Played in the first round of a tournament today in doubles. I knew both of my opponents. It was a father son combo. The son is 4.5, painfully solid and the dad is a 4.0. I lost two USTA league matches this summer both losses were delivered to me by the son.
We come out playing well. We break to go up 3-1 and hold the rest of the way to allow me to serve out the set 6-4.
Second set I just crumbled. I started the serving and hit 3 double faults and missed an overhead. So bad. I never recovered from that. I blew two overheads in my partners service game to get broke and then I served two more double faults to get broke yet again. We lost the second set 0-6.
Third set. I came out solid again. We broke the 4.5 guys serve right away and then I held serve. We then broke the dad's serve and then my partner held serve. Here is where things get funny. We are up 30-40 on the 4.5 guy serving. My partner hits an overhead around the baseline, I could not tell if it was in or not. The dad at the net asks his son if the ball was in or out, the son does not know. The dad calls it out. What!?!?!?!? Weird. The son then says he couldn't tell (the son was ON THE BASELINE when the overhead was hit so he had a better look) and so they start to switch sides, 5-0, sweet! I pick up my jug of water to drink and the dad said the ball was out. lol, really? This is very weird, not to mention not really ethical. Whatever, we are up 4-0 and I like both of these guys so why cause a scene. They hold serve for 4-1. That was really a bummer because I wanted another insurance break. I serve and hold for 5-1 and then we broke to take the match.
It was a fun match, a real sea-saw at the end I guess. I lost focus in the second set and the other 4.5 lost focus in the third set. He looked very flat footed in the end. We tried to freeze him out of the match the best we can. We hit a ton to the 4.0 player.
Next up we play (2) 4.5 players who are very solid. Should be fun. I have played one of them a few times and always lost, but it has been a while. I think I have only played him once in a USTA league when I had a 4.5 partner. I have never played the other guy and he has a painfully nice singles game. He is fun to watch, his strokes look like monet was painting them. He is very smooth. He is good at doubles but I think he is better at singles. They will probably beat us fairly easily but I am not going down without a fight. They better bring their "A" game.
