Too Fast; Too Furious

The tourney is upon me. The number one spot has some pressure, especially since some of my opponents feel they could have won during league play. Laughable, I know but here is how my first match went.

My opponent lost to me during the season in just less than 20 min. He advanced to this game by virtue of a forfeit win. This is just bad luck for my opponent, since this match ended up lasting only a few minutes longer that our league match.

My serve was on and jumping from the get go. If you refer to the picture of the racquetball court in a previous post, I serve on the extreme left, but far enough from the left side not to break the drive serve line with my racket. 75% of my serves will stay on that side of the court by design optimizing the fact that most players are right handed. Since a backhand return shot is usually much less effective than a forehand return shot, this ends up serving my needs nicely. Unless I hit a poor serve, there is only one or two shots players at my current level can return and both I am ready to kill as soon as they do. 25% of my serves go to the back right corner, which can be devastating since most opponents creep over to the left to handle the main serve. Usually, they do not even move or give a vain attempt to return serve.

Like I said earlier... the serve was on and jumping! My opponent was down 7-0 before the 2 min mark. At this point, the game is over since he was not able to even return serve. I hit a right side serve and he does not even move. 8-0 and visibly unhappy with how this are going, my opponent calls time out. You get two of these each game for 30 seconds. After 2-3 minuets he gets back on the court – ‘grrr’ that is just poor sportsmanship!! I usually pace around the front court to stay in rhythm and await their return. The TO works, since he returned a solid serve and eventually killed a shot to give him side out. One serve and I hit a kill shot from 38 feet... I am pretty happy and proceed to take a 13-0 lead. At this point, I mail it in and allow a few points to be scored and take game one 15-4.

Game two is no different and starts and ends almost the same way. I won 15-7 and took the match. After the game, we are cordial, but I know he is pissed and I am very pleased with the beating I handed out. I am a fish out of water in this division and the other players know it, but it is still fun to win lop-sided matches! I honestly think people expect opponents to change how they play to have a competitive game. It is an interesting concept, since I sometimes do that very thing without planning or forethought. In those cases, I think that player wins the mental game over me and controls tempo and rhythm. I try never to let another player hang around and usually hit the ball as hard on point 15 as I do on point number one! To each their own!!

My next match is on the 18th and it is versus the only player to hand me a loss during the league play. I have wanted a rematch and I got it!! As long as I do not fall 0-8 down, I should be in great shape! ;)