I’m two matches in on my 5.0 fall league. I learned a ton on the two matches and my ultimate take-away is a positive one… at least I feel like I can hang.
Both matches were doubles with my first match a 4-6 4-6 loss. The two games we lost were on my serve and I’ll admit, it wasn’t my best serving day. I had quite a few double faults and I just didn’t feel like I was hitting my spots. Every other aspect of my game felt good and I was definitely hanging in on returns and doing alright once the point started. The heart-breaking point of the match was where we had a break point on their serve and I got a soft floating ball to my backhand volley. I rushed it and dumped it into the net. That’s a shot I should be making with at least 95% frequency.
The second match was quite a bit different in play styles. These guys were very control oriented and actually hit a slower ball than I am used to. They played position doubles and were good at net. I never felt like they were that much better than us but they were just very steady. I will say that one of the guys had really really solid volleys. I held all my serves but one and we ended up losing 4-6 1-6. We couldn’t get the timing on the returns and just never had a good rhythm. My partner hits flatter bigger balls and they seemed to do really well with those. Ultimately, they played a really good match and both of those guys were solid 5.0’s.
I’m happy to be playing up and not looking like I’m obviously out of level. I think a few more matches and the right partner will get me my first 5.0 win. Regardless, I enjoy the higher level. My next goal, win a set at 5.0