I slept in for Day 2 of the Combine. I had plenty of time to get ready and I followed the same routine as yesterday. Ate breakfast, stretched, used the Theragun. The biggest difference for today is the noon start. Sleeping in meant breakfast was later than usual, playing at noon means lunch has to be earlier than usual. Bad combo. I went to the hotel bistro and ordered an egg and cheese sandwich. I got egg and butter on some bread, no napkin, no fork and of course, no coffee was available.
Anyhow, I ate the egg and left the butter and bread. I went over to watch some of the early games and get warmed up. I knew some people in my group this time so it was much easier to find people who wanted to be prepared. We did some dinking and drops, your basic rec play warmup, then we played a couple of games. I wasn’t too serious about winning the warmup. I also wasn’t too worried about where my shots went because we were playing outside and it was windy. There wasn’t a need to get upset about balls flying out or not landing where I expected when there was enough wind to move shots and there was enough gravel on the court to have actual concern about falling. I just needed to make sure I was warm, my indoor shot warm up would be when I’d get serious.
My first game was against one of the women I warmed up with and she must not have been impressed with my outdoor game. Her and her partner targeted me, which was fine. My partner was about 6 foot tall and didn’t look like she’d ever been out of shape in her life so I probably would have targeted me too. But I didn’t do badly and we secured the win.
I won my next 2 games and remember thinking, I’m going home with 3 wins. That’s great.
I hit the court with another lefty and she decided to be the first server. I had a moment of, hmm, how’s this going to work out, but I trusted my backhand and did what was needed. We struggled a little bit, as would be expected since lefties don’t usually play with each other, but eventually we got into a nice routine that allowed both of us to get the shots we wanted.
I don’t remember the exact flow of the games but I do remember most of them were close. One was too close and I was getting tired of the back and forth. I decided right then that the defense mentality is done, I’m finishing this thing. The ball came, I got my approach shot, they hit back and boom, boom, BAM, I slammed that thing down the middle to close it out. No more come backs, let’s move on.
I had one game where we jumped out to a 7 something lead. It was pretty significant. I hit a bad shot, gave them a point. I hit a deep volley out. I had a pop-up coming over the net short and I plopped it in the net. Before we knew it they were back in the game. That partner was the only person I played with who seemed to panic. I seriously had no concerns at all. But she called a time out and gave me a hard time about missing shots. I didn’t know what to say, I just missed them. I wanted to say, it’s going to be ok. Really. But I didn’t want her to think I hadn’t been trying so I said nothing, nodding in agreement with her panic. We won, like I thought we would.
I had another game where I landed an ATP and it was pretty smooth. I believe that came during my defensive mindset, but I was pretty happy I got to make an ATP in the event.
My fifth game had a referee and was against the gal who had the best record in our pod from Day 1. I had played and beat her earlier and she seemed to be trying too hard. You know, really playing hot, hitting shots that didn’t seem like her normal game. I of course kept going at her when she hit a few of those and with her lined up to receive my first serve I decided no time like the present to whip out the old “serve them into the wall” serve. Many people have suggested my kick serve is illegal, now I have a ref, it’s the first point of the game, let’s see what happens. I tossed that ball and cut with all my might and it zipped over the net, hit the ground and kicked to the wall. My opponent chased it hard but had a full whiff, giving me an ace to start the game. We finished and I had my 5th win, securing the same record on day 2 that I had on day 1.
I played my sixth game with my Erne friend. She didn’t seem to be having as much fun today and I interpreted her body language to be sort of down. When we started I told her to try to play loose and said, let’s get you and Erne, alright? She smiled and we got behind a few points but when the chance came she took it, hopping over that line and slamming an Erne right into the net. It was beautiful. It scared almost the literal crap out of our opponent. It also got her a cut on her finger, which seemed to shake her a little bit, but I was so happy she took her shot and I didn’t care at all that it didn’t go over. We were behind pretty good when we switched at 6 but we kept fighting. We eventually lost but I was happy with our performance.
I don’t even remember the last game. All of them were tough to win. Fortunately, I had a solid day and was able to use a multitude of shots. I hit 2 right hand overheads that I don’t think anyone even noticed. They didn’t win us the point so the next shot I hit was left handed and still no one noticed. I guess that’s weird to me because almost always when I play new people and hit a right hand overhead they stop and ask me if I switched hands. Not today.
With 6 wins I assumed I had done pretty well so I hung out to find out the official results. I ordered a pickle beer and texted some friends, hanging out in a corner by myself. One of the league representatives came over and asked me how to pronounce my name so I was thinking, this might be good.
“Is it Lara or Laura?”
“Lara.”
“Ok, Laura?”
“No, Lara. It doesn’t matter, say it however you want.”
“We’re going to need you to come up front here. Did you know we would need you to come up?”
“I kind of thought you might.”
She smiled and off we went for the announcement that I was 1 of 2 female winners and to pose for photos.
It was like fantasy land for me at that point. I followed Beth Bellamy around in New York City last year, trying my hardest to work up the nerve to introduce myself and tell her how awesome I thought she was and here she was posing for photos with me. Cheering and celebrating with me. It was wild.
I finished my beer and hung out for a while, turning down games (people were still playing!) and replying to text messages. I drove back to the hotel, stopping to fill up my gas tank and try a Mexican restaurant before I settled in for the night.
Once I got back to my room I realized I needed some coffee for the early morning so I left to get some at the hotel’s front desk. As I was walking down the hallway 2 ladies saw me and congratulated me. It has been years, years and more years since a stranger has congratulated me in passing but it still feels pretty awesome.
Back in the room I prepared my morning coffee and packed everything up, stopping regularly to look in the mirror and congratulate myself for working so hard and taking this chance. It hasn’t sunk in fully that I’m getting drafted, that I’m going to be on a team again, that I earned my way into the senior pro landscape. I honestly can’t believe that this league put together a combine, that I found out about it, that I didn’t need a partner to do it and that I had the nerve to go alone and try it. All without charisma.
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