The match
Lost to Will Minasi 3-6, 3-6. The score makes it look worse than it was.
Will’s a serious athlete. Good forehand, better backhand, a solid kick serve, and he returns well. He also has a knack for producing the shot he needs at the exact moment he needs it — he aced me at ad-out in one game and held from there.
Here’s the whole match in one number: I did not break him once. Not in nine return games. And it wasn’t for lack of chances — I had him at 40-15, I had him at ad-out multiple times, I pushed him to deuce over and over. The door was open all night and I never walked through it.
The reason is the one I already know: my net game deserted me. I missed five or six overheads. Those weren’t neutral points, those were the exact points that would have turned a deuce into a break. Put half of them away and this is a different match.
My own serve mostly held up. I saved two break points to open the first game, came back from 0-30 in the second with two aces to hold, and held at 40-0 with three aces late. The three games I lost on serve: one break at 3-4, one at 2-4, and the ugly one — broken from 40-0 up to end the first set, where the first serve was fine and he just returned better than I served.
Honestly this was one of my better matches. The strokes were there, the rallies were there, the serve was mostly there. A handful of points swung his way when they mattered and that was the entire difference.
The fix is narrow and it’s not fitness or the serve for once: overheads. When I finally drag one of these guys into the net-and-lob pattern, I have to finish. That’s where the break I couldn’t find tonight was hiding.