Midwest Indoor Championship

And the winner of the 2009 Midwest Indoor Championship in the women's open singles division is...

Well, not me.

Was that anti-climatic?

Upon reflecting on my performance at the McFetridge Open in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, I decided that my perfunctory slow starts was something I needed to address, yet my first match of the Midwest Indoor Open, a single elimination tournament, I found myself down 0-4 rather quickly.

I rallied back, slowing the points down and focusing more on my game plan rather than obsessing about how this girl was pummelling shots to my backhand. I love my backhand. My forehand is a huge weapon, wild at times, but when I am able to control it, it can be lethal and usually instills a fear in my opponent. Deception. My backhand, though not as powerful, is very consistent and I love when opponents play to it. But for some reason, I was not able to remember this on Saturday as I began the match. I rushed points. I attempted drop shots two ball strikes into the rally. Though my opponent was about six feet tall, I invited her into the net with mediocre shots and then offered her high floaters that she was able to put away with ease. I respectably loss the first set 5-7 and then proceeded to repeat the same pattern in the second set with an identical result.

So out of the tournament an hour and a half after I entered the Orchard Hills Swim and Sports Club, I was given the opportunity to play a match for fun as I waited for the start of the doubles draw. Without the pressure of accumulating points I intended to work on things that my coaches have been incessantly trying to drill into my head; following short balls into the net, working the point, driving the ball instead of moon-balling it all the time. But, again, twenty minutes into the match, I had already lost the first set 1-6. The match went the distance, ending in a third set tie-breaker and as proud as I am for battling back with nothing on the line except my belief in my game, I am so annoyed at the slow start.

Something to work on for the future.

The best thing about the tournament for me was seeing my best friend, Sue, a woman who loves the sport more than anyone else I know, tackle and take down college players half her age as she steamrolled into the final match. As I sat, watching, I overheard supporters of Sue's opponent, speculating about her age, wondering where she was from and how she was able to take down player after player.

I'd watched Sue play all summer on our USTA league teams and yet, I had never seen her play so well, so confident. Instead of the backboard that she sometimes is, she was the aggressor. She carefully constructed traps for her opponents, lulling them into hitting shots she wanted. Time and time, they fell for her traps. After the fourth straight time of playing into Sue's traps, her semi-final opponent stared at the sideline long after a point was over, unable to believe that Sue had done it to her again.

I watched her rally back from being down 1-6 in the first set. I watched her overcome four double faults in the second set tie-breaker. And I watched her shaky start in the third.

In the finals match, Sue faced the opponent I'd lost to in my semi-final match. Again it took three sets, but when it was over and Sue was handed her trophy, I never felt prouder.

I try to take away something from every match, won or lost, played or watched. I try to note things I need to work on, or emulate play that I've seen.

This time, the post tournament goal was easy to recognize.

I want to be like Sue.

KS

McFetridge Open

In my quest for tennis excellence, I signed up for a tennis tournament in Chicago at the McFetridge Sports Center. I've been playing tournaments for a few years now and I find that I can usually find good competition in Chicago, whereas; the draws for tennis tournaments for the woman open player in Michigan can be sparse.

I am sure the economy, the blame for everything from unemployment to Dunkin Donut's cutting back on my favorite twelve-pack, is the reason for the recent drop in participation at tournaments. So, it is getting very hard to find tournaments to sign up for where its worth the time, money and effort to play.

There were two tournaments going on in Chicago this past weekend. One was a tournament for adults, 21-over. The stakes were higher, the prize being an expense-paid trip to Georgia to compete at the next level where a win would provide the talented player the opportunity to play in an amateur tournament to be held in Australia during the Open. As much as I desire to one day be competitive enough to compete with the great women who were signed up for that tournament, I know my tennis game is still in the "development" phase.

So I signed up for the McFetridge Open and met a tournament director that will make that stop a recurring stop on my "tour schedule". Scotty was accommodating from the start. With the small draw, he wanted the tournament to happen and to make it worth everyone's time. So, my competition? A couple of twelve-year olds and a fifteen year old!

All of them, wonderful competitors and I thoroughly enjoyed the time on the court we spent together, though I lost to both of the 12-year olds.

A friend of mine was conflicted about which Chicago tournament to sign up for and ended up signing up for the other one. Both tournaments were supposed to be a single elimination, but because of the small draw at McFetridge, the girls and I got to play a round-robin format where we got to play everyone in the draw. Then we capped off the weekend with a doubles match, which I really enjoyed.

It's hard to find consistent competition in Michigan at times. I attend clinics and weekly lessons. I have several hitting partners. But the intensity that I felt this weekend, battling it out with sluggers who could handle their own, is something that can't be re-created at a city park any given afternoon.

I played two matches on Saturday and two on Sunday. The first set of my first match went by very quickly, but I found a rhythm in the second set, and pushed my opponent to a second-set tiebreaker. Though I lost, I loved the fact that I figured out kinks in my game and would play another match were I could quickly implement the changes.

There were a lot of little things that were corrected, but the two major ones was my serve and working the point.

My serve has always been a big weapon. Whenever I play up levels or I play against guys who are stronger, faster and just generally, better than me, my serve is a neutralizer. But it can be erratic. This weekend I watched my opponents serve. I watched how relaxed and easy-going their motion looked compared to my amped up, sometimes spastic one. I tried it in my warm up and oh what a difference.

Thinking it was a fluke, I tried it again and again, but my serve was bigger, my consistent, deeper in the serve box and all without me looking like I am teeing off on the ball!

The second thing was me being patient during the points, looking for winners, but being able to pull back and settle into a rally when the winner wasn't there or the opportunity was missed.

As usual, the tournament, despite win/loss results was a positive one for me. It renewed my passion, my dedication to training and getting better and my belief in my game.

Thank you to the entire staff at the McFetridge Sports Center who was so nice and had good things to say about my game.

Next up for me is the Midwest Indoor Championships in Grand Rapids in a couple of weeks. I hope to play well and I will keep you posted.

Stay tuned...

KS