Tennis Tournament: 10/10-10/12

A couple weeks ago I participated in my club's tennis tournament and I did fairly well.

Singles

Match 1
Lost: 3-6, 4-6

I played really well but my opponent was much better. I served well, and made good shots, but the guy got every shot back. I should have played smarter but I was trying to muscle the ball over the net. I didn't hold my server once this match and all my points came from breaking my opponents serve. Learned from this match.

Match 2 - Consolation
Won: 8-4

I served well and managed to shake up my opponent.

Match 3 - Consolation
Lost: 6-8

My inability to hold my serve returned. I was up 4-2, then my opponent even things to 4-4 ... then I was up 6-4. I couldn't hold my serve so I ended up losing the next 4 games. It so frustrating to lose a match because you can't hold your serve.

Doubles

Match 1
Won: 6-2, 6-4

Our opponents had a 3 hour match before ours, and my partner and me had a first round bye so we were fresh as a daisy. We won the first set pretty easy, the we got a bit sloppy during second set. We were up 4-1 and allowed then they even the score at 4-4. We broke their serve and I held serve for the match.

Match 2
Won: Walkover

We were scheduled to play a team that is part of our tennis club, but they had to withdraw due to injury.

Match 3
Won: 6-4, 6-2

This match was delayed by 5 hours due to rain. We struggled in the beginning of the first set but managed to get back in to the game, thanks to some costly errors by our opponents. The second set we dominated and were up 5-0, we got a bit loose on the next 2 games before winning 6-2

Match 4
Won: 2-6, 6-4, 1-0

This was the finals and we were very nervous because we had to play against a team from our tennis club, and they are very good players. They like to play "slow and steady" and I just don't like that tactic. I get impatient and want to finish the point. We did that during the first set and lost 2-6. We decided to beat them at their own game. We didn't go for big shots during the the second set and wanted to put pressure on them to win the point. This tactic worked and they made a lot more errors and we won 6-4.

The third set was a tie-breaker, and the first team to 10 points (winning by 2 points) win the match. This were pretty even in the beginning. It wasn't until we were up 3-2 that we started to take control. We were up 9-5 and eventually won the match at 10-6.

[pic of trophy]

I really didn't think we were going to make it past the 1st round of our doubles division because my partner and I haven't been practicing much. Much to our surprised we played really well, despite the tough match in the final. Maybe my hot pink over-grip helped in some way?

[pic of grip]

It was my breast cancer awareness symbol. :)

My next tournament is in Houston in 2 weeks, but my partner is unable to play. I am trying to decide if I should just play singles or just be paired up with someone else for the tournament. It will be strange to play with someone else considering were have been playing together for 2 years, and have won 3 tournaments, 2 runner-ups and 1 semi-final. This is all out of 7 tournaments played together.

Not bad, eh?

Tennis Tournament: 10/2-10/3

This past week I participated in a USTA tournament, which was my first since April. I used it as a warm-up for my tennis groups annual tournament which starts this Saturday. I did pretty well and made it further than I thought.

Match 1
Won: 6-3, 6-1

This match I was down 0-3, and I finally got in a groove and won the next 6 games to take the first set. The second set I lost the first game, but won the next 6 games for the match. This guy was a lefty so it took me a bit of time to get use the lefty serve. I played a pretty clean match and only 2 double faults.

Match 2
Won: 7-5, 6-0

This was another iffy start to a match. I was down 1-4 at one point and fought back to get to 4-4. We both broke each others serve to get to 5-5, and I won the next 2 games for set ... then the next 6 games for the match. I finally realized that my opponent backhand was really weak and I began to attack it.

Match 3
Lost: 3-6, 4-6

I am not sure what happened in the match. There were a couple iffy line calls by my opponent, which ticked me off a bit so I wasn't focused on the first set. Another round of bad calls in the 2nd set ticked me off, I was down 0-2. I rallied to win the next 4 games. Other bad calls and bad play from me caused me to lose the next 4 games.

I am happy overall with how I played. I served well and I cut down the double faults I been typically committing over the past few weeks. I wanted to play against people with different types of games to prepare myself of unknown players. So I feel that I am ready to play in the tournament this weekend.