Resetting Perspective Reminders
After a week in Normandy, playing doubles in an ITF with a new friend and partner, Melvin, it was time for a journey back to Germany, where I would stay for a night in Cologne before going to the tournament hotel about 30 minutes outside of the city. Our doubles campaign was unfortunately cut short after an 8-10 loss in the super tiebreak to two young French guys, one of whom is a future Oregon Duck this fall. In fact, I had played these two French guys in singles last year, losing to both in close matches. They were tough competitors, but I expected to get the best of them in doubles. After an efficient first set, I thought we had all the momentum in the world to continue our strong play into the second set. Right on queue, my partner started off the first game with two double faults…. I always choose to serve first in the second set; this time, we chose to let my lefty partner serve first because of the low sun in the sky, which would impact my serve and first volley more than ...
