Our first day of competition was at the courts at Syracuse University. My nerves were jittery with excitement as I saw the people gathered to compete and to watch the matches. I truly felt like a real tennis player. (This feeling dissipated somewhat as I watched the men from the 4.5 level (which in non-tennis speak basically means they are unbelievably good) play matches right next to our matches. There may have been a (ahem) slight difference in our playing levels. Just a bit.)
I couldn't' t believe I was at Sectionals. I never imagined our team would win the Buffalo area and I know none of us believed we could prevail at Regionals, so to be at Sectionals facing all these talented players seemed almost surreal. I was proud of our team. And I was damn proud of me. I never knew I had any of this in me.
I played five matches in three days and faced physical exhaustion beyond anything I have ever experienced. There was a point in my second match on Saturday that I honestly didn't think I was going to make it. We were in an intensely competitive, physical match that left me serving one game for almost half an hour because we reached so many deuce scores. I had to chase a loose ball during that long game and I saw my friend Carolyn who had driven to Syracuse to see us play, watching me walk towards the ball. I gave her a long look through the fence and whispered, "I'm not going to make it." She told me I was. She told me to take my time fetching that ball and take some deep breaths. Her calm and confidence in me reminded me I had it in me.
I did make it. My partner Christine made it. (Okay, she also runs marathons, so perhaps, for her this was not the test of physical endurance it was for me.) At the end of that first unending game, she turned at my groan of relief, grinned back at me and muttered dryly, "Hallu-fucking-lueigh." That quickly became one of my more favorite quotes from the weekend.
That match was my favorite. We didn't win, but I played better tennis than I thought I could. I kept going even though I wanted just to curl up in a corner and take a long nap. I pushed myself further physically than ever before. I won two matches of the five I played over the weekend, but that match, that physically demanding intensely competitive, but losing match, will always stay with me.
As an aside, the match will also stay with me because of a little "disagreement" we got into with the other team over one of their calls. We had to call in the ump to work it out and when it was resolved in our favor the other team was none too thrilled. A few minutes after the resolution, I had a particularly good shot and our opponent said quietly to me, "Nice shot." Christine hadn't heard her, but knew she had engaged me somehow and bounded up from the service line, pumped up to all her 5 '10 height, leaned over the net to the other player and said evenly, "What did you say to her? "
It took every ounce of my willpower not to laugh hysterically at this new side to my very calm, non-competitive, conflict avoidance friend. It was fantastic.
Over the weekend, I learned alot. I cemented my obsession with tennis. I now have a to-do list a mile long of what I want to learn next to improve my game. I also laughed more than I have in a long time at the antics of my teammates and friends. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to share my new obsession of this wonderful game of tennis.
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