Okay, now the 8.0 match. My partner was a 4.5 guy, I'd guess in his late 20's, righty, medium height. He told me right off the bat that he hates being at the baseline and would be always moving into net as soon as possible. I asked if that meant I shouldn't play close to the net and he said no, he could still cover lobs over my head even if he was moving in.
We played line 1 against a 4.0M/4.0F pair. The 4.0F was pretty solid but from what I can tell looking her up on TR she doesn't play much mixed. The 4.0 guy was a self-rate, and it appears this was his first USTA match. I'll be interested to see what his C rating will be come next year, assuming he plays enough matches to get one, because he was better than any 4.0 guy I recall playing against or with. He was a tall (maybe 6'4'') lefty with a crazy good serve.
For the first set, I asked my partner what side he likes to return on, and he said usually ad side but was fine with whatever. I told him I like my backhand and return better on the ad side, so we decided to start with me there. Well, to call the first set a train wreck would be generous. It was rough; we lost it 1-6 in the blink of an eye. I returned the 4.0F's serve alright on the ad side, but I don't think I ever got a racquet on the guy's serve. He would hit it wide and it would kick wider. I tried setting up further in to cut off the angle and he hit a body serve. My partner told me I had to wait to move in until he started tossing to avoid that. It was good advice but I'm clearly not talented enough to pick something like that up on the fly, because I still couldn't get to the wide kicker fast enough to touch it.
The one game we won was on my partner's serve; the other game he served in the 1st set they broke because I bungled a volley or two at the net. All around it felt like I messed up just about everything possible in the first set (I did serve okay but couldn't hold); the "deer in headlights" metaphor wouldn't be completely inappropriate to the situation. I think I psyched myself out a bit (and the pep talk from you guys about 3.5 women getting "weeded out" of 8.0 wasn't exactly helpful
).
Okay, I told myself, if the 2nd set goes like that I'll never get the opportunity to play 8.0 again until I - if ever - make it to 4.0. My partner says to me "well, what do you think?". I tell him I have no idea but we should at least switch returning sides because a) I'm never going to get the other guy's serve in play on the ad side and b) can't hurt to try.
Well, I didn't have much more luck returning his serve on the deuce side. It would either: kick up the T, look like it's going wide but then kick to my backhand or into my body, or just slight kick wide (but nothing like the wide serve on the ad side). The serves to my back hand I could get a racquet on but kept framing it. My partner told me I needed to swing faster because of how much spin was on them, but I couldn't even make contact with the stringbed so it was a bit of a moot point. I eventually got a couple of the serves to my forehand in play, of which I think we won 1. So long story short we didn't break his serve all night.
However, we did a lot better on her serve and were able to break more often than not. Returning on the deuce side, her serve was my favorite kind: medium speed and no spin, so I could stand with a foot on the singles sideline or slightly in the alley and hit a good inside out-ish backhand most of the time and well enough that the guy couldn't poach. She either didn't get my ball back, or if she did my partner was able to pick it off at the net. I know he was trying to get her to serve to my forehand, but she's probably used to aiming for the backhand since that works on most people. My partner would return her serve and immediately move in, play everything to her and she kept hitting back to him. She should have tried going to me at the net rather than to my partner, but she never did, so he won pretty much all of those battles.
We won more of my partner's service games than we lost, but we should have been able to win more of them. To be honest I was struggling at the net when the opposing guy was returning. He returned on the deuce side and would stand well in the alley and take every return as a forehand, sometimes taking them inside-in to me at the net. I was probably 50/50 on getting those back, and on the ones I did get back we often ended up losing the point anyways. There was this one that I volleyed back, but back to him and a sitter just short of the service line. When I saw him lining up the next shot I bailed and shuffled to the ad side - this wasn't a conscious decision but a flight or fight automatic response. Luckily my partner was on his toes and shifted behind me, though the other guy ended up hitting it into the net anyways.
My first service game in the second set, I came close to holding with multiple deuces but couldn't pull it out. My next service game we managed to win, and that felt like the turning point for me at least - it brought my confidence up and confidence can mean the world in a tennis match. Although to be clear, my partner was the reason I was able to win my service games. He was poaching phenomenally on the 4.0F's returns, so much so that the opposing guy started playing back on her returns. My serve is decent speed for 3.5 woman's tennis, but that's still pretty slow for 4.0/4.5 guys, so my partner couldn't poach on the opposing guy's returns. Thankfully I could trade baseline rallies with the opposing guy - he hit a heavier ball than I am used to for sure (as my sore thumb, wrist, and forearm today can attest to), but I'm much more comfortable at the baseline and these being my 4th and 5th sets of the day I was settled in enough to stand my ground and hit out. Now, I probably couldn't stay in this rally longer than 4 or 5 shots, and having my partner at net obviously helped because that narrowed the window the opposing guy had to hit into. Eventually, either I was forced to hit to the opposing female at the net (which we sometimes lost but more often won), or the other guy would try to pass my guy at the net (which he only succeeded in doing once or twice).
We ended up closing out both the 2nd set and 3rd sets on my service games; both ended up at 7-5. 2 of my service games in the 3rd set we held at love, which is a testament to how well my partner was playing the net. My best shot of the night came on the opposing female's service game. I was in a deuce-side cross court rally with her, and got one that I could pull up the line (as a backhand, so inside-in) - I've never hit this shot better in my life: hit clean, low net clearance, it landed within 6 inches of the alley sideline and a foot or so before the baseline. The guy didn't even move for it, probably either out of surprise that I went for it or maybe he thought it would be out.
1-6, 7-5, 7-5 isn't exactly a resounding win, but hopefully was good enough that they'll let me come back and play again sometime. I'm still ruminating about whether I should have played back for part of the match. My partner said to me 2 or 3 times during the match "if you're more comfortable playing back, by all means. I don't want you to feel like you have to play up if you're not comfortable." I didn't take him up on the offer because it felt like quitting, but I was definitely playing better from the baseline. Not to say I didn't hit a few good volleys, but just not enough of them. And I let some go by that I think I could have gotten, but my partner was always there to back me up marvelously - I felt bad making him cover so much court but also knew our chances were better with him taking those and then moving in to finish the point at the net. So I'm contemplating, assuming I get to play another 8.0 match with him, playing back more often - guess it depends on what our next opponents are like too.
