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Day 1: Practice I had a VERY lousy practice today. The tournament location
is beautiful, but the players are all giants and very intimidating. No, really
- everyone there seems to be over 6 feet tall, with big booming serves. I felt
like a very little fish in a very big pond (actually, ocean). It will indeed be
a miracle if I last to the 2nd round. Anyway, I hope to have a better attitude
tomorrow after a nights sleep, and more prayer tomorrow. I am really, really
trying to stay positive and believe in myself, but this has changed completely
over the last couple of days. It's not about believing in myself anymore, it's
all about believing in He who is greater that is living within me. I've
faltered time and time again when I've tried to do it "all myself", and it
always comes down to when I acknowledge my dependency on Him and "let go, and
let God". It's not some kind of "parlor trick", it's a part of a spiritual
process that I've had to work on all my life. When I recognize the source of my
success, good fortune, and indeed even the talents I do have, that's when things
start to turn for the better. Day 2: First Round I lost 6-1, 6-2 to the #14 seed. He served and volleyed. I had him love-40 in the first game of the match, and didn’t convert. I have a real problem with closing. I double faulted a lot, but he also came in on all my serves – even my first serve. The points were very short, I think we had one or two rallies. This is not my style of tennis. I suspect grass will be like this. I like baseline play, and this was not that. I did indeed focus less on my abilities and more on Christ working through me, but that doesn’t mean that I will get a better result – it only puts me in proper perspective. It gave me incredible peace. I did not play tight – I had some very nice passing shots, but just not enough of them, and couldn’t hold my serve due to double faults. He was just much better and more experienced than me.
I believe this is the first day of my spiritual journey through tennis. My single highest objective in my walk with Christ has been to integrate my faith and His presence into everything I do – so that I am one “whole person”, not one that is a follower of Christ when it suits me, or when it’s “expected” of me. I want to be consistently His, and spiritually in tune with the Holy Spirit. I never realized until I decided to go through this how I’ve put this on the shelf in that regard. Like “I can handle this one Lord, You can sit this one out”. I obviously can’t handle it. Tomorrow I will play in the consolation tournament. We will see how that goes. Day 3: Round of 64 for the Consolation Tournament Yes, there are so many in the consolation tournament, they had to have a round of 64. This is larger than any other tournament I’ve been entered in all year – and it’s “only” a consolation?? WOW. My first match was against a teaching pro from Florida. I hate playing teaching pros because they miss so little, you have to hit winners to win the point – but of course, that’s my favorite way to play anyway. As has been my pattern, I got down 3 love in the first set. A terrible start once again. I came back a bit, but it’s 5-2 and he has double set point on his serve (40 – 15). I realize that I’m not being aggressive enough, and since I’m about to lose the set anyway, I start to “go for it” a bit more – be truly aggressive. Well, that strategy works, I hit a couple of winners and we are back to deuce. I decide it’s the right strategy to stick with - win or lose this game. I keep hitting out, and I break his serve. The first set is no 3-5 and I’m serving. I might pull this set out. NOT! He breaks my serve, as I double fault 2 times in the following game, and he wins the first set 6-3. By the way, I missed about 12 overheads in this first set. You could say that not “having” this very important shot cost me the set. This is a skill I must work on. After a “sparkling” break of his serve, I falter by giving two gifts on my serve – ARGH!! I was not very “pumped” for set #2. I now begin to remember that this is not about me again, but about me letting Christ live (play) through me. I’m down 1-0 in the second set and I ask the Lord to let me trust Him more, and let Him play through me. I put some good serves together and win the next game. It’s 1-1. My next game I’m feeling like I’m back to making this a spiritual journey again, and I’m enjoying it more as well. I break his serve and I’m up 2-1 and I’m feeling like this is going to be a different set. The next game becomes one of the longest games I’ve ever played. We had 14 deuces or more that game on my serve. I had my ad several times, but after more than 20 minutes, he won that game and we’re tied 2-2, and I’m pretty bummed that I let my serve get broken that way. To make a long story shorter, I continued to draw on Christ’s strength, and I won the second set 6-3. I change shirts and sweat bands and we head to set #3. I jump to a 3-1 lead fairly quickly. I’m feeling pretty good, and have only double faulted once, and missed one or two overheads. Inexplicably, I drop the next three games straight, and he is up 4-3. I was in “command”, and I let it slip away. He’s lobbing a lot more now that he sees that is my biggest weakness, and I accommodate him my missing more and more overheads. I’m starting to think “it’s happening again, I’m throwing the match away”. I decide to have a conversation with the Lord telling him, “…this would make a good story you know if you will pull this out for me. I simply have an uncanny ability to lose, and I need you to win”. I continue to encourage myself to just “let it go”, as I can trust HIM, not myself. At this point, I’ve been hitting quite a few winners – I probably hit over 25 in the match so far (I’m sure I hit more unforced errors than that, but I don’t count those J). I break his serve to get back to even at 4-4. I serve well the next game, and now I’m up 5-4. At this point, I know I must break him now, as I do not want the “nerves” of going into a 7-5 situation or a tie breaker. I bear down, and he responds so that we are at 30-30. I win the next point on an aggressive approach shot, and it’s match point. I make a point to not get defensive, and attack his serve, get the upper hand in the point, have him completely out of position – hit a winner backhand sharply cross court, and somehow he runs it down. I stood there in disbelief that he got it back, and all I had to do was “poke” it in the middle of the empty court since he had to run completely outside the doubles line to retrieve it. In my “I can find any way to lose” fashion, I paid that “no mind”, and poked it right into the net. YIKES! I just threw the match away on that silliness. I stay positive though, and remind myself that it’s God working in me that will help me not self destruct this time. I get to my ad again, and he hits a shot that I call wide, but he disagrees with the call. I think the match is over, but he is sure it hit the line. I give him the point, saying I would never want to win that way, He feels bad, but takes it. He then proceeded to double fault twice in a row, and I win – not a thrilling victory, but I really had it won 10 minutes earlier, the “W” was just delayed. I win the third set 6-4 after 3+ hours. It feels good to win once in a while. Day 4: Day of Departure I lost 6-1, 6-1 today. I don’t think it was good knowing I could not stay and play regardless of what happened. I did not “fight” as hard, and towards the end of the second set, I downright stopped running for balls. The guy I played today was a carbon copy of the guy who beat me in the first round – he served and volleyed, and missed almost nothing at the net. I really do not know how to play against such players. I also missed 100% of my overheads, and double faulted 1 or 2 times per game. The good news is that my deficiencies are consistent, and I know what to work on. However, despite losing, I was hitting my groundstrokes really well. I had a number of great passing shots (just not enough of them), and the few baseline rallies I had I hit some awesome winners. After we were done playing, he confessed that he envied my ground strokes, and always wished he could hit the ball with as much pace and spin as I do. He said that trying to hit these back is almost impossible when you only have “flat groundstrokes” as he does. I did indeed win quite a few points on the topspin or depth forcing a late return on his part. While he may have just been trying to be nice, this was mentioned to me by a couple other guys this week too. In looking at the other players, less than 25% of them hit the ball as hard, and even less than that hit it with as much topspin – especially off the backhand. I know that I will be able to win more once I learn how to serve, hit overheads, and figure out how to beat serve and volley guys. Overall, I still need to learn how to win, and develop some of the skills that are missing in my arsenal. This was an excellent learning experience, and I’m giving myself lots of room for improvement record wise. I’m now approaching a paultry 40% win rate – I hope this is as low as it goes. |
