Day 60 - Kuwait
Tonight was my last game of tennis. After two months of steady improvement, I had a feeling that something special was going to happen. And it did - but not the way I had envisioned. After warming up, Leah served first. Somehow I was returning serve where I wanted and how I wanted. I felt as if the tennis racket was an extension of my fingers. I was making all kinds of shots, working the angles and making her work.
I broke her serve, 1-0.
I reached for my serve, and found it. A couple of aces, and some serves that pushed hard setting up easy points for me.
2-0.
Another break.
3-0.
Another dominant service game.
4-0.
Tonight could be the night I break the two-month long losing streak, I thought. As we were changing over Leah looked at her racket and piped up, "Wake up, racket! Come on!"
That signaled the beginning of the end.
She held serve on a tightly played game, 4-1. Then she broke my serve, 4-2. No big deal, I shrugged, as I kept after it.
Suddenly, I was serving at 4-5.
OK, no worries, one point at a time.
0-15.
0-30.
0-40.
And with that, I double-faulted. As I turned to collect the tennis balls Leah hollered, "That's game?"
Sheepishly I muttered, "Yep."
"You can't end it like that. Serve again!"
"OK." What choice did I have? I reached for one more serve.
Unreturnable - 15-40.
I thought to myself, "This could be interesting." But not for long. After Leah returned the next serve, I proceeded to slice it into the net.
Game and set, Leah won 6-4. As I jogged up to the net, I said - "Well, at least I've kept my perfect record intact!"
Gracious as always, Leah commented on how much my game has improved since I started playing two months ago. She expressed her hope that I keep up the tennis somehow. Thinking of the cooling trend back in Michigan I indicated that racquetball with Benjamin at the YMCA would be a more likely pursuit.
Tennis has been a wonderfully frustrating and rewarding experience for me over the last two months. Of all the racquet sports I've played (squash, ping pong, badminton, racquetball and tennis), tennis has been the most challenging to me. I have the least confidence in my abilities, yet strangely I am drawn to it in an effort to learn and improve.
As I end my tennis playing for 2008 I am thankful to Leah, Gil, David and others with whom I have played. They have shown great patience with me as I slowly got better. Leah and Gil's coaching tips were gently offered and quickly adopted. Hopefully next time I play tennis it won't take me as long to get back up to speed as it did out here.
I broke her serve, 1-0.
I reached for my serve, and found it. A couple of aces, and some serves that pushed hard setting up easy points for me.
2-0.
Another break.
3-0.
Another dominant service game.
4-0.
Tonight could be the night I break the two-month long losing streak, I thought. As we were changing over Leah looked at her racket and piped up, "Wake up, racket! Come on!"
That signaled the beginning of the end.
She held serve on a tightly played game, 4-1. Then she broke my serve, 4-2. No big deal, I shrugged, as I kept after it.
Suddenly, I was serving at 4-5.
OK, no worries, one point at a time.
0-15.
0-30.
0-40.
And with that, I double-faulted. As I turned to collect the tennis balls Leah hollered, "That's game?"
Sheepishly I muttered, "Yep."
"You can't end it like that. Serve again!"
"OK." What choice did I have? I reached for one more serve.
Unreturnable - 15-40.
I thought to myself, "This could be interesting." But not for long. After Leah returned the next serve, I proceeded to slice it into the net.
Game and set, Leah won 6-4. As I jogged up to the net, I said - "Well, at least I've kept my perfect record intact!"
Gracious as always, Leah commented on how much my game has improved since I started playing two months ago. She expressed her hope that I keep up the tennis somehow. Thinking of the cooling trend back in Michigan I indicated that racquetball with Benjamin at the YMCA would be a more likely pursuit.
Tennis has been a wonderfully frustrating and rewarding experience for me over the last two months. Of all the racquet sports I've played (squash, ping pong, badminton, racquetball and tennis), tennis has been the most challenging to me. I have the least confidence in my abilities, yet strangely I am drawn to it in an effort to learn and improve.
As I end my tennis playing for 2008 I am thankful to Leah, Gil, David and others with whom I have played. They have shown great patience with me as I slowly got better. Leah and Gil's coaching tips were gently offered and quickly adopted. Hopefully next time I play tennis it won't take me as long to get back up to speed as it did out here.
