SF Tennis Freak

Date: 5/11/2013

Location: San Francisco State University

Conditions: Outdoors, overcast, cool, humid

Doubles or Singles Played: Doubles

Match Result: 6-1 6-2 Loss

Season Record: 2-3

Match Notes: Lost a tough one today in doubles 1 and 2. The fact that we were out there a long time for that score doesn’t make me feel any better about the loss.  I didn’t play badly, but I certainly didn’t play well enough to combat the seasoned doubles play of my opponents.

My partner for today’s match was Tom, a teammate I haven’t partnered with this season. He was solid, and we got along well (he’s a very nice guy), but a new partnership is almost always at a disadvantage against teams that have played together previously: like our opponents. (I hope we get a chance to play again before the season is over.)

Also, I hadn’t played since last week’s match, and I could definitely have benefitted from a midweek hit.  That wasn’t possible after getting a mild case of food poisoning. I pretty much just had to chill most of the week.  But since tennis is a game of familiarity and feel, I wasn’t as on top of my game today as I could have been, and it showed.  Especially on my serve.

My groundstrokes were decent: forehand more so than backhand. The main issue today was my serve. There were no “Sharapova” moments like last week, but it was still a mediocre service day. I couldn’t get it out wide when I needed, and didn’t put nearly enough first serves into play. I held 2 of 4 times at the service line, and that’s not nearly good enough at the 4.0 level to get the job done.

Earlier this season, one of my teammates and I talked about the need to play at least 2-3 times a week in order to be ready to compete at this level.  I did that heading into last week’s match and came out with a win. I wasn’t able to this week and came away with a loss.

Midweek practice might not necessarily have produced a win, but it sure would have made my overall game a lot tidier today.