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.