Fuck. I just got back from my third game at my athletic club's tennis ladder. I got beaten by a ten-year-old. Nay, I got my ass handed to me. 2-11. I'm probably going to be playing someone even younger next. I'm 0-3. I lost my 1st game 2-12, my second 1-13, and then this. And this to a kid half my size and 5 years younger.
I don't get it at all. At risk of sounding immodest, my partner and I were really good. We finished 17-4, losing only to D-1 teams, conference champions, and we came second in two other tournaments. Now, my average margin of defeat is 12 games.
What's even worse is that the kid was saying 'nice try' whenever I got mad at myself. I was almost ready to scream at my right arm to hit me a FUCKING GOD DAMNED FOREHAND. I don't understand if it's because of the switch from doubles to singles or whatever, but I'm at the bottom of the ladder even though I'm one of the oldest kids there. I've never felt like I couldn't compete with the kids I played. Even in the first two games, all but a few went to deuce. It felt like I should have been either winning or losing by a much smaller margin.
I don't normally write 3-paragraph rants, but Jesus fucking Christ, I've been playing awful lately.
Yeah, so maybe that was only really dramatic in my head. So yeah, I'm not a huge tennis buff, but it seems to me tha switching from doubles to singles would be, like, a HUGE change if you haven't played singles ever...