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July 06, 2006
Back on the Tennis Wagon
Or is it off the wagon? I wish someone would explain to me whether being "on the wagon" means you've given something up, or that you've failed to give it up. This is something that has perplexed me since childhood.
Well, if you'll pardon that aside. It's completely off-base anyway, since I am neither trying to give up tennis, nor failing at trying. But last year I wrote about planning to enter a tournament after a summer of playing one-handed tennis (left hand had been broken). But it was all the vapor of good intentions. I did, however, sign up rather fruitlessly (it was fall in New England) on one of those online partner-finding sites. That in turn (I believe) got me on a mailing list for a locally organized "league" called Tennis Northeast.
It's a good idea, really. For a nominal fee, they do the administrative stuff of finding players, organizing them in divisions based roughly on locality, setting up a match schedule, and recording scores. The players arrange with their opponents where and when to play, and report in scores. At the end I think they organize playoff matches. For $29.95 it seemed a fair deal.
I've had two matches so far, and I'm sad to report, I lost both of them. I so don't have the killer instinct, or it's deeply out of training. There's something awkward in trouncing someone you've just met (not that I could have trounced them, but beating them was certainly not impossible), social niceties being what they are. Guess I've got to get over that.
The first match, K. and I played best of three sets: She won 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 with a very close tie-breaker. So I actually won more games than she did, just not at the right time! In the second match, T. and I played a 12 game pro set (first to win 12 games, by two, wins). I lost 12-9. I could go into the details on both of these, but will refrain to keep from boring you (myself). On the bright side, I did not double fault very often, which has typically been a problem. But I lack control, and am always on defense. Feel like I play a bit too carefully. It'll be interesting (I expect that's putting it strongly) to see whether I can win any matches (there are 10 of us altogether), develop a more aggressive approach, and improve my game.
At the very least, I'm meeting more potential people to play with. And we all need playmates, don't we?
22:50 Posted in Tennis | Permalink | Email this