OK, so this thread is prompted by a special event that occurred for me tonight. Rather than bury it in a Reb Report, I figured it was worth a discussion as I'm sure others have a similar experience they can share.
If you don't want to read this rather long match description, just scroll to the end to respond to the question I put there.
Tonight we drew a team I have played many times before, except one of the members has gone away on a cruise. So there was a fill-in for him (who I beat much more easily than the guy who was away). But one of the other team members is the person this thread concerns.
He is a chopper. He has anti on his BH and normal inverted on the FH. Some may even call him a Retriever, but the way he retrieves, I class him as a chopper. Anyway, I've played this guy very often since 2010 when I first went from Tuesday B grade to Monday A grade at my club. For the first couple of years, I played him (and always lost) pretty much twice a season, except for the occasional season where his team would jump a grade ahead and then my team would usually catch up or his would drop back. Then around 2012 I finally cracked it to beat him in 5 sets.
And then we met their team in the A4 final in one of the seasons of 2012 and I beat him (and his 2 teammates) to win the final and go to A3. They were also promoted to A3 due to the competitions requirements. So, I played him twice again that season and beat him twice again (both in 5 sets).
Since then (in 4 more years), there has only been a few seasons I have not played him out of the 16-odd seasons there has been, due to being in different grades and he took one season off. But most seasons I played him twice a season. So doing the math, I played him maybe 15-20 more times. And each and every single time, I have LOST to him! It has been so frustrating, beyond frustrating!
I played him in the first round of this season, and guess what? I lost! 3-1, and that was the first time in ages I'd taken a set!
And our match had gone for over 45 minutes as I tried being ever so patient against him, resisting the urge to attack until I really had "the" shot. I did at least tire him out to make him easy meat for my teammate to play later that night.
Well tonight was round 6, and his team came around again. I dread playing them because I can never win 3 matches with him there, and the teammate of his that is on the cruise has been beating me lately too (where I had the wood on him for many years). So, I've been getting just 1 match against this team, which really hurts my win ratios.
So I play the 3rd player of the team first tonight and beat him 3-0. I play the fill-in and beat him 3-0. I come to the Chopper as the second last match of my team's night. We are leading 8-1. So winning this match is unnecessary for the team. But winning it would be a great personal achievement - which I think to myself every time I play him and walk away too easily defeated. I decide I won't play as patiently as I did last time though and I will attack more aggressively. And that worked for the first 4 points, where I was 3-1 up and had hit 3 winning loops out to his BH that he just couldn't reach. Looping really isn't my game though and I just couldn't keep the standard and quality of loop up needed to beat him and I ended up beating myself in trying. Lost it 11-5.
So in the next game I decided to mix it up a bit. Some FH loops mixed with some pip shots moving him around the table. During one of the "loops" which was more leaning toward the "smash-shot" that I favour, I hyper-extended my knee a bit and I stuffed my shot, and put paid to any more loops (I remember why I don't loop here, cos I have to produce too much pressure on the knee with footwork to make it viable
). Anyway, I drop back into the long rallying game with him. The rallies started going for 100, 200 perhaps even 300 hits each before a point was won (you think I'm exaggerating don't you
). But I have to say, lady luck smiled on me in this process. I was averaging 3-5 nets per game from hereon in. And when you are hitting pip shots long to him, then an angle, then another long to his opposite side and he's mostly back off the table...a net clip is deadly. But I wasn't just clipping the net, I was net dribbling them
He would complain and grimace and I just said, sorry, but make me rally these long rallies and I'm gonna eventually hit the net! Tonight though, instead of eventually hitting the net and dropping back to my side, I was getting them drop over!
I won the 2nd set 13-11.
The third set went much the same way except I was getting sick of the endless rallies so on quite a few points I managed to work around to be on the BH side and put away some hooking smashes down his FH line that he simply couldn't reach. Despite this, we still had a LOT of long rallies and I got some more net dribbles. Of course I had the irksome balls that I netted (or worse) from lack of focus that caused the ball to hit my finger or the bat edge. But I managed to keep these to a minimum and I got him 11-9 with a smash down his FH line to go 2-1 up!
Now to this point my teamy who was playing last had been scoring. It was approaching 11pm though and he needed to play his match. We'd been playing for 50 minutes already! So someone else stepped in to score, while my teamy went and completed his match before this next set was over.
Suddenly, the sense that I could actually win against this guy came on me and made me ever more cautious. He also realised he could be beaten, and his caution level rose. So the rallies went back to being really long. I found myself with a 5-3 lead, then 6-4. Its amazing the things that go through your head while engaged in a long rally where you are trying to find a way to get through someone who just continually is chopping the ball back (this guy has virtually no attack - he will only attack on a high ball close to the net on his FH). Keeping focus on task is difficult. The hall is almost empty, so noise factor from those still having practice hits has risen. 2 playing 2 tables away make some massive noise slamming into a barrier or something, and distracts me to hitting the ball in the net. Its all SO tense! It's 7-5! Then its 8-6, and then I pull out to 10-8. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Its my serve and I send the spinniest topspin to his BH I can muster. He sends it back just a little high, with his customary chop. I've canned a few of these on him off that serve during the match if he's been loose (which he usually isn't). I have starlights in my eyes as I envision finally closing out this marathon. BANG! I smash.....straight into the net! His chop spin has dragged the ball more than I've allowed for. 10-9. I serve again, this time a mundane underspin (which he almost never nets). I'm just looking to settle down and rally with him trying to draw an error. He's made a few errors in the set from misjudging the pip spin. I think from tiredness creeping in, as he makes few errors in rallies (relying on the opponent to make the error for him to win, and he's expert at it). So this rally goes on 10, 15, 20 hits. Is this going to go deuce? Can I win this deuce like I did the last? This is going through my head when oops...I hit the net, it dribbles over!
He is SOOOOOOO
peeved! Many words are offered as to how lucky I have been.
He's a pretty nice guy and he's just venting his frustration (instead of me this time). I say ABOUT TIME!
MATCH IS MINE!!
First time I have beaten him in years and it feels great! I'm still pinching myself on the win! I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight! Mind you, my body is rather tired from the 70-odd minutes the match went that I stood there, demanding a lot from myself, physically and mentally. So who knows?
So, have you got someone in your club that you dread playing because you always lose to them? Have you ever managed to beat them? Describe how that felt? Or perhaps there's another reason you dread playing them? Share your experience with me and the forum in this thread!