by Everything is such a struggle at the moment that I didn’t hold out much hope for today’s outing at the Wellington club, which is one of many clubs in Wellington. Sleep deprivation would surely have an effect on my play. We started with the doubles: we lost the first set 6-4 after gaining an early lead, then won the second 6-3 to set up the dreaded super tie-break. We trailed 8-4 in the ten-pointer but won the next three points, only for their (better) player to send down two fantastic serves, the second of which was rendered almost unreturnable by a gust of wind. It was a dramatic finish to a close match. Before the shoot-out we went to sudden death six times (0 from 3 in the first set, 2 from 3 in the second).
I had a longish break in between matches. I spent some of that in the club rooms which are always fascinating. Photos of winning interclub teams going back more than a century: the hairstyles, the rackets, even the fonts used for the names. Occasionally I’d recognise a famous surname. Sometimes you’d get opening day photos: just look how many people turned out in the thirties or the fifties compared to today.
In the singles I felt really sluggish. From 3-1 up in the first set I lost four straight games amid a barrage of winners from my opponent. I lost 14 consecutive points or something ridiculous. He made his fair share of errors, but he could accelerate through the ball on the forehand, killing off points that I’d had the upper hand in. I saved a set point on my serve to close to 4-5, then faced three more in the next game which was the longest of the match. He double-faulted on one, but I saved the other two with winners including a volley (most unusual for me). Strangely the fact that I’m feeling so much pressure elsewhere in my life might have helped me on those crucial points. When I’m feeling my sanity going down the plughole, who cares if I might lose a set of tennis? Two more breaks of serve took us into the tie-break in which I struck something of a purple patch to take it 7-2. I still wasn’t overly confident because physically I felt shot to pieces, but I got my nose in front and finished strongly in the second set which I won 6-3. Four months ago I might well have won rather more comfortably, but under the circumstances this was a very good win for me. It took 80 minutes or thereabouts. Sheer determination and a stroke of luck got me over the line in the first set; had I lost that set I suspect the match would have run away from me.
This was a direct match-up between the top two teams in the league. We won three matches out of six but claimed the overall win by virtue of winning more sets. Those four set points were pretty important then, not that I cared about that at the time.
