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.
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