Northridge 2008

I only ended up playing 2 matches at this tournament. Unfortunately I only had 3 people instead of the usual 4 in my group. If I hand known this I probably would have played another event. Plus I sucked it us and ended up losing my first match. In total I had a 1-1 record.

The biggest reason I lost to the first woman I played was that I couldn't deal with her serves. She served very spinny top spin serves to my backhand that jumped off the table more than I could control. Her serves were as spinny as a loop, which made even blocking difficult as they weren't as fast and came at a different trajectory being a serve instead of a rallying shot. In all I'd say the rest of my shots were better than hers, but could not get into rallies to take advantage of that. I did well on my serve though and could keep the games close. Unfortunately I couldn't get the one or two points I needed on her serve at the end of the games to win. I also felt rather out of rhythm against her and wasn't as focused as I should have been. If this had been the second match I played I might have won. Later on Jeff played her and also struggled against her serves, so I didn't feel as bad that I lost. He struggled against her serve until she had to switch rackets, which let him win the last game easily. I think he probably would have won anyways, but it would have been a lost more interesting.

In the second match I won very easily. My opponent gave up early in the second game and I cruised to victory.

I helped coach Jeff in two of his matches and I felt I did an OK job at this. I managed to point out a few things that he could adjust and do better at. Unfortunately he met a little kid and couldn't quite pull out a win losing in the fourth game in duece. He also coached me a little in his second match, but I really needed it more in my first match. Just having another set of eyes that knows your game really helps. It's hard to see from the inside the simple mistakes you're making.

Unfortunately I feel that I didn't learn much from this tournament. I was outspinned on service, and without experiencing those serves more I'm not sure what adjustments I could make that would help in subsequent matches. In general I'm still adjusting to my new blade, and probably will be for another month. I'll give a review of it then. The one thing I could do better at is getting settled in my first match quicker. I don't think I approached my first match with the right mental attitude. Needed to be more calm and relaxed. If I'm stuggling I should play slower.