musicalmedic81
Semi-Pro
For those of you that read my last post about my match I played a couple weeks ago against a guy whom my friend works with, I played him again tonight. Last time I lost 4 and 4 but it was mostly because of my poor serving %, errors trying to attack his weak second serve, and not being able to handle his high bouncing balls. I received some great advice from some of you who taught me about taking the ball on the rise, among other things.
I knew yesterday that I was going to play him tonight, so I went over to the courts this morning and took a basket of balls with me to hit some serves. I really concentrated on every aspect of my service motion, making sure I was gripping my racket firmly but allowing my arm to be loose, tossing the ball nice and high and out in front of me a bit, striking the ball at the peak of my forward lunge into the court. I probably hit about 150 serves total and was really starting to find form the more I did it.
Anyway, we were to meet at 7pm at our local courts, I got there around 630 and hit against the wall for a little while. (if you cant tell, I really wanted to beat this guy tonight) He showed up with a few of my other friends who came to watch and hit around too. (which made me a little nervous cause I tend to not play so great when people I know are watching me) Anyway, on to the match.....
He served first and held, then broke me in my first service game. I think my shoulder was a little sore from hitting all those serves earlier this morning. I broke back in the next game followed by a hold to make it 2 all. We really played some great rallies, he is better at net than I am, but I hit a few really good passing shots, and he hit some great volleys as well. It was a much higher quality match than our first one. He broke me again with me serving a 3-4, then served it out to take the first set 6-3. The first set was a decent set from both of us, but the second set is where I feel I played the best tennis Ive ever played in my short tennis career of 5 1/2 months.
I served to start the second set. I was a little discouraged from losing the first set, I was going through my last service game in my head and how i could have easily won it had I done a few things differnt. While I was thinking about that, I dumped my serve again to go down 0-1 in the 2nd.
That must have been my wake up call, cause thats were I really turned it on. I broke him at 15 the next game, including 3 consecutive forehand winners off his second serves. I held my next game at 15, got all my first serves in, including an ace down the T from the ad court (first time Ive aced him) Now we're on serve, with me up 2-1. From that point on, we both stepped it up a few notches, I was hitting the ball HARD. hitting clean winners down the line. Completely schooling him from the baseline. I even finished a few points at the net, including a couple volley ball matches with both of us at the net blocking the ball back and forth, and I won most of those net battles. I was holding serve with ease and putting pressure on every service game of his. We had 3 straight games going to multiple deuces on his serve. I could tell he was going to fall apart at any moment.
Then he was serving at 4-5 when I pressured him to a set point at 30-40. I had never been so focused on a Tennis court and I was so looking forward to forcing a 3rd set. He aces me, best serve all night. Deuce. Fault. I stepped in and completely destroyed his second serve down the line for a winner. I was in the ZONE BABY! Set point #2. Netted returning his first serve. (all of a sudden he starts ripping first serves down set points) Deuce 2, he doubles. Set point #3, I went after another second serve and hit it long!
Then something happened after I wasted that 3rd set point. I completely fell apart. I shanked the next two returns to make it 5 all. My last service game of the match, at 5 all, was the worst serving I'd done in several weeks. Double faulted twice, and made two UE's to hand him the break at love. 6-5. I try one last time to pull myself together by smacking another forehand return winner off his second serve to win the first point 0-15. I netted the next return off a first serve that wasnt even hit that hard. Then he aced me back from the deuce court to make it 30-15. Guess what? Yep, another error from me on the next point to give him match points. And you can pretty much guess how it ended, another weak second serve, I went to smack a forehand cross court behind him and hit it wide. Game. Set. Match. Just like that.
What irritated me so bad is that I completely outplayed him the second set, I punished him on so many second serves pressuring him to deuce on all his service games. But I choked on the points that mattered most and handed him the match. Even he admitted that if I had played the whole match like I played the second set, I would have beat him. So the final score was 3-6. 5-7. Sorry this post is so long, but I needed to rant and maybe you guys can give me some feedback too.
I knew yesterday that I was going to play him tonight, so I went over to the courts this morning and took a basket of balls with me to hit some serves. I really concentrated on every aspect of my service motion, making sure I was gripping my racket firmly but allowing my arm to be loose, tossing the ball nice and high and out in front of me a bit, striking the ball at the peak of my forward lunge into the court. I probably hit about 150 serves total and was really starting to find form the more I did it.
Anyway, we were to meet at 7pm at our local courts, I got there around 630 and hit against the wall for a little while. (if you cant tell, I really wanted to beat this guy tonight) He showed up with a few of my other friends who came to watch and hit around too. (which made me a little nervous cause I tend to not play so great when people I know are watching me) Anyway, on to the match.....
He served first and held, then broke me in my first service game. I think my shoulder was a little sore from hitting all those serves earlier this morning. I broke back in the next game followed by a hold to make it 2 all. We really played some great rallies, he is better at net than I am, but I hit a few really good passing shots, and he hit some great volleys as well. It was a much higher quality match than our first one. He broke me again with me serving a 3-4, then served it out to take the first set 6-3. The first set was a decent set from both of us, but the second set is where I feel I played the best tennis Ive ever played in my short tennis career of 5 1/2 months.
I served to start the second set. I was a little discouraged from losing the first set, I was going through my last service game in my head and how i could have easily won it had I done a few things differnt. While I was thinking about that, I dumped my serve again to go down 0-1 in the 2nd.
That must have been my wake up call, cause thats were I really turned it on. I broke him at 15 the next game, including 3 consecutive forehand winners off his second serves. I held my next game at 15, got all my first serves in, including an ace down the T from the ad court (first time Ive aced him) Now we're on serve, with me up 2-1. From that point on, we both stepped it up a few notches, I was hitting the ball HARD. hitting clean winners down the line. Completely schooling him from the baseline. I even finished a few points at the net, including a couple volley ball matches with both of us at the net blocking the ball back and forth, and I won most of those net battles. I was holding serve with ease and putting pressure on every service game of his. We had 3 straight games going to multiple deuces on his serve. I could tell he was going to fall apart at any moment.
Then he was serving at 4-5 when I pressured him to a set point at 30-40. I had never been so focused on a Tennis court and I was so looking forward to forcing a 3rd set. He aces me, best serve all night. Deuce. Fault. I stepped in and completely destroyed his second serve down the line for a winner. I was in the ZONE BABY! Set point #2. Netted returning his first serve. (all of a sudden he starts ripping first serves down set points) Deuce 2, he doubles. Set point #3, I went after another second serve and hit it long!
Then something happened after I wasted that 3rd set point. I completely fell apart. I shanked the next two returns to make it 5 all. My last service game of the match, at 5 all, was the worst serving I'd done in several weeks. Double faulted twice, and made two UE's to hand him the break at love. 6-5. I try one last time to pull myself together by smacking another forehand return winner off his second serve to win the first point 0-15. I netted the next return off a first serve that wasnt even hit that hard. Then he aced me back from the deuce court to make it 30-15. Guess what? Yep, another error from me on the next point to give him match points. And you can pretty much guess how it ended, another weak second serve, I went to smack a forehand cross court behind him and hit it wide. Game. Set. Match. Just like that.
What irritated me so bad is that I completely outplayed him the second set, I punished him on so many second serves pressuring him to deuce on all his service games. But I choked on the points that mattered most and handed him the match. Even he admitted that if I had played the whole match like I played the second set, I would have beat him. So the final score was 3-6. 5-7. Sorry this post is so long, but I needed to rant and maybe you guys can give me some feedback too.
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