg: You are leading 2 sets to love and a break up in 3 rd. If you are in a mood, may be you can use (5 – your strengths) or (6- you feel innovative) or keep doing what you did so far that got you the big lead in first place.

Strengths, Weakness and Innovation are the elements of Tennis Triangle offense. I am working on a developing a structured Offense system in Tennis (for all you know it could be a old wine in new bottle type of scenario). As a vivid follower of Basket ball I have seen several concepts of structured offense in basket ball and I think I can apply some of them for tennis. One specific item that caught my eye was the Triangle offense. What an intriguing offense system. I won’t be able to provide full justice to describe it but it is sufficient to say this. At its peak, this is one of the most spectacular, free flowing offenses that basket ball has ever seen and provide several options to shoot the ball. This shouldn’t come as a surprise- The NBA team that uses this offense: LosAngeles Lakers. NewJersey nets and few other teams do use parts of this system but they generally use picks and screens. More on Tennis Triangle offense later.

The Badminton season was officially over and I missed the last two sessions. There was a different club where they play for few more weeks and couples of friends from work were playing there and invited me over. So I went last Wednesday. I actually played a lot better than I did in the recent times. My transition game and movement are coming back to me and I managed to hit a few back hand winners. I enjoyed the session a lot as I have been on the down trend for quite some time. This club plays for 3 more weeks though I don’t plan on playing there unless there is inclement weather and I am dying to get some sports action.

Though it is long weekend for most, for our family it is business as usual as my wife will be working Saturday and Sunday. I will try to squeeze out some time for Ball machine and may be a tennis match or two. On Monday, French open begins and that should take care of next two weeks as I will be busy watching DVR’s of matches.

Tennis and Basket Ball

2008-05-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit busy and didn’t get chance to update my Blog.
I last played on 26 April (really seems like a long while ago) with Jack. The score was 4-6 and 6-1. I lost the first set but came back strong to win the second.

There isn’t much to really point out from the match. My knees have been bothering me for sometime. My wife thinks it is because of all the antibiotics I am taking for the cold and throat infections. It greatly impacted my movement and ability to hit the ball cleanly. I often guessed on opponent and I paid for it. The score board for first set shows that I lost 4-6 but it should really be 2-6. Wind helped me on couple of points and I blindly attacked on some points that came up my way. Jack moved me very well and played smart tennis. Towards second set I felt much better. Knees are still hurting (I felt pain as late as Monday) but I was warm enough to move a little better. I also found my range on some of the shots. Jack’s form dipped (he later indicated that he rushed into his shots as a whole battalion of people were waiting for us to finish the match so that they can take the court). I didn’t really have much trouble in second set and towards later part of the set; I was in full control never seriously under pressure. I served a lot better than I did in earlier matches.

Here is the summary of my season so far. I have only included matches after 01 Apr 08.

Opponent Venue Date To Against
JC Charter Oak 3-Apr-08 6 2
JC EHRC 11-Apr-08 5 7
JC Glastonbury 18-Apr-08 6 3
JC Glastonbury 18-Apr-08 6 2
JC Glastonbury 20-Apr-08 6 4
JC Glastonbury 20-Apr-08 6 2
JC Aspen Woods 25-Apr-08 4 6
JC Aspen Woods 25-Apr-08 6 1
Summary 45 27

So in summary I won 45 games and lost 27 of them. I won 6 sets and lost 2 sets.

Last week the weather was real bad and I didn’t get any tennis action. Finally I got the ball machine out on Sunday and me and my wife had a great session with it. I practiced Backhands and cross court forehands. I am hitting backhands very cleanly and the more topspin and bounce on the ball, the better my shot was. I got the hang of good technique and I can go cross court as well as down the line. Very happy with the progress.

In that process I also discovered another flaw. I am generally late on my backhand shots because I don’t treat it as an offensive option. Now that I played around with ball machine, I can see that and I tried to over run the ball. The result—I have more time to setup for the shot and more options (eg: cross court, down the line etc).

I also drilled some cross court forehands and rediscovered a lost art of mine—change of grips. In the past seasons, I used to change my grip (I regularly use mild semi western) based on the opponents shot. On high bouncing balls, I used to go western and take a big cut at the ball. This results in more topspin, high clearance at the net and more angles. Off late I have been real lazy and try to over hit with one grip. Have to change that bad habit and get back into using multiple grips.

Needless to say, the ball machine workout is great and allowing me to really work on my game. If I can have another 5-10 such sessions, my game will be greatly improved. One thing I couldn’t do yet was to practice serve- the single most important shot of the game. I plan on working on it very soon.

Btw my wife has a great double handed backhand. I was very impressed with the way she was hitting the backhands. If I can spend some more time with her and probably some training, she can become a good player and enjoy tennis.

In NBA , my team Lakers swept Nuggets and moved to Western conference semi finals and played Utah Jazz yesterday. However I am a little sad that Dallas maverics and Phoenix suns both lost in first round of Play offs. These two teams play an offensive brand of basket ball that is very entertaining and fun to watch. Their Run and gun style of play allows them to score lots of points in the game. But their lack of defense hurt them most. Teams like SanAntonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons (and Lakers to an extent) play suffocating defense and tie down opponent’s offense. Once the wheels come of the Offense, these teams struggle a lot.

As they say “Offense fills up stands. Defense wins championships”.

Same deal in tennis. One can’t rely too much on offense with out playing proper defense. Players like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic play great defense all along and can switch into offense effortlessly once the moment presents itself. That’s why they are Grand slam champions. By the way I followed the Monte Carlo Clay court tournament final between Nadal and Federer. It is a great lesson for recreational tennis players like me. Federer played very smart and used lot of angles and wizardry to dominate Nadal in patches. Nadal relied on old tested and proven ‘Heavy topspin into Federer’s backhand ‘ tactic. In the end Nadal’s forehand is too much to handle for Federer’s backhand as Federer couldn’t sustain his level of play across two sets. Not sure how he can handle that in a best of five sets in the French Open Grand slam. In any case I don’t have strong enough tennis resume to advise Roger Federer on what he needs to do.

This week is looking much better in terms of weather. However my schedule is such that, I can only play on evenings and that too on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I have Badminton on Wednesday. There are only two more Badminton sessions left and for all practical purposes this will be the last meaningful session. The last day of badminton is usually Pizza party followed by badminton and usually very less of badminton. Depending on how crazy I feel about tennis, I may skip badminton this week.

Real Outdoor Tennis 4/18,4/20

2008-04-21T06:29:00.001-07:00

The Spring weather finally broke through and this past weekend was all about sun and 70 degree weather. I played Jack on Friday and then again on Sunday. On Saturday it was all family time for me.

I can’t explain the joy of playing in warm outdoor weather. It feels so different and natural.

Both sessions had similar outcome and for most part played out similarly. On Friday I won 6-3 and 6-2. My serve is yet to heat up and I barely got ball into play. What kept me going were the passing shots. JC tried to approach the net on few occasions and I managed to hit some good passing shots. Honestly I was surprised by some of those shots myself because they aren’t that easy to execute. There were lots of service breaks and it all boiled down to who can hold their serve. The second set was trickier as we had some wind factor. I tried to use wind to my advantage and I managed to pull through the set 6-2.

The score board doesn’t always tell the real story. JC was playing very well for the first few games and his vastly improved ground strokes were dictating the play. I had to change my game plan and made a tactical adjustment and the move immediately paid off.

On Sunday it was windy from the start though it went for worse as the match progressed. My serve is a little better though the wind didn’t help me. One side of the court , it is almost unplayable. Any amount of power or if you slightly float the ball, wind carries the ball out. So any chances of hitting the ball closer to the lines are out and its almost like one side of the court is smaller than other. On the other side , one can take really big cuts at the ball and the ball will still land in play- a factor I used successfully to break JC’s serve in the last game to win the second set when he was up 40-0.The final score was 6-4 and 6-2.

I have some positive take away. While my serve is long way off my backhand isn’t. I can now hit my backhand with power and I can go cross court as well as down the line. I need to be more consistent and also need to improve my range. I need to be more comfortable hitting the low and high balls on my backhand. Now that I have a ball machine (it arrived this AM) I can groove in on my shots and take my game one notch up. I also felt better that my level of play is improving as the match progressed and had little trouble in second sets.

This week is a busy week and I don’t think I can get any tennis action until Friday. I do have Badminton on Wednesday which I can skip (or reduce the time) which I am not planning on unless I am curious enough to take the ball machine out. I am also considering a 30 minute serving session on Wednesday.

I am also impressed by the fact that my team LosAngeles Lakers got the top seed in the crazy NBA western conference and won their first game against Denver Nuggets. I love to see Kobe Bryant win one or more NBA championship Rings.

The Ball machine that nearly was…

2008-04-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

On Friday I played with Jack Indoors. The weather outdoors was very cloudy and we thought it might rain and opted indoors though in the hindsight we could have easily played outdoors (if we ignored the occasional gusts).

We arrived late and hence started the match right away after an abbreviated warm up session. Jack ended up winning 7-5. I didn’t play badly but didn’t play good enough to win. Just about every game went to Deuce and I managed to hold my serve only once in 4 tries. Some of that may have to do with my opponent who moved me side –side and front – back. Little bit of chip and charge, few shots that skidded off lines, some Serve and Volley he did it all. My topspin shots lacked depth and ended up as sitters. My only take away is that I liked the way I played my backhand. I discovered a few interesting things I can do with it.

I definitely can use a practice session for my Serves. Probably sometime this week I am going to do that. I am not too worried about rest of my game ..Yet.

I went on the Big auction site and fell for a misrepresenting bid on a ball machine. This machine is selling almost 70-80$ cheaper than comparable ones and I though I am getting a great deal. The Bid was later on cancelled and meant nothing.

This frustrated me enough that I am almost willing to put money on a new machine. Having watched the used ball machine market for quite some time now, I can see that these machines hold their value for money. I can use this machine for a year and can still sell it for a 100$ or so less. The way I see it, 100$ is a fair price for a ball machine for 1 year. Probably within next few days I will decide.

This week except for Tuesday is looking good from weather and scheduling perspective. I am still planning to play Badminton on Wednesday. There are only 4 sessions left this season and I like to play them all.

River Race 2008

2008-04-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend two colleagues of mine participated in the Kayak/Canoe race in the local river. I love all sports but only played a few. I went with my family to watch the race as we thought it might be fun. It’s a bit windy and cold but we did have fun. I got a better sense of appreciation for the participants. It is quite competitive and fun at the same time. Age wasn’t a factor as I have seen lot of people from different age groups compete. We saw them off the starting point and then we went to one of the vantage points to see the boats coming across the Rapids. It is really fun to watch the boats chase each other as well as maneuvering across the rapids.From the safety of the banks it looks very easy…just like Tennis. Once you start actually doing it, you realize how tough it is.

Both my friends did great in the race. One of them finished third (he did the doubles with his brother) and other one raced alone, finished in the Top 20 or so. If I ever participate (I and my wife did discuss the possibility of trying it next year) I will be glad just to finish it.

You can read about it here http://mangolds.blogspot.com

I got some photos from the race and I will post them soon once I obtain permission.

No On court tennis last weekend, my schedule didn’t allow on Saturday and weather didn’t cooperate on Sunday. I did catch up with the action in Sony Ericsson open at Miami, Florida.

I have officially moved out of the ladder. With the outdoor weather improving significantly I expect the outdoor tennis season to pick up steam real soon. My schedule will be a tough thing to mange though. Given my work and family commitments, I will be on a two week schedule with one week significantly busier than other. Still I am committed to playing as much tennis as possible. I want to play in the top most part of next year’s ladder and I want to do it by having a great forehand, great serve and decent back hand besides the intangibles.

Despite all the fitness, weight work I did, I still need to drop probably 1-1.5 pounds to have my BMI will be in the Normal category. Phew..

Let the Show begin - Tennis 2008

2008-04-04T07:28:00.001-07:00

With the weather cooperating, we kicked off the 2008 Tennis season on Thursday (03 Apr). It is still cold as the temperature is probably around 50 with some wind chill. There was slight breeze which changed the flight and path of the ball.

After brief warm up (besides tinkering with Nets as they weren’t installed in some courts) we started off. I won the toss and elected to receive – no real reason. My serve takes a hit when the weather is cold and I wanted to warm up some more. I broke Jack twice and held my serve to quickly go up 4-0. Jack then held his serve twice and I finally served out the set for 6-2. I had trouble in the last game when I faced a break point. A good body serves and a kick serve into the back hand corner of the deuce court saw me pull through.

There wasn’t enough time for a complete second set but we played 6 tight games anyway. We stopped with me leading 4-2 having just broken Jack. We also broke each others serve in the first two games. He is much crisper and sharper in the second set and I could see the set heading to a tight finish. He hit some of the best serves including 3-4 aces (all of them wide to forehand corner on deuce court). I hung in there mostly by moving Jack side to side with some top spinners.

Overall a good start for the season. I liked my forehand and my movement. My serve is off but I am not too concerned. I did hit some good backhands to force the point. I didn’t feel any nerves or signs of fatigue (despite playing badminton on Wednesday night). Just to ice it off, I went home and did my normal workout minus weights. I need to be more Consistent but given this is the first game of the season –it is to be expected.

I may play on Sunday depending on availability of a fellow pro.

A quick word on Badminton. Finally after 3 weeks of really bad frustrating performance, I came up with better Badminton show this Wednesday (April 02). No, I wasn’t in a zone or something nor I won all my matches. I won most of my matches and I lost a few. However my performance all night has been steady and controlled. Before I started the evening I thought to myself? What changed so much that my game is downhill. I decided to use the ‘over the head’ forehand smash that made me popular in the early 2000’s.

For the past few weeks opponents have been pounding onto my backhand and reaping benefits as my tennis like one handed backhand was found wanting. However I stuck playing backhands as really that’s one of the few ways for me to learn it. Yesterday I hit several backhands back into play and some for winners. I think I got my forehand smash back and hit several winners.

There is probably 3-4 badminton sessions left before we call it a season. I won’t be playing next Wednesday as I have to stay home.

I am also planning on visiting my colleague’s race their Kayak’s at the Hockennum river this Sunday. It should be a fun event.

I don’t have any updates on ball machine. Nothing at the price I am willing to pay.

First dose of Outdoor tennis

2008-03-26T07:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Jack and I decided we will try to play outdoors. So we showed up around 5 pm. As we got on the courts, there is cold breeze and occasional gusts. It was hard to setup Jack’s ball machine as the wind didn’t allow us to get consistent readings.

We still managed to hit for a bit and then played a no limit tie breaker. Jack played very good under the cold conditions. We stopped tracking score towards the end but I know at one point he is leading like 16-5. His serving was good and he hit a lot of winners. Other than one or two serves where I really hit the spots, there wasn’t much to write about on my game.

Good start I guess though weather conditions could have been better. There was a time when I felt that I needed gloves to keep my hands warm.

Yesterday I lost a bid on a ball machine. So the search continues.

Getting Ready for Outdoor Tennis

2008-03-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in a while as stuff at home kept me very busy. I did not play any Tennis and my badminton performance is average at the best. I am losing to players I used to comfortably beat before. I am not too overtly concerned as I know some of the reasons. I am trying to hit the Badminton Bird (shuttle) as if I am hitting a Tennis ball with a low to high motion and often with topspin finish. This usually sets up the bird to be hit by opponent. Most of my opponents are now picking my Backhand. In the past I used to run around and force the shot with my forehand. These days I am content on trying to hit with a backhand as I know in the long run it will help me improve my backhand. My smashes aren’t effective sometimes as I am more emphasizing the back scratch position (like Tennis serve).

So even though my Badminton game isn’t great guns at the moment, my moment on the court is crisp. I am still doing my work outs. I dropped a few pounds and I am doing weights to improve strength. I have incorporated some special exercises to focus on Abs and core. Cardio is great.

I am basically getting ready for Outdoor tennis. I am very keen on taking my tennis game to the next level and some of the steps I have taken above will help me accomplish that goal. I have watched lot of Indian Wells Tennis (pacific Life Open) and observed some great strategies by Nadal and Mardy Fish. I watched one of my favorite players Juan Carlos Ferrero in his victory to Quarter finals (he lost to another favorite player David Nalbandian).

The biggest concern I have for Tennis season is the schedule. Between Day care, wife’s career and my own, lawn mowing, gardening, it will be tough to squeeze out lot of time for Tennis. I will be happy if I can play twice a week (may be 3 times with an optimistic look). I also need to carve out some Ball machine sessions. I haven’t bought it yet but I have narrowed down my choices. If I can get an Ebay machine for 500$ , I will take it. Otherwise I will buy the Silent partner Lite (goes for 675) with the oscillator (helps spray the ball side ways) and Spin (helps simulate topspin and slice). I will wait until the outdoor season heats up (probably late April – early May).

I pulled a neck muscle last Thursday. Luckily Ibuprofen and lot of IcyHot helped. I recovered to probably 90%.

Schedule and weather permitting, I will attempt to play some outdoor tennis with Jack. If this week doesn’t work out I am sure the next week will.

Monday Tennis 03/10

2008-03-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

I chose the wrong day to show up at the ladder. I didn’t gain much and felt like I should have chosen another day.

I went there just on time and looked at the draw sheet. First match against Bruce, second against Faez and then with Andy (#1 player of the ladder). I was very happy as this draw sets up nicely. I can warm up against Bruce and Faez for a showdown with Andy. Cant go wrong here. Then I looked around --Attendance was extremely light. Out of the 13 players, only 4 of them showed up. Two for the top bracket and two for the bottom bracket. For my part of the draw only Bruce showed up. So we ended up playing a best of two sets (and a tie breaker if we split sets) in No Ad format. I prefer the longer full set matches (as opposed to best of 7 games on the ladder) as the full matches give more time to get used to the opponent and work out a counter attack strategy.

I played Bruce in the past and he is tricky. He can play great tennis and worst tennis in the same point. After warm up he started the serve. I broke him at Deuce but immediately got broken back to go 1-1. He started match by repeatedly attacking my Backhand. He had some good pace & placement on the serve towards my backhand that I was unable to counter (especially with my new “Sword from Sheath” technique). We both held serve until we are 3-3 when I broke him and then held my serve and eventually served out the set for 6-4. I hit a lot of heavy top spinning forehands and he had trouble returning them.

Now fully warmed up, I took over the second set 6-1. My forehand is grooved in and my serve has loosened up and started kicking out very well. After the match we played ground strokes for about 10 minutes and it was good drill. Overall it is a good match but apart from a few backhands, I didn’t learn much. My opponent has a good backhand and I was able to see his technique.

I will once again move up the ladder though it won’t make much difference. I will be sending out my withdrawal shortly. Unless Snowy weather returns and I miss tennis badly, this is it for this season. The manager indicated that the ladder runs till end of April (probably another 6 weeks) however I don’t see a lot of attendance once the outdoor temperatures climb to 50’s. I am more aggressively pursuing the ball machine and hope it get one before outdoor season catches fire.

On a positive note, I am ending the ladder on a high winning note.

Farewell for Winter Tennis

2008-03-10T07:18:00.001-07:00

I decided that I would go and play tonight. Unless the weather turns too cold and I miss Tennis too much, this will be the last session with the Ladder. The only reason why I am playing today is my email system was down over the weekend and the email I sent out for a Substitute bounced back. I don’t want to pull out at the last minute (unless of course there is a valid reason). Another reason is since I play in the bottom group, I can test my Sword from Sheath Backhand (read my last post).

My preparations are far from ideal. I haven’t played recently and based on badminton sessions, I am not playing optimal. My family got sick over the weekend and we spent considerable time trying to recover from it. However the past 3 workout sessions are good and I once again started to enjoy them. I started doing weights as well – so back to full fledged workouts. I also bought a new machine to work out the Abs, lower body and builds core strength- many Tennis pundits say key for more power in tennis. We will see how it goes. The heart rates and etc (including the warming up part) have returned to normal.

It will also give me a chance to test my theory. As I indicated in the past my performance dips when I start doing weights. I want to see how tonight goes.

With any luck I might play Andy (the #1 player of the ladder) who is currently at the bottom of the draw because he hasn’t played in a long time. In the same boat as me. I want to use this last session to collect some readings against him.

Weather looks decent these days and I am hopeful we may get to start the outdoor season early.

So looking forward to this session. I will be officially quitting the ladder tomorrow.

Sword from Sheath

2008-03-07T13:40:00.001-08:00

I haven’t played Tennis since Feb 24. I am still officially in the ladder currently at the bottom cellar (not exactly, I still have 5 guys who are ranked behind me) though I haven’t played since Feb. 14. I am contemplating on playing one last time at the ladder for this season. I may play this Monday.

Flu season or something, I am not feeling 100% most of the days though I still haven’t skipped any workout session. I started weights again and they will be part of my program. So I am on target as far as the goal of staying fit and ready for the Outdoor tennis season.

A word on my badminton last two weeks. Very bad, especially the last week. No rhythm- no execution- poor results. Part of the problem is it is taking a very long time for me to warm up. I don’t know if it is good or bad. I have seen this in my work outs as well. Usually in my work outs, I warm up somewhere around 10 minute mark. In the past week, for whatever reason I didn’t really feel the exercising zing until 20+ minutes , leaving too less a time as I don’t spend more than 30 minutes. In badminton, it translated to almost 2 hrs—basically a game or two before I am ready to head back home. However yesterday’s workout felt good after a long time. May be the Flu/congestion is going away.

Coming to the topic, I have been researching a lot on improving my backhand. I came across this analogy/concept that accurately describes hitting a one handed Backhand (1HBH). The motion of hitting a 1HBH is similar to drawing a sword from the sheath. Great way to easily describe the concept. I took a few practice swings and it feels natural. I will post my On court experience. May be this concept with the ball machine will get me the backhand I am looking for.

While “drawing the sword from sheath”, I came across this article by Peter Bodo. In here he suggests recreational tennis players work on Inside-In, Inside-out forehands than spending time on learning a 1HBH that only few can hit with command. Unlike what he says, I DO run around a lot on my backhands and work forehands. My offense runs on Forehand and I don’t expect that will change anytime soon. I actually feel very happy whenever I hit Inside-in/Inside-out forehands.

Sunday Tennis 2/24

2008-02-25T07:34:00.001-08:00

Due to scheduling conflicts and lack of interest, I won’t be playing on Monday night 2/25. Some part in me wants me to play but I am not fully into it. In my mind the winter Tennis season is over and it is time to focus for the spring. I may play one more session in the ladder but not sure when.

On Sunday I played with Jack. Before we played, we did a little bit of social “work” for the Tennis community by snow shoveling. We started out hitting against the ball machine and then finally played a set. I quickly raced to a 3-0 lead. Jack pulled it back to 3-2 and then I closed it 6-2.

There were some good rallies and we played some positive tennis. The warm-up against the ball machine helped me a lot as I grooved in on my shots. I dictated play with my Forehand. I don’t think I served that well but it wasn’t bad. I lost my serve once and managed to break Jack service except once.

I liked the way I hit forehand shots. I personally felt they had lot of spin and action on them (especially when I used western grip). One particular point really stood out for me. I hit an inside –in forehand that kicked up real high and I didn’t think was coming back. Somehow jack managed to put it back in play. I hit another forehand into the middle of court which kicked up very high and probably had lots of action and ended up winning the point. It’s that Topspin that makes the ball difficult to hit for opponents, especially if it lands around the baseline and skids off.

One of the key strategies against solid counter punchers like Jack /Ramon (and most S&V players) is to strike first. Once you let them control the point, you will end up running a lot and/ or make unforced errors while trying to come up with a low percentage winner. Usually when I play them I try to dictate play. If I start making some of those shots that puts them on defensive. If I don’t, I usually end up putting more pressure on myself and probably resort to Plan B (pushing) and Plan C (all out attack as I have nothing to lose at that point). Today it turned out to be a good strategy.

The more I play with Ball machine, the more I am convinced that I need one. That is one single option I believe can help me move to become a 4.5 player (I personally assess my current tennis game as 3.75-4.15 depending on the day). Before the Spring Tennis season warms up, I will get one. I am not sure how much tennis time I will have come Spring/Summer as I will have to balance tennis and time with my baby.

After our match, I watched the Local University women’s Tennis Team practice. I learned some interesting tips and Techniques. I spent about an hour taking some notes. There were about 7 players at the practice and I saw the coach working out some drills and concepts into them.

I am probably not going to play next Monday either (March 03). So I will not have lot of scores to post in my next few blogs. I will continue to post on General tennis, Badminton and workouts.

Monday night Tennis (no Play) 02/18

2008-02-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

I couldn’t play this week due to scheduling conflicts. I am not sure of next week either. My baby returns from her vacation on Monday evening. Depending on how much time is left after I get her home, I will make a last minute decision (if I slip to 0830, I may play anyway). I also have other commitments on March 17 and hence won’t be able to play.

Well, a few factors are preventing me from playing Monday tennis. I am almost there in terms of $$$ for a Ball machine. Some more savings would boost my chances greatly. Another reason is that Jack quit the ladder. Part of the fun is the Lunch time discussions that surround our matches, opponents, tactics, strategy and performance. Now that will be lacking, I don’t quite have the same interest. Finally I am almost near the allocated budget for Winter Tennis. So it’s partly financial and partly interest.

One thing that still keeps me motivated is that I have lot of unfinished business in the ladder. I didn’t make it into the top4 at 7 pm. Based on where my game is right now, only my serve can get me there i.e. to Serve really well and hold my games and hope to break the opponent on his serve. As you traverse up the ladder it becomes that much more difficult. There are people with good serves and good ground strokes and some of those match ups are not in my favor.

In other words, the top of the ladder consists of Strong 4.0/ Weak 4.5 players. Read the definitions here . Only my Serve and Forehand are at that level. My backhand is probably a 3.0. I need lots of practice (esp on backhand side) to make my game more consistent—hence the ball machine. I am very confident that after 5-10 sessions on a ball machine, I can pretty much take on anyone in the 4.0/4.5 space.

Confidence in one’s game is very important and practice will improve confidence. I am usually confident about my serve and forehand but not always sure on my backhand and definitely second guessing on volleys and etc. Hitting against ball machine should improve my backhand and slowly I may work on volleying aspect as well. It will be in my best interest to learn volleying as it can compliment a good serve.

I am continuing my work outs. I haven’t started weights yet. It is a little strange but whenever I do weights my performance in Tennis/Badminton takes a noticeable dip. Not sure why though. It is not like I am lifting huge weights. Need some more analysis. For now I wont start weights until I fully break from Tennis (My current scheduled last session is on Feb 25). I feel very good about my cardio. It’s almost like I picked from where I left off before my vacation. I am planning to further improve on this and come spring, I can focus on the game and not worry about fitness.

Badminton on 2/20 was good. Some great games and my cardio fitness are helping a lot. I am feeling lot better about my backhand. I definitely improved my net coverage of the game and able to finish few points at the net. I am focusing on delicate soft points when I play with opponents where I am hugely favored to win and it seems to be paying off when I play bigger and better opponents. I improved my backhand technique and have a better feel for it. Hopefully before the badminton season winds down (mid May) and Tennis season catches on, I have a better technique (having a ball machine wouldn’t hurt either).

SOA in Tennis

2008-02-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

As an Architect in IT Industry, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is part and parcel of my daily work life. As I started reviewing my Tennis game recently, it now forms crux of my tennis game.

Welcome to “Service” Oriented Architecture in Tennis. Unlike in IT, where SOA offers multiple abilities (flexibility,expandability,maintainability,reusability, blah blah), In Tennis it makes ones game One dimensional. Just to be clear , SOA in tennis means “Serve oriented game”, in other words ones game is based on their Serve.

In the pro circuits, there are tons of players who built their game around their serve and were vastly successful. From a top 50 player like IvoKarlovic, John Isner, Slobodan zivizinovic to ex-world #1 like Goran IvaniSevic, Pete Sampras, and Boris Becker all used their Serve to reach the pinnacle of tennis.

They also have something else in common. They are great Serve and Volley players Ie their game plan is more or less simple. Serve well, expect a weak return, move into the net and close it with a volley. Even during rallies they try to seize the net position as quickly as they can by coming behind on a good approach shot (usually towards opponents back hand) and close it with a firm volley.

My game as it stands now consists of a serve and a forehand (Forget zip code,Not even in the same state code but if i have to look up a similarity in pro circuits, it will be Andy Roddick). I have a dependable serve (not always potent but doesn’t give away easy returns for opponents) and what I call as my dependable shot- forehand. Usually my game plan involves moving the opponent around with deep baseline shots until there is an opening to go for the winner. I am very comfortable at the baseline and enjoy the baseline rallies. There are two shots I particularly enjoy ; The Inside-in forehand à run around the back hand and hit a forehand down the line towards opponent right corner. The Inside-out forehandà a variation of the cross court forehand directed towards a right handed opponents backhand corner.

Needless to say it is very one dimensional baseline game. Even if I assume that I hit very good serves every single time my game is still one dimensional. The challenge I have is that I don’t have a good net game (or the soft touch needed at net) that can compliment a good serve and end the point quickly (not too mention the pressure it adds for an opponent returning the serve). For now all the opponent needs is to somehow get the serve in play (and most opponents are good at this) and from then on we are in a rally and it can be anybody’s point. I don’t have a good backhand (forget it- I don’t even have a passable backhand) that can help me to be aggressive from backhand side of the court.

My point is Service oriented game is bad for Tennis. One should have a well rounded all court game where one can rely on Forehand, backhand, counter punching, volleying to score points quickly. What we need is Agile Architecture.

I am hoping that I can quickly get a ball machine and hone my backhand and volleying while further improving on the consistency of the Forehand. Even a marginal improvement in backhand or Volleying can make a big difference to my game and results.

My friend Jack has quit the ladder playing his last session this last Monday. A powerful counter puncher with good hands at the net, he made a steady progress since last April when I first played him. He is playing a 4.0 game and there is no telling where his game would be if he can tweak his serve. As long as we both stay fit, we will still be playing in spring/summer though we wont be playing the same opponents.

My knee hasn’t fully healed but I am going to give a shot at today’s badminton (if it’s not cancelled due to snow). I may have to Baby sit next Monday in which case I have to skip Tennis. I will know more tomorrow. Otherwise based on the requests of my fans, I plan on playing one more session and give the fans another opportunity to say adieus for this winter.

Monday Night Tennis Feb 11

2008-02-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first outing at 7 pm this year[I played at 7 pm before i went on vacation]. As you move up the ladder you will have to play more consistent and quality players. I only played against one of them (Bob) before and was really nervous. For my own good I wanted to play well and show myself that my 7pm appearance is no flash in the pan. From a timing perspective, I don’t like the 7pm starts. I usually start from my work around 1730 hrs and reach home around 1800 hrs (6 pm). In order to make it to 7pm game, I have to start by 1840 (0640 pm). This doesn’t give me enough time to finish my chores at home/play with my daughter/talk to my wife.

I reached barely in time for the match. There was a slight mix up of courts until the organizer arrived and sorted it out. My first match is with Bob. I played him before and I know that his strokes are consistent; he can volley well and has no obvious weakness that I can exploit. I lost to him 5-2 the last time we played. He won the toss and elected to receive. I started the serve and fell behind 0-30 as I couldn’t find good rhythm. I loosened up a bit and started hitting the spots better. Courtesy of 2 aces I was able to win the first game. I couldn’t get any read on his serve and we stayed 1-1. The entire match went with serve from then on. He managed to break my serve once as I had a very bad service game and one line call and one net chord didn’t go my way. I had two break points on his game twice but didn’t convert. The final score is 4-3. I served really well (7 aces) and used my forehand very well. I even managed to hit some good backhands with proper technique.

Next up is Rich. I never played him before but glanced at his game as he was in the next court. At the looks of it, he looked more formidable than my first opponent. He won the toss and served first. He has a very deceptive serve. It is a variation of slice serve but also has a side spin component (like kick serve). He varied his pace. One serve would be blazing fast followed by what I call as Dink serve with spin. His ground strokes have lot of pace (and weight) in them but are not as consistent as some of my other opponents as he isn’t a great mover. However he has a very good down the line forehand shot.

As we started the match, His serve didn’t trouble me that much and I managed to return well. Then I used my forehand to dictate the play. I hit two inside-in forehands (quickly turning to be one of my favorite shots) winners and followed it up with a cross court forehand winner to break his serve and go 1-0 up. I started the serve and he was up 0-30. I calmed down and hit some good serves to hold the game. From this point on I didn’t have trouble holding my serve. I got a few break points on his serve but didn’t convert them. I won the match 4-3.

Last match of the day is with Luciano. I assumed a few things as this guy has been a constant at 7 pm ladder. I was very surprised by what I saw. He has a passable serve that has little action and keeps low. He basically directs the ball (pushes/punches) on ground strokes to the corners. In my opinion he is a polished counter puncher/pusher. I lost the toss and he elected to serve. It took me the entire first game to get used to his style. He went up 1-0. I started the serve but fell behind quickly to 30-40. Then I took a gamble and went big on serve. This is probably one of the best clutch serves I have hit in the recent times. From the Ad court I went to his backhand. He could only stare as the ball whizzed past him and brought the scores to deuce. Another hard serve into the body and I pulled out the game to make the scores even at 1-1. I held my serve comfortably from then on hugely frustrating him. I went hard on his serve and broke him immediately. Basically my game matches up very well with his. His style is very susceptible to Hard pace and topspin as merely blocking them wouldn’t be adequate to keep the ball in play. Besides he needs to work the ball towards the corners to have any sort of advantage. I was hitting some huge forehands towards the centre of the court and he struggled to find angles. He tried drop shots etc etc. Though I won the match 4-3, it could easily have been 5-2.

I finished with 11 points just one point shy of the leader (bob who won 12 points and moves further up). Though I am a little disappointed about that I am glad that I am staying at 7 pm (the other two guys won 9 (Luciano) and 10 points respectively) and helping my confidence. I also hurt my right knee a bit during my last match.

As I ponder over the past two weeks and contrast them to my game prior to my vacation, I don’t see much difference. I haven’t improved much though the stats/results seem to be different. It’s just that my serve is working now and that is making the other parts of my game look good. I am holding my serve easily it automatically puts pressure on opponents serve. They are trying to be aggressive on their game and that is resulting in unforced errors. The game is now played against my forehand giving me a better chance.

I got some remarks on my serve and it appears like most of my opponents are concerned/worried about my serve (and to some extent forehand). I felt happy (and a bit confident) as I learned how to serve all by myself and all the practice/hard work I put in the past came good (even though it may not last forever).

If I do play next week, I am going to play with Ramon (who moved up from 0830) and Rich for sure. I haven’t made a decision on whether to play next week. I am serious about the ball machine (and already started looking in ebay and etc) and I can use some extra $$$. I may be able to save some money by not playing the ladder (at 20$ a session, it isn’t cheap). I am planning to make the decision by Wednesday. Initially I am planning on skipping couple of weeks and depending on how I feel, I will probably call it a season.

I met a new player who joined the league yesterday. He lives in Rocky hill and appeared to have a good passion for the game (though not sure what his playing level is). As of now we have about 4-5 players—enough for a spring/summer ladder which myself and jack are planning to start.

Monday night Tennis Feb 04 and Badminton Feb 06

2008-02-08T06:33:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, myself and jack against his new ball machine. It was a great exercise and allowed me to groove in on my strokes. I am almost certain to get a ball machine myself. I saved up some money and boosted that pool rather unexpectedly as I won a super bowl related bet.

This is probably one of the best outings I had from a results perspective. I won 14 games and lost 7. I don’t have a winning record against these players .I never won against Ramon and I never won against Jack in the Monday night ladder. Warren whipped me pretty good the last two times I played him.

After a short warm up with Jack, I proceeded to the first match against Ramon. I won the toss but elected to receive (I had a horrible serving time on Sunday while practicing with jack). I was quickly 0-30 up and soon it was 15-45 in my favor with two break points. I couldn’t convert and he was up 1-0. I started serving rather nervously and went 30-0 up due to two unforced errors from my opponent. That one ace I hit at 30-0, gave me the confidence that my serve is ON. I held my serve easily for rest of the match and also managed to put pressure on his serve by repeatedly attacking his second serve and kept the rallies to his forehands. I didn’t convert break points on my opponents until the last game. I broke him and finally managed to get my first Victory against him. 4-3. tactically I made the right choice in keeping the match between our forehands.

I played Jack in the second match up. I lost the toss and he elected to serve. No surprises here as we both played each other so many times and also coach each other. Even the match patterns were same until we tied at 2-2. Though I went aggressive initially I had to turn it down because he is more consistent. I broke his serve at 2-2 to go up 3-2 on his unforced errors. As it happened many times in the past in our games against each other, a break doesn’t mean much as usually the other person would break back within a game or two. I didn’t want to lose this advantage and went slightly aggressive on the serve. It turned out to be a very good service game and I went up 4-2. I came close to breaking him again in the last game of the match but he played well to keep it real close at 4-3.

Last match up of the day is with Warren. I lost to him very badly last two times and I really needed a good show. I lost the toss and he elected to serve. My game plan is very simple. Keep the ball to his forehand and avoid his powerful backhand that is hard to read. I just did that and I broke every game of his except for one (his 3 service game). I served very well and never even had a break point on mine. I closed the match 6-1. I did observe a few things on the other side of the court. He had lot of trouble against my serves and was frustrated as he couldn’t get the ball into play on my serve. He got so impatient with my Crosscourt forehand rallies that he tried to run around his forehands and hit Backhand rallies. Now that’s a match up I enjoy--> My cross court forehand against his Backhand on his forehand corner. I will take that any time.

So I ended up with 14 points and very likely to move again into the 7 pm league. I am glad to put some wins against these quality players.

I will probably have one or two more sessions in the Tennis ladder before I close the winter tennis season and break until warm spring weather. With any luck, the break wont be more than 5-6 weeks.

The ladder, though helping my tennis, is expensive. I am thinking that weather should improve sufficiently by mid April and may be able to catch some lucky breaks (like last Sunday) where the temperatures are above mid 50’s from Early April. I will still continue with my Badminton season and Gym work outs and that should keep me in shape. I may throw in a tennis session at the ladder as a substitute if I am missing tennis too much. I am also looking for an economical ball machine (like Jack’s). It would be a good addition to my game.

Latest – as expected, I made it back into 7 pm group. I only played against one (bob) in the next Monday’s draw. So it will be interesting. Unless I chose to play one more session, this will probably be the last match up for the season. In total I played around 8 sessions (excl the 1 week where I sub’d) and I spent 3 sessions at 7 pm and 3 at top of 0830 and 2 sessions at the bottom of 0830. That is a very good mix of playing styles and standards.

Not a lot to write on Badminton session. I am getting back my game. I won some challenging match ups where most expected that i would lose. My smash isnt working for some reason. need to do some more work on it. Back hand is getting better.

Badminton 30 Jan and Tennis Feb 04 Preview

2008-02-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

With not much to write about Tennis on Monday, I wasn’t expecting any different results at Badminton. In summary it was a mixed bag. Still jetlagged and tired, I started off Ok, went south in between and recovered some what towards the end. I didn’t have any offense and people jumped all over on my serve. They also exploited my back hand. I wasn’t getting any power on my smashes and pretty much struggled to keep up. Unlike my Tennis game, which is still in development, my badminton game is more formed and reliable and I expect that within a week or two, normality will be restored.

The draw for next Monday’s tennis is out. Surprise – I am still in the top bracket of 0830. Not sure how I managed to stay afloat despite winning a low number of games. Probably other results went in my favor.

Here is the challenging part. My next weeks draw is tough. I play Ramon, Warren and Jack and I have a loosing record against all of them (* I won initially against Warren but off late he is dominating. I had an edge against Jack during last summer but that’s history and I am yet to win against him in the ladder). I want to correct my record at least against one of them. One needs loads of stamina and fire power to stay with Ramon and Jack as both of them can play solid defense and attack very well. Jack is a quick mover and that adds to the challenge. If I am consistent, I can probably take out Warren but he is on a hot streak and has a great disguise on his backhand. It’s tough to tell if he is going cross court or Down the Line.

Some part of those losses is due to me trying to go on the offensive instead of letting the game play itself out. I sure can win points by playing defense and waiting for an unforced error from the opponent. However it is more satisfying for me to win points by hitting an inside-in forehand winner or by power serving. It’s just that I don’t have that much consistency in that type of game yet. So many times I reach 40-0 on my serve or break my opponent to get to that score line and then falter handing the game to my opponent. I should start playing smart tennis mixing up offense with defense.

I haven’t done anything in fitness area for the past 5 weeks. I am planning on working out Friday and Sunday (may be Saturday as well) and try to get to fitness ways.

I am relishing the challenge and despite some factors (fitness, match practice) that aren’t optimum as I would like, I think I can win decent number of games on Monday night.

Happy New Year and Monday Tennis Jan 28

2008-01-29T09:00:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone. I am back from a long near 4 week vacation and my blog will be more regular. I will post the vacation details soon.

I arrived in town on Sunday night after a 24 hr flight after a reschedule. I still wanted to play Monday Tennis as I have been out of any sports action for 4+ weeks and I wanted to quickly get back to playing ways. I didn’t get any sleep on Sunday night and tiredly worked on Monday.

Fully tired, Jet lagged (10.5 hr time zone difference) compounded with Lack of fitness/match practice, I didn’t have any illusions of making a statement with my game. As expected I managed to win only 4 games in total. This is the lowest number since I started playing in the ladder. I have no excuses really. I wanted to play and I did. Opponents were more consistent and I often over hit my shots. I also tried out 2 different racquets from other players before finally sticking with mine. Warren and Bob beat me 6-1 before Frank finished me off with 5-2. There were about 4 games where I was 40-0 up but didn’t manage to close them. I wasn’t in my rhythm and my lack of practice showed up. Towards the end I started feeling better and my serve started clicking in and I got some first serves in. I had glimpses of my Inside-In forehand winners.

The only positive I will take credit for—all the points I won are clean winners and not due to an unforced error from an opponent. Other good thing is this Tennis tired me out enough and I had a good nights sleep—very useful when once is jetlagged and trying to quickly adjust to the new time zone.

This score line will ensure that I will start playing at the bottom of the 0830 ladder from next week. I am only planning on being in the ladder for couple more weeks. I will break from ladder in March and wait for warm weather in April for Outdoor tennis. My goals for these few ladder matches are to basically improve my shot selection and get back to winning ways.

I will have different plan/goals for Outdoor tennis 2008 season. I will keep you posted.

Badminton 12/12, 12/19 and Tennis 12/17

2007-12-20T12:54:00.001-08:00

I got a bit busy and didn’t get a chance to update my blog.
My badminton on 12/12 is average and nothing much to write about. I played well in patches and won some games and ended up with an overall winning record. The only thing of significance is that I changed my grip and tried to experiment. With this grip I was able to play a finesse game at the net though my power game (smashes etc) suffered.

What I got out of it is that I can play good net game if I can put some more interest into it. I also need to learn to change the grips quickly.

I scored enough tennis points to stay at 0700 PM for the 12/17 session. I had to baby sit during that time and hence opted out of 0700. I did play at 0830 as a Sub. I didn’t do any of my pre-match rituals (warm up , Bottled Propel , stretching ) . I also didn’t get good sleep for the past few nights as I am trying to change my sleep clock to be set for the time zone for my vacation in less than 5 days.

I tried to show case my 2HBH (two handed back hand). My first match was with Mike. I felt that he doesn’t have any weapons that would cause me concern. The final score was 4-3 in his favor. I used western forehand to hit some winners but my server wasn’t working and I double faulted a lot.

I was worse in second match (warren). I lost 6-1 because I wasn’t in it at all. Also he played very good and hit some great shots.

In my Third match (Thomas-Sub) I was down 0-3. Then I suddenly found my range and started making shots and firing some serve. I finally closed it 4-3 .

Over all not a good performance. Serve is bad, forehand was flaky. 2HBH was a disaster. I can’t seem to learn to hit a backhand.

12/19 Badminton wasn’t any different. Glimpses of good shot making followed by some awful mistakes. However I took my baby to the courts and she, being 11 months old had a great time. I am almost certain that she is into sports. Time will tell.

I have a Tennis practice hit session scheduled on 12/24. This is with a friend of mine and my goal is to enjoy the time there. I wont be able to post any updates on that session until New year. I will try to post some updates on my vacation.

This wraps up my 2007 Tennis. My next session will be on Jan 28. Looking back at this year I feel I made progress. My Serve improved and so did my forehand. I didn’t play as much tennis as I would like to in summer but kind of making up for it in Winter.

I would like to use the things I learned in 2007 to launch into 2008. I want to improve my backhand, make my Serve lethal and add more variety into my forehand.

An interesting year thus draws to a close. Enjoy your Holidays. Happy Newyear 2008 and Thanks for all the support.

Monday Tennis 12/10

2007-12-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is My first outing at 7 Pm. As I have been doing past few occasions, I warmed up on my elliptical for 10 minutes and headed to the club. My first match was with opponent #3 from Oct 24 (Ramon?). It was very cold out there and I had trouble warming up. We started the match but I was really not in except for a few points here and there. He won the toss and elected to serve. I was hoping for a better show but the score was same as before 4-3 in his favor. Basically his style of pusher game with occasional deep shots require more racquet work than I did. I lost a lot of backhand points as I was trying my new backhand technique. We tied at 1-1 and then he went 3-1 up before I pegged him back 3-2. We both broke each others serve to a final score of 3-4. The positive aspect for me is i didnt do a lot but the match is still close.

The second match is with Carl. His first forehand cross court winner made me very nervous as I realized how good he is with those shots. I won the toss but I asked him to serve. We went with serve until 2-2. I got some read on his style of play. He plays more on baseline though he probably has a better net game than mine. I went aggressive with my shots and broke his serve to go 3-2 up. It is my turn to serve. This is probably one of the best service games I had in recent times. 3 aces and 1 service winner. Basically 4 shots from my racquet and game is over. He held his serve on a deuce game to make the final score 4-3 in my favor. I loved the way I served and I liked the way I played this match. If only I can play so consistent. This guy is a very good player with good power on both wings. I am glad i came out on top.

In the third match, my opponent for the day is Dave. Final score 2-5. my game doesn’t match up well with his style. He keeps points very short. He stands close to the net and punches the ball with good power and backspin. The ball keeps low and then skids. I made a tactical mistake in trying to stay up on his serve. His serve though decent isn’t anything earth shattering and I could have been up the baseline and played it through. He broke my serve once and that was enough as he started the serve. Honestly, except for one game, It was a difficult task to hold my serve. I will have to come up with something different if I have to win against him. One thing i would like to try against him is use a little more western grip. (yes western grip have a disadvantage against balls that keep low. But this guy doesnt have pace. if i get under the ball and go up with lots of spin, i can stay ahead)

My final tally is 9 points. Not bad for my first outing at this level. I am not sure if I stay at 7 pm or drop back to 0830. It all depends on other results but there is some substitution involved so I am not too sure. It hardly matters because next week’s will be the last match before I go on vacation and I will start at the rock bottom once I come back.

I didn’t really get lot of chances to groove in on the tips I learned. However based on my early results, I don’t think my 1hbh will become effective anytime soon against quality opponents. I am thinking of trying 2hbh exclusively next week and see what it does. May be if I give it a little time, I will get confident in using it. I need to fine tune my serve a little bit as basically that is one stroke I have decent mechanics and it is proving to be a match winner.

There are certain styles of play that are more challenging to me. I need to work on them and get better. One thing is apparent to me. My game is as good if not better than most of the 7 PM players. Its all down to me to put it all together.

Badminton 12/05 and Tennis lesson 12/07

2007-12-10T10:16:00.000-08:00

I worked out on Tuesday despite feeling a little tired. We (with my car pooling friends) arrived a little late into our Wednesday’s Badminton. I didn’t really have a lot of energy and missed some routine shots. Though I won most of the matches, they are closer than to my liking. All the time I am trying to warm up so to speak and get my energy back. Eventually I did towards later part of the session and shots were flowing more freely. I stayed till 10 pm (closing time) before heading home. Realizing my low energy levels I decided to give myself Thursday off.

On Friday, we had a semi private session with a pro. A semi private lesson is essentially a shared instruction. My friend and I signed up for this session as we felt we could use some professional help. My original goal going into this session was to get some help on Backhand and some technique on hitting a TWIST serve.

The session was enlightening from couple of different aspects. I can say that there are probably a dozen things I got some tips on. It is almost not practical to absorb every bit of information. My key points are

1) Backhand Technique: My chronic problem. The instructor essentially showed me the right technique on my one hander and offered technical improvements for the two handed backhand. I used to hit the backhand like that before unaware that it is the right away. Clearly neither (one hander or two hander) are natural for me and I just need to work myself to have a respectable shot. For now, due to lack of confidence in 2HBH, I will go with One handed backhand (1HBH). However that technique with 1HBH, though offers lots of topspin and margin, takes a lot to hit with power and conviction. I will focus on 2HBH from January.

2) Recovery: I often struggled with the question that why I am late to reaching the ball. A big aspect of hitting a powerful shot is being in position to hit the shot. The instructor showed me the right technique. I have decent foot speed and decent anticipation. Its just that my recovery position is not optimal and I often stay at the same position looking at my shot instead of starting the recovery and be ready for next shot. As the instructor indicated, the ideal recovery position is to be a few feet side of away from centre line, where opponent would hit a cross court shot.

3) Serve : Unfortunately the instructor didn’t offer much on serve other than indicating a contact position of hitting a slice serve. This is something I knew since long time so not much of use. I didn’t get any tips on hitting a Twist serve. I guess I have to learn it on my own or wait for another lesson. Looking at it positively, may be my serve technique is adequate for my level for play and doesnt have any glaring bad traits and hence the instructor didnt offer much.

4) Forehand: The instructed indicated that my forehand flow is ok in general and I need to improve on it to make it more smooth and controlled. I need to focus on my racquet take back and finish. Also I seem to often get out of position/balance after hit a heavy forehand and I got a few tips to prevent it.

In order to implement above tips and reinforce them effectively, I shouldn’t be afraid to lose few matches as it will take some time for these changes to be grooved in and during that period results will be less than one would like. I am glad that I did this session. I probably wouldn’t have done this with out my friend. I guess we both are feeding off of each other to play better tennis.

I made it to the 7 PM ladder due to my results from last week’s tennis session. So tonight is my time at the Show courts. Just like from previous week, I want to go with a simple attitude of just enjoying the game. I will try to implement the tips from above as it is better to work on them now while the instruction is still fresh in my mind (strike while the Iron is still hot!).

Tonight I will be playing some tough opponents. One of them I played before (opponent #3 from Oct 24) and rest I haven’t played them. Since these players are playing steady at 7 Pm for quite sometime, they are generally good and strong players .It will be a tough task to come out with a winning record. Statistically I play well against players I have played before a few times. So things are not looking good from that perspective either. I did lot of weights past two days to compensate for me missing weight sessions past 10 days (big Mistake!). My muscles are sore.
But my plan is go there and enjoy the game. A few inside in forehand winners, a few aces, along with some implementation of above tips , I will be a happy bunch.

There is only 1 session left after todays before I go on my vacation. When I come back I will be starting at the bottom of 0830 ladder anyways as I won’t be able to carry my points while I am on vacation. So if I play well enough, I will stay at 7 pm for next week. If not I will drop to top of 0830 Ladder for next week. Either way I will finish the first part of the season on a high note.

Spare Racquet

2007-12-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I was speaking with another player who said he broke his strings during the match and had to play with an opponent’s spare racquet. That racquet was far heavier and hurt his game. That got me thinking- again. I wanted to invest in a spare racquet for a long time. The cost is around 200$ and beyond my comfort zone.

The spare racquet I carry in my kit is a walmart 15$ special that I bought 6 yrs ago and never restrung. It isn’t a player’s frame and my game will be impacted if I play with that. Imagine- I had problems with a dampener on my existing racquet strings. There is no telling what will happen if I play with a sub par frame. The racquet I am using Babolat APD + isn’t manufactured any more. Besides i have added my own customizations such as Luxilon power ALU poly strings and a Power -V grip. There are more advanced offerings from Babolat on what is essentially the same frame but with more tweaking. So my choices are to get a latest frame in that Babolat family or try checking stores for old demo/discounted frames that closely resemble my racquet and then re do my customizations.

Its times like this i wish i had a sponsor ;)

Looking at it from another aspect, the worst case scenario is that I snap strings on (say a Monday session). All it will mean is I may not play well that day. I can get my racquet restrung before the next week’s session. So may be its not a big deal.

Generally We Architects advise everyone to be very close to the latest versions (n-1). If I apply the same philosophy, I shouldn’t be on a frame that is basically n-3 or n-4. Use this as an excuse and get a new frame?—May be but it wont be until I get back from vacation.

Btw, I did workout yesterday though I didn’t do any weights. I want to keep the fitness streak going. A few friends did comment that I still look fat, I am not sure if they are serious. I think I recovered to large extent from the Cold. Wrist hasn’t fully healed and it still hurts if I try to lift anything more than a few pounds. Some more rest is needed.

Ideally, I would like to drop a few more pounds and build a little more muscle before I go on vacation [in less than 3 weeks]. Between Tennis, Badminton, Holiday shopping, House hold chores, I may get at most 10-12 sessions at Gym (excl tennis\Badminton). So it is probably not that realistic.

I will keep you posted on how I do in Badminton tonight. I want to put some additional focus on backhand.

Decent fare! (Monday Tennis 03 Dec)

2007-12-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

I went into This week's Tennis session with out optimal preparation and feelin some effects of cold and wrist pain. I got in a little bit early hoping to get some warmup. I did warm up for 10 minutes on elliptical but i would love to hit a little bit. As I looked at the draw there were few cancellations and they readjusted it. Basically i am supposed to play 2 sets against the same opponent (Paul). I didnt like the format for two reasons.

A) If there is a mismatch, it would be unfair for the loser as there is no way he can make up any points.

B) I played this guy before (Nov 5, Opponent #3) and i lost to him 5-2. basically he is a 7 pm level player.

There isnt much i could do about the format.I had my friend (who played in 7 pm league) just finishing up and i went into his court to warm up with him. It didnt last too long as the 0830 players for that court arrived. I moved onto my assigned court and my opponent is already there waiting for me. My friend was watching us play from the comfort of the Visitors lounge.

After a very short warmup, we started the match. I won the toss and chose to recieve. This way i will have less pressure on my serve because even if i lose the first game (which is on opponents serve) it isnt a big deal as we are still On serve. I remembered our previous encounter with this opponent. Basically he has a wicked spin on his first serve. Once the ball hits the ground, Spin kicks off and there isnt a lot to predict.

The match went on serve until 2-2. I had some trouble holding my serve while my opponent was able to hold it much easier than i did. However i observed something that i thought i could use. My friend , watching from visitor lounge also gave some tips. His presence actually helped me and reminded me of sticking to the basics. I also play a little better when someone is watching. This opponent has a wicked spin on his serve no doubt. But it always moves to my right. Basically his serves had a pattern. First serve wide towards my body\forehand. Second serve slow towards my backhand. His ground game isnt that great and i would say i have a slight edge if my game is on. Armed with that pattern, I broke him on game 5 and i went up 3-2. He tried to put pressure on my serve by attacking my second serve. My second serve, though slow, kicks up high, spins occassionally and not easy to hit. However he couldnt match my ground strokes. I am seeing the ball fairly well at this time and controlling well. There were some key points in the next few games. He put pressure on me by coming to the net but i was able to hit some "outstanding" passing shots especially in the game that won me the set 6-2. The topper was an Inside-In forehand winner that blazed past him.

After a very short drink break, we started the second set with my opponent serving again. I quickly raced to a 2-0 lead thanks to some good defense on my part. My opponent was hitting very aggressive shots all across and i am still not sure how i dug myself out. However he held the serve on his next game and broke my serve to make the score 2-2. This is when i decided to make another adjustment and take the first cut on any ground stroke. He made a double fault to start the game and two whipping forehands on his second serve got me break points and i only needed one. Up 3-2, i started serving. I knew this is a key game because 3-3 could mean a lot of things. I varied the pace on my serve. I served slow and allowed him to attack but whenever i got the chance, i hit some big shots. He had a break point on my serve. I went big on that serve and he was expecting a slow one. Deuce. I hit another big serve with lots of kick and i am up 4-2. I promptly broke his serve again to go 5-2 and then served big to go 40-15. One would think that i should have closed the match right then. Wrong. He went all in and hit some scorching forehand winners to go deuce. Because of No ad what it means is i have the match point while he had a break point. I served a slow one purposefully (as a missed first serve would put too much pressure on my second serve) and he kept the ball in play. Longest rally of the match and finally ended with me hitting a very powerful forehand that my opponent couldnt get enough racquet.

Final score 6-2,6-2. Score board doesnt do much justice here as the match was a lot closer than the final score.

After the match, i had a friendly chat with my opponent. He clearly was surprised because he didnt expect me to play the way i did based on our last meeting. He gave some high marks to my serve and forehand. I liked his spin serve and He indicated how he improved his serve with some coaching from one of the coaches at our club. I am seriously considering having a session with that coach to work on my serve and add a SPIN component , get a decent backhand. I will finalize something in the next few days.

Btw today My backhand isnt bad either. I actually figured out a technique and i think i can hit a better backhand now. we will see if this stands test of time.

Some key take aways
1) Neutralize opponents serve (if possible) by searching for some patterns in their game.
2) Hit ground strokes to the middle of the court until you pull the trigger. This forces opponent to do more on his replies and also cuts off some angles.
3) Vary the pace and placement on the serve. This will keep opponents guessing.
4) Go for some winners.

Though result is in my favor, and in general long matches are to my liking, in this system where # of games won matters, it is probably better to play multiple opponents because it can neutralize mis matches. If i am playing outdoors and all that counts is # of sets, i would always play best of 3 set matches without No-ad scoring. But in this ladder , # of games won is the key and it helps to play some weaker opponents.

I had little bit of time left and i started practing some serves. Thats when i realized something. I have some potential in the serve department if i can harness it. I tried some spin serves and was able to get some serious spin, though inconsistently by altering ball toss. As you play higher up, it is very important to not to have any visual cues , especially on serve. So i am definitely inclined to hiring a pro for a session. The importance of serve cannot be stressed enough at any level of play and it is particularly important at recreational levels and even more important for someone like me who cant generate much offense from backhand wing.

I felt good about my performance as i can see my game coming back. I am not sure if this is a good enough result to move me into 7 Pm slot but i am positive i will be probably very close to the top of 0830 Ladder. Depending on how the other results go , i may play my friend next week at 0830.

Its Cold!

2007-12-03T07:32:00.001-08:00

Due to the right wrist injury worry, I was hoping that I could rest the wrist and focus on cardio for the past 4 days. Instead I spent time resting in my bed. Our whole family came down with cold and I was particularly miserable. Saturday night was worse. Even my Blood pressure went up a bit and I was genuinely worried. After some serious dose of Dayquil and Nyquil (my favorite medicines apart from Tylenol, Mortin) , I felt a little better. I almost called in sick to work but Dayquil helped me a bit there.

So my preparations for tonight Tennis are less than optimal. I find myself in the same situation as before (Nov 5 tennis) where I qualified for top bracket of 0830 ladder and played there sick and reported a dismal score of 5 games out of 21. Will there be an Encore performance? I hope not. I decided not to call in a sub. I will play it on my own terms and take whatever result I get.

Its hard enough to play the “Slice meisters” and a bunch of other “better” players. Now I have to play them with Cold and less than perfect wrist. But I decided not to change any of my game plans or etc. Just go there and try to enjoy. Even if I do badly I don’t have to worry because my results against bottom half have shown that I am only 1 session away from knocking the top bracket and playing these guys.

I watched USA win the Davis Cup against Russia. Except for the James Blake – Mikhael Youzhny match, rest of the results are fairly predictable. USA played very well to deserve the 32 Davis Cup. Andy Roddick has been a warrior for a long time and its time he got one. He is often looked over when compared to the likes of Roger federer and Rafael Nadal but Roddick always played in Davis Cup, representing his country even through his injuries.

One observation on Tennis Doubles. It sucks. Especially when I watched the Davis cup doubles between Mike Bryan/bob Bryan Vs Igor Andreev/Davydenko. There are no rallies. All the players do is stand at the net and wait to whip the volley. No wonder they don’t get tired. Passing shots are like discovering snow flakes in July. If one has a big serve, there is no telling the easier time your doubles partner is going to have. How about a Ivo Karlovic/ John Isner doubles team. I doubt if we see even a single rally.

After today, I will be left with two more Tennis sessions (10, 17) and 3 badminton Sessions (5,12,19) before I go on vacation. I am assuming that Dec 24 Tennis session will not happen as it is Christmas Eve. That is one of the reasons why I am playing today as it will be a long break before I play again (Jan 28 tennis or more realistically Jan 30 Badminton).

Injury Worry (Badminton 11/28)

2007-11-29T12:12:00.001-08:00

I woke up on Tuesday morning with severe wrist pain. I didn’t have full ROM(Range of Motion) on my right wrist and it looked very unlikely that I can play any sort of game for a few days. I don’t like to miss playing sports due to injuries and can’t recollect any instance where I missed a genuine playing opportunity. I am quite familiar with such type of injuries and started working on Icy-Hot (topical analgesics) and Motrin. Towards Wednesday evening I felt better and went to badminton.

We were a little late but started playing right away with no warm up. First game was a tight affair and from then on I won all my matches handily. There were some big match up issues in some matches but I am playing consistently and decently so no problems. It helps to know that I can turn the match into a physical contest and would come through because I can outlast most of the players in that department. I barely broke a sweat when we returned home at 0930.

The wrist though better still is painful. I got 4 days to get ready for Monday Tennis. The results from last week are out and I moved up into the top bracket of the 08:30 league (If I do better at 0830 league I can move into 0700 Pm bracket). I will be playing a known opponent who is a slice master and gave me some trouble last time I played him. I haven’t played against the other 2 players and I don’t yet have a scouting report.

Ideally I would like to play one more round at the bottom bracket to groove in on my shots before taking on bigger guys. For whatever reason I have to admit that I am feeling a little nervous stepping onto tennis court to play the matches and that’s impacting my game. Unfortunately the only answer is to keep playing a lot of them to calm the nerves.

The good part is last week I didn’t really play my A game but I won my matches fairly comfortably. So if I can play my A game, there is no reason why I can’t beat the “Slice masters” and others. Btw my friend has moved up into the 0700 PM ladder and it will be a while before we meet in the league. As I analyze my tennis sessions, I basically has one bad session. In total I played 4 times so far and I won more than a dozen games in 3 of them.

For the next 4 days, I will be working mostly on cardio and legs. I won’t be able to do weights until my right wrist heals. I am not very sure if I can play any tennis or do any tennis specific drills before Monday.

There is one other positive. In the quest to play better tennis, I worked on my fitness a lot. My weight reduced by 9 pounds and the feel good factor returned. That in itself is something I can look back with a smile.

Better Performance! (Tennis 11/26)

2007-11-27T06:33:00.000-08:00

I ended the night with 4-3,5-2,4-3 (13 points for me). Given my recent slump this is a very encouraging performance.

I ran the elliptical for 10 minutes before I headed for the club. This warmed me up a bit. As I walked in I had an opportunity to warm up with my friend before the matches began.

My opponent #1 was a sub and a very decent player. He has good strokes with great depth and topspin. Decent volleyer and extremely good but erratic serve. I won the toss but chose to receive. He quickly raced into 2-0 lead though I had break points on his serve and game points on my serve. There are lots of long rallies and I liked that though score wasn’t in my favor. That’s when I made an adjustment. Instead of baseline bashing and letting opponents use my pace, I altered the pace of my shots and waited for the right one to rip. I won 4 of the next 5 games. I had break points on that one game I lost but couldn’t convert.

Opponent #2 (faiz?) is a very tricky player. When I started the match, I expected that I would win the match 7-0. However during the match I realized that there are certain aspects of his game that are good. He has a mediocre serve but once in a while he gets it in. When it does, it keeps so low and wide and becomes very hard to return. Surprisingly he has a good backhand down the line shot. I didn’t get a read on this shot until later stages of the match. He won and chose to serve and won the first game. I had break points but same story—couldn’t convert. My serve is too hot for him and I had no trouble whatsoever. Final score is 5-2.

Opponent #3 (Bruce) is someone I hadn’t played before but had some scouting report. I lost the toss and he started the match. He can blow hot and cold during the same point. I quickly figured his weakness (his backhand) and gave him a lot of them. He occasionally lost track of score and we ended up replaying some points. There were some shots that were clearly long but close enough. His expressions made me feel as if I am ripping him off. He is a nice guy though and then on I gave him more room on line calls. The final score shows 4-3 but except for 1 game on his serve, I had break points on other two games.

I wish I could convert a few of those break points but overall the results are encouraging. I could have upped my score by few more if i converted any of those break points in the 4 games. Clearly removing the “Dampener” did make a difference to game. I am rediscovering my game and I am back to my winning ways and that’s more important. This new format is not to my advantage as I generally start slow before picking up steam and this format doesn’t allow for such lapses. Btw Fitness issues are history though I picked up a slight wrist pain.

I hope I stay on the bottom ladder for one more week so that I can lock in on my game. It will also help boost my confidence which is important in facing top of the ladder. I have 3 more sessions before I go on my big vacation and hopefully I can crack into the top bracket again before i take the big break.

Holiday Week (Badminton 11/21, Tennis 11/23)

2007-11-26T08:42:00.001-08:00

Last week is simply the best in so many aspects. I took off 2 days to help my wife with her pharmacy test and then there is this Big Thanks giving weekend. I played Badminton on Wednesday followed by some Thanks giving shopping and then some great Tennis practice on Friday. Oh yes, I didn’t miss any work outs.

Badminton was again a Blast. The crowd was sparse expectedly and so most courts are free which means ……More matches! I started at 1900 hrs sharp and kept playing until 21:40 non stop. The only reason I couldn’t continue till 2200 was because we had no one to play with. I didn’t play in a Zone or something like that but just played consistent badminton. There were some real tight matches but we won with plenty of room. I even tried some fine drop shots and had some success. I have more talent than I suspected.

As I fully expected, I didn’t tire out. I am now a fit athlete.

On Friday, I had a practice session with a fellow pro. We hired a ball machine for the first hour and started hitting against it. I tried to use the opportunity to help my Backhand and also do a video of my shots for review. The video was enlightening and I will come to that later. The ball machine is simply Awesome. I felt that if I had about 5-10 sessions with it, my game will improve by leaps and bounds and possibly a grade upgrade.

We then played a practice match. My friend ran away with the first set 6-0. I was very dejected because I expected a better performance from me. My friend played very good and deserved to win but I should have won at least a game or two. I am not that bad a player. I felt like the Tennis slump saga is still ongoing and I am running out of options for a relief. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed time on court and put up a good show. Towards the later part of the set I am thinking to myself, what has changed in the past 1-2 months that is impacting my game.

Fitness is no longer an issue. Grip à No. Shoes à No. Too good opponents à yes some of them are but not all of them. As I walked into the change over after first set, I looked at my racquet and saw the dampener. I removed it. The very first shot I hit in the second set made me feel a lot better. It’s the familiar sound of the racquet and even more importantly the familiar Topspin and control. I quickly raced into a 3-0 lead with each shot making me believe that I am getting my game back. The 4 game was a very tight affair and a pivotal one for me personally. There was lot of 40-40’s in this game until I finally edged it. We stopped right after as we ran out of time with score at 4-0. It’s a matter of speculation of what could have happened had we continued but I am feeling better and better at that time. Can I blame this all on the dampener?. I wouldn’t go that far but it’s hard to explain the coincidence.

Win or lose, I am thankful to my friend and the fact that I had the opportunity to play.

A quick word on the Video analysis. My forehands are looking laborious. There isn’t a smooth and easy flow. It looks as if I am in great pain to hit a shot. Clearly I need to work on my action. I will dedicate another post for the video analysis sometime during the week.

To summarize for tonight’s Tennis session, I am playing as Unseeded at the bottom of the ladder. I am not putting any pressure on myself. My first goal would be to go and try to enjoy the game. There is only one familiar opponent I played before. I have some scouting report on one of the other opponents. So today I am not paying any attention to scores. I know I can’t drop any lower than I already am on the ladder. I can only move up!

Badminton 11/13 – Average Fare

2007-11-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

This badminton session was an average fare. I won most of my matches but I wasn’t playing well. I missed routine smashes and often ended up being a step slow. However nothing to do with Fitness (may be it is but in a different way). It took me a long time to get warmed up. This is one of the disadvantages if you train hard but try playing matches with out good warm up. I had a late meeting at work and reached home late. Since we car pool to Badminton I had less than 10 minutes to get ready (that includes spending time with my cute little baby). We reached there 15 minutes late. Typically we hit for 5 minutes before we start the first match. However most people already warmed up and we (me and my friends) had less than 2-3 minutes of warm up.

I am paying a lot of attention to my fitness and I usually see that it takes 10-12 minutes (and some times almost 15 minutes) of Elliptical exercise before body reaches steady state. I am not exactly sure how it translates on Badminton/Tennis but I would guess it would be around the same.

I am not playing the Monday night Tennis ladder this week as indicated before. I will be playing starting next week (26 Nov). It will be 3 weeks of No Tennis action. My agent is talking to a fellow Pro’s agent and trying to arrange a practice hit session on Friday ( he he he) . I would love to have this session to check myself and make any last minute adjustments if needed before I retrace my steps towards upper berths of the ladder on Monday.

In the coming weeks I want to focus on some finite aspects of the game. For now I will leave out Volleying as a “point” time decision. I will most focus on my movement, Inside out forehand and reliable backhand. Except for the backhand part, rest of them is fairly easy to me and that’s why I hope to enjoy my tennis sessions.

How to Enjoy the Game!

2007-11-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

One of the keys to a good performance in any sport is to actually enjoy the game. If you like what you are doing, you are more likely to put your best effort and win matches.

So how does one enjoy the game? It depends on what one is looking for in the game. Lets take tennis. What do I like to do in Tennis? If given a choice I would like to serve really well with a barrage of aces, Hit some breath taking forehands and fire up some backhand winners.

With me so far? Good. Most of us might play like that on a Blue moon day. Unless your name happens to be Roger Federer, you are unlikely to do that on a regular basis against competitive opponents.

An extremely important aspect of enjoying the game is to review the requirements of the style you want to play. Eg:- In Basket ball, I would like to play an up tempo game like Kobe Bryant or Dirk Nowitzki. In order to play their style what do I need? Loads of stamina (fitness), explosive, flexible body and extremely good hand eye coordination besides the Game skills.

Next step is to identify gaps and take adequate steps in that direction to acquire those requirements. Start hitting the Gym and work with a fitness consultant to develop that kind of fitness levels. Do some pilates to get that flexibility. Play a lot of video games and other such exercises that help develop great hand eye coordination. Now you have put yourselves in a position to actually play and learn the game in the way you want to play.

I can cite my own example of this. A few years ago when I started playing badminton, I realized that I don’t have the same skill as some of the other gifted players in my club do. I also realized that I am really not the finesse player kind of person. I love to over power opponents. I believed that I can outlast most of these players and run around on my weak spots to get an offensive shot. This has to be done every game for 3 hours. I quickly realized that this style needs lot of stamina and strategy. I worked on my fitness and eventually got to a point where it is no longer an issue. Then I started working on some strength exercises to beef up my offensive shots. Finally I started playing the style I wanted to play regardless of the result. First few sessions weren’t too encouraging but I was able to play the same style of play for whole 3 hours with out tiring myself out. Eventually it started to work (it has to and it will) and results were there to be seen. It improved so much to the point that people no longer hit shots above my shoulder level as they know that I wouldn’t hesitate to fire up an offensive smash and most times make the shot. They chose to keep it to my backhand or drop shot me at the net.

For my Tennis game that I can enjoy, I need fitness and quickness. The mechanics of shot making can be learnt over time and has to be mastered with practice. However in order to put me in that position to learn and master the game, I first need Fitness and then quickness.

Thanks to my hard work over the past 4 weeks. Fitness is no longer an issue. Next up is quickness. There is no magic here, I got to get lighter (drop weight) and work out some drills that can improve it. Then I can start enjoying the game even more because I am actually trying to play the way I want to play (even if it is practice).

Badminton Blast- 07 Nov 07

2007-11-08T14:09:00.002-08:00

The hard work in getting fit seems to be paying off. I was a little skeptical about this week badminton session after dismal performance on the Tennis court, last Monday.

The first match was a tight affair as we were still warming up though we pulled it off. Second match was much better. Third match is when things started turning around. This is against superior opponents. Down 0-8, I decided to go fully offensive. After some tight rallies we won our first point and from then on started getting better and better with a final score of 21-16. Fully warmed up after a very testy match, rest of the evening went very well. Though I wasn’t playing my best Badminton consistently, I am not too far off from it either.

At no point I felt tired. I could have gone on with that level of play for another 1-2 hours with out really tiring out. As I looked around at some of the other players I realized that the fitness regime I subscribed to is now paying off.

Generally my muscles get very sore during my return trip to home after badminton session. Not yesterday.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the session and I fully believe that it’s only a matter of time before I can play even better badminton (this is only the 3 session of the season) and some top class tennis.

Retrospect

2007-11-08T14:09:00.001-08:00

A day after getting schooled on the tennis court, I am trying to do a post mortem and see if there are things I can use to my advantage.

It is very easy to think that I can dominate with a better backhand. The problem is getting a dominant backhand. I have tried it unsuccessfully over the years with 2Handed backhand, one handed backhand and event play left handed. This is a more fundamental/Architectural problem. I have the same weakness is just about any sport I play (Cricket, Badminton, racquet ball). I frankly don’t believe I can get a better backhand by playing Matches. I need to spend solid hours with a ball machine/ coach. In the coming weeks I will work out a plan. I am too competitive to let go of such an opportunity.

Use of Forehand: In the past I won matches by playing a calculated game. I would wait (push) until the ball is there to be hit. I would setup the point by hitting some heavy topspin ground strokes. However in the ladder, I am trying to go for the shots too early with out working the point. I have to go back to the basics of point construction.

Serve: Undoubtedly best part of my game. However I need to add a Side spin element to the serve to make it fully dominant. Though I hit a decent pace, most players often block the ball back and try to play through the point. I try to mitigate this by varying my serve placement. A side spin serve would ensure that a block to the serve won’t be enough as the ball would just fly out or find into the net due to the spin. However this needs a lot of court time and probably will need to wait until spring.

Quickness: Past two years I was very quick on my feet and used to be in position most of the times. Anticipation is good as well. I don’t think I am that quick this year (Age?fitness??). I am working real hard on fitness. I may need to incorporate jogging/running into the fitness regime as Elliptical alone may not get me to be quick on my feet.

Enjoy the game: I always used to enjoy the time I spend on a tennis court. Since the tennis ladder, I don’t get that feeling. If anything I feel like I have to really win the games. Realistically it doesn’t matter even if I top the league (except for some confidence boosting). The objective of joining the ladder is to experience playing against various players and improve the game. I need to get back to enjoy the time on court. Once you get to that stage, things will automatically work.

Outplayed—Monday night ladder 05 Nov 2007

2007-11-06T09:08:00.001-08:00

I will make this post real simple. I won a total of 5 games out of 21.

I played against players who are more consistent than me. Opponent #1 (frank) is slightly older guy and employs slice of both wings. I had trouble whenever he went to my backhand and he picked my weakness very early. Honestly I have more than enough game to beat this guy but I didn’t play right. I went for shots too early and I lost lot of points. Out of 7 games, 5 games went to deuce and I didn’t win any of them. I employed Volleys and won 50% of those points. My first serve percentage was way off (30%). In total I won 2 games against this guy.

Opponent #2 (Andy) is a better player than me. It’s as simple as that. He can play off both wings and he killed me with his volleys. I couldn’t lob over him as his approach shots are good and I was always out of position. I served good enough to win 1 game. 3 games went to Deuce but I didn’t win any of them.

Opponent #3 (Paul?) is better than me but I felt was beatable. He has a nasty spin on his serve whenever he got in and that troubled me a lot. He is again very consistent off both sides. I won 2 games against him both on my serve. There were like 4 Deuce games and I won only 1 (on my serve).

Disappointing performance? YES. I really didn’t have a clue of what exactly is happening. I played with out any purpose and chose wrong shots at the wrong time. I played catch up all night. I tried being aggressive to see if I can impose my game but that failed miserably. Towards the end I felt very bad about my game.

The good part is I didn’t “PUSH” yesterday. I played positive tennis. I could see that I have more firepower in my forehand than these players (supposedly on top bracket) and a decent serve (albeit not as Spinny as #2 and #3). I didn’t have any fitness issues. It’s a matter of putting it all together. Yes.. Backhand is a liability and I don’t think I can win big matches with out improving that.

(I had a cold attack yesterday and spent a miserable night. However I don’t think that has any bearing on the match)

I won’t be playing the next two weeks. My next session is on Nov 26. Given yesterday’s performance, I will be relegated to the Bottom cellar of the ladder. When I open on Nov 26, I will start with players at the bottom of the draw. Hopefully a good performance then can put me back on top bracket. I would like another crack at the top bracket opponents.

For now the focus will be on Badminton and fitness.

Preparation for 05 Nov Tennis

2007-11-05T08:21:00.001-08:00

My preparations weren’t optimum for tonight’s match. I thought I had very good fitness sessions on Friday and Saturday. However I woke up on Sunday with severe pain in my both wrists. I think I overdid the weights. Left wrist is really painful and bothering me whenever I try to turn it. Muscles still feels stiff though nothing like what I had for last week’s badminton. I didn’t do any fitness work on Sunday (even Cardio) and tried to rest. For reasons unknown to me, I am feeling tired and sleepy though I hope it won’t last all day and should be good for tonight.

Regardless I will still go ahead with Tennis tonight as I won’t be able to play for next two weeks. My next tennis session after tonight will be on Nov 26.

Over the weekend, I spent sometime watching some Tennis videos. I also happened to watch the Paris Tennis masters series semifinals. I took some good pointers from watching David Nalbandian Vs Richard Gasquet and Rafael Nadal vs Marcos Baghdatis. My assessment after the semifinal was that David would come through in the final and he did. He is striking the ball extremely clean and working various angles and “now” has a potent Serve. He is just playing like “Roger Federer” .

I am keen on using 2HBH today and employ some Serve & Volley. Experts advise against using “untested”, “unproven” options during a match scenario. However Monday evening matches is all the tennis I will have until next spring and hence I decided to start testing these new tools (can’t really call them weapons until proven!). Part of this decision is I was engaged in an online discussion with a Tennis expert and he basically asked me “Do you want to win matches by improving or just win with out getting better until you get knocked out by a more seasoned player up the ladder”. My goal is to improve my skills, Win or lose, I feel good camping at the baseline and while serving. I don’t feel comfortable hitting backhands or volleying. The best way to get comfortable is to start playing that style. I will have bumps and may have to take a few hits but will get better. This is no different from my Serve and Forehand. I lost quite a few matches while developing them. Eventually it will pay off. The only downside is it may impact my results in the ladder. While I would like to dominate the ladder, the fact is that there are better skilled players and I have to extremely good with my current 1 dimensional game to win against them. I may “push” myself to get somewhere towards the top of the ladder but by retooling with a Backhand and volley, I will develop an All court game. Honestly I believe my only weakness in the game are backhand and volley. If I get better on them, I can dominate a lot of matches and ladder. Best part is I don’t have to worry about opponent’s style of play as I can then adapt to any style of play.

I also decided to work the Elliptical for 10 minutes or so before heading out for Tennis court. This should warm me up. I am quite certain that I have more than enough Gas to last the 1.5 hours.