The match
Beat Tatsiana Beiko 6-3, 6-4. Really good win.
She gets bumped up to the men’s section for a reason. Excellent ground strokes, very accurate, and she moves you side to side and makes you cover the whole court. Her serve isn’t big but it’s placed well. Nothing about this was easy.
First set started badly. I held at love with three aces, then she held, then she broke me on a game with two double faults and one first serve in, and she held again. Suddenly 1-3. Then I figured out the return: take her serve back deep and crosscourt. That was the whole match.
I won the last five games of the set from there — a hold at 40-15 with three aces for 2-3, the break back for 3-3, a hold with two aces and a serve-and-volley, another break, and I served it out. 6-3.
Second set was a grind in the heat. Broke her to open, got broken straight back on a game that ended with my third double fault of the night, and from 1-2 down I settled in. The game I’m happiest about is the hold for 4-2: my first serve wasn’t landing at all, and I held anyway on a strong second serve and ground strokes that finished the points. A month ago that’s a game I lose.
Broke her for 3-2 after two deuces, just by refusing to give in when I was tired. Held at love with three aces for 5-3. Then, with her serving to stay in the set, I had two match points at 40-15 and she saved them both, which stung — but I served it out the very next game with four aces in a row.
What I’m taking from this: the return adjustment came in the middle of the first set instead of the middle of the second, and I won a service game without my first serve. Those are the two things that have cost me matches all season, and both of them went the right way tonight against a genuinely strong player.
The one thing to clean up: three double faults, and a lapse at 4-3 in the second set where I had her at 40-0 on her own serve, let it back to 40-30, and watched her hold. Small stuff, but it’s the same small stuff every time.