pabletion
Hall of Fame
I'm in this whatsapp group with about 45 tennis players, and we try and hold a "ranking" where the idea is to play everyone and establish ratings for each player, so in the near future we'll organize better, more evenly distribuited tournaments. It has been a lot of fun, so far I'm ranked No. 1, but with two or four players who can definitely catch up and even pass me, and others that have a very low level. All of the matches I've played so far (25 matches!) have been a lot of fun with great people and new friends even. Until last night...............
I played this guy I've been asking to play for about a year, and he always had something that didnt allow him to play. He had played 7 matches, with 7 wins. As of yesterday, his record is 9-0. He has the most horrible, unorthodox playing style I've ever seen, he hits his FLAT forehand standing parallel to the net, and he moves back this way too, it even seems he's gonna fall backwards... 2hbh that he just uses to bunt the ball back, and a strange serve with a semi-eastern fh grip. He runs down everything, when the ball goes to his forehand and hes got a go, he just fires it FLAT crosscourt, barely going over the net and landing practically at the baseline. Effective, nonetheless, but easy to dismantle with heavy topspin and high shots.
Anyways, I knew it could be a tricky match, his style is weird, but, in a way, effective, he is fast and gets to every ball, you never know whats coming. BUT, and heres the big but, he HOOKS calls too. This was the problem, not his style, but that he is one of those players who hangs on and just knows when to hook calls. We were playing to 9 games, very even, I was struggling, had played at noon so I was tired and felt my ball was just not heavy, I was just rolling it, couldnt do much with it. Serve was very bad, plenty of doubles (Ive been struggling with this in the recent weeks), and his style doesnt help me at all. This and it was windy, which really bothers me. All of this is ok, its a part of the gae and it happens, and I have no problem loosing even when I feel I shouldve won and somehow I pile up the UE and end up just not pulling it off. I get mad at myself when this happens, but koodos to the other guy that was able to pull it off.
But this guy..... He decided to hook a dtl forehand I hit from one of his big crosscourt forehands, there was just no way that you can say it was CLEARLY out, to me, it smacked the line it seemed, on the outer part of the sideline, but clearly landing on it. This was on a game point when we were around 5-5, him serving. And it was one of those calls where you know theyre hooking you and standing their ground. He was like "out" and then immediately moved to the other side without glancing back or even staring at where the ball landed. I just stood there and said "C'mon..... you sure? It looked like it was right on the line from here". He was just "nope, out." What am I gonna do? Just went "if you say so..." and just changed sides shaking my head.
He won his serve, up 6-5, now its me serving, it was either a 0-15 or 15-30, but he let a sitter in mid court, around shoulder height to my 2hbh, I hit it crosscourt with plenty of topspin and landed TWO INCHES inside the baseline, it didnt even touch the baseline and the dude calls it out, same attitude as before. At this point I was very frustrated with the whole match and particularly with the way I had to play, grinding because I wasnt feeling it, bad day. I hit this great shot at a big moment and he calls it out. I lost it there "What? No way, thats IN! Its not even touching the baseline!" and he just goes "No, its out, clearly out". I go "you cant call that one out, its nowhere the baseline Im right there and Im seeing the ball land about 2 inches from the baseline, theres no way!" So his only out was "Well if you want lets replay the point". "Why should we replay??? Its my point!" And he goes "Well, Im calling it out, so its out, but we can replay the point".
This match was over at that point. I of course lost the game and the next two games, it was horrible, I did feel robbed, and it doesnt have to do with his game style or the fact that I couldnt figured it out, it wouldve been okay to loose and I wouldve just been mad at me, but on such a crappy night, feeling that I was just playing poorly and for him to pull this off, just p!ssed me off. I just told him when we were at net "no wonder youre unbeaten, theres no way anyone can beat you when youre hooking like this"
Then I told him to fck off when he insisted that ball had been out and whatever... These are the type of players I never want to play ever again, and if I ever play against him on a tournament, Im asking for a supervisor right away. Off my list. Good riddance.
Rant over, feel better!
I played this guy I've been asking to play for about a year, and he always had something that didnt allow him to play. He had played 7 matches, with 7 wins. As of yesterday, his record is 9-0. He has the most horrible, unorthodox playing style I've ever seen, he hits his FLAT forehand standing parallel to the net, and he moves back this way too, it even seems he's gonna fall backwards... 2hbh that he just uses to bunt the ball back, and a strange serve with a semi-eastern fh grip. He runs down everything, when the ball goes to his forehand and hes got a go, he just fires it FLAT crosscourt, barely going over the net and landing practically at the baseline. Effective, nonetheless, but easy to dismantle with heavy topspin and high shots.
Anyways, I knew it could be a tricky match, his style is weird, but, in a way, effective, he is fast and gets to every ball, you never know whats coming. BUT, and heres the big but, he HOOKS calls too. This was the problem, not his style, but that he is one of those players who hangs on and just knows when to hook calls. We were playing to 9 games, very even, I was struggling, had played at noon so I was tired and felt my ball was just not heavy, I was just rolling it, couldnt do much with it. Serve was very bad, plenty of doubles (Ive been struggling with this in the recent weeks), and his style doesnt help me at all. This and it was windy, which really bothers me. All of this is ok, its a part of the gae and it happens, and I have no problem loosing even when I feel I shouldve won and somehow I pile up the UE and end up just not pulling it off. I get mad at myself when this happens, but koodos to the other guy that was able to pull it off.
But this guy..... He decided to hook a dtl forehand I hit from one of his big crosscourt forehands, there was just no way that you can say it was CLEARLY out, to me, it smacked the line it seemed, on the outer part of the sideline, but clearly landing on it. This was on a game point when we were around 5-5, him serving. And it was one of those calls where you know theyre hooking you and standing their ground. He was like "out" and then immediately moved to the other side without glancing back or even staring at where the ball landed. I just stood there and said "C'mon..... you sure? It looked like it was right on the line from here". He was just "nope, out." What am I gonna do? Just went "if you say so..." and just changed sides shaking my head.
He won his serve, up 6-5, now its me serving, it was either a 0-15 or 15-30, but he let a sitter in mid court, around shoulder height to my 2hbh, I hit it crosscourt with plenty of topspin and landed TWO INCHES inside the baseline, it didnt even touch the baseline and the dude calls it out, same attitude as before. At this point I was very frustrated with the whole match and particularly with the way I had to play, grinding because I wasnt feeling it, bad day. I hit this great shot at a big moment and he calls it out. I lost it there "What? No way, thats IN! Its not even touching the baseline!" and he just goes "No, its out, clearly out". I go "you cant call that one out, its nowhere the baseline Im right there and Im seeing the ball land about 2 inches from the baseline, theres no way!" So his only out was "Well if you want lets replay the point". "Why should we replay??? Its my point!" And he goes "Well, Im calling it out, so its out, but we can replay the point".
This match was over at that point. I of course lost the game and the next two games, it was horrible, I did feel robbed, and it doesnt have to do with his game style or the fact that I couldnt figured it out, it wouldve been okay to loose and I wouldve just been mad at me, but on such a crappy night, feeling that I was just playing poorly and for him to pull this off, just p!ssed me off. I just told him when we were at net "no wonder youre unbeaten, theres no way anyone can beat you when youre hooking like this"
Then I told him to fck off when he insisted that ball had been out and whatever... These are the type of players I never want to play ever again, and if I ever play against him on a tournament, Im asking for a supervisor right away. Off my list. Good riddance.
Rant over, feel better!
