Look I do not care what anyone says, winning is great and losing sucks. I am ultra competitive. My wife has called me the most competitive person she knows. It does not matter what it is...video games, poker, work, golf, billiards, and my latest craze tennis. I am going to be blogging about my season on here. Mostly to show my coach, friends, and to read it next season.

I am in my 2nd season of K-Swiss tennis and let me tell you I love it. Now I am not really good at tennis but I am getting better and their format allows me to play people of equal caliber. This makes it competitive and this is why I love it. During my first season I barely made the playoffs and lost during the first week. I came down with a major headache during my playoff match and just lost it. 

This year I want nothing less than 1st, of course. The players this season seem tough though. I won my first week against a new player who honestly gave me a lot of points on nerves. He was a quick on his feet and loved coming to the net. I later found that this was because he had trouble with his deep forehand. I captalized on this once learned.

Then I had a buy the 2nd week. I trained 1 day with my coach during this time. The weather we really bad the rest of the time so I could not really play. I saw my next opponent on the list and he was an unknown. He was unbeaten for first 2 weeks and I quickly noticed a name that he had played. This person was the guy I first verified with about a year earlier and I had not beaten him, ever. So the guy I am playing has not beaten the guy I have not. You get the point.

I call my friend whom he played. Actually tried to get a practice match in but the weather...you know. Anyway he tells me how good the guy is, quick to the ball, etc etc. He tells I can win if I am quick and that his serve is not too hard to handle. Not much of a confidence booster but oh well.

After 3 weather reschedules I finally meet the guy for the match. He brought his girlfriend along to watch. I warned her, no coaching. The first set was like WWIII let me tell you. This guy had a solid forehand and was very quick to the ball. He also would not hesitate to come to net when the opportunity arouse. He was tall, 6'1" or so. The 1st set lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes. He won 6-3. I was amped and ready to bump it up a notch ASAP. I believed not playing for 2 weeks hurt me here.

All I kept saying as the 2nd set began was "6-0", "6-0" in my head. Having nothing to lose I began relax wrist on the serve and use a more aggressive grip. This made a big difference and I started popping the serve nicely with lots of spin. I won on my serve right off 40-0. I could see that he was ether very tired or not prepared for this serve. I think it was a combination.

Another point I noticed is that he was so quick on his feet so I decided to just remove angles and hit everything right down the middle to him. I would take the occasional passing shot if he moved in but for the most part I just hit solid shots on the middle past the service line. All of this worked and I did win 6-0!

Third set was more of the same for me. Early in the first set I did struggle some early. I think he tried hard to put it to me then but I managed to minimize the damage and trudge on. He was clearly tired and I knew keeping to my strategy of hitting solid shots in the middle was working. Do not change something that is working though in a game of tennis; just keep it up until it stops working. I eventually won this set 6-3. 

 Final was 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 :) Next match is Thursday.