Saturday, March 8, 2008

Tennis Nightmare

Absenteeism is wreaking havoc on my plans to make the USTA 3.0 playoffs for the 10th consecutive year.
Last week, we were down one guy and had to forfeit one match, but won three out of the four remaining matches to post a 3-2 win over the other team from our club. Your obedient correspondent came up huge with his partner Mark A, winning in two sets.
Last night, living on the edge did us in. For the third consecutive weekend, we were short a guy and had to forfeit one match, this time against a tough team from North Park.
Still, John G. easily won his singles, and John S. and Mark C. pulled out a heroic No. 3 doubles win from deep in the bowels of the club on Court A, where much of the movie ``Alien'' was filmed.
That left our No. 1 doubles team of Kevin and John W., or the No. 2 doubles team of Charlie and myself to get that one more win we needed for a 3-2 victory.
Alas, our No. 1 team got throttled. Then, with all of the players and entourages of both teams watching from the gallery, Charlie and I lost a 7-6, 7-6 nailbiter to give the match to the North Parkers.
Our effort was not helped when one of our female fans in the gallery tried to spur us on by hoisting up her shirt to reveal her (t-shirted) bosoms. As much as I generally encourage such behavior, it didn't help our concentration in a tie-breaker.
The loss dropped us to 2-1 on the season with 3 matches to go.
The bitter taste of defeat was washed away later by Mexican food and margaritas, but, like Khan in ``Star Trek, the Wrath of Khan,'' I will have my vengeance when we meet again.

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