Monday Tennis 12/10

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.