I had a team tournament today.
played in our B team. Our A team hired a new very good player who took my place :-/
so i was in division 5 (instead of division 3).
The good thing is i had a lot more matches. Our B team finished 3rd of our 5-team block, that was the objective. I played 4 singles, won 3 lost 1, and 4 doubles, won 2 lost 2.
Regarding the 3 matches won, two I struggled a bit in the 1st game, but once i got it, i crushed them in game 2 and 3 to win 3-0. Victory was totally normal.
The 3rd win was against a decent chopper. I think he was about my level or slightly below. I played very solidly. The guy was consistent, and had flash surprise FH attacks but from a bit far from the table, and i blocked very well. We were tied 1-1 and fighting game 3 in a tight contest, it was a good game. I won the 3rd with a bit of luck at 9-9 (net ball for me) and a good 3rd ball attack following to his body, whereas i had aimed for wings the whole match so far
I crushed the guy 11-2 in the 4th game, I am happy with my performance.
The game i lost was against a leftie penholder who had only rubber on one side. I lost 1-3. I have regrets because the guy didn't look that good, but he was pretty consistent, not many unforced errors, his serves were not very spinny but a bit deceptive. and he exposed several weaknesses of me and took advantage: tricked me with his spin/nospin serves. Served wide to my FH to force me to attack and blocked straight to my BH side, i was systematically late on that one.
I didn't find a good solution to this today, and my BH serve didn't affect him a lot. I have regrets not having tried too much other tactics. I feel like I haven't played all my cards while the guy only had one set of cards, but played it very well. I lacked a bit of confidence in this match. Its not shameful to have lost this game, I had some good wins recently but I think i was the one expected to win.
I have another team tournament tomorrow, I hope I'll play a bit better