“I didn’t play my game, I played your game”

We had a USTA tournament this weekend, park teams meeting two other park teams at Van Saun Park, NJ. It was a lot of fun, we did doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles and singles. Just like a Davis Cup WTT format.

Our captain told us it would be a bunch of 3.5s and 4s and that it would be light and for fun with free food, and a chance to meet new players. I agreed mainly because the event was held at a beautiful county park I played my first leagues at over a decade ago.

One of the first players that caught my eyes was a ringer type, with a perfectly attired appearance and fancy ponytail/headband, which I joked to my USTA friend Jocelyn who was running the event, “Here come the ringers.” So of course, as it started off I played singles against the ringer who looked nothing short of a pro player or coach.

One of the women on his team sat in his chair to watch up close, either to admire the star or to watch another one bit the dust. I got the sense they were expecting Mr. Ringer to just steamroll me, thinking I was a 4.0. This lit my fire.

In the warmup, I realized this guy was a strong player with all the shots. But I was on my game too and smacked a couple of winners to send a message. He made some sounds after my good shots in the warmup, I interpreted them as a confession of sorts, that he knew he was in for a battle.

I won the toss and served to start the match, he returned my first serve and I hit a drop shot which landed precisely on the right side line near the net. Untcouched. I won the game with an ace down the tee to the ad court and then he served and volleyed on the first two points on his serve. I sliced back down the middle and he netted it. Then he made a weak volley which I easily passed him with. Quickly it was 2-0.

Then he tried playing cat and mouse with me and that tactic failed as well. I was moving like the cat and can only remember missing one passing shot the entire set – a forehand scooper – by about an inch wide. Everything I touched turned into gold. He made that sound again, like a shriek in helpless pain on about five of my running winners. With that, he became panicky and went for the lines, to avert my speed, and missed by inches. Soon it was 5-0.

In the last game he tried his third tactic, to serve and stay back, and try to grind from the baseline. But he didn’t have the finishing power to end points and I could easily get back all his balls and dictate and force the error. I won that game too for the bagel.

About an hour after the match he came up to me and said he wants to play me again, adding, “I didn’t play my game, I played your game. I will show you the real me.”

I paused and said that I will gladly play again, but for money. So I shared my text number and we may play later this week for an agreed upon amount.

But the interesting thing about this match was I never heard a player say after losing that he didn’t play his game, he played my game.

I thought this was inaccurate as he attempted three different tactics in the set – serve and volley, touch finesse cat and mouse, and baseline grinding. Though all the games were competitive, I won them all, so all three of his tactics fell short. But I realize the next set will be tougher and even though it was a bagel it was a very hard fought bagel and many of my winners were by small margins. I have to be ready and worried about this rematch.

But I look forward to see what his new tactics will be for the rematch. Oh and by the way, I looked up this player and he’s won matches on a 4.5 team. Hardly the 3.5 or 4 as advertised. Haha.

In the last game

CTA tourney USTA

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