This tournament was very important to me because it is my home club, and this is where I grew up and developed my game. The tournament took place on April 21, 2007. I have been going to this club from May last year – almost for a year. After I’ve got my first rating at US National tournament last year at Las Vegas, I lost some points at Columbus, OH and Denver, CO. I can’t keep on loosing points – that was one of the goal when I played at this tournament - though not the primary goal. Secondly, playing some good games is important because many of my friends I play against know my game – a new strategy is necessary. How can anyone neglect a demand from an important person - like your wife? My wife wanted me to win a prize in this tournament – I told her I will do a try.
Doubles Matches
Ray is a 6’7” tall very serious player. I’ve decided to team with him for the doubles. Since he is tall, he can reach the ball from anywhere. Our first double was against Meg and Matt. Matt and Meg was a good combination. One of the fears I had was at the smashes from Matt as he is good at that – I had to stop him from smashing the shots. As I concentrated much into that I lost focus in other areas. They won the match. The second game was against Tom and Dave team. We lost to them also.
Against Meg
This was a great match. Not just I enjoyed this match, but also the audience. This was the match which would put either Meg or me into Open. Meg had his coach and friends to help him – I don’t complain about it because she is a woman and a great player. Our games went to 5 and she won. She exploited my forehand which was a little surprise to me some times.
My Win
I fell into group A because I could not win against Meg. The group A had some great players. My matches against Ray, Sami and Justin went well. Among the three, Justin gave me a lot of troubles. He had a hurricane II rubber on his forehand, and the power that came from his forehand was a surprise. Justin does chops, and that was hard for me to return.
I played against Dale in the final. I remember I have played against him way back. Will he keep doing his powerful loops again? I said to myself - he will because he is good at that. I had to defend his loops – that was my strategy. I took the first two games. He took the next two. In the last game I was leading 10-9. I won with a top spin serve to his body which he might have misunderstood as underpin. I know Dale was not satisfied but it was a good game. Dale is a gentleman - I have forgotten to tell the score sometimes, and he took an initiative to tell the score.
About other players
I watched some good games from Ray, Chris, Matt, Dan, Tom and many of my other friends. The players came from different parts of Utah, and we all had good games.
John Pratt, the club president did a great job of putting everything together. He encouraged many to join USATT and get a rating. This gave an opportunity to many young players to take the game seriously.
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