About a peak we scaled.....

I am faced with the onerous task of having to describe to you one of the most scintillating and fulfilling victories of my short yet so incredibly sweet tennis life. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but if I do a good job of detailing the proceedings that unfolded it will inevitably end up being so. Its one of those matches that make it all worth it and my vocabulary fails to encompass the range of emotions experienced.

We were pitched against the Smashers, what was (note the use of past tense here) arguably the strongest team in the league and I was silently and mentally geared up for it like I tend to be when I am faced with a tough match. So good was our opposition that even before the warm ups were done I was convinced to not worry about the result and just play my game. I used to think this "nothing to lose" attitude is simply a fancy precursor to defeat against a clearly stronger opposition. I stand corrected. "Nothing to lose" works!!! The game plan was simple...hit the ball to the weaker player. Period. As if we weren't intimidated enough(although we never showed it) I broke a string on the very first point of the game(well actually the second, but allow me the luxury of some minor fact tweaking for emphasis) trying to volley a very hard hit groundstroke. I now had to play out the match with my backup racquet which has a cracked frame from some previous racquet smashing(the kind with no ball involved).

Before we could say "we can beat them", we were down 3-6 2-5 and receiving to stay in the match. The funny thing though is that I was so focused during the 2 hour ball bashing odyssey, I didn't even realize that we had to win 3 straight games to stay in the match. What should have been the twilight of the match was actually the dawn of a new beginning. Some brave and brilliant rallies later we had won 5 straight jaw dropping games and taken the 2nd set 7-5. I don't remember being so focused for anything all my life. In fact I served 2 aces and one service winner when we were 3-5 down and didn't even remember it at the end of the game. I was later reminded of it by my partner who knows very well the rarity of that occasion.

With new found self belief, we sped to a 4-1 lead in the final set and then see-sawed back to 4-3. We battled well under pressure to take the last 2 games & the match 3-6 7-5 6-3. So engrossing was the encounter that it took a 15 minute animated discussion, between me and my partner, to reconstruct the scoreline and our path to victory. We didn't even remember that we had won 5 games in a row in the 2nd set. I cant ignore the feeling that this was a ephemeral instance and may never happen again but two very important things this episode will inculcate in me are that first impressions can be deceiving and that pressure situations are a great leveller. Remember that just two days ago I was the
chicken serving all over the place when the match was on the line. Truly sometimes if you hang in there, amazing things can happen. This feels like the pinnacle but that's the beauty of tennis; As soon as you are done scaling one challenge, there is another waiting in the ranks to take you on.

Mixed doubles season start

My fall season Mixed doubles USTA thing kicked off yesterday at Arlington Y. We played Net Force One on court #1. Court 1 is usually the toughest team and it was cool to be hitting on it. We won 6-2 7-6 (3) in what was an eventful 2 hours. During warm up I was trying to figure out the opponents strengths/weakness and get into the hitting groove. I had a few mis-hits and my opponent "sternly" indicated that i should be hitting the ball at him. Instantly i knew he wasnt the "benevolent, have fun during the match" kinda guy. I also had the misfortune of hitting him in the unmentionable areas during one of the points and I got a look that accused me of doing it intentionally. I felt like saying, "Dude, If I could hit something that small so accurately from over here, I would be a pro". But being the nice guy that I am, or atleast one that I pretend to be, I patiently waited until his timeout was over. The second set was an emotional roller-coaster with us breaking their serve twice and then getting broken twice to set up a tie-breaker. But we pulled up our socks to race ahead to 7-3. A couple of cold hand shakes later, me and my partener were giggling happy and making cheap remarks about the events that had unfolded.

I realize now how difficult it might be for arch rivals to shake hands after a hard fought or even humilating result. If anything, one would want to rip the arm off during the shake. What thoughts cloud the mind during these exchanges? "He is so cold after losing, I have to wear gloves before shaking hands"-thats a good one. But its a ritual thats religiously followed nonethless. Its understandable, You cant have sport without competition and cant have competition without bitter emotions, however transient.

So all's well that ends well; else grit your teeth and swear to get even some other day. I know I have done that on more than one occassion.