So the hell began this morning as I woke up to find out that we were to face a team full of NY players Inused to play against in East Coast tournaments when I lived in Philly. I was scheduled to face their ace in the very first match, a fellow countryman from the land of Nigeria. His game is more traditional Nigerian than mine, fierce forehand, blocking backhand. We had played once a few years ago (definitely over 5, more likely closer to 10) and I won a close match 3-2. I came in late from my hotel so I wasn't really warmed up but you don't choose to be ready to fight on your own terms exclusively so...
The first game was a mess... I kept looping his sidespin serves off rht table with my backhand, I pushed pop-ups which he killed with his forehand, and struggled to stay in points after he opened. Obviously I wasn't warmed up so I accepted the result and felt it should get better as the match went on and his rating anyways was 100pts over mine so not a big deal to lose. In game 2, I started out much better, using the information from game 1 to select better serves and play better points. I was up 8-4 at a point and got to 10-6. Then 10-7. 10-8. 10-9. Damn. I have to use my timeout. The 10-9 point was frustrating too, I set up the point but his pushes didn't come long enough so I had to loop over the table but it was too weak and blocked it easily for a winner. I spoke to my teammates and they stressed to me that I was in it, I have to just place my balls better and let the game come to me, that my trying to press too hard was costing me points. So the game resumes, I loop the return long for deuce. We trade game points and then I lose the game 12-14. Life sucks sometimes.
But there is game 3. I fight to hang in there with the mix of stupid errors and good serves. I think I am going to find some cash and send it to Mr Bryant because I am now convinced that my serves are still the strongest part of my game as crazy as that may sound. But more on this later.
I get to 8-10 down 2 match points. I serve backhand topspin the first one and at this point he is smart enough not to push and rolls the ball but I attack the next shot with my backhand and win the point. I sece the next point as he topspins the ball off the table. Now, my Harimoto and Ma Long practice is in full gear as I am trying to keep my head in the game celebrating every point. A rally with me up 13-12 ans I managed to counter a ball into my forehand into his wide forehand and I am able to keep my winning chances on life support!
To avoid making this post too long, I will cut the long story short and say that I came back to win this match. This comeback is a good example of when you might be arguably a worse player but your balanced game manages to keep you in there against a better player with an overwhelming strength, but whose game you can find elements to match up with. No way in hell I make this comeback without my serves and my backhand topspin.
The next match was against a chopper who i won the first couple of matches i played against him and then went on to lose and struggle ever since as he found ways to vary spin that kept me puzzled. I went up 2-0 with some powerful looping. All of a sudden, I started facing heavier chops, but even worse, some very consistent spinny attacking whose tempo i struggled to adjust to
A 2-0 lead quickly became a 2-2 tie and I was on the back foot as my shoulder issues returned when I chased wide forehands. I used my resistance bands to stretch in the intermission but it didn't make a huge difference as I went down 10-4. Then 10-5. Then 10-6. Then 10-7. He called a timeout. But no, 10-8, 10-9, Deuce!
And then out of nowhere, I get match point! And he floats the ball long and it seems to be coming off the table and it lands on the white line on my forehand side, and in shock I try to topspin it and it goes long. Deuce. Then I try to attack and get a great opportunity and end up relooping the block long off the table. And again, he sneaks a floating chop to my forehand I forget and loop the ball off the table on match point. You can't steal them all lol...
The match I won was the only one my team won and we lost the first match 1-5.
The next match was against an amateur team sponsored by one of the major consulting companies in the USA. I had played one of their players last year and got soundly beaten, though they had a lower label lady playing with them as well last year who I beat easily. This year, they had one long pips playing lady and two topspin players. The player who beat me last year sat out of the match (he knew i wanted revenge, but I suspect in reality, they felt with their aces , they would beat us regardless). In the firat match, I got the team captain and honestly, I thought he was rated 1400 based on how the first game went. I think I won 11-3 or something like that. Then he served this hook serve into the forehand and when I pushed it to his backhand, he had the most physics defying loop kills to the forehand that I can remember playing against in table tennis. A down the line hook that used the sidespin of the serve to and the stroke to bend away from you down the line. But for whatever reason he wasn't able to completely maintain this magic and lost the second game 11-7. I am still thinking he must be 1600 lol. He won the third game at 9 or deuce or something like that but i brought back my backhand topspin in final form and won the last game comfortably.
Next I got to play the pips lady. The pips lady was SP forehand, LP backhand. But she made one big mistake lol....she used Grass D Tecs! Grass D Tecs was the most popular LP amongst the LP experts at my club in Philly so I played against it so much that I almost play against it like inverted lol. I just sefve to the pips and if you do not do something serious, you are getting a topspin barrage coming your way. And of course I know how to serve heavy enough backspin that most Grass D Tecs users are puzzled by the phenomenon of pushing the ball into the net repeatedly. I think she has a brief lead in game 3 but lost like 8 straight points after that to keep it uninteresting and I think the score combined with the attacking barrage just didn't make her try when my technique fell apart and i just started patting the ball back.
Then I played their team ace. He had beaten everyone else comfortably and his game looked reasonably athletic so I didn't really feel I had a chance. But you have to adapt the right attitude and probe. One of his strengths was playing really slow balls and he messed up my timing in the first two games. Then I adapted to that timing in game 3. Then he switched to a more regular timing in game 4 and that was it. I suspect he is playing with old dead Tenergy at regardless ones job is to put the ball on the table and I failed. Oh, and the guy I thought was 1400 was really 2000, got sharper as the day went on and beat both my teammates. Great. We lost that that match 3-5.
On to another match against a team that was all pips players and which again had 2000 pips lady. I got to play my first match against that team vs guy who had a Joo Se Hyuk blade with T64 forehand and Grass D Tecs... cut a long story short, my teammates beat his teammates and I beat him 3-0 and we had our first team match win 5-0.
Then we had a long break till our evening match. We were playing 3 looping teenagers, one was from Texas, a lefty I had never beaten in a tournament match. The other two I think were from NY. I played their team captain and #3 player from NY first. I was moving and counterlooping and blocking really well and managed to go up 2-0. I even got a match point at 10-9 and the opponents called a timeout
... I lost that game 14-12, but managed to win the roller coaster of the 4th game 11-9.
Next was a match against the other junior from NY. He had played one of my teammates already and he had a massive forehand. I think i lost the first game despite being up 9-7 by going for too much repeatedly. That said there was one takeaway that I could used to dictate the match battle ground. He couldn't flip my backspin serve and complained audibly about how heavy it was. And it became a joke of sorts the number of times he put it in the net so he had to reluctantly push and embraced doing so after I won the second game and got decent results. He won the third game when I tried to bait him with with no spin serve which he read and flipped appropriately. I suspect his Texas teammate gave him good intel on that one lol. I managed to win a close game 4 11-9. Unfortunately his forehand was too good in the 5th. I lost that one going away as I failed to do enough to keep him from looping.
So that was my day in a nutshell 4 wins. 3 losses. Highest win 2012, lowest win 1860 or something, highest loss 2067, lowest loss 1948. Will play more tomorrow and see how it goes. Have a good night ladies and gentlemen!
