Let’s start with the END of the story of my Longboat Key consolation singles match today…
Lazenby + racquet
Now, “for the rest of the story.” Because of all the rain, my 65 singles consolation match was delayed till Sunday morning and was forced into just an eight-game pro set. The opponent was Jim Lazenby from Alabama, who uses the two-handled, racquet, beat me last year, but lost to Tom McCune in three tough sets.
after my two hour drive this morning, I found a wall to hit on before the match; so I could be as loose as possible for the one-set match. I knew I needed to start fast even though he was serving first; but he won six of the first seven points. I was able to right the ship trailing 0-30 in my first service game and won FOUR straight games. I had the offense. I had control. And he was making mistakes.
But when I was serving 4-1, he changed his game and started drop shotting off my serve (and later, during points). It took me by surprise and he broke. Then when I started looking for the drop shot, he would drive it deep to the corners. I lost the offense and found myself scrambling to get his tough shots back.
He gained all the momentum and, even though the points and games were close, he won the rest of them to take it 8-4.
So what did I learn in this “teachable moment”? Two things:
1) Be ready for the good players to change a losing game. The guy who beat me in the first round did it with moon ball + attack. Fred Drilling did it against Tom, with going to steady and in-play shots.
2) Maintain the offense by hitting out on the ball. In order for him to take control, I must have given him shorter and more attackable balls.
The bright side is that I did NOT double fault it away… miss any easy volleys or overheads… or make a lot of unforced errors. But what I must have done was to give up control.
To add to my unhappiness, my friend Kenny was there to watch (and took the picture) said that our winner would “surely beat the other semi finalist winner on the next court”.
As a measure of playing the way I really want to is NOT hearing what my opponent said to me today, “You really run well and got back balls I never thought you would!”
What I would rather hear is: “You really hot a great forehand, I couldn’t leave anything short over the middle without you attacking it!”