Yald Patrick Grote's Blog

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.

The first set scores were 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 3-5 and 4-5. The second set scores were 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 2-5, 2-6.

Matt and John were solid 3.5 players with very good net skills. We couldn't force shots past them or by them. They both had the angle shots down well. Deep lobs worked well, but as always, very hard to judge how hard to hit. John's serve had movement to the outside and a kick. Matt's serve was very, very hard. When I played the ad side I had great luck with the lob returns. On the deuce side the fire with fire returns worked well.

What I did well today:

1. Confidence . I was concerned the 3.5 game would be too much for me, but it wasn't. Matt and I played well against them.
2. Outside shots. These were really going in during the first set. Pushing them to the outside helped.
3. Lobs. The second set was full of gorgeous lobs.

What I didn't do well today:

1. Serve. Ugh. The first serve just isn't dropping for me. I probably made 20% of them. The seconds just sit there on a platter even with a spinny.
2. Strategy. We knew they were awesome at the net in the first set. We should have stopped and forced ourselves to change strategy.

The main differences between 3.0 and 3.5:

1. Pace. The ball moves much faster.
2. Net play. Less errors at the net.
3. Errors. Less errors all around the court.

I play tennis to have fun and today was fun. Evenly matched and good tennis.

Related posts:

1. Focused on strategy – Mark, Matt and Randy