My opponent today was Mooshon, who beat the number two seed 6-1 6-2. I checked out his past tournament stats before the match started and he played a lot of 4.0 in past years but never made it past the first round. I felt I was going up against a guy who was clearly overrating himself, and expected an easy match.
The first warning sign occurred during warm-up when he literally would not miss a shot. Volleys, baseline rallies, overheads.. he seemed to be able to hit everything. Then he started serving with a very inefficient motion, and I was relieved that he had at least one weakness I could attack.
The match started well and I got up to 40-15 in the first game. At that point, he stopped making errors and began to roll through the set. I was doing a great job serving, returning his first serve, and blasting his second serve deep to his backhand, but Mooshon would always find a way to neutralize the rally. I would lose almost every rally unless I hit one or two outstanding shots. Almost every one of my approach shots were countered by well placed lobs, and I was seriously doubting my chances for the first set after he broke twice.
At 0-3 I focused on targeting his one-handed backhand, and we settled into many long backhand-to-backhand rallies. I think that he eventually realized my backhand was my more consistent side, and started slicing to frustrate my forehand, as well as to draw me up to the net. By this time I was out of ideas and patience, and played a lackluster game at 0-5 to receive my first tournament bagel ever.
I was pumped to start the second set and started hitting more forcefully to Mooshon's backhand. We traded breaks before he caught on and started just retrieving most of my paced balls. My strategy yielded a lot of short returns, but I could not reliably put the ball away. I hit my approach shots deep but they were also too high and gave Mooshon plenty of options to return it. I would almost always follow with an insufficient volley that would result in a lob or force me to hit a bad stroke from the middle of the court (no man's land). At 3-1, Mooshon settled into a rhythm and I grew increasingly desperate. I went for low-percentage shots from the baseline and began to rush my service motion. Even though I told myself I was only a break or two away from levelling the match, I subconsciously felt the match was unsalvageable. Monshoon finally hit an uncharacteristic winner to end the match 6-0 6-1, and I was left to wonder what exactly I could have done to beat him.
He had no discernable weak strokes besides his second serve, and even my best returns could not penetrate him at the baseline. I don't feel I played below my normal level today, but I am now aware of what I have to practice - to construct points through disciplined approach shots and volleys. Perhaps the match would have been different if I won the first game of first set, perhaps not, but I'll really have to capitalize on the mental advantage of serving first (and having a stronger serve) in the future.
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