I still suck at tennis.
written: 8:22 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009

SIGH. What was he doing?! He looked like he was dying out there, missing many of his favourite backhand shots, and playing so defensively, it was almost like he was afraid to attack. It was quite a boring match if it weren't for the fact that Ghareeb kept it pretty close. I mean, compared to the Australian Open match Gilles played against Nadal, this one was a huge snore.

I think Gilles' game in general is pretty boring. I tend to watch his matches just to watch him because I find him unbelievably pretty. But there IS one shot of his that I like to watch: his backhand. He called it his favourite shot which I can totally relate to, and although Nalbandian has a nicer-looking two-handed backhand, I like watching Gilles hit it anyway. It's not particularly jaw-dropping or especially effective, but it's just good, especially that nice backhand down-the-hand passing shot he hit today.

Anyway, I really ought to be studying considering I've read 10 pages out of the 400-odd (or more?!) pages of readings we have for Intelligence Law, BUT I really wanna watch Marat Safin/Richard Gasquet, who are on right about now so I'm gonna finish this real quick and hope Safin wins the match real quick. I'm rooting for Safin, obviously. I've never really liked Gasquet. I've never really watched him play but that stupid BabyFed nickname is completely off-putting, because apart from the one-handed backhand, he plays NOTHING like the real Fed, thanks.

I played tennis this morning with Ben and I think I'm much better off not playing tennis in the morning. In the first place I can't wake up early enough to eat a heavy breakfast; in the second place I can't eat a heavy breakfast, period. I ate two slices of bread and expected that to see me through two hours of tennis, first under the cloudy skies which was nice, then suddenly under the scorching sun which wasn't nice, and then suddenly under the scorching sun plus a light drizzle, and twenty minutes before we stopped, the cloudy skies floated back. What crazy, erratic, fucked up weather.

Anyhow, I played like utter trash. Like. Utter. Trash. The serving has gone downhill dramatically and unabashedly. I can't get the ball over the net anymore and it no longer feels right. For the second time my whole life, I actually missed the ball altogether when I tried to hit it after the ball toss. It was tres embarrassing.

Even worse, the forehand, once again, went ALL out of whack, and worst? The backhand decided to take a walkabout, too. I totally winced watching Gilles miss his backhands today because, yeah, it sucks tremendously when your trusty shot lets you down. It was only towards the end that I started hitting the backhands that I know I can hit, but er, yeah, I only did that twice.

I still really, really, really hate hitting a forehand. And not only do I hate it, or precisely because I hate it, I panic every time the ball comes flying towards my forehand side. I tried running around it a few times, with mixed results, but it's easier running around a backhand than running around a forehand, probably because I'm right-handed. I don't know. It just sucked terribly.

At first I thought I was about to have a meltdown on the court due to all the mis-hit forehands, the missed backhands (kept hitting the frame and a few times I missed completely), and then the stupid sun burning my skin...until I heard the guy on the court next to the one Ben and I were on. There were two guys playing there, one of whom had some serious anger management issues. Seriously. He seriously needed to chill. I thought I was bad enough for saying 'shit' every time something goes wrong (which is 99% of the time), but when I heard a loud, tortured yell of "FUCK!" coming from the adjacent court, I realised - I'm actually pretty normal! And no matter how many times I felt like smashing my racquet, I never did! The guy that seriously needed to chill treated his poor racquet almost the way Juan Martin Del Potro trashed his into oblivion in his Memphis match against Radek Stepanek (Delpy hit it against the floor not one, not two, but THREE times. His poor racquet was unrecognisable when he was done. Oh my god, that was AWFUL! I mean, really, I don't mind taking your used racquet so don't go around smashing it for chrissakes!)...okay, I exaggerate, but he was kind of taking out his aggression on his poor racquet.

Okay Marat has started and he has a break point so I'm going to watch now!

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010