16th Match with Marty
7/16/09 Thursday 7P.M.
Chico Racquet Club
Score: 2-6, 2-6

I hadn’t played a match for about ten days when I came up against Marty in the last match of the men’s singles-league session for June and July. Actually, I hadn’t played much tennis since I had been gone on a vacation up to Vancouver, Canada for a week. Upon my return form Canada I did take a lesson and had hit on the ball machine a couple of times before I played this match. So I entered the match quite relaxed and with a formidable change in my forehand stroke: In my last lesson with my coach’s advice, I decided to go to a grip that is very close to a semi-western. I was curious to see how I would do with this new grip in the match.

Even though I lost the match 2 and 2, I felt that I played very well in general and stayed relaxed throughout, hitting some well paced ground strokes especially with my backhand. The score really didn’t reflect how I played because we had a lot of deuce games. I hit some great shots down the line with my backhand and my near semi-western grip actually stayed in place. (I thought it might move reverting back to my eastern grip, but it didn’t). I started to gain some confidence with my new forehand, that I could keep my shots in the court. At times I hit with a little too much spin on that side, but that was to be expected.

The most interesting part of this match for me was an error I committed in strategy or more precisely shot selection. At the beginning of the 1st set I hit three or four winners down the line with my backhand. My opponent wasn’t covering that part of the court at all; he was letting me hit those shots at will. My mistake was in thinking I had to change up where I was going with the ball. I began to try to go crosscourt and failed. What made it worse was that three times I changed my mind in the middle of my stroke from going down-the-line to crosscourt and sure enough my balls landed in the net. The body can not be commanded to do two different things at the same time, can it? Strategy-wise I should have continued to go down-the-line until my opponent decided he was going to cover that area of the court and not let me hit winners there. At the point where my opponent started to cover that part of the court I would have had the option to hit crosscourt into the open space left by my opponent.

So, actually, I’m glad I miscued there. That’s a great lesson. I won’t let that happen again.

Another mistake I made was in not getting up to the net more. I was often dictating the point with some deep shots close to the baseline and I had other opportunities to move forward that I didn’t take advantage of. I think as of late I have been too worried about the mechanics of my forehand and have stopped thinking about getting forward in the court to end points. I have become too complacent just hitting from the baseline.

One thing I did very well was to give Marty different looks in my return of serve position. I didn’t always stand in the same place and often stood in a position that left a gap that he felt he had to hit into and did. At times Marty also faulted because I was moving around when his toss went up. With regards to my return of serve, though, I really need to step it up; I need to apply pressure here. I’m just not aggressive enough in my return. I need to return with more pace against Marty. I seem to be too complacent to just put the ball in play at times. Marty’s serve is not particularly strong. I need to step in, hit it hard and go for placement. As my coach says I should have in mind where I want to go before I actually hit my return of serve.

One other thing I would comment on is the fact that there were a few distractions during our match that helped me lose my focus. The guys on the court next to us were talking almost after every point they played. This became very distracting. But also Marty and I were chatting too much between change-overs. My focus definitely gets disturbed with these kinds of distractions during a match. I need to keep talking to a minimum between change-overs and try to totally ignore what is going on around me in other matches.

One very curious yet interesting observation about this match was that of the three balls: 3 shots into the net that I changed my mind on direction in the middle of the shot; 3 lobs I failed to get over my opponent at the net; 3 volleys I missed at the net; 3 short balls I hit long; and 3 short balls I waited for at the baseline instead of moving to diagonally to pressure my opponent. Wow! Emotionally this is very hard to take; I certainly gave my opponent the emotional edge in this match. When I learn to turn these three ball situations around I’m pretty sure I will have a different outcome.

To sum up: In general, I felt good about this match even though I made numerous mistakes . I hit my ground strokes relatively well with good pace, I dictated a lot of points and I was relaxed. The score didn’t mean anything to me this night. I was well involved in the process of improving my game. Unfortunately, I ran out of time in this match to turn it around. As it got darker and darker the ineffectiveness of the court lights began to take a toll on my night-time vision as I began to see more and more shadows and hit with less accuracy. I await another match with Marty in the near future, hopefully in broad daylight.