Oakmont Spring Classic, Allentown, PA, 4-28-05
Round of 16:
I’ve been working out indoors on hard courts since October, so an outdoor tournament on clay – red clay which I have never played on before – was going to be a big change. I got the tournament director to find me a guy to hit with the day before my first match. Boy was I glad we did that. The difference in speed and bounce was huge – slower speed, bounce is less, so you have to move to the ball sooner and you have to travel further. Timing will be everything. Fortunately the guy I’m hitting with has a big serve, so I get to practice returning serve. It’s a good thing, because I missed the first dozen or so (which would have translated into about 3 games or so if it was a match). We hit for an hour, and I felt like I wasn’t going to go into the match “blind” the next day. In fact, the guy I'm hitting with gave me a compliment that would have made my coach laugh or choke; he said "boy, if they better not give you a short ball, or it's all over". These have been my weakest shots, and Misha and I have worked on this for months - it's nice to see it might finally be paying off.
The guy I played also had a pretty big first serve – he was 6’1’’, and used it to his advantage. The three lessons where I returned serve at home, and the night before would come in handy, because I missed very few returns. I broke his serve on the first game – a good start. Next it was my turn to serve – but I can’t serve because I pulled my abdominal muscle in the tournament in Maryland. Even after waiting 9 days, I went out to try and serve again, and re-injured it. SO… I researched it and found out that I need 4 weeks for it to heal. The rest of my game was fine, as nothing stretches the stomach muscle like the serve, so I decided to compete with an under-hand serve. I fully expected to lose quickly given this handicap, but I wanted to play anyway to get practice at the service return, and keeping my head together during the match. I’ve been fighting with playing at a much lower level than I practice at. Thus, I lose to people that I should beat, or it takes me much more effort to win against people I should easily “handle”.
Today having no expectation to win, I went out and just
played my game. I won the first set 6-1, and the second set 6-3. My silly
underhand serve was only broken once. I was very pleased with the mental side
of the game. This guy was better than the guy I played in Maryland and won 7-5,
7-5… but I beat him more easily because I didn’t fall into a tentative, guiding
style of play. I just hit out, and enjoyed it. I play in the quarterfinals
tomorrow and hope to have the same mental victory, even if the results might not
be the same.
Quarterfinals:
I knew the matches had to get harder – especially with me serving underhand. I fought hard in the first set, but fell 6-3. The second set I had a bit more determination – wanted to make sure I made him work for everything and began playing more aggressively. It paid off, and I won the second set 6-4. By the time the third set came around, he had figured out how to really punish my puny underhand serve, and I simply couldn’t hold my serve even once. After going down 3 quick games (which was just one break, but it feels worse than just one break when the score is 3-0. I really had to hold serve to get any kind of momentum. No such luck – went down 4-0. I broke his serve next and it was 1-4. If I could hold and bring it to 4-2 I might begin believing I could pull this out – but I could not. Besides the serves he jumped on, I began to make more unforced errors. I think I got tight, and started being a bit tentative or something, I’m not sure. Anyway, he won 6-1 in the third, and I was able to go home early and think about what I did learn from the 5 sets I got to play in this tournament with my silly underhand serve.
I learned that my new policy of not hitting ANY slice backhands was extremely effective. I can’t remember how many times I said to myself after I had won yet another point on my backhand (I might NEVER hit another slice backhand in my life J ). I had tremendous success with that strategy, and now I need to just improve its consistency. Secondly, returning with the backhand grip was definitely the right change in that aspect of my game as well. However, I hit too many right back at the server – I need to begin moving the ball around – especially off the second serve. I need to be able to jump on those more. Finally, I saw that I tend to just “spin” the forehand back, and seldom hit it with much pace. This didn’t really give these guys much problem, and I doubt that it will since it sits up nice and high. I need to put some pace on that side so that I can have weapons on both sides, not just one. One other final point - I don't think I missed more than 1 or 2 short balls per match. Most of these were put away for winners, or put my opponent in a very defensive position - this used to be one of my biggest weaknesses, and it's great to see some real progress in this area.
All in all, it was a good learning experience.