WORK HARD......

THERE ARE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ON WELFARE DEPENDING ON YOU!!

I played in my first league tennis match this past weekend. As predicted here weeks ago the team is steamrolling through the league. We are currently 4-0!! This past match we won 3-2 over a good Concord team. I played 3rd doubles with my friend Gary. I played with Gary in college and we have been playing for years together. He is honestly the best partner I've ever had. He has terrific skills, but more importantly he is the smartest player I've ever played with. He sets up points 3 shots ahead. We are a tough team to play against. Over the years we have played a ton of good teams and put up some battles. We don't always win, but I never remember us being blown out. We are so confident in each other and know each other's games so well that we both feel free to play "our" style. We won in a 3rd set super breaker in which we were trailing at one point. I can honestly say that even while trailing we both never thought that we would lose the match. We played our best tennis in the tie breaker.

Our team captain Chris is a crazy Australian and he writes a match report at the conclusion of every match. Below is his report of our match:


"The two college buddies paired up in this bottom of the table clash. The
Capitals were a good pair though one of the guys wore suspiciously short
shorts, someone needed to tell him that the 80’s was over. It was obvious the
Algonquin pair were very comfortable and firing on all cylinders as they won
the first set with some solid play.
Towards the end of the first set Gary’s wife and children came to watch their daddy play.
However the children started getting noisy and it was time for Gary’s missus to leave.
On the way out it was reported by Pete’s son Aiden that Gary’s son, Jared said,
“Goodbye Fatman” and was directing his comments in the vicinity of Ross. This
is not confirmed because none of us have ever called Ross “Fatman” and we don’t
know why Jared would say that to the slim Rossman.
The second set see-sawed with service holds until a break. The Braves then
lost their concentration and the Capitals overwhelmed them to even the ledger.
The only words heard from the hapless Braves came from Gary when he
commented on one of the Capitals whose serve was nothing in the first set but
came good in the second set. “Did he take a lesson between sets?” says Gary
after the capital blasted a serve at him.
The tie breaker was hard fought. The score see-sawed between teams.
Ross’s balls swelled to the ground as he dug deep when they were down 6-7.
At this point Ross was pumped, after a lunge mid-court for a volley winner
Ross punches Gary into next week with a jab to the solar plexus sending Gary a
step back. In this tie break Ross showed why competitiveness and tenacity
pays off. To never give up in crucial situations is so important in this league."

Yes, I really punched Gary after I hit a monster volley to bring us to match point. Not a smart move to punch your partner right before he is about to serve Match point!! But I was really pumped up. At 6-7, after serving like shit all afternoon, I dug deep and hit my best 2 serves of the afternoon to go up 8-7. And at 8-8 I hit a monster volley to bring us to match point. We have a saying on the team that you have to have big balls to win tie-breakers!! Gary and I definitely showed some big ones!!