We Are The Champions

Close to Wimbledon but not quite as big

No secret here...dad & I despise losing. Full blown hate it. Most of the time that is because when we lose, we really shouldn't have lost. While talent wise I was never as good as my brother, my ridiculous effort and intense practice regime made me good at tennis. Not to mention that I was generally smarter than most of my opponents. I'm not talking book smart now; I'm talking tennis strategy smart. I have always understood the concept of just get the ball over the net and in the court last and you will win the point. Therefore, I wasn't worried about form or shot beauty. I was concerned with the sheer act of getting it in, no matter if the ball came off the frame, the butt, or the sweet spot of the racquet. I didn't discriminate.

All of the above stated, I also have to clarify that I never believed I was as good as I was nor did I get over first match jitters. I am still not over them. 28 years old and my knees continue to get weak and my hands shake during warm-up. Classic. Coincidentally, dad gets the case of the jitters often too. Perfect combo.

As part of my yearly wish list, playing in a tournament with daddy-o was high on the list. I really enjoy playing tennis as an adult, and I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do. So I signed us up for the 60th Annual Kentucky State Closed at the Louisville Boat Club. We played our first match on Thursday night. It started out rather rocky, and we lost the first set 6-3. Our fans, Amanda & Shane, weren't impressed and ended up leaving shortly after. We were both pretty furious and started the second set on fire...resulting in a 6-2 victory. Onto a third set...my specialty. Down 1-2, we moved inside to the indoor hard courts due to lack of sunlight. (**For those of you who are not tennis buffs, this is a crucial piece of info. We were playing outside on clay courts, a surface that causes the ball to slow meaning that power shots often do not turn out as winners like on hard courts).  Dad was up to serve and he held making it 2-2. We battled but couldn't break and were down 2-3 at the change over. Determined not to lose, we won four straight games to clench the match 6-3.

Onto the finals...

Today we had a 1pm start for our championship. The weather was cool courtesy of the mild hurricane we experienced last evening, and the wind definitely played a factor in our match. We again started out a bit shaky, but we were able to win the first set 6-4. No thanks to dad's service games. Mind you that he made me practice my serve this morning for 30 minutes prior to our match. Clearly, I wasn't the one who needed practice. Anyhow, we proceeded to get up 3-1 and then lose two games in a row to make it 3-3. Unpleasant. We battled through it to win 6-3 in the second set. We had phenomenal cheerleaders, MT & RT (also known as my future inlaws), and they witnessed our hilarious hits and misses.

Nonetheless, we won. And like I always say, a W is a W no matter how ugly it might have been to get it.

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!