The match
Lost to Sam Cantello 6-3, 6-7, 10-12 in the match tiebreak. Two and a half hours at the Julian Weston courts in Old Village, and the hardest match I have played.
Sam is not overwhelming anywhere — he is just solid everywhere and makes you earn every single point. Strong off both wings, a big kick serve into the body when he wants it, and great touch when you drag him forward with a drop shot. He also figured out my serve by the second set, which nobody else has done.
First set I got there on serve. Eight aces, including three-ace games at 1-1 and 2-2, and I closed it out by breaking him twice late just by getting the ball back in play and making him earn it. But look at the first half of that set: I had him at 15-40, then 30-40, then 0-40, and he held all three.
Three break-point games, zero breaks. That is a warning I did not hear.
Second set was a dogfight in 100 degrees. It opened with me getting broken from 40-0 up after four advantages, and from there we traded breaks four times in five games. By 3-2 the aces were gone — his return had got that good. I held at 4-3 saving three break points, then broke him at love by doing nothing but putting returns in play. Served for the set at 5-3 and got broken. Held from 6-5 down two deuces to force the breaker, and then let two match points get away. Lost it 6-8.
The match tiebreak I went down 5-2, clawed all the way back, and lost 10-12.
The honest read: I lost this on the return and on break points. Every game I won late in the second set came from just getting the return in and making him play. Every game that got away came from having a break point and not converting, or from a serve that had stopped being free by then. And the heat had me cooked from about 5-3 in the first set.
That is four deciding tiebreaks lost now, and two match points tonight. The gap between me and these guys is not strokes any more — it is the four or five points a match where the door is open and I do not walk through it.