In MD for a wedding. So of course, I gotta ask around to see if anyone is open to playing TT. I considered driving up to my old club in PA two hours away but decided it made more sense to play in MD. Called an old friend and he told me he was travelling out of town, but that MDTTC had a Saturday league for over 2000-rated players. Well, technically, my rating was too low (1993), but I looked at the website and saw there were some possibilities so I planned to head there sometime just before 1pm and see whether I could join.
I get there and the front desk, a coach is there and he tells me that the league starts at 4pm
. There are lots of kids receiving coaching at the time.
So I pay the club fee, I get on a table to hit and I am joined by a guy whose kid is receiving coaching and I practice looping and serve and serve receive for about 30 mins plus. Around 1:35, there is a break for switching students/classes, and around 1:45, before the new class starts, a penholder around 2200 is told to play me. Definitely a plus for the club, they take keeping guests satisfied seriously lol.
So I play the penholder - we rotate Joola Magic training balls throught the match. The first game goes to deuce but the penholder wins - I realize he is struggling a bit when I serve no spin, but when I serve backspin, he drops the ball comfortably short and heavy, leaving me in disarray and his placement on third ball attacks is extremely deep and precise which is not good for my close to the table game. I managed to win the second game with some good blocks and openers. The third game was also close, I had a lead late in the game, but lost at 9 or deuce, but in the fourth game, he had a big lead, I tried to catchup, but ended up losing the match at 7 in the 4th or so.
On the next table, Chen Yinghua (the legendary Chinese American), who was coaching, complimented my game as the penholder asked whether I was coming for the league. So I decided to go to my hotel and come back later to play.
I came back around 4pm and met the league organizer, who was initially skeptical about whether I should be in the league (lol) - thankfully, my USATT record is visible and verifies my level. I also saw a younger player who I played a lot in the MD/VA area when were both improving players (we are roughly the same level, I just hit 2000 before he did). So I was in the league! Was in a group with 5 players, was the bottom seed, so I was going to get competitive matches all the way through! I miss this kind of experience!
The first match I played was against the #2 seed, a 2200/2300+ Italian two-winged looper. The first game went to deuce but I managed to pull it out. All of a sudden though, whether it was the thrill of winning the first game or the opponent raising level, I just became much more inconsistent, especially when pulled to the wide forehand with a relatively dead ball after playing the backhand - unfortunately no video, but I suspect something in my footwork is not letting me backswing properly. Lost the next 3 games without any real excitement.
Played the #1 seed next, who was easily 2300+ I never checked his rubbers but I am pretty sure he had H3 boosted on forehand - I think I actually led most of the first game and might even have had game points. But I lost that game at deuce. The kid enjoyed being devious and playing lots of touch shots and sideswipes. While there may have been flashes of brilliance here and there, the next two games were largely downhill and I lost 0-3.
Then the #3 seed, a Japanese guy who looked a lot like Takkyu
(yes, I know Takkyu is French). I managed to win the first game at 9, coming back from 3-9 down or something like that. Then I take a big lead in game 2 and I am up 7-3. Then I proceed to lost 8 straight points. So the match is tied 1-1, I start returning no spin serves sllightly better and I will game 3 11-5. Now I am seeing the possibility of winning this. I go up 4-0 in game 4. But then he comes back to 7-7. Then I go up 9-7. Then between pushing no-spin serves up the table or popping them up for 3rd ball attacks, looping my backhand off the table and struggling with his redirections, I lose game 4 11-9. Fifth game, I go up 3-1, he goes up 4-5, we are tied at 6-6. O I go up 8-6, I go down 8-10, I get to 10-9, and then he serves backspin into my middle and I don't read the amount of backspin or get out of the way of the ball in time and I don't make good contact to the ball goes into the net... I have never felt in control of a match this much and lost it regardless. Entirely sucked! I made some great shots, the lack of video is a bit sad lol.
Well, so me being the math guy,:
won 0 games against the #1 seed
won 1 game against the #2 seed
won 2 games against the #3 seed
then the pattern needs to be completed with my winning 3 games against the #4 seed lol. And the #4 seed happened to the guy whose game I Was already familiar with. His wife had just had a child lol o he had lost practice too. But he had beaten the #2 seed so this was not going to be a cake walk. I lost game 1 at deuce, but I felt I should have won it, so I just focused on returning serve better. He has a big backhand, the main thing was to make sure he wasn't getting easy opportunities to use it and to go hard to the forehand after pulling him to the backhand. I also had quite a few nets and edges go my way, there was even a point where the ball hit the net on match point but stayed on my side, and we both laughed and he said out loud what we were both thinking, that he was surprised it didn't go over given how the day had gone. I did win the next point with a backhand opening loop.
So I went 1-3, got lots of good matches in, got encouraged that my game is broadly on the right track, and got a standing invitation to come back whenever I am in town from the organizer. Good stuff!
The biggest lesson I learned today was that I should not powerloop or even heavy spin the serve on serve return all the time even when I have the opportunity on long or loose serves. There are placement and consistency options to take advantage of as well as the ability to see the ball better if I am patient. Another large less is to build out my rallying skills a bit more, I especially moving to the forehand. and moving to the backhand after playing a forehand that takes me well out of position.
All in all an encouraging day. Back to Dallas on Monday (no more TT opportunities since the festivities are tomorrow), and then maybe I get to play in Dallas if I am lucky though more likely I will have to deal with life and leave TT for later. But will continue to work on my body for sure!
If you read this far, sorry for the long post, and thank you!
