an account of my match today

I'm not really sure why I'm posting this. I guess I just wanted to share my struggles in this most beautiful sport ever invented. Perhaps others can relate.
Maybe I can read my own post in the future for entertainment.

Today I played a league match with someone I would say at least 15 years younger. We are both about 3.0 - 3.5. I had better serves and ground strokes, but my opponent was much more athletic, and a consistent moonballer and ball retriever. We had many long rallies.

He won the first set eliciting so many mistakes from me. I was fed a diet of high balls with little pace, many of which I couldn't take advantage of. I hit many long, dumped many at the net, instead of taking control of the point.
I was trying to apply strategies like hitting to his weaker backhand, hitting deep with spin, etc, but only executed a small percentage.

I went up a break 2-0 in the 2nd set after making some adjustments. But I quickly lost the lead and was down a break 2-3. He was up serving at 30-luv if I remember correctly.
I was thinking to myself, these younger guys have alot more energy, can recover faster, that I was young before and just have to accept reality now, and just be grateful for the chance to play.
I was looking for an excuse to give up and just accept losing. But I knew I would lose sleep tonight if I just gave up.

Somehow I remembered this advice to hit earlier to take time away, and I started doing it. I started winning more points. I also noticed his serves wavered when I visibly crept up when receiving. It caused more double faults.
I tried to reasonably extend the time between points, doing things like choosing the balls, drying my hand, bouncing the balls more before serves (Djokovic style lol), just to get one or two more breaths in.
And, I don't recall intentionally planning it, but I started drawing him more to the net, which caused yet more errors from him.
I made every effort to take take advantage of any edge I had, and not to show any negative demeanor.
I ended up winning the the 2nd set in the same reverse score he won the 1st.

At this point I had enough confidence on my serves to make it the deciding factor. I won the tie-break with a commanding score.

With the W. I felt less of happiness but more of relief for not losing. But what I'm feeling the most right now, is I'm sore all over. The aches started as soon as the adrenaline wore off right after the match. It will take a couple days to feel normal again.
I think I will still lose sleep tonight, but for being too wired up and not for the reason I was dreading.

Maybe I'll feel more satisfaction tomorrow as my body recovers. I know I'm willing to go through this again.

EDIT:
A day later after my original post I realized that my opponent also made attempts to get to the net and take control of the point, without me drawing him in. I now recall how good he was at getting to the ball from all areas of the court. He has solid court movement that will be good foundation for his game.
 
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Roforot

Hall of Fame
I guess you pushed the time limits but didn't quite break them. You should feel happy and thrilled to win. Relief is only when I feel like I was going to choke but it sounds like this was a well fought battle and you just had to learn the patterns to get ahead.
 
I guess you pushed the time limits but didn't quite break them. You should feel happy and thrilled to win. Relief is only when I feel like I was going to choke but it sounds like this was a well fought battle and you just had to learn the patterns to get ahead.
Thanks! I will keep pushing the limits as long as legal.
Just an aside, I played someone a long time ago in an official match. He took 2-min breaks after EVERY game. I was naive back then and didn't have the presence of mind to call violation. Oh well
 
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