Monday Tennis 03/10

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.