Yald Patrick Grote's Blog

3.5 USTA 3rd doubles tiebreaker loss

Sunday, January 15, 2011, at Forest Lake. Second week of USTA play and I was slated to play 3rd doubles with Dave I. Never played with Dave I. and never met him. Our opponents were Allen and Loren. Allen is someone I play with regularly in a 3.5 friday night WTT league and I had never played Loren before.

I wasn't nervous going in since I knew I could play 3.5 and I've played Allen enough to know what to expect. The mood was more excited, as I knew would stood a good chance.

3.5 Mixed Worst Tennis Outing Ever

Wow. This was by far the worst tennis I have ever played. Nothing went well. I couldn't get on a roll and it seemed everything I tried failed. As I told Missy, it was the only time I've considered not playing anymore; it was just that unenjoyable.  Don't get me wrong, some of my more enjoyable times have been when I lost. I learn things, I have good interactions with opponents and more. There was none of that. Maybe it was the fact it was Friday, January 13, 2012 that did it.

Sub 3.0 Mixed WTT Tennis Great Play

On Wednesday night, January 11, 2012, I subbed for someone in a mixed 3.0 league. My teammates were Jeff, Diane and Sheri. Jeff is someone who I played for in a 3.5 indoor WTT league while he was injured. He has a slight rotator cuff tear, but he is back now.

Highlights:

• Probably the the top three in my tennis playing ever. Played very well.
• Our team won by one game.
• Really practiced the spin serve hard to the point I pulled my trapezius.

Jeff and I played Allen and Dave. This was the first time Jeff and I played together and we did pretty good. Whereas his normal partner Dwight and I would start of slow, Jeff and I started off great. My serve was on and I made some great lobs. We would go up 2 games and then they would come back.

First USTA 3.5 Match

Sunday, 1/8/12, 1:00pm at Kings Point in Belleville. Doubles partner was Matt W. Opponents were John and Matt.

The first USTA 3.5 game I've ever played. Nervous going in, by the end of the first game I felt fine. The winning shot was a fast return to the outside on a hard serve. Perfect and I really felt like I could handle the pace. We ended up losing 6-4 and 6-2.

Highlights:

• I can play 3.5.
• My outside shots were going well, until I started going too far.
• Lobs were awesome.
• Matt (opponent) served hard, very hard. On two serves in a row my return was just as hard. They were my shots of the day.

Focused on strategy – Mark, Matt and Randy

Men's 3.0/3.5 League - 1/2/12 - 8:00pm start.

Paired with Mark for the evening, we lost doubles 6-4 against Matt and Randy who served first.

The doubles game had a few highlights:

1. Mark told me where to stand in doubles. Close to the net and middle of service box. This is probably the better place to play, but I am uncomfortable so close to the net. Randy saw this and just abused us with lobs over me that Mark had to get to. I tend to play back in doubles and set up my net partner.
2. Matt's serves were good. Matt typically tries to serve hard, but last night he was very disciplined and stuck with his killer spin to the outside. This is devastating on the ad side. Kudos to Mark for getting to all of Matt's tough serves.