The purpose of the writing is to express my experience of a match in my tennis career in high school. It is intended for anyone to read, but
tennis players would understand it better.

“Game, set, and match…!” Those were the words that came up to mind after the final point was played to see who would proceed to the championship match against the returning district champs. Although this was just a high school tennis tournament, I really felt proud of the way I have played on the court in the scorching heat all day. Before I knew it the announcer called me to proceed to my final match. In that moment when I stepped onto the court an electric feeling pumped through my veins, for I have been waiting for this moment my entire high school career, and I finally had the chance to prove I can win a medal.

Stepping onto the court with my opponent caught everybody’s eyes. Our school was rarely seen in the finals match up, but I was here to prove to them that we have a place here. I became one of the first players to have represented our school in a finals match for tennis since my freshman year of high school.

The opponent I clashed against on the tennis courts was short for someone my age he was only 5’5”. He had a shaved head and had a very positive attitude that displayed his discipline of controlling his anger. I asked him if he was ranked in the USTA, the United States Tennis Association with players of any age that play for competitive tennis, and he confirmed that he was categorized as a “Champs” player. This statement gave me the mindset that this match will not be an easy one since my opponent is a tier two player in the tennis league.

It was decided that I was to open the match with my service game first since I had won the “tennis players” way of a coin toss. I was confident that this match would be a good one due to our early five minute warm up. This gave me the opportunity to see how skilled he was against my hitting. The time has now come for the match to begin. As I stepped up onto the baseline I prepared myself with several bounces of the ball. I glared at the location of where I should blast the ball and then I began my routine. I crisply tossed the ball out of my hand as I coiled up like a spring ready to explode and demolish the tennis ball towards the opposite end of the court. As the ball made contact with my strings on my tennis racquet it fired off and scored me an ace! This ace was only the start of the odds tilting in my favor.

After about an hour and a half of playing the score was tied at seven all. Therefore we were instructed by the host that we would proceed into a super tiebreaker where we played till one athlete reaches ten points with a lead of two. I had come this far and now there it was, my chance at victory with only ten more points to win. As we sat down for a five-minute break I looked over at my opponent, the look on his face was of pure exhaustion. The sweat ran down our faces like a waterfall under this blistering heat. There was one thing I did remember to bring that saved my life throughout the day of the tennis tournament. The knowledge of staying hydrated and energized with my nutrition lesson I was taught during my summer tennis camp session.

The lesson gave me valuable information leading to my extra boost of performance keeping me in the match since the beginning. Without this information I was a sitting duck for this match with the “Champs” player of an opponent I had. The cold water and Gatorade combined with eating small parts of a banana during the match kept me pushing towards my goal of victory. It was clear to everyone watching us switch ends that I had a huge advantage, and shall become victorious because I looked like the better player due to my stable performance compared to my opponent.

As our game went along, the pressure was on both of our abilities in this match. Even though I was prepared there was a huge problem that no one could see until it actually happened as the score tied up at eight all and it was my opponents serve. I was ready to break back and take this point to reverse the odds and win it all. The boy served the ball with great power to try and take an easy point with an ace, but the rally began my demise will soon come. Forehand, forehand, backhand, backhand, the rally was intense until my body failure! My left calf muscle self-destructs and I was cramping with excruciating pain leading to my collapse on to the ground. This event shocked everyone in the crowd watching including my coach, leaving him shocked that just happened on such a crucial point. This was the end of my finals match with the final score of ten to eight bringing the super tiebreaker to an end. It was a close match, but my hopes of glory on winning a tournament will just have to sit at the runner up spot for now.