World news

The Berkeley open is this weekend at Cal (university of California, Berkeley) in the same gym as the Western open.  It's a big space, maybe four basketball courts worth, and they had 30 tables set up.  It didn't seem to be as well run as the Western open earlier this year, I had one event begin an hour and fifteen minutes past its start time and it didn't seem to be the only event running late.  However, I thought the staff was doing their best and although the control desk  was besieged by players as usual they kept their cool and always stayed polite and cooperative.

At the end of the day I was 5-4, having reached the semi-finals of the U1250 event.  It was on the whole not such a great day, I didn't feel in control of my racket the whole day and really struggled in some matches I feel like I should have had an easier time with.  The low point was losing 0-3 to an unrated basement player with very little game.  He had a serve or two and could block pretty well but I wasn't using my head and didn't think tactically.  I took him lightly and when it became apparent I was in trouble I responded badly, by upping the power and consequently missing even more.  In another match I lost 18-20 in the 5th after blowing a 2-0 lead in games.  I had at least four match points and missed several by ticking the net and watching the ball go long.  On one match point I ripped an absolute winner of a forehand only to have my opponent make an incredible block that I couldn't return.

On the positive side I blocked better than I normally do (thank you Honey for your tips on blocking slow, spinny loops) and at least one win could be put down to my opponent becoming discouraged because loops he thought were winners got blocked back.  My forehand, amazingly, was also fairly reliable.  On the fh I'm just thinking about spinning up the ball and that for some reason seems to be moving things in a good direction. 

The main problem today was the disappearance of my backhand loop.  I'm putting this down to Dora (yes you!) because in our last lesson she told me that my elbow is not out in front enough on the backhand and that change, just moving the elbow out in front during the backswing, changes the whole stroke.  So I was really struggling with it the whole day, in particular I totally lost confidence on looping long serves to my bh, I just wasn't feeling it.  Instead I degenerated into pushing them and that of course led to a lot of lost points.  I've been practicing the elbow since our last lesson and I'm sure it'll be a good thing in the long run, but for now my backhand has taken a step or two backwards.

I guess the tournament can be summed up by this: in the U1250 I had two matches against 500 level players and those two wins (both 3-0) were just as difficult as the two I had later against an 1100+ player (3-0, 3-1).  Basically, there's no one I can beat easily, in a without-even-trying style.  My game is just not solid, it's like one of those Styrofoam Hollywood movie rocks: it looks real refracted through the lens of training or warm up but it's just a light weight toy, a simulacrum.  Easily moved out of the way when needed.