6th Match with Derek
8/02/09 Sunday 9A.M.
Chico Racquet Club
Score 6-1, 1-6

I went out to play this match with a little bit of a sore and tired shoulder. This was the 4th match in four days. I definitely think I was playing lackadaisically. Part of this was due to my sore shoulder and maybe the other part was just too many matches played in a short period of time and not enough quality sleep.

I won the 1st set pretty much by putting balls back in play. I wasn’t hitting with particularly good pace. I wasn’t feeling much confidence in my new forehand grip and my backhand wasn’t performing that well at times either. Derek just helped me out by committing the majority of unforced errors. I also served kind of gingerly since I didn’t want to put a lot of pressure on my shoulder. I really wasn’t sure how my shoulder would do. As time went on it seemed to be okay and I picked up the pace some on my serves.

I do tend to feel fairly relaxed when I play Derek. I could see in the 1st set that I had the upper hand emotionally. I played with more consistency than Derek while he seemed to self destruct and I knew all I had to do was put balls back in play if I wanted to win. The best thing that was happening for me in the 1st set was that I returned serve quite well. I was focusing on where I was going to return Derek’s serve and although I didn’t always hit it where I had planned, I did hit some great angled returns that put Derek way off the court giving me the advantage.

In the 2nd set I made the mistake of letting up. Derek was complaining about how badly he was doing and I think I fell for his sad story and lost my focus of finishing him off with another solid score in the 2nd set. I also wasn’t feeling particularly well about how I won in the 1st set. I felt that I had won with some rather weak shots so I wanted to pick it up in the 2nd set by hitting with more pace. The thing was, though, I really wasn’t moving my feet very well and I wasn’t really getting into good positions to hit balanced shots. I just wasn’t playing aggressively enough physically or mentally while Derek turned it around by landing more balls in the court, hitting some lines and playing more consistently.

Pure and simple I played a few good points in the match, but didn’t really focus well on strategy, didn’t hit my ground strokes with consistency and didn’t play with a lot of energy. I won a set, but didn’t really enjoy it that much.

Last comment: I think for me to feel that I can really utilize and implement an all court strategy in match play, I have to develop a lot of confidence in being able to hit my forehand and backhand consistently with heavy pace. The big question is, is that really possible for a sixty-two year old man to develop such strokes?