7th Match with Sydney
4/17/09 Friday 1:00P.M.
Chico Racquet Club
Score: 2-6, 4-6
Actually today I played quite well. Even though I lost, I can see considerable improvement. Normally, Sydney runs me around by hitting a lot of angles. He didn’t do that today. He wasn’t able to.
I had a plan going into the match that I was going to play his backhand a lot. It’s his weaker shot. Sydney likes to dictate play with his forehand so I think my hitting to his backhand minimized the number of chances he had to try and open up the court with his forehand. I believe this tennis strategy was fairly effective.
I was also moving forward well, following deep balls to the net, serving my opponent wide, bringing him to the net, lobbing him looking into the sun, and in general setting up points quite well. As usual I didn’t always execute the finish, but that’s okay. I see it’s coming. It’s getting easier.
I also sent up some high balls defensively to get back into the point. That worked. Sydney did nothing with those shots.
I liked the way I was returning his serve. I have to say this was putting Sydney on the defensive at times because I was returning with pace and placement. I thought before the match that maybe I would cut his serve, but then I realized it was just as easy to hit over it since it wasn’t coming up that high.
I was pleased with my serve. Early on in the first set I double-faulted a couple of times in a row, but then I started going for more spin on my first serve for a number of games until I felt I could go back to my flatter first serve. I got in a groove that way. And actually my second serve has good movement. It had very good movement today. It kept bouncing very high. Syd didn’t do anything with it at all. He really had to watch it.
My biggest disappointment today was that I really didn’t hit any penetrating balls with my forehand. I kept feeling like it would go long on me so I stuck with the spin shots. I did hit a couple of penetrating shots with my backhand and my return of serve had very good pace today. But I’m disappointed that I can’t seem to break through and go for those forehands that have solid pace and penetrate more. I do it in practice! It’s just so hard to get that mind-set that I’ve got to go for it in the beginning of the match and not care about the result. I have to do that, though, if I’m ever going to know and learn what that feels like so I can move on to the next level. I think with Sydney that is probably the only way I’m going to beat him.
Another thing that was a little disappointing in this match was that I popped up (or stood up) on five or six shots, both forehand and backhand. When I do this my head totally comes out of position moving up and out. I think this is what creates the feeling of popping up; it’s my head moving so much. I believe it’s due to overexcitement because usually I’m in good position to hit the ball well although sometimes these are balls where I am running forward to strike a low bouncing ball. I have to constantly remind myself to stay down, to finish my follow through before I come up. In the long run this is going to be totally better anyways since I believe I can develop more power with a lower stance where my knees are well flexed.
Lastly I liked the way I was more relaxed today although it took me a little while to get there. I noticed that I was having a little trouble catching my breath in the first set. I think that was due to my being a little nervous. It was somewhat hot, too, for the first time this spring. It was around 80 degrees and I wasn’t used to that. By the second set I felt fine, though. I think the score reflected that, too
That’s all for this commentary. All and all I believe progress is being made. Sometimes it feels slow, but today I saw a certain maturity in the way I was thinking on the court, trying to be creative with my play. It was fun; I enjoyed it.