Today, I won my first ever proper tennis match.
The score line? 6-4 6-2
But let’s take a step back here.
It was against a high school friend of mine, a life-long friend that agreed to be my tennis partner in 2026 and who has taken significant steps to improve his game.
It wasn’t an official match. No officials refereed this little match between us.
But …. It wasn’t an easy game either.
For months now, we’ve been relatively equal.
We were both rusty from years away from the court.
We were relatively similar in height, but he was a mite bit taller.
We both liked Wilson racquets, however I splurged early in my tennis journey and used a much more expensive Blade model that I now felt ashamed to use with my inferior skills.
We both couldn’t hold our serves. He was more consistent, but with anemic power on both his first and second serve. Mine were powerful, but uncontrollable. They would slam into the net or blast wildly outside the service box.
At first we couldn’t last longer than a set. He would normally win, as his serves wouldn’t let him down, but mine did with alarming regularity.
We played once a week, but I had a slight advantage as my partner/girlfriend actually wanted to learn how to play, so I had my hand on my racquet more often, coaching her.
This led to me developing a lot of defensive capabilities because I often had to chase the ball more and lob them back into the court. This particular shot would serve me well in this match.
Today, as I gripped my racquet, I felt a bit more confident.
I had been playing with my partner’s friends and my serve was holding OK. I had been practising for weeks, constantly trying to get “on-top” of the ball and make sure it would clear the net and land in.
The serves were now getting more consistent and starting to dart away from my opponents or force an error out of them.
It was becoming a weapon.
A weapon that I didn’t use very well in the first game, because I lost it.
0-1
Not a good start.
But the crack in the armour showed. My tennis buddy didn’t hold serve either.
1-1
Time to reset. Time to get my head out of the funk and focus on the toss.
Up the ball goes, down goes the racquet and crack goes the ball as it ricochets off the ground and surprise my friend with its bounce. He hits it back awkwardly, and I gently slice the ball close to the net.
He runs in, and softly hits it back …. whereupon I lob the damn thing over his head. He tries to jump, but as he lands, all he can do is laugh in appreciation as my lob land inside the court and away from him.
This is now a recurring tactic. I open him up with a big serve, then bait him to come in, before lobbing it over him. Most of the time, it works, but when it does, we get a good rally going where I’m testing my speed and athleticism in trying to reach the ball to return it.
When we get into a rally, it’s he who dictates the game with his volleys, height and reach.
The game goes on and on, neither of us holding serve.
Until suddenly, I try something different at 30-40, 4-4.
I slice the serve.
It catches him completely by surprise and he is unable to do anything as the ball arcs away from his racquet for an ace.
This tiny ace, changes everything. Suddenly, I feel like I’ve wrestled momentum back onto my side. It’s an opportunity and I need to break ahead.
I win the next two games with ease.
6-4
Then its onto the second set, where I’m able to break his serve, hold my own to a dominant win.
I’m tired yes, but I can also tell I got a bit more in the tank than my buddy. He might run marathons, but I got the stronger will to win in tennis.
When the dust settles, it’s a pretty dominant performance. In the second set, I can feel myself being more aggressive, attacking the baseline and going “rip city” on easy balls. I’m not double-faulting as much and my serves have a nasty bounce to them.
Meanwhile, my buddy is starting to throw in the towel. He knows I got the momentum and his very flat serves aren’t really deterring me.
I am also starting to experiment. A little jump before hitting my forehand. Sprinting faster to the ball so that I can try and make a desperate shot to recover.
I’m now starting to loosen up, playing a more experimental game where I want to practice certain shots.
All in all, it was a really good game and a testament to me slowly improving.
I’m also really proud of the way how I handled my occasional double-fault. I don’t let it get to me as much. I have a more reliable second serve that I know I can use to at least fight out the point.
Before in the past, I used to mentally fold. I couldn’t analyse my serve and figure out what went wrong. I would just collapse and try to focus on returning only.
In this game, my serve just felt better. Granted, it’s still not quite where I want it yet, lacking a bit of power, a bit of spin and a bit of control, but it’s a lot better.
Tennis is really becoming my sport. It’s the game I want to go all in on and start playing more competitively. This win, in around 1 hour and 40 minutes, has fuelled my desire to keep upping my game.
I’m now seriously thinking about getting a coach and playing even more regularly than my usual 2-3x a week. I want to meet a player so good, that he makes me want to almost quit, so that I can be humbled.
It feels good to know that I got the beginning of the mental acumen, physicality and skill to try and win a proper match. I might be able to call myself an amateur tennis player now. But that title will only feel right after I’ve won a few more and I’m certain those wins are going to be rare.
Now it’s time to see if I can lose a set and try to come back in a best of 3.
~ Damocles.
Damocles' Journal 