3rd Match with Derek
4/12/09 Easter Sunday 10:00A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
Score: 6-1
This was a very interesting set. I can’t say match because Derek and I only played one set. (Actually, after the first set we ended up playing doubles together for a couple of sets.)
I pretty much rolled over Derek. It was one of the easiest sets I have ever played. I was just working on tracking the ball and staying low through my shots. I think Derek is developing a mental block when he plays me. I, on the other hand, tend to go out on the court fairly relaxed against him. (I’m not sure why because against other players it certainly isn’t that way since I will often have a case of nerves.)
Anyways, in this set I was just hitting my shots deep and moving the ball around. I tend to hit to Derek’s backhand since it’s his weaker side and I’ll try to throw up some spin balls that bounce high. He doesn’t seem to like those balls. But I was just really keeping the ball in play and every now and then throwing in a good angle. I wasn’t serving particularly well, but well enough. I went into the match a little tired since I hadn’t slept well the night before. I noticed that in my knees when I served. I felt tired in my knees when I flexed them to serve. It was hard pushing up.
The big thing in this match for me, though, was how Derek fell apart psychologically. When he didn’t start out well and I seemed to win the majority of points, he just went down in a hurry. In fact, I swear he gave me one game by not counting the score correctly. He was so down on himself that he just finished the game early by saying I had won it. I said are you sure? He said yes and I wasn’t going to argue at that point.
In the mean time Babet and Susie had asked us if we wanted to play doubles when we were done. Man, Derek jumped on that. I guess he felt so bad that I had beaten him so easily and nothing was working for him that he just wanted to opt out for something else, to play doubles.
We ended up playing a couple of sets. We lost the first 1-6, but came back and took the second 6-1. I was so happy about that since Babet is a very good doubles player and I’ve never beaten her before in singles or doubles.
After that Derek suggested we play another set of singles, but I told him I had to go. It was Easter Sunday and I had to go up to Anderson with my girlfriend to spend the afternoon with my girlfriend’s sister and friend and have a special leg of lamb dinner.
I’m not so sure Derek really wanted to play anyways after he went down so badly in the first set. We parted saying we would play again in a week or so since he was booked this coming week and I have a tournament next weekend.
I left the courts with such a nice feeling inside. And that feeling stayed with me the whole rest of the day. You know, sometimes it’s just nice to win!