by On Thursday I played a practice set of singles at the club. I completely lost my ball toss and threw in 15 or so double faults including at least three in the tie-break which I somehow won 10-8. After that, I expected to have a tough time of it in this morning’s interclub.
One of our doubles opponents – the one I’d be playing in the singles – was from the north of England and had quite a footbally demeanour on court. “Come on boys, let’s get it together.” The four of us had a combined age of at least 170 but we were all “boys”. We won the first set 6-3 but went through a sticky patch in the middle of the second. We led 40-0 on my partner’s serve at 2-2 but I plonked an overhead into the net on the next point and we lost the game on sudden death. We lost the next game too and at that stage there was a distinct whiff of a super tie-break (and it really does pong as I’ve mentioned before), but from 2-4 we rattled off the last four games for the match. I still had ball-toss issues affecting my serve but I managed to keep them in check. We split the four sudden death points evenly.
Then came the singles against the second left-hander I’ve played this year already. In Auckland I’d go whole seasons without ever facing one. My opponent arrived in New Zealand in 2003, just like I did. He picked up the game as an adult; that suggests that he’s a better all-round sportsman than me. That I can play tennis is due in large part to hitting a ball against a wall, semi-obsessively, between the ages of six and nine. I played a lot with my parents in the back yard then too. By the time I stepped onto a tennis court I’d already spent three years developing appalling technique, which the lack of space in our back garden necessitated. But I could keep a rally going for ages. We had quite a few long rallies in our match this morning. I was just on the right end of most of them, and I beat him in a tick over 40 minutes without losing a game. I’ve now lost just nine games in four singles matches.
My partner won his singles 7-6 (9-7), 6-0, saving five set points in the tie-break. That match brought to mind a painful defeat I suffered a few years ago. We won overall by four matches to two.
