Senior Tennis and Fitness

This past weekend was the Pelican Bay Club doubles competition. There were MANY men’s and women’s divisions; so the tournament format was a round-robin on Saturday and the finals on Sunday. But this ended up being tricky… and tough to play.

In our Men’s Open Division, there were only four teams; so we were scheduled to play three other teams a “mini match” of JUST SEVEN TOTAL GAMES. Then the two teams with the most games won, would move onto the finals on Sunday (with a more traditional two sets + Champions Tiebbreaker format).

Well to start with, the flip of the racquet becomes more important; because one team will serve four games and the other serves only three – and one player will serve only one time in “the match.”

My partner, Mike Griner, and I both found we were so aware of how much each game won or lost counted, that we played “not to lose.” Which is not a good way to play. It was really tough to relax and just “hit out,” when the consequences seemed so large.

As it ended up, we “survived” our overly tight play to move into the finals on Sunday against (my regular doubles partner) Tom McCune and young, Marc VanDam. We played well; but they played better… and beat us in straight sets.

The tournament group, led by Jack Lease, did a great job of managing all the play — especially factoring in the Saturday afternoon rainouts.

This coming weekend is the same format in singles play. In the Open Division, there are six players, who are divided into two groups of three players each. With the seven-game round robin winners in each group playing the finals on Sunday.

So mathematically, that means I could beat each of my opponents by the score of 4 games to 3 … and still NOT win the group! That would happen if in the remaining match, the score is 6-1 (I would have 8 games won and one of the two guys I beat could have 9 games). Crazy, huh?