2^nd Match with Derek Culligan

3/8/09   Sunday  11:00A.M. 

Chico Racquet Club

Won 6-4, 7-6 (4)

 

I’m not so sure that Eldon, my coach and mentor, would be pleased with the way I won this match today.  But basically I won it from behind the baseline.  I’m not saying I didn’t get up to the net from time to time and that I didn’t step inside the baseline to hit shorter balls because I did do those things.  And, certainly in some ways I did play an all-court game, but frankly I won today’s match by stroking quite a few loopy topspin balls from behind the baseline. 

 

I started out this match very strong with some solid ground strokes and I didn’t seem to be exhibiting much of the nerves that I had had the last few matches.  I got up 4-1 in the first set and was cruising when all of a sudden there was a point where I had to run my butt off to stay in the point.  When the point finished I was gasping for air and felt winded.  It took me a couple of games to recover.  At about the same time I was struck with some negative thoughts.  Why was I winded so quickly?  Was I sick?  What was going on with my left eye? I seemed to be seeing a shadow. (I later realized this was a floater that had probably been released from the laser treatment that I had had earlier in the week.  Also, it did turn out that I was sick.  The scratchy sore throat that started on Saturday turned into a full-blown cold on Monday.)  Anyways, needless to say, I lost my concentration and began to lose a few games.  Fortunately, I hung in there and ended up winning the first set 6-4.

 

In the second set I started out slowly falling behind 1-2 and then 2-4, but then got it together to go ahead at 6-5, but couldn’t put away that last game to win the set.  So a tiebreaker was necessary which, fortunately, I was ahead in the whole time.  I was glad I won that tiebreaker because I really didn’t feel like playing another set.  I was tired.

 

Some other factors of note in the match for me were the following:

 

1.         My opponent experienced a high degree of difficulty returning a high bouncing topspin ball.  So I hit as many loopy topspin balls as I could.  He almost always put these in the net.  And this was on both of his wings, forehand and backhand.  It didn’t seem to matter.  (He actually commented on this during a crossover, that he was more used to returning lower bouncing balls and that high shoulder level balls created problems.)

 

2.         Derek’s backhand is by far his weaker ground stroke and being that he plays left handed it played right into one of my best shots, my down-the-line backhand stroke.  So this was an obvious tactic for me —— down-the-line repeatedly.  His percentage on the return was very low.

 

3.         Derek had some difficulty with his serve today, both 1^st and 2^nd.  This allowed me to put him on the defensive more and more as the match wore on.  I was able to step in on his 2^nd serve in particular and hit with some pace down-the-line or crosscourt to make him run.

 

4.         At one point in the match during the 1^st set I got somewhat winded.  At this point I wasn’t as willing to go forward or to think all-court strategy.  I became content to hit more ground strokes and fortunately for me my opponent had trouble with the shoulder high balls I was feeding him with frequency.   

 

5.         My serving today was fairly effective. I wasn’t so bothered by playing a left hander.  I actually was able to pull him off the court wide with my 1^st serve into the deuce court a number of times.  The accuracy of this serve has been getting better.  I think I double faulted 4 or 5 times today.  They always seemed to happen when I got tentative.  I also noticed I missed some 1^st serves when I pulled my head down prematurely.  I realized I hadn’t even seen the ball on those serves.  I felt like I was terribly out of sync on those, too, but really what it was, was my head coming down way too soon.

 

6.         I missed at least three ground strokes when I changed my mind on the direction I was going in the middle of the stroke.  To the reverse of that, though, I did have one nice feigned backhand cross court stroke that I went down-the-line with as I came in to put away a short ball.  It was very pleasing to me in that I totally faked out my opponent.  I sold him on the idea that I was going cross court.  I have been noticing lately that my backhand can be very deceptive that way.  My opponent sometimes does not know which way I am going to go with it, cross court or down-the-line.

 

7.         When I would screw up with an easy shot, I just reminded myself to keep tracking the ball as long as I could into my racquet.  I tried to keep it simple.  It seemed to help.  I wasn’t thinking too much, and it helped me not to worry as much about the score.

 

 

To finish up this report, I must comment that, even though I won this match and didn’t feel my nerves excessively, I still felt some tightness from time to time. I felt this tightness especially at the end of the match when I wanted to win that tiebreaker.  Sometimes it is so hard not to think about the outcome!  It is such a fine line to be able to hit out freely, not worrying about the score and to remain competitive within the match!

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