Tiiiiired

Whew, what a day. I spent most of the day thinking about the game I was going to be playing tonight. I went into it feeling pretty good, and was ready for a good game. Like I said, I've seen Tim play, and I knew he was good - I like playing people that are better than me (Tim definitely meets that criteria). I beat Tim's friend Jeremy the other day, so I guess he knew what to look out for. Nevertheless, I took the first game off of him 9-6, with some good rallies throughout. I was tired, and just playing deep wasn't quite enough to beat Tim - he was good enough that I needed to play aggressively.

I felt pretty good, but Tim beat me pretty handily next game. Then again in the third game, and one more time in the fourth game. So, I met my own goal of taking a game off of him, I learned about some of my weaknesses, and I felt like I played some pretty decent shots. Tim was a super nice guy - he was a good sportsman, and I wouldn't mind losing to him any day.

I lost to Tim for a couple of reasons - First of which, Tim is just a better player than me, plain and simple. His drives were more consistent and required that I cut them off before they got to the backwall, his drop shots were better, he disguised his shots better than I, and he moved around the court well. In addition to those items, some of my drives were loose, my drop shots weren't tight enough against the front wall, and I wasn't able to hit to a good enough length when on the defensive.

Give me a couple of months, and I hope to be playing at that level. For now, I think that Tim absolutely deserved to beat me, and that he's ready to move up to the B division. I hope that he wins, because I think that he's probably playing the best out of everyone I've seen so far (and I'm not just saying that because he beat me).

The night took a turn for the worse from that point on - a couple of my friends took off, so I didn't have much to do, but I had to stick around and play another match at 8:15. I was exhausted from playing Tim, and had to recharge. I ate some of the free pizza, and drank some Gatorade, and hoped that would do the trick. I was playing my friend Nate, so I hung around and watched the games being played until I was up.

My game against Nate was a hundred-and-eighty degree turn from the way I've been playing lately - my shots were loose, and I was giving away points. I didn't feel good about the match. To his credit, Nate was playing well, but that was soured for me because he was being somewhat unsportsmanlike - throwing his racquet when he lost the game, swearing, and arguing with the ref when I called lets and was given them (in squash, you call a let if you can't get to the ball because your opponent is in your way). Worse yet, I hit Nate in the neck with my squash racquet when I was following through with my shot. I got that point, because you automatically get the point if your opponent interferes with your swing in any way, but it still sucked. I felt that Nate was crowding me on a couple of my shots, often after he hit a loose ball near the T. He said that I had a wide swing, which may or may not be true (I wouldn't be surprised) - but it's the first time I've ever heard complaints about it. In any case, all of those factors really made my last game a bit of a downer, instead of the sort of fun I normally have when I play my friends.

I have another two games ahead of me tomorrow, so it's going to be a long day. I think I'm playing my friend Ben first, and if I win, I go on to play Jeremy again, which will definitely be tiring. After that I'll be drinking beer and partying, then going to Denny's with my friend Davin to play MAGIC THE GATHERING. Whaaaat? - Did I just admit to a plan to play Magic the Gathering, in a public place? I sure did. If you think that's lame, you just don't know what you're missing.

Anyhow, I feel good about have I've played this tournament, and I've gotten some e-mail addresses of other players that are above or at my level - it's going to be an intense couple of upcoming months.