Hellhens in France!: Billere: Day 1

I haven't taken a little heat from the higher ups for 'going dark' or not posting frequently enough recently. But I can assure you what I would've posted in the last few days is not worth reading. Not only is it rather boring to describe, it will probably also fill you with bits of jealously as our days consist of waking up, tennising, beaching, rinsing, and repeating. But today, finally, we did something! We had our first tournament in forever. And what a day back to tennis it was.

Biarritz is quite nice...

...yea like really, really nice.

We made the 110 kilometer drive from our beachside heaven to the town of Pau. Frankie was first up on the docket at 17:00. He was playing a 4/6 man who appeared to be about 40. Normally I describe the matches just from memory, but I charted Frank's entire match today so today I can be a lot more specific. So for each game of the entire match I will pull out some interesting stats to try and give you a sense for how the match flowed. The comments below the game score are just what I think looking back at how points were won in that game while what is written after 'trend' is what I actually wrote while observing the match. I would recommend scrolling down quite a bit unless you throughly enjoy the nuisances of tennis. Seriously this is multiple pages of far too detailed analysis. I would expect most people to scroll for a while. I even got bored writing it. But here goes:

Frank serving early in the match.

Warm up thoughts: First warm up rally extends 50+ balls. Should be an interesting match. Guy is a left with a weak backhand. Has tried to hide it all warmup. Let's see if Frank exploits it.

Max's keys to the match:

Frank

Patience

Attack with forehand

Finish at net

Other dude (I think his name was Pierre)

Extend points past Frank's comfort level

Hide backhand

0-0 Pierre serving to start match:

Server wins 4 straight points. Two winners and two unforced errors by young Frank

0-1 Frank serving:

Frank double faults to open the game, players trade 2 errors each before Frank doubles again to get broken.

Trend: Poor start.

0-2 Pierre serving:

Pierre makes 6 forehand errors and gives back the break.

Trend: Guy made 6 forehand errors but he hits it huge. Does Franke notice that despite the good look of the stroke his opponent is losing almost all his points off of it?

1-2 Frank serving:

2 more doubles combined with 2 winners from Pierre leads to another break.

Trend: Second double was a clear hook off of a let. French guys in front of me not happy. Frank does not question call.

1-3 Pierre serving:

3 more forehand errors from Pierre capped with a double, Frank breaks bad.

Trend: Good god how many forehand errors will his opponent make. Looks like Frank has started to notice…

2-3 Frank serving:

At 15-30 guy uncorks a forehand winner and Frank yells at himself to hit to his opponents backhand. At this point in the match the guy has 1 forehand winner to 10 errors. Frank loses the game on an error.

This guy's khakis looked like they had been rolled in clay.

2-4 Pierre serving:

Missed return.

Aced.

Missed return.

Trend: Awful last game. Mind was stuck in previous game. His opponent swung his racquet 4 times and won 4 points. Unacceptable unless you're playing Isner.

2-5 Frank serving:

Frank finally picks up his serve and picks up 3 free points on service winners.

Trend: First serves make a difference…

3-5 Pierre serving:

Down 30-15 Frank runs around a second serve to gain no advantage and pays the price for it. Loses the set a point later on an ace.

3-6

2nd set: 0-0

0-0 Frank serving:

Had to run and get changed and come back to deuce.

Frank starts to serve huge though and fights off 3 break points to grit out an early hold.

Trend: Sweet service game. That's how you do it!

1-0 Pierre serving:

Pierre hits 3 winners and holds easily.

1-1 Frank serving:

Frank goes down 0-30 and then serves his way back into the game and gets the hold

Trend: Great early hold after going down 0-30. I have a good feeling about this next return game. He's been very close the last few return games.

2-1 Pierre serving:

At 0-15 Frank hustles his butt off and makes the guy hit one more ball, a little sitter, which he misses to move the game to 15-15. Frank eventually breaks off several forehand errors from his opponent.

Trend: Won game cause he made all 6 service returns. Good work.

3-1 Frank serving:

Frank forces 3 return errors and wins 2 more serve and volley points. Great hold.

Trend: Just served out of a tree. Probably hit a few that touched mid 110s.

4-1 Pierre serving:

Despite his opponent making 6 of 7 first serves Frank makes 6 of 7 returns and breaks again. I think there's a theme here…

5-1 Frank serving:

A bad game for tennis as there were 11 unforced errors caped of by a double fault.

Trend: Frank had a set point but lost it. Biggest problem was 1st serve percentage fell a lot. And he got super pissed when he lost the game even though ball striking is fantastic right now. I don't understand his brain.

5-2 Pierre serving:

I noted two points Frank lost because of bad feet. He was getting a bit tight.

5-3 Frank serving:

Again serve saves him.

Trend: Ace out wide on set point. Welcome to the big show.

6-3

Third set 0-0 Pierre serving:

Frank makes 4 errors in five points.

Trend: Frank mutters that is the worst f#&%ing game. I agree

0-1 Frank serving:

Solid service game with multiple service winners. I noted he hit one close to 115 up to the T (my mental radar gun is always accurate). Solid hold.

1-1 Pierre serving:

Ugly game with tons of errors. Highlight was a 2 year-old girl threw a big bouncy red ball onto the court during Frank's break point. It was quite funny.

The culprit.

1-2 Frank serving:

3 serve and volley attempts. 3 points won. Hold. He's won almost every point when's come to net (seriously, I only count 2 points lost at net up to this point)

2-2 Pierre serving:

Pierre hits 3 winners and holds.

Trend: Guy played great game and Frank is somehow livid with himself…of course.

2-3 Frank serving:

Serving and volleying comes back to hurt him as he loses two points early in the game and trails 15-40 before his opponent makes error after error to give him the hold.

Trend: Great hold down 15-40. Big firsts and smart plays after getting burned on two serve and volley plays where he served to the wrong side.

3-3 Pierre serving:

Frank hits the best backhand I've ever seen him hit. On the run, down the line passing shot that is just a frozen rope. Breaks.

Trend: Service games where Frank makes a high volume of returns generally work out well.

4-3 Frank serving:

Back to the big serving routine. He wins 3 points just because of big serving. Holds.

After the match Frank said he was having conversations with Belletto during the 3rd set and that's what got him through it. He's a weird dude.

5-3 Pierre serving:

I didn't have commentary because I was warming up but he breaks to win. Great match. 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

I'm not sure this is a good way to review a match. It certainly was irritating to write and I'll never do it again. But Frank played great and won his first match on clay as well as his first European 3 setter! Seems crazy, but since he started playing well we haven't been on much clay. He plays in the semis tomorrow at 17:30 (and he's guaranteed some cash).

Now to my match. I was playing a 3/6 15 year-old. He was very good. But he was also 15. For some reason I'm a bit nervous when I play younger kids who have good rankings as I expect them to be better than they are for some reason. Either way the first set went well enough and I won 6-3. The 2nd set I lost a bit of focus and found myself down 1-3.

Before I 'lost my cool'

We played a long point which ended when my opponent hit a lob that I thought sailed a little long. The kid, who glanced at his father all the time to silently determine whether or not his shots were in or out, apparently got a look that said his ball was in. So he walked to the net and asked me to show him the mark. I couldn't find it, and the tournament referee, who was actually just a 17 year-old kid, came and pointed at a mark right on the line. Now, I'm not 100% sure if the ball was in or out, but this was definitely not the mark. This mark was a good foot away from where the ball landed. After a few moments of calm I did what they call, 'flew off the handle'. I yelled at the referee until out of fear he decided a let would be acceptable. But the kids father would have none of this and declared the point was his sons. Now whatever portion of the handle I had initially retained, I quickly lost. I yelled at the father, at the referee, at my opponent. One could say I even handled the situation 'poorly'. I spent the next 8 games thinking about feasible ways I could shank a ball into my opponents father. Or less inconspicuously, if I could just sprint over and tackle him off of his chair. Every changeover I sat and glowered at him (while eating peanuts, I probably looked insane).

Peanut glowering

Down 0-3 in the 3rd I finally let it go. It took 30 minutes, but finally I was able to play again. And I went on a 4 game stretch where I didn't miss a ball, and subsequently didn't lose a game. Up 4-3 I lost focus yet again and ended up losing 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. I had no business winning. You can't just go bananas, freak out, and expect to win. And I acted like an ass. But life goes on.