I started my Round of 32 3.0 match at noon today, and within 5 minutes I realized I wasn't going to able to put on my best performance. The midday sun in combination with the complete lack of shade on court whittled down my stamina, and even after the 7 minute warm-up I was panting to catch my breath.
My opponent Rick was a super friendly guy - I sense he works in business, and he played textbook old-person tennis integrated with club strategies. He pushed most shots to my backhand and stepped in to return my second serve, putting me under pressure in a lot of my service games. After being broken on my first service game, I fell to a demoralizing 0-3 and couldn't salvage the first set. My woes continued into the second and Rick nearly broke for the match at 5-2 but I managed to save a match point and fight until 4-5. Then, I squandered an opportunity to hold and got broken one last time. The final 6-2 6-4 score was extremely disappointing as I felt that was a match I really could have turned around. All the momentum was on my side, and a few undisciplined attempts at winners at the end cost me the match.
After grabbing some A&W Sirloin Sliders at Richmond Centre, I came back for my first 3.5 match against Andre. I saw this guy practicing at South Arm almost every time I was there, with practice partners and with a bucket of balls, and I knew he took his tennis seriously. Even though I felt I was probably an underdog, I was feeling extremely confident that I would be able to put in my maximum effort and play my best no matter what. Playing on Court 1, the show court in front of the club, also helped since I felt I played better with people spectating.
The first two games of the match summed up the first set. I hit 4 service winners and 2 double faults, and he followed up with 3 service winners, a double fault, and a rally that led to his backhand error. I was serving 70%+ and was nigh unbreakable for the first set. I faced one break point and erased that with an ace. On the other hand, Andre struggled with his service games more and had to fight off 3 break points on his way to hold to 4-4. Around that time, I figured out how to safely return both his first and second serves by standing 5 feet behind the baseline and was able to put that to use to break at 5-4 and steal a tight first set.
The second set started off almost the same but I managed to break for 3-1, only to get broken back for the first time for 3-2. I then realized that there was almost no way for me to lose this match and played with renewed confidence - the opposite thought crept into Andre's mind and he began to make more mistakes. I entered a level of tennis which I like to describe as full flight, and easily took the next four games to seal the match 6-4 6-2.
My two opponents played different styles (Andre was extremely aggressive) and I truly feel that Andre would win more against Rick if they played 100 sets. Today just proved to me once again that confidence and the mental state are key to securing the W in tennis.
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