Last Easter I had one of the most hair raising, thrilling tennis tournaments. I started the day typically, brushing my teeth and having breakfast. When I was in the car I was a bit nervous as I might have had to play with my rivals and I didn’t know the outcome of the tournament. We arrived at my favourite tennis venue, Boroondara Tennis Centre, and I felt a mixture of excitement and anxiousness as I walked to the tournament desk. My first opponent was pretty easy, as he was pretty inconsistent and had weak groundstrokes, and I beat him 6 – 0. My second opponent was pretty simple to beat as well, his weakness being that he was just playing too slow and I was capitalising on that. I beat him 6 – 0! The same happened to my next opponent!
I beat my last opponent 6 – 2, and although it did not show in score, my opponent was a very clever player. I started strong, leading 2 – 0, but then he suddenly changed his strategy and started drop shotting me every single point!! They were really good too! Even if I anticipated the dropshot, I still couldn’t hit a winner and I had to just tap the ball back into play. He kept doing this and made it 2 – 2. Eventually I got used to it and I started hitting winners and playing normally. I won 4 games in a row and was in the top of my group. I advanced to the finals but I was not feeling well, as I realised that all that running back and forth had got me stitches. I only had 5 minutes before the final so I started drinking Gatorade© to get as much energy as possible. I was ready for the final match…
My opponent was very consistent but I started of with a comfy 4 – 1 lead. Little did I know that my opponent was going to make a huge comeback! I served to make it 5 – 1 but my opponent snatched the game away from me and made it 4 – 2. Suddenly he started finding his rhythm and started playing super consistent. Just like that he made it 5 -4 his way! I was serving to stay in the set but I made 3 unforced errors and only won 1 point. He had 2 match points! I was frustrated about how I just let go of my 3 game lead! The match was not over yet and I made two fantastic winners to save both match points! I held my serve and mad it 5 – 5. We both held our serve and were off to a tiebreak to decide the match. I had a terrible start and lost the first 3 points, making it 3 – 0 his way. He just needed 4 points to win. Then I went on a surge and won 6 points in a row! I had 3 match points! I wasted my first match point as he constructed a patient point and had me make a forced error. The second match point was glory! We had a rally of about 10 shots and then I hit a marvellous cross court winner, winning me the match 7 – 4! It was glory for me as I won my second tournament in 2 days! I was really proud of myself! I learnt to stay persistent in pressuring times like those 2 match points I saved. “Pressure is a privilege” quoted Billie Jean King!
great