Multiple Matches

5/13/09 - 5/1709 Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sun

Chico Racquet Club

 

I played four matches in five days this week and some point games with my son on the fifth day.  Here is a brief synopsis of what happened in all of those matches.

 

On Wednesday I played Jeremy who is a strong 4.0 player.  I felt like I wasn’t able to employ my strategy much in this match.  I had trouble returning Jeremy’s serve throughout the match.  He was serving his high kicker really well.  I kept trying to hit over it.   I think I should have been slicing it back since it was coming up so high on me.  I did well to stay in the match.  I didn’t feel that I was hitting my ground strokes particularly well.  Fortunately, Jeremy was going for some shots that he missed on a fairly regular basis.  He was over hitting these.  He did hit some solid winners, though. Balls that streaked by me. He won the 1^st set 6-3.

 

In the 2^nd set I had a chance to take the set.  I was up 4-3, but then lost the next three games.  I think I needed to play a little more competitively here being aware of the score more.

 

As a whole, I felt that I was able to hang in there with Jeremy as much as I did in this match due to his unforced errors.  I wasn’t hitting my ground strokes well enough to move him around much and get to the net.

 

 

On Thursday night I played Vince who has twenty years on me.  He’s in his eighties.  During the warm-up I thought I was going to just roll over him.  Man, was I wrong.  Turned out Vince had some game.  He got a ton of balls back.  Granted they almost had zero pace on them, but they came back.  And actually that lack of pace was what made things hard for me.  He hit many short balls that I stepped up on to put away, but I kept hitting them long. 

 

I thought I could play his backhand since it was definitely his weaker stroke and he wanted to run around it as much as he could, but he returned a lot of balls there, too.  I ended up losing the 1^st set 4-6 and started to get frustrated.  At about that point I got smart and decided just to keep balls in play and not care whether I was hitting anything with pace.  Vince started to make errors and I started to win more points consistently.  My down-the-line backhand found the mark at least ten times within a foot of the sideline.  Those felt good! 

 

Eventually I won the 2^nd set 6-3 and then the tiebreaker 10-2.  I went home happy.  I realized that I had come to my senses and played smart to turn things around.  I really didn’t want to get beat by someone twenty years older than me.  But I have to say, I hope I am moving as well as Vince when am I that age. 

 

 

My third match on Friday was with Richard London, a strong and tactically smart 4.0 player who has been on the courts for many, many years.  In fact, I once played with Richard thirty years ago and he shellacked my butt.  So I came into this match with a little trepidation.  But you know what?   I did alright.  In fact, I really played quite well.  We had numerous deuce games and some very good points.  I hit a couple of slice approach shots for winners which really surprised me. 

 

I returned his serve quite well, usually undercutting it.  I don’t usually do that either, but it seemed to be working nicely.  Richard did have a slice serve that carried me wide a few times, but on one occasion I slid wide and returned his serve for a pure winner down-the-line right in the corner pocket.  That felt good!

 

Richard had a drop shot that was very effective.  He must have caught me too far behind the baseline four times with beautiful drop shots that just dropped dead in their tracks.  There was no way I could reach those balls.   The solution here is obvious:  stay close to the baseline and be ready to take balls on the rise whenever possible.  Besides, taking balls on the rise allows me to hit with more pace and this is one of my main goals.

 

He also seemed to draw me into the net with a low short ball and then pass me easily.  I think here I need to try to hit these balls into a corner and then cover that side.  Make him hit a difficult crosscourt shot.

 

Supposedly Richard hits with a semi-western, but I really didn’t notice that much spin or pace on his balls.   Although I lost 2-6, 2-6, I felt that I played well achieving multiple deuce games.  I know that I can beat Richard in the future.  In truth, I believe Richard is a very good opponent for me since he has a game that offers me various and numerous opportunities to work on my all court strategy.

 

 

My fourth match on Sunday was with my old nemesis, Marty.  It was rather warm this morning.  We started at around 9:00AM., but man, it was already hot.  The sun was intense.  I felt so lethargic.  I had trouble bending my knees on my serve.  I only double faulted twice in two sets, but I wasn’t getting much action on any of my serves because I wasn’t bending my knees well.

 

In both sets I stayed even with Marty until 2 all, but then I faded.  Frankly, I didn’t play very smart in either of these sets.  I have been working on extending my forearm through my forehand drive to achieve more pop in my stroke lately and I tried to carry this into the match, but it wasn’t working.  I was hitting long.  The smart thing here would have been to go back to what I know I can do and that is to hit more topspin to bring my shots down into the court.  I didn’t do that, though.  For some reason I insisted on trying to practice my penetrating forehand shot throughout the match and ended up making numerous unforced errors.  Not smart!

 

I need to remember this pattern because this isn’t the first time I have done this.  It’s okay to take some risks in match play, but when I’m constantly going for too much and it isn’t working then the smart play is to keep the ball in play as much as possible until the confidence comes back.  I did this in my match with Vince and it worked out well.  I just lost it in this match.  I have to remember my three goals in a match:  have fun, relax and be creative. In this match I did very little of those three things.