There’s a local tournament this weekend so I got some bonus play today. I was asked to play with the ladies up north and one of their guy friends joined us for some nice, competitive play. We went for 2.5 hours and the games were pretty intense. I was happy with my performance, most of the games I played well. The last 2 games I wasn’t as aware as I needed to be in order to help us win and we didn’t.
I had 1 time that I let my mental game get the best of me and it was another situation where I thought I hit a shot in and it was called out. There’s no reason for me to think anyone would purposely call a ball out so it is super frustrating that I let it affect me in negative ways.
It’s embarrassing to put this on paper and to admit that what I thought was a bad call messed with my play. But recognizing it and owning that weakness is proof that I have to work through it. I know now, if I mess up the point after a call I think is wrong then plain and simple, I need to take a time out. I have never been a timeout caller. I’ve always been a we-can-get-through-it mindset, which is also not always good. I think knowing these things that irk me and cause me to not be fully dialed in after it happens is important.
In the beginning of play I struggled with my drops. They were a little high. Eventually, I got into a little bit of a rhythm and I didn’t miss that many, that badly. My serve did pretty well. The majority of my returns were we’re good. Nice and deep.
I did have a lot of misses in the transition zone so I must be lingering back too long. I felt like I should have been able to block them and I just missed them. Overall I was pretty happy with how I played.
I did make an ATP – but not a winner. They blocked it and thankfully my partner was there to put it away. I think it should still count.
I missed more dinks than I expected. A bunch of them were straight on dinks, which is crazy that I didn’t land them. Getting beat on the cross court stuff is fine but the equivalent of a warm up dink is a little ridiculous. Still, I’m being hard on myself. I had a ton of fun, I think I played well, I won more games than I lost, it was a great time.
