my 3rd summer tournament here
i reported on the 1st one. the 2nd tournament had less people and the standard of play was lower. i had 5wins/1 loss losing to the eventual winner, ranked 200 points above me, but who must have been much better younger. all wins were easy but this guy was really above. i fought hard as he was playing a bit carelessly at times and gave away some points, but when it really mattered he scored. All his serves were very high quality and that proved to be his decisive advantage. on the scoreboard 0-3 (-9 -4 -10). i made a come back from 5-9 and 7-10 in the last but missed my chance by trying too hard on my 3rd ball attack on the last match point.
yesterdays tournament was much more interesting. in the group phase an easy win. then i play a teenager 150 lower on ranking but i can see he's good. i trash him 11-2 the first set, but a bad start in the 2nd and his confidence is rising while mine is going down. he gets this set. the 3rd set is a battle where i try to prevail with my consistency but at 9-9 with my serve i choke, lose and lose that game. the guy played well for his level but its more me losing my nerves than anything else. i think i should win easily this match. at that stage i'm very upset and thinking of going home if i don't make it to the main draw.
but in the qualifying round i am lucky to play a beginner. in best 32, i play a guy with same ranking, i can see he tries to impress me with strong attacks, but i like that with my blocks, and he's making too many mistakes. i play conservatively, no easy misses, attack the right balls, focus on serve receive and ready to play rallies. 13-11 in the 1st game only but it was more about me staying calm. once i won this set, 11-6 and 11-5 follows for a good win.
then i play a guy 400 points above. but it doesn't feel this way even i lost 0-3. i matched him in every sector and in every set up to 8-8 or 9-8 for me. then its not him playing better and tightening the game, but just me losing my calm and nerves (serve miss, 3rd ball attack where i overplay instead of playing like previous points...), and giving him away the match.
I play again a guy which is the same ranking. he tries also to impress me, but he's making many mistakes while i'm playing still well as the previous matches gave me confidence. very convincing win 3-0 (8 6 5). he was utterly disgusted.
then i play the old long pimples guy 200 above me. he trashed me last week 3-0. but this time i had a plan, and i no longer made any beginner mistakes on his topspin LP pushes. I was able to counter them either BH or FH pivot. I had difficulties on some of his unusual serve combos, ultimately that saved him. I lost 9-11 in the first, had set point in the 2nd but lost it 11-13. i won 11-9 in the 3rd. True he upped his game in the 4th with some new combos. but i feel if i won the 1st or 2nd set, he's really in trouble because he would have had more pressure and even if he upped in the game, that would be earlier and i have time to adapt. i lost to small details in those 2 first sets.
last match another older guy 200 above but attacking style. i am even closer than the previous guy. in serve receive or rallies we are very close. i lose 9-11 the first set, have 2 set points in the 2nd but lose 11-13, dominate the 3rd set 11-4 and lose 5-11 in the 4th but contrarily to the previous match, its more about having a bad start and me feeling the pressure and starting to make mistakes than the guy upping his level. The guy was a bit tired and if I had more calm to win the 1st and/or 2nd i believe i could have won. in the 1st 2nd and 3rd set i was playing really well.
all in all, apart from the match with the teenager i performed rather ok but still i want to win, losing 0-3 1-3 or 2-3 is all the same to me, and i cannot get those wins against those better players YET, although i can see that i'm getting closer and closer.
