I was really looking forward to this year’s Doubles Tournament. I felt like last year Molly and I had a real shot at winning until I started playing soft at the wrong time. We had a 1-0 lead in games, I was serving and up 40-0. I did not want to wreck this team, so softened my serve. I ended up getting broken in that game and we never recovered, losing I think 3-2 but it might have been 4-2. That couple went on to win the tournament.
Now, on the one hand, it really is not all that important…it was a charity tournament that is deliberately low-level. A 4.0 player should probably not show up for it, a 3.5 is at the top edge of the spectrum. On the other hand, knowing I lost it for us and cost us a shot at winning kind of stunk. Molly was playing super well and deserved a shot. Had I held up my end, we potentially would have won. So this year I wanted to play better.
On top of that, I am much, much better than last year. A guy who wrecked me at will at the time of the tournament no longer will play me because I just do not lose to him any more. My flat serve is faster, my spin serve bites more and is more accurate, and I am more consistent with my ground strokes. JJ actually thought Molly and I should be the favorites.
However, I need to play consistently to play well. Missing our Friday night game shot my confidence and then, to make it worse, I went out Saturday morning to spend some time on my serve. It was brutal. I started working a flat serve in the deuce court. I doubt I even got 15% of them in…and I was not exactly sending booming shots that would ace good players. These were quite modestly paced “get them in” serves”. Then I showed even less competence in the ad court, with maybe 2% of them getting in. I was all over the place; in the net, long, wide…and when I say long, I mean missing the court, not the service box.
Tried some spin serves into the deuce court, felt somewhat better, but still well under 50%. Started with spin serves into deuce court and got so discouraged I switched to basically lob “find some way to get the ball into the ad court inbounds” attempts…and missed a handful of them!
Finally had a successful set with about 80-85% of the spin serve, although much less bite than normal. Found a half speed flat serve into the deuce court coming back. Gave up and headed home, changed into my color coded tennis gear and headed off.
The thing is, my mindset was totally wrong. With JJ pumping me up and my own memories of last year, I really, really wanted to win…but the closer we got, the less I believed we could, especially in light of two things; 1, Molly had only played I think once all year and was not nearly at last years’ level and 2, my serve was so bad I honestly figured I would be double-faulting about 60% of the time. If we struggled to win even 50% of our own service games, we were going to be in deep trouble. Additionally, I really like to play a set before the ones that count as I seem to struggle in the first set but then hit my groove and my net shots start scoring. I had been unable to find anyone to play Saturday morning.
Got there early as is my wont and Molly was the next one there (besides Phil). We started hitting it back and forth and, as more people came, I managed to keep hitting. About 15 minutes before it started, JJ and I decided to sneak in a quick set. I beat him on his serve, then he broke mine and it was nearly at love! Not a good sign. Still, those two games were the difference for me for the day as I had the chance to come to the net. I hit the first couple out but then got into my groove and would have no net problems all day.
JJ asked Phil who the teams to beat were and he pointed out three teams. I had half-scouted them and figured there were probably 5 teams there that would be favored against Molly and I and 6 teams we would be favored against. So we were right about in the middle.
We were first matched up with Emy and Nick. Playing them gives me issues; Nick is very tall and a good net player so when he is at net I have to lob it…which is NOT my specialty. At the same time, Molly and I are a better team and in practice had pretty much wrecked them. Oddly, JJ and Emy had wrecked Nick and I, coming back from a 5-2 deficit to win the first set 7-5 and the second one something like 6-4. So there is plenty of talent with Emy and Nick does give me issues but Molly and I should win fairly easily.
We won the serve and, per pre-tournament strategy discussion, I would serve and receive first.
My spin serve was biting and Molly shut their returns down at the net, we held at love.
Emy was down 15-30 when the shot of the first match came up. We had a good rally going and Molly had advanced a couple steps toward the net after we had switched sides during the volley. Emy hit a beautiful lob to the deep corner. Molly was running back but it would be a bad angle 2/3rds backhand weirdness. She called “Help” at the same time I, flying back from the net, shouted “I got it”. I hit my patented double underhand backwards over my head skyball. It landed about an inch inside their back baseline and bounced over Emy’s head to give us the point and a commanding lead. Instead of them winning the point and pulling even, suddenly we were in the drivers seat and finished the game next point. From there it was smooth sailing as we built a 5-0 lead. Playing 20 minute sets…it was over. We let off the gas and they won the last 2 games. It was fun and a good warm-up.
Next to us JJ and Gina had a chance to win against Phil and the girl he was playing with, one of the teams I thought should be favored against Molly and I. The girl had a serve that looked the equal of mine and Phil is probably a better player than me. They beat JJ and Gina 3-2 after numerous deuces in each game. This counter-intuitively added to my confidence as Molly and I can beat JJ and Gina pretty handily, though in a few months that will no longer be true.
The next set was against a couple who had a bye in the first round. I had seen them play from time to time and knew we were probably in trouble as they both had some excellent serves and good groundstrokes.
Again I served first and now my spin serve was biting and my flat serve actually got in. We were up 40-0 before they had an effective volley that Molly did not put away off their return. Down 1 game, their guy felt pressure which was a break for us. He has a much harder serve than I do and had been getting them in while practicing with his partner. Now they were hitting the net and he double faulted twice. We ended up breaking his serve and Molly held serve. Up 3-0 in a 20 minute match is a good place to be. They won the next game, but then I held serve again easily. This time his serves were in and they won handily as well, but we held on for the 4-2 win.
In a full set I think Molly and I lose. When we won the first game, he felt the pressure to tie it in a hurry. I think he served a bit faster than he should have and that led to uncharacteristic errors. I think this was the team that won it last year. The girl was a very good player, the guy PROBABLY a better player than me…but playing fast led to unforced errors. Once we broke his serve they were in a deep hole and Molly served as well as I have seen her serve this year.
Next up was another of the teams I thought should be favored to beat us. This guy had the fastest serve I have ever personally faced and his partner was steady and had a nice forehand. They won the serve. He started with a double fault. Molly then got just enough on her return, he was not ready for that and could not get to it. Love-30. His booming serve I barely got a racket on. I struggled to see it as it was right in line with a tree limb and so fast that at the best of times I would be ecstatic just getting it back over the net. Pure self-defense put it right down the line just past his partner and we had a double break. He then double faulted again.
These were the first two double-faults he had all day. My first serve had unbelievable bite and he was not prepared for it. His partner was not particularly strong and had no answer for it either. He slid over to block my 30-love serve spin, so I hit a modest flat serve to the t, he had a weak return and Molly spiked it for a 40-0 lead. Feeling guilty, I lightened up on my serve and his partner put away an easy forehand return. He then hit a great cross-court return to make it 40-30. Remembering last year, I then put a super-spin serve that he tried to put past me cross-court, I was ready for it and put it behind him to give us the 2-0 lead. Then we broke the girl’s serve to go up 3-0. Molly then got broken. 3-1. He then showed why I thought they should be favored. His first serve I did not pick up until it had crossed the net. I thought it was about 2’ out but Molly never looked at it and since I got a racket on it and was too embarrassed to say anything they were up 15-0. Then he put an Ace past Molly. Then he hit another one I was positive was well long but Molly called in and it was another Ace and a 40-0 lead. Molly got a weak return but they crushed us that game to pull within 3-2.
This was the moment of truth. I was serving; if they broke me to tie it 3-3 we would be facing his partner. He was playing the net aggressively and I had been unable to lob it over him or hit a cross-court past him on my return and Molly had fared even worse. They were likely to win her service game barring something unforeseen. Having just been demolished by his serve, I was feeling pressure to A) win my game and B) get away from my control game into a power-bombing serve contest.
He confidently took up position to take away my spin serve. I tried a too-fast flat serve I thought was in but his partner called out. I then hit a soft second serve he crushed cross-court in front of me for the point. Now I was in the ad-court where I had struggled all day. Even though we had the lead, I thought we had lost…and suddenly all the pressure was off. I put in a beautiful spin serve that led to a weak return. Molly volleyed it, he volleyed back and she made a spectacular shot right at his feet. 15-15. Again he went to cut off the spin serve. I put more bite on it than I had all day and went right at him. This time I stepped up, cut off his cross-court shot and put it in the opening between them. Another spin serve/weak return and it was 40-15. Once more I reached deep, spun it hard, moved him out of position and Molly put down the winner to give us the insurmountable 4-2 lead.
We were now one of 2 undefeated teams. I had not seen the team we were now facing, but had seen the teams they had beat including Phil and his partner who had been getting stronger all day. Fortunately we moved over one court. I could not take another match trying to pick up the ball coming out of that tree. I was unable to pick up the ball off the racket and was struggling with my return.
They got to serve first. He double faulted to me twice, Molly was able to return everything, and we won with them at 30. I broke off more spin than I had all day and was up 40-0 before they could breathe. Up 2-0, his partner went to serve. It was a very modest serve. I went to flip a lob over his head and barely got it past the net, he slammed it and they were up 15-0. Molly did her patented serve and he lasered it into the gap. I again tried to lob, again fluffed it and they were up 40-0. We fought back to 30-40 but the hole I put us in with my weak returns was too much to overcome. 2-1. They then broke Molly and now it was 2-2. He was up to serve.
His first serve was a laser and I rocketed it right back past his partner. Fluke return, 15-0 lead. He ran to serve the next one and double faulted. He then got one I could not return. Then we had a great volley that ended when he dove for one of Molly’s shots and could not get it. He fought back to deuce. We had a couple break points, he had a couple. Whoever won this game won this match. Then came the key point.
I had been trying all game to include his partner. I was hitting the ball “light” when I hit towards her. Every ball even remotely close this guy took. She was there to provide a body, nothing more. (At this point I should point out…she won her service game, he lost his). Finally, he was up at the top right corner having hit a net shot. She was in the back left corner. I floated a soft forehand to her that I could easily have put away for a winner but was trying to include her too. He runs back screaming, “No, don’t hit it! I will get it!” and hit a backhand into the net to put it back to deuce.
Fair enough. If he wants to take every ball, not let her play, then there is no reason for me to keep playing soft. I spiked his serve out of his reach. He won a point to get back to deuce. Molly won us a point, he won a point. I returned one that drove him deep, took his return about 4’ from the net and slammed it right past his feet. Molly then put one out of his reach and we were up 3-2 when Phil called time.
Had he not rushed his serve so bad he might not have double-faulted 2 or 3 times. His second service game his serves were significantly worse than his first one. More to the point, his unwillingness to let his partner play meant he was playing one on two. He was almost positively better than me, potentially much, much better than me. But he was NOT better than Molly and I combined. He kept underestimating her and she played spectacularly at the net, putting away point after point. In the end, I won my service game, his partner won hers and the broke Molly…so his being broken twice meant the win for us.
And with us being the last undefeated team, we are the 2012 Lesser Portland Open Champions.
I cannot stress that last point enough. JJ asked what was the key to our win. I put it down to two key points.
1) Strategy
Having me serve first and receive meant Molly was hitting her forehand all day which she is very confident in. We had the best chance of winning the early game on our serve. And, in fact, we never did worse than win the first 2 all day long.
2) Molly
I trusted my partner. I did not poach her shots, I did not try to remove her from play and she won us a lot of games. She was so good at the net it made all the difference. They kept thinking they could just hit it to her and score, and instead she kept scoring point after point after point. She played great. Had I not trusted my partner we would have lost in match 2, match 3 and match 4. The thing about doubles tennis is it is a team game. We played I think 3 teams where the guy across the net was better than me in singles. We played better as a team and Molly was better than 2 of the girls in the last three teams we played which really helped make the difference. Arguably the girls we played in two and possibly three of the games would beat Molly in singles (the girl in the championship match was admittedly one of the weaker players on the court in any set.)
It felt like many of the guys were there to win the games despite their partner. They believed…probably accurately…they were better than either player on my side of the net. There was a distinct strategy in play to pick on the perceived weaker player…but they were wrong. See, in singles, Molly might struggle against all but maybe 2 of the people we played, male or female. But she is a phenomenal doubles player who is thrice as good in doubles as she is in singles. In singles an opponent can take advantage of her sometimes slow lateral movement and front to back movement. Molly is not as quick as many people she would play.
But in doubles she plays such great position tennis that her speed is not an issue; she is always in the right place at the right time to cut off lanes. Then, when the ball is hers, she has such great awareness that she invariably selects the right shot. She moves her opponents around, finds the holes and hits it there. When she has a chance to hit a winner she does so a very high percentage of the time. She is so good at her job that I never lost a service game despite not scoring a single ace all day. I lay that success entirely at her feet; she cut off the angles, moved them around and hit it where they were not. What I am saying is this; when they were trying to pick on the weaker player, they were in fact picking on the stronger player. Yes, in singles I am better than Molly…but in doubles, she is much, much better than me. In doubles, she was the best overall player on either side of the net in every single match.
And guy after guy kept trying to win by pounding the ball at Molly. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnntttttttttttttt
We, by contrast, did not hit to the girl, hit to the girl, hit to the girl…instead, we hit the correct tennis shot, hit the correct tennis shot, hit the correct tennis shot. It did not matter if that was hitting a ball that was the girls responsibility or hitting one that was the boys responsibility. It meant hitting the shot most likely to be an outright winner or force a weak, defensive shot we could put away for the winner.
We played position tennis, we played team tennis, and we won. Again and again. By the time they stopped trying to pick on her were were up 3-0 in three sets and 2-0 in the last one. Only when they figured out it was me that was the weak link would they win a game or two.
And I am ecstatic it worked out that way. On a day my serve was sporadic, my partner played so strong I was never broken in 8 service games. We broke the other guy regularly. Could not have done that without her strong returns. We trusted each other and found a way.
Thanks to a great partner for a great day of tennis and hopefully next year we will be back to defend our title. If she plays like that and people keep playing at her, it should be a foregone conclusion!
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