Match Debut

A friend had been trying to persuade me to join his tennis club for some time but I often went as his guest and wasn't sure if it was worth joining as it's in East London. When he told me last week that he'd like me to join him for a team match and that I was eligible for the 'long-distance' discounted membership rate that settled it!

So today I turned up with my membership form and cheque in hand and went straight to an away game. It was quite exciting and I was interested to see what 'competitive' league tennis is actually like. I played in a few tournaments in Japan, but not in any club tournaments. This was the first time I've played competitively in England since I was about 10 years old!

The heat was a real killer today. I covered myself in Sun cream so I didn't get burnt but the Sun still beat me into submission with its heat and brightness. Even though I drank about 3-4 litres of water I had a really bad headache.

As I'd suspected (and you may remember me talking about this a while back), people with great shots don't necessarily win. I couldn't believe we drew one set all with a couple of guys who couldn't even hit a flat/topspin backhand between them. It was all funny slices which floated back - but with very few misses.

I ended up drawing a couple of matches and losing the last one. Strangely though, the last match was the most exciting as our opponents played a similar attacking style to us.

I learnt a lot from the experience and look forward to doing better next time around.