Tennis at long last

Finally got out for a league match with Tennis Northeast today. It was an absolutely beautiful day out. I hit with Abel up at Tufts on the blue courts, which are really nice. The bright sun was a little bit of a distraction for a while, but it didn't matter since we both played pretty terribly anyways. It's always strange when I hit with Abel, he never seems to play very well against me and gets angry with himself quite a bit. In the end I won, but not after enduring some boring tennis where I wasn't able to put away short balls and so his lame strategy was just to slice balls softly back to mid-court, where I'd have to hit a low short ball. And if I was able to get a solid shot back, I couldn't hit a volley to save my life, so I was typically just losing on that subsequent shot. But we played a 3rd set tiebreaker and I finally stepped up, broke loose of the tension that always seems to be with me when I play an actual match (ah, tennis...), and started hitting solidly until I won with relative ease.

This has always been what I've found annoying about this league: everyone I play with (except for Phil) seems incapable of playing a great match regardless of how their opponent plays, so the general course of a match against me goes: 1) I start playing tight, but keep it close as the other guy matches my (bad) level of play; 2) I manage to take the first set, then start playing REALLY badly and lose the 2nd set; 3) I pick up my level of play in the 3rd, but the other guy can't do the same. All I want is for me to come out and play poorly and get my butt kicked. That's what forces me to play well (or else I lose badly), and then we can get a great match going. Unfortunately the story is either I play poorly and the other guy does too, or I play well and just beat the other guy. Oh well..