Highs and Lows of a Tennis Pro

I was wired during my 6-hour drive home from Inverell. Not from any illegal substance (although Pepsi Max has so much caffeine it must come close), but from a weekend where I played some of the best tennis of my life. In the $5000 Platinum event I beat the number 72 in Australia in the third round, and took it to the eventual winner, Erik Chvojka, the number 6 in Canada, before going down fighting in the quarter-finals. Also made the final of doubles with the talented Josh Barrenechea who asked me to play via Facebook – a first. Some of the things I’d been working on came together – staying loose and in the moment, being more aggressive, believing in my ability to hit quality shots under pressure. Of course the slippery ant-bed surface helped – I practically grew up on the stuff. It makes everybody look a little slow – which helps when you are slow. No matter how good an athlete you are, if you get wrong footed on ant-bed you’re in trouble. My dropshot made the speedy Canadian slip over and scream in frustration.

Three days after that drive I was up against Ryan Agar, the 12^th seed and number 75 in Oz, in the QLD Claycourt. Although the body was a little sore, I was feeling confident. The book on him was he has loads of talent – but I could tell early in the match that his confidence was down. He was slicing groundstrokes around the court, content to let me run him around and use his foot speed on the slow and sticky clay court to counter-attack. I was making the play which meant the odds were in my favour, but somehow I squandered 7 set points in the first set and a 4-0 lead in the second to go down 7-6 7-5. It was a disappointing loss. It wasn’t that I played badly, it was that when I got the opportunity to deliver the killer blow I hit more like a Teddy bear than a warrior. Instead of going for winners on set points I played it safe and suffered the consequences. Just like I have many times before.

One of the reasons I took up tournaments again was to ignite some passion into my life. I wanted to feel some of the highs and lows that my 40-something self was starting to miss.

Be careful what you wish for.