Another "chess-style" mini tournament for me today with 10 players including the coach, a defender, and 5 rounds for every player.
This time was my best finish so far, 4th out of 10 with 3wins 2 loss (including 1 against the coach).
I had two easy and predictable wins, and 1 predictable loss against the coach. I had lost -5 -5 -11 last time with 3 set points, but this time it was -5 -5 -0 !!!! i wasn't consistent at all, and my footwork and thus my FH was a total mess against him.
For my 4th matched, i was paired against a guy around my level who beat me 3-1 last time. But today i had warmed up with him, and I could feel I was better than him in free play. So i started with confidence, attacking from the start without hesitation (unlike last time), and avoided to play in his strengths (his BH block and his BH chiquita flick receive). So basically i changed a bit my receives, and my long serves to his BH (pendulum underspin and BH topspin) gave him a lot of problems.
I have a good start and win 11-6 the 1st set. Many tchooos, good sign. He starts tchoooing as well from the 2nd set, its much closer, there are much more good rallies, some with FH counter-drive, or BH to BH. I win a few important very good points including a very good "lucky" BH counter with my wrist against a strong FH drive (i did once the same one during the warm-up so not totally "lucky"
). The second set is close, but i grab it 11-9.
The third set is also a very close battle, tactics from both side have little change. He's ahead 10-8 this time. but i finish with the serve. Same tactics, I don't panic, and continue to attack strongly and I manage to close the game 12-10 with a last smash behind my BH topspin serve. 3-0 sweet revenge but it was tougher than it seems. If i lost the 3rd set I cannot tell what would have happened.
So i'm still in play to finish 1st among "students" before the last match. I'm faced with a veteran leftie PH with BS. Probably he was a much better player when young, but he cannot move very well, although he's trying to play all-FH. Alas, i have a poor performance where i am way too nervous, a bit like last tournament when i was in the finals. I don't commit enough to my shots, and because I'm nervous i make a lot of bad receives, and poor serves (with some real offerings, notably on the match point !!!)
Despite that and losing 0-3, the score was -8 -5 -9. So there is a lot to regret. The guy was surely good, and his serves were really good, a lot of sidespin, and me always guessing if it was topspin/backspin/knuckle. But I could have done much better, I played much better the previous match, for example, and i had a good win against my leftie long time enemy in the last tourney, so I think its really I underperformed mentally, and I didn't find the resources to pause/think clearly/relax/be aware etc... I could have done much much better for sure.
All in all, overall, an honorable level, but I still fail to produce 2 good matches in a row.
[PS. NO camera this time, the tourney was a bit far, and my equipment is too heavy, and it was raining. I shall invest in a good smartphone...]
