Went 1-5 in tournament play and lost about 150 points to Texas players. It was partly a result of lack of sleep and not having a car on Friday and being forced to Uber on low sleep to the tournament on Saturday since I decided to play regardless of form, but it was what it was. I lost my first 5 matches and won my last match and when I got home, I fell asleep for 3 hours before doing anything lol. Also I tend to dislike the venue where I played but I will treat it as a growth opportunity even with the crappy tables and strive to play better next time.
Sorry for your losses but never give up !!
I’ve been playing unofficial rated round robin tournaments more often since the end of last year and despite more training and participation my rating couldn’t go up and came back to the bottom of the range.
I wasn’t totally demoralized as there were a lot of very tight matches which were not that bad.
But today I guess was my lucky day as I finished 6W0L in my 12 men group. A 3-0 win against the guy who finished 2nd, another 3-0 win for the last and easiest match of the day. All the other ones were 3-2.
First match I should have won very easily but I didn’t have good sensations yet and was down 1-2. But without too much fear I won G4 and G5 easily.
Second match was a young chopper whom I lost 2-3 earlier this month. I was 0-2 down fought back 2-2 but failed at the very end. This time was almost the reverse. Won G1 12-10 from 8-10 G2 11-9. Up 7-0 in G3 but missed to convert 4 match points to lose it 13-15. He had momentum to win G4 6-11 but I managed to focus back and win G5 11-9 ! A great match with a lot of long great rallies. Staying patient and 100% focused was key.
3rd match against highest ranked player b4 the tournament. I guess it was his bad day ? He lost 4 matches today. See-saw match but I won in G5 11-5 . All games lost or won were with good margin. He had some great shots but wasn't consistent.
4th match was surprisingly easy 3-0 because the guy was 3W0L like me at the time, beating the higher ranked guys. He had short pips on BH but it didn’t really affect me. He really had a lot of problems on my serves especially BH and YG. TBH I was lucky to win G1 from 6-10 down to 12-10. He disappeared after that. He finished 2nd with 5W1L
5th another guy with short pips in BH whom I lost to 1-3 a big battle match a few weeks ago. I was down 4-11 6-11 7-10 as I cooled too much from refereeing a match. But never give up ! saved 3 match points. 13-11 11-8 12-10. Was down again 8-10 in g5. The key of the match was that in G3 i abandoned YG as i was making many serve errors in G1 and G2. I noticed that he didn't like my long fast BH serve with a bit of downspin from the middle giving me aces and heavy side topspin BH serve as well which gave me a chance to follow through. Then from G4 i tried YG again but not from middle right of table but left side of table, short with topspin to BH and i aced him many times. It gave me a lot of confidence to have those serves, and even 8-10 with my serve to follow i was very confident to save again 2 match points again. I made a very bad receive at 10-10 but he missed the penalty, and i aced him again on my match point.
6th match easy 3-0 win against lower ranked j-pen
It’s not the best TT I’ve ever played but today was my day with a bit of luck. Where I excelled today was mentally and tactically. I was also quite fit. Playing 26 competitive games total and not feeling tired. Also new YG serve is not yet super good (often a bit high and in tense moments can fail me) but at this level many players can’t see where I will serve and whether it’s topspin or backspin. I’ve been using it for less than 2 months.
The opponents were good but not super high ranked. Still it’s unusual to be able to beat 6 in a row especially with so many tight matches . Recently in this kind of group level I was more like 4W2L or 3W3L on a normal day and worse in a bad day
