The match
Round of 16: 6-1, 6-3. My first playoff match, at St Andrew’s Playground at 5:30pm. We had to move it from the Tennis Center.
I came in as seed 8 after an 8-8 regular season. Seeds 1 to 5 had byes, so it was seed 8 against seed 9, and the winner plays the top seed in the quarterfinal.
I had already beaten Hank once, 6-1, 6-2 on 5 August at the Tennis Center. That was my first win of the season, and it took me until the third game of the first set to find the return position that worked: standing across toward the T on the deuce side. This time I started there from the first return game, and it worked.
The common opponents. Hank and I have played six of the same people this summer. We both beat Brown 6-1, 6-3, and we both beat Davis. We both lost to Bailey, Bhalli and Minasi, and to Warfel the first time. He took Minasi to a deciding tiebreak, and I lost to him in straight sets. On that record we were level, and the head to head was the only place either of us was ahead.
First set. I served first and got to 4-0 with two breaks. The first serve was on fire, and I rode 40-0 and 40-15 service games. He got on the board to make it 4-1, and I closed the set out 6-1, the same set score as in August.
Hank could not handle the serve or the ground strokes. Both were in a groove.
Second set, same story. It started tighter. He held his first game to lead 1-0, and we traded games for a while. I got ahead 4-2, he pulled back to 4-3, and I won the last two games for 6-3.
Monday helped. The night before, at the Tennis Center, I lost 3-6, 2-6 in USTA singles to a much stronger topspin player. Hank hits with a lot of topspin too, so the ball was familiar, and the pace was a step down.
Next. The quarterfinal is against the top seed, Cantello. He beat me in a deciding tiebreak in August and in straight sets on 11 September. The deadline is 11 October.