I played my week 8 match before my week 7. I played Jerry whom I played in week 1 of this same season. Jerry is a nice guy but he is in the wrong division. He needs to move down to 2.5. As long as you keep it in on him and hit lots of shots to his backhand you will win. He makes lots of errors. He hits is forehand with the roll of the wrist which puts most of his shots he trys to hit hard in the the net. Every so often he will hit a nice one but that is the exception.

 I really thought I was going to get my first sweep during this match. At one point in the 2nd set I was up 3-0 and I could taste it. But he started hitting some decent shots and I let it slip away. I ended up winning 6-0, 6-2.

Well this was my first match playing in 3.0 in the league. What a bunch of hype I put myself through in moving up to 3.0 ? The guy I ended up playing tonight had not played in 3 years. Now he used to play real regular in the league and played 2.5 for about 5 years! His win percentage in 2.5 overall was only .22! What is he doing in 3.0 ? I asked and his response was that he is really about a 3.5 player (cough)

 I don't know but I guess it was a nice warm up match to get my season started. The biggest problem with the match is that after the first set I gave up a few games due to a shear lack of concentration on my part. I started taking him for granted playing flat footed. I kept hitting balls off my back foot which ended up in the net. The errors just made me more upset and it seemed to snowball a bit. Finally I shook it off but not before giving up 3 games. I am resisting the urge to blame several outside factors here because I know my coach will read this.

One real bad habit this guy had was he would stand 2-3 feet inside the baseline at all times. Then between each game during the break he kept saying to me: "You really hit a lot of balls near the baseline, they almost go out but seem to fall just short of the line." LOL - He never caught on I swear. I did not say anything because:

#1 I only give advice to people I don't know if they ask for it
 - and -
#2 I play him again this season.

Anyway I won 6-0, 6-3. All the way home I was kicking myself for those 3 games! I know that most of the players this season are not going to be like him and I need to capitalize on these opportunities to get lots of points.  Next week I play another unknown, he lost his first week 6-0,6-1 so I know he is not a ringer.