6th Match with Sydney Hughes
2/27/09 Friday 12 noon
Chico Racquet Club
1-6, 4-6, 2-6
This was a match that turned out to be very frustrating for me. I don’t think I was really aware during the whole match that my ego was getting the best of me. It wasn’t till after the match was over and I was left on the court by myself reflecting that it occurred to me that what had gone wrong was my attitude and my expectation of winning. I let my ego get way too involved in my play and this affected my emotions on the court. I got upset with myself on numerous shots. Instead of just working on my shots and strategies, I became too concerned with winning which resulted in playing tight most of the match.
The score may not necessarily reflect how I played. Sydney and I always have some fairly competitive points and games, quite a few deuce games. I felt like I never really got into a good rhythm, though. Part of that is Sydney and by that I mean he varies the depth and angles of his shots. But a lot of it was me. I was too tight on many shots. I have been trying to incorporate the squeezing of the racquet handle on impact to give my forehand more pop. In practice it has been coming out fine, but not in matches. My tightness today actually made things worse; balls were sailing long on me and really had very little pop at all. So I got frustrated. To make matters worse on my backhand when I knew I had a ball I could do something with I muffed it by not staying down on the follow-through.
This isn’t to say everything was bad, though. That’s really not the case. I did have some decent shots that I finished to win points. I was moving forward in the court and ended up at the net appropriately. My scrambling ability sometimes does amaze me, but frankly I’d rather have my opponent be the one who is scrambling to stay in the point! My serving was effective at times. I won some free points there. I double faulted maybe 4 or 5 times in the match. My return of serve, though, continues to bug me. I did return well a few times, but I feel that I should be able to do a lot more with Sydney’s serves, both 1st and 2nd.
I did also have a beautiful backhand slice that I hit on the run. I angled the ball just over the net into the ad service court. Sydney couldn’t touch it. He just watched it slide off of the court across the double’s alley. That was the first time I have ever hit a slice like that. It had the classic stroke form of starting high then going down through the ball and then back up high. I was amazed I had hit that stroke and that I placed it so nicely. I also performed a very nice drop shot from behind the baseline that totally caught Sydney off guard. He applauded me.
In general today, I felt that my attitude let me down and that in turn affected my mechanics. So instead of being able to really focus on strategy like I wanted, I ended up focusing on the mechanics of my shots and muffed opportunities. In a nut shell that was where this match was at. Not very pleasing and I really didn’t enjoy myself today much at all. I think I really forgot that my main goals are to have fun, relax and be creative. I got too hung up on mechanics and winning.
One positive here, though, would be that I ran my butt off like crazy scrambling for balls. I really was not that tired at the end of the match. Hopefully I’m getting in a little better physical condition because last Saturday when I had to play three sets, I tired in the 3rd which affected my play in that match.
One last comment: I think Sydney’s style of play continues to baffle me somewhat. His variation in depth of balls, angles and flat strokes make it difficult for me to get into a rhythm. I’m not quite sure what the answer is. One possibility would be to return his serves more effectively in order to put him on the defensive, take charge and finish the point quicker. (This way I’m not running so darn much!) Another possibility might be to hit higher bouncing balls especially to his backhand. I’m not so sure how easy that would be, though.