by Week 5 was 3½ weeks after Week 4, and Week 6 won’t be until February. I didn’t make the schedule.
As usual, we played the doubles first. I seemed to have a target painted on me; whenever my partner served to the deuce side, the returner aimed straight at me at the net. I’m surprised I don’t see that tactic more often. I’m not a good net player and before long I retreated to the baseline. The first set was nip-and-tuck but we eked it out 7-5. We probably only won half the points, if that, but all three of the crucial sudden-death points went our way. So did a fourth in the second set which we won 6-2. There wasn’t much between us but we had the better of the longer rallies.
My confidence in the singles was boosted when my opponent sat down to send a text during the change of ends after just one (albeit long) game. I led 2-0, but on the last point of the third game I fell on the concrete and scraped my hand and both knees. I managed to get some plasters so that I could at least continue playing, but on the resumption I fell 4-2 behind. I was physically hampered, my ball toss was terrible, my forehand was starting to elude me, my opponent’s game was too similar to mine, I was getting very few cheap points, and things simply weren’t looking good. He chucked in two double faults to begin game seven, and I was able to capitalise. I saved a break point in the eighth game to tie things up, and I never lost another game all evening. I won ten games on the trot to win 6-4 6-0 without, in truth, playing all that well. As a team we lost 4-2. I’m feeling quite sore now.
So far this season I’ve won nine matches out of ten. I certainly didn’t expect that in Week 1. My most satisfying match was the 6-1 6-1 win I had in the singles in Week 2, coming straight off a heavy loss in the doubles (my only defeat). If I even have a zone, I was in it for those 45 minutes.
Donald Trump. It’s great to have someone sticking two fingers up to the establishment, isn’t it? Uh, no. Mr Trump, of the monstrous Trump Tower I had the privilege of seeing in Chicago in September, is very much of the establishment, and he’s a very dangerous man, currently benefiting from a very messed-up political system.
Work. The two-hour meeting we had this afternoon made it clearer than ever that I can’t keep doing this shit. Seriously.
