This tennis holiday season, I had one of the most crucial tennis tournaments of the season! It was the U 12 Hume Main Draw Doubles Bronze Tennis Australia ranking tournament. If we won here, my rankings would boost by heaps! I woke up at 6:00 am, feeling tired and drowsy. Then I jumped in the car, set for a 1.5 hour drive, all cramped up and nervous. Finally, we reached there and I met my awesome doubles partner, A.K ( I will just call him by his initials for privacy reasons 😁) and we warmed up and were psyched up for our first doubles match together. Primarily, we triumphed our first doubles match winning the first set 6 – 0!
The Semifinals
Me and A.K were feeling pretty confident in the second set when all of a sudden, they went on a surge. Furthermore, our opponents started smoothly, snatching the first 3 games away from us. We had underestimated them! But me and A.K held our nerve and won the next 5 games in a row. Surprisingly, our opponents broke our momentum by taking the the next game, making it 5 – 4. I had to serve for the set, and I did it smoothly, holding to love and winning our first round match. I thought our chemistry and collaboration was very impressive! We were pumped and exhilarated for our semifinal!
The Championship
We stormed into the finals thrashing our semi final opponents 6 – 1 6 – 2. Our opponents were targeting the vollier and bombing balls at A.K, but his reflex vollies were incredible and he put away every single one of them! The final was the main highlight of the day, going for a whopping 4 hours and 50 minutes* (No Cap)! The contest was a totally unique game, as we found out the only way to win was to stay consistent. That is why there was about 40 – 60 shots in each rally!!!!! But me and A.K’s patience led us to victory in the first set, winning comfortably 6 – 2. We carried a massive wave of momentum in the second set, leading 5 – 1 and serving for the championship.
But with a great story comes a great twist! Suddenly, our opponents unbelievably broke our momentum and won the next 6 games!!!!!! Me and A.K were shocked! They had equalised the match by making it 5 – 7! It was going to take a heck of a comeback to emotionally recover from such a big setback! The deciding match tiebreak started appallingly, as we lost the first 4 points of the tiebreak! Suddenly, we escalated our game and won the next 9 points!! Me and A.K were determined to win the match and knew that the match was not over yet! It was 9 – 5, everybody was trickling with sweat and our hearts were leaping with enrapture as our opponents made a double fault. WE HAD WON. 4 HOURS AND 50 MINUTES OF VIGOUR.
Triumph flooded through our bodies as we hugged each other with joy we had embraced the pressure and were more determined than anyone else to win! I felt victorious a soon as my finger tips touched the trophy, and held it up in GLORY! I learnt that tennis is not just a physical game but a mental game too! Tennis is mostly mental. “Of course, you must have a lot of physical skill, but you can’t play tennis well and not be a good thinker. You win or lose the match before you even go out there” – Serena Williams
* Check out the match record in Tennis Australian Website here.