The match
Beat Noel Warfel 6-4, 6-7, 10-7 in the match tiebreak. He came in 6-0 and had not lost all season. He has now.
The return plan won it. Block the kick serve back and nothing more. I never tried to do anything with it all night, and the kick serve never became a problem. I broke him five times. In the whole match on 6 August I broke him three times.
I took my break points this time. Broke him at 40-30 in the first game, again at 3-0 after about eight deuces, again at 40-30 at 4-3. Two of those went on the first break point I had. Break points cost me the last match and I fixed them. The only chance I let go was 0-40 on his serve at 5-6 in the second set, and I knew why standing there — I had nothing left from the game before it.
He found a way to break me even with my serve on. Every break against me tonight came with the serve working. He took the pace off it and put the ball back low and deep at my feet. The shot that loses the game is the one after my serve. I need to dial in on serve-plus-one.
Second set I went down 1-4 and won three straight to get level at 4-4 — a hold on three aces, a break at 40-30, a hold at 40-15. Held from 0-30 at 5-5. Then 0-40 at 5-6 went nowhere and I led the set breaker 5-4 before he ran three points off me. Those games came in that order for a reason. The two I dug out took what I needed for the two after them.
Match breaker: 3-1 up, level at 7-7, then three points to close it out 10-7, two of them on my own serve. On 6 August he went 4-0 up and I never got back into it. The start decided both of them, and this time the start was mine.
I held seven of eleven service games tonight. I held seven of eleven on 6 August. Nothing changed there. I broke three of eleven return games on 6 August and five of eleven tonight. The takeaway: my serve did exactly what it did last time, and the return is the whole difference. The plan said block it back and nothing more. That was the match.