Ouch

It's always nice to make it to the last day of a tournament. I was looking forward to playing two good matches. I stretched good before having a good warm up with Susan. Mariana and I had played once this year at the Clay Court Nationals in Houston. She is tough competitor on all surfaces. She pushed the #1 seed, Yukie, to three sets yesterday. And as of yesterday the weather had turned perfect....no humidity, highs in low 80's. A great day for tennis. Or so I thought. We had the standard 10 minute match warm up. Mariana won the toss, elected to serve. She went up 40-15 on her serve in the first game. Mariana came in on a short ball and I leaned toward the backhand side, anticipating her volley going to that side, instead she hit down the line toward my forehand side. As I planted my right foot to change directions, my foot continued sliding on the dewy grass and before I knew it I was down. The way my foot slipped out and away from underneath me, caused me to over stretch my right hip and land awkwardly, twisting my lower back into a spasm. I was given a medical time out to stretch. The pain was intense, but I was hoping I'd be able to work it out. We switched sides, I tried serving two points and it was obvious I couldn't continue. Never in my 37 years of playing competitive tennis have I had to retire. I was so disappointed but there was no sense in playing on. Tearfully I shook Mariana's hand and retired from the match. That meant no doubles either. I made my way off the court. Mom and a team of players/friends were right there getting me ice, and situating me on the ground so I could try to ease the pain. After two twenty minutes of icing my back over the course of a couple of hours, I sat up and walked around. Fortunately with my Mom there, we were able to get a prescription of painkillers and muscle relaxers from my personal "family" physician. Thanks bro! By the end of the afternoon I was able to move gingerly and watch a little of the final matches that were in progress. I should have been out there myself playing in our doubles match, but there was no way. Long story short, I finished fourth in both singles and doubles. I'm pleased with my overall tournament performance, but extremely disappointed on how it all ended. Phil tells me to leave it all on the court with every match I play. That I did, and then some! I'm ready to get home now. I'll take a few days off, let my back heal, then start looking ahead to the Hard Court Nationals in late September. Mom was a trooper through the whole week. She watched a lot of tennis and seemed to enjoy every bit of it. She's become a "regular" on the circuit now. All the girls love her! She's still waiting to see the Liberty Bell. Maybe next year. I keep telling her it's a bell with a crack in it......
pictures below