Tennis: The matches

Me playing a backhand shot during the warm up session
(Photo credits: Inuri Liyanage)

Today in tennis, we first started off with a regular warm up session where our coach made us play forehand shots (this is the shot played while your front faces the ball), then backhand shots (this shot is played with your back towards the ball and is usually played with both hands holding the racket) and finally volleys (shots played very close to the net before the ball bounces). We then followed by playing rallies (this is consecutively hitting the ball back and forth each other without actually trying make the other person miss the ball), I paired up with an assistant coach and played for about 20 minutes. The rest of the 1 and a half hours were spent doing something much more fun and challenging; matches!

We first started out by playing doubles matches (this is two people per side). This was my opportunity to work collaboratively with other. I paired up with Ali; who is a decent player and is great at volleys, I am usually bad at returning the ball using a volley so I thought he was the ideal teammate. This soon turned out to be true.

Me during the singles match playing a forehand shot
(Photo credits: Inuri Liyanage)

Of the three matches we played, we won two and tied the last one. Each match consisted of 4 games (this is scoring in the form 15, 30, 40 and game, if both teams have 40-40 also known as a deuce; a team must obtain two more consecutive points in the form advantage and game). Ali and I won the first game 3-1, the second 4-0 and finally the third 2-2. We had the best scores of the day and so because of that, Our coach let us play a singles match with each other. This was a tough challenge and it was the best match I played the whole day. I am usually strong with my forehand and I have good placement when playing this shot, so I decided to try and play like this as much as can and since Ali was particularly good with his volleys, he tried to play as much of those shots as he can. Finally, I was able to win with a score of 3-1, I lost the second game but I was able to easily win the other three. In my opinion, I definitely showed a lot of perseverance and commitment to the match, and also I was able to increase my awareness of strengths and areas for growth and improvement.