Interesting match this morning, against a player who overall I am probably 50-50 with. He wins a match, I win a match, back and forth it goes. We are both quite equal in ability, and we play a very similar game.
So the result is we play a lot of 5-game matches. And someone walks home with a smile on their face, and someone walks home not so happy.
Lately I have been on a winning streak with this fellow, having won 4 of our matches in a row. Unprecedented! So I knew that this morning he would be gunning for my scalp.
Luckily, I started strong, winning the first game 11-8. The second game was tight throughout, and went into overtime, but again, I pulled out a win, so now am up 2-nil.
The third and fourth games see-sawed back and forth, he's up, I'm up, into overtime, with some good running and great gets by both of us, but lo and behold I lose both games.
We're tied at 2-2. Final game, a situation we have been in many times before. And he wants the win, bad.
Fifth game, like the others, is tight throughout. No one wants to give a point away. Its 1-all, 2-all, 4-all, 7-all, and finally an unforced error into the tin puts me up 10-9, game ball, and my serve. I tell myself to just do a mid-speed overhead serve into the side wall by the service box, nothing special. The ball goes where I wanted it, and my opponent decides to not hit it off the wall but rather take it off the back wall.
But the ball hits a backwall nick and rolls out unplayable.
Have I mentioned I love this game....?
