Recapping the last indoor tournament before the start of the clay season. I will miss you hard court, see you in October.
Thursday – 1.5h – tournament match (D5, quarter final)
Every tournament this year so far, I have been happy that having 10pts in my ranking category let’s me skip the qualifying rounds and save my legs for later on. Since it was a bit smaller than last week’s tournament, that meant that main draw started from the quarter final and it was also the last indoor tournament before I switch over to outdoors and clay. Luckily everything was on time (consider this a miracle, I don’t remember many times my matches actually started on time), unluckily the indoor felt like a sauna even with the roof open. Somebody tell me to start bringing more water to my matches, 1.5L is simply not enough.
The match itself was really good. Already during the warm up everything seemed to click and it helped a lot that the opponent had was hitting nice balls consistently which is not something that always happens in the category I currently play at. First set was great: serves felt good straightaway, returns felt decent, groundstrokes clean and managed to even squeeze a few FH slices and dropshots in there. In the second set, some occasional blips started to creep in (cue that one game where I was acing on deuce side and double faults on AD side for almost the whole game) but glad that I managed to keep my cool and just hold steady pressure. The rallies were nice and long and I feel like that we both showed some good tennis. It also helped me to bring more variety to my game in terms of different shots and they often worked out well.
Result: win (6/1 – 6/3)
Friday – 1h 15min – tournament match (D5, semi final)
Less sauna like indoor this time around = success. Amount of water brought with me -> still the same as the day before = felt like less of a success.
Lots of high balls. Like too many for my liking but consider this as a training for my patience. Serve came in clutch again, squeezed even a few aces in there and then almost double faulted a whole game away in the second set #skill. Really pleased with how the returns are finally coming together so we can say that whatever self inflicted torture I assigned myself week and a half ago with my coach was actually beneficial. Both forehand and backhand felt really good again, made some great saves and respected the high balls without trying to kill them. Rallies were not as long as I hoped with most of the points being quite short. I came to realize I should start practicing tweeners and smashes because the amount lobs I get when I’m at the net is diabolical so I need to start adapting to this.
Result: win (6/2 – 6/3)
Sunday – 1h 10min – tournament match (D5, final)
It started on time!!! That was the third match this week and it started on time. Trust that I will be back next year for this tournament because it really takes that little to convince me.
At that point of the week, I was just happy to be there. My goal was always to play good tennis with a focus on reliable returns and decisive playing style which I executed well + winning earlier matches meant that I had enough points to move up in the next ranking group (D4) for the outdoor season. Straight off the bat, the warm up felt much faster than the previous ones as the opponent was hitting a lot of fast flat forehands which gave me an opportunity how to send them back in a controlled way instead of turning it into a mutual gunfight aka who will overhit first.
The match itself was maybe a bit more straightforward than I expected. First set only took 30 minutes. Serve felt really reliable and I even hit some aces down the T which in my (biased) opinion looked really good. There weren’t many rallies but when they did happen, I managed to keep my cool and just hold steady pressure until I could either attack or have the other make an unforced error. However, I knew I had to stay locked in because the girl has a track record of coming back in the 2nd set and eventually taking 3rd set. Second set was off to a bit rocky start with poor returns from my side. Luckily I managed to get over it relatively quickly and despite serve being a bit more unreliable than I wanted, the groundstrokes and a few slices here and there worked out beautifully and I climbed my way back. Similarly to semifinal, the last game might have been my best tennis that day. So focused, so locked in and everything just fell into place.
Result: win (6/1 – 6/3)
Overall really happy with how this whole week turned out. Didn’t start to doubt myself when things were dodgy, played some good tennis and things that I worked on during practices actually translated to my performance on court. Possibility to start playing against stronger players is also huge added bonus. I came home 80€ richer (WTA price pool has nothing on this!!) and with a fancy beer (#Belgiumcore) so life’s pretty cool.
~ may the serve be with you, S.