Diary of USTA Tourney Adventures Part One

It’s the end of the season, we’re chasing USTA points for our ranking. I need to win one tournament and gain the hundred-twenty five points to maintain my top five spot from a year ago. So I enter Spring Valley, which is the last local tournament without having to travel to Brooklyn or the Bronx.

There’s only one other player signed up, my old nemesis, a tall lefty pusher who crowds the net. I’ve beaten him three straight times, straight sets but each match has been a battle where he had his chances and I came up with the passing shots and saved break points. It’s always a challenge to beat this guy “John” who has beaten me in the past in tournaments.

I’m a little worried about this match, for two reasons. I haven’t played a singles set in over a week and I’m now using a Volkl Tour Ten which I haven’t yet used in a singles tournament. I haven’t played a singles tournament in over a month. It rained the last four days so I haven’t prepared as much as I wanted to.

Also I make a foolish mistake by showing up at the wrong courts. The last three years, this tournament director has held all of his events in Clarkstown, NY, but this year he’s moved to Spring Valley. Though I was at the (wrong) courts at 9:30 – a half hour before the scheduled time – I get penalized three games for being late.

The new courts have no windscreens, the sun is bad on one side and it’s a little windy. Now I’m 0-3 down to John to start the match. And I don’t even feel comfortable playing him with no disadvantage. This year, he’s had some good results, losing 46 46 to a nationally ranked player who I also beat in June 62 62.

John is tough because he is very solid from the baseline, but he’s lethal at net, with his volleys and overheads. Serve is okay. He used to beat me in the past with his topspin forehand and charging the net on my backhand. But the last three meetings I have the formula to beat him. Keep the ball deep and slow to his backhand corner, he can’t hurt me with his block back bunt backhands. Keep it deep with spin and he can’t come in. Then try to force the error or dictate with a shot to the other side, or a drop shot or attack the net myself.

He serves to start the match up 3-0. I have the sun at my back. Every point is huge for me. I need to make up the disadvantage. He sprays an early ball wide on the first point. But I miss a backhand pass wide down the line on the second point. I continue with my gameplan to beating down his backhand. It works and I level the score at 3-3. In the crucial sixth game, I know I have to win it because I do not want to go down 34 with the sun straight in my face. He gets two break points on me but I save them both, one with a backhand volley winner into his backhand corner. I finally win the long game, 43.

John shows his first sign of frustration by smacking a ball into the fence.

And then I win the next two games on the bad side to take the first set 6-3. One point was incredible. I was up 30-love and we played a marathon point, at least 20 balls to his backhand, then some to the forehand side, but I give him too much pace – he likes pace more than loop – and he rifles a nice forehand cross court winner just inside the line. But I don’t let this effect anything and keep the pressure on him and win the next two points.

He launches a ball over the fence. His frustration is building.

To start the second set, with sun in face, I lose focus a bit and make some UEs. Basically gave this game. After expending so much focus on the first set from being 0-3 down, a letdown was natural.

The second game is crucial, I’m on the good side so I have to win it. It’s another marathon game with at least six deuces. His break point percentage is bad so far in the match and I somehow win this game to level it at one apiece. He’s playing better now and his backhand is not missing anymore. I have to earn the points in a different way. I decide to keep looping to his backhand but also mixing in loops to his forehand. He can’t hurt me off that side either. Just keep looping to both sides, keep mixing it up. It works. I break him for two-one.

And then hold serve on the sun side for three one. Then I roar my first huge Come on- up a set and a break and a gameplan that is working. For the first time he verbally expresses his rage. He mimicks my come ons like a little child, ten straight times, Come on come on come on…

I can’t believe it. Quietest guy in USTA history, he never talks with anyone or says anything but the score, and he’s mocking my come ons. I tell him he does a pretty good come on, Not bad. It kind of helps him as. He does it again after I hit a big winner to go up 40-love and it seems to help him as he wins two points in a row. But I get him with a drop shot to win the game. I’m two games away.

I win both games and the match 63 6l. I don’t yell a come on but when he hits a ball at me when getting my towel I roar a gigantic come on.

After we blow off our steam I say the first words, extend the olive branch, hoping he can understand my intensity. “Hey I have to play you at full intensity, you’re too tough. If I play you passive emotionally I can lose, I have to be like that. You’re tough to play. I tell everyone you have to respect this guy, they all say they should beat you, but I tell them that’s your mistake, you have to play him like a top player not a pushover.”

It’s true. Another player I played in a tournament this spring said “I should never lose to him.” But he did again twice more. I tell him you have to play this guy with more respect. He’s deceptively tough. He doesn’t look like much of a player but he is very match tough and plays a tournament every weekend. He beats a lot of good players.

I continue to tell John: “I don’t even like to play you in any match, especially not from 0-3 down. So I had to have full intensity.” He seems to understand and offers a quiet, “Nice match.”

I leave the courts with the cup trophy and some sore legs, though it was two hours, it was a lot of long points and pressure all the way.

Hopefully this win will earn enough points to hold onto the #3 ranking which I achieved last year in the USTA Eastern 45s. Last year and this year I won three regular tourneys and made a final in a sectional (NJ States) for the same amount of total points.

Number won’t happen this year because the top two are machines who are good enough to win national events.

Stay tuned for more adventures on the USTA adult tournament circuit…

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