The match
Lost to Hamza Bhalli 6–1, 2–6, 1–6. First guy I have played who was just flat-out better than me.
Strong everywhere. Big serve — he hits his second serve like a first serve, so there is no free look at it. Solid forehand and backhand, no wing to pick on. And he got better as the match went on, which is the part that separates him from everyone else in this league.
The first set was mine and it was not lucky. I saved 0–40 to hold at 1–1, then broke him three times and held with two aces in between. 6–1.
Then the match turned on one thing: my serve lost a little pace. That is all it took. He started stepping into the return and jamming it at my feet, and suddenly the free points were gone and I was starting every point on defence.
I won three games the rest of the way. Second set 2–6, third set 1–6 — I held early in both and then he closed each one out in a run, five games to finish the second and six to finish the third.
There were good points and long rallies in there. It was not a bad match, it was a match where the other guy had a little bit extra everywhere and knew what to do with it once he found the opening.
The honest takeaway, and it is the same one all season: everything I do is downstream of my first serve. When it has got pace, I am winning 6–1 sets against a genuinely good player. When it drops even slightly — and it drops when the match goes long — good players eat it and I do not have a second way to win points. That is not a stroke problem, it is a durability problem, and it has now cost me the back half of four different matches.