One for Two

The wonderful part of starting a new day is that you never know what the day is going to bring or how it's going end. You can plan and hope, but you just never know. Our day started routinely...breakfast, a good warm up and ready to play. I knew I was going to be in for a battle with Susie. I started out very strong. Susie was not making many first serves, and was missing routine returns. I ran through the first set 6-1. A great start, but hardly anything to bank on. I knew the match was far from being over. Susie and I both held to start the second set, but she broke me early. It seemed from that point on she gained more confidence in her serve, which trickled down to the rest of her game. She held on to win the second set 6-3. I started serving the third set with new balls. I held at love and felt good. Our points were not long. Susie held with a strong service game too. From then on it was the Susie show. She served and returned lights out. She was aggressive and put pressure on me every chance she had....low balls that didn't come up, aggressive net play and unbelievable serving. I didn't play bad, she just played better. The momentum on grass can change so quickly. I never felt out of the match, and kept thinking I'd turn things around at any minute. I lost the match 6-3 in the third. I was disappointed with the loss, but I also knew she played well and deserved the win. In hindsight, I should have put the pressure on her as she did me. I'm not sure she gave me the balls I needed to make that happen, but sometimes you have to create your own opportunities and today I just didn't do that. Grass court tennis is a whole different game. We only play on it once a year (thank goodness), but it is very much an equalizer among players. This was a quarterfinal match, so with the loss I fed into the back draw. I had to play my quarterfinal back draw match at 5:00 this afternoon. I was eager to get back on the court just to prove to myself that I can rebound and play on this stuff. I played a girl from Virginia and won 6-0, 6-2. I was more aggressive and pleased with the way I bounced back from my loss this morning. I have tomorrow off and play the back draw semis on Thursday. I learn from every match I play, win or lose. To have Phil there when I walk off the court puts everything in perspective for me. Win, lose or draw he is always proud of me.