Yesterday was our second tennis tournament of the year, and overall I am very happy with the results. The Tournament is comprised of four high schools, John, F. Kennedy, Decorah, Ottumwa, and Columbus high school. This is another tournament that we go to every year, and is usually a pretty competitive day of tennis.
With the three singles matches, and the three doubles matches I played yesterday, I played a total of seventy-two games of tennis, and needless to say, my body can sure feel the after effects of such a strenuous day today.
The way school-sponsored tournaments work is all the number one seeds from one school play all the other one seeds from every other school in attendance, same with the two seed, the three seed, and so on. I was playing as the number one player from Kennedy, and had, prior to that day, played each number one seed from all the other schools at the tournament.
I was nervous for this tournament, because though I had played all three of the other girls before, I had only beaten one of them. I had played the girls from Decorah and Ottumwa at the tournament my school had hosted before, and the girl from Columbus the previous year at the same tournament.
My first round match was against the girl from Ottumwa. She was one out of the three that I had already beaten that same year, and the final score of that match was eleven to one (we played a total of twelve games). My second match was against the Columbus girl, and was the match I had been worried the most about.
I was really anxious walking out onto the court. I had lost to this same girl last year, I think the score was somewhere around four seven, and I really didn’t know what to expect from her. The match got off to a good start, and I ended up beating her eleven to one. Winning this match really made me realize that I have improved since last year. My coach has told me that I have improved greatly over the last six months, but I’m not sure I really believed him until I beat the Columbus girl.
My last singles match of the day was to the left-handed Decorah girl whom I lost to in a tiebreaker the previous week. I felt confident going into that match since I had just played really well against the Columbus girl, and because I was going into this match up with a different strategy than I had the previous week. Well, with the help of God, and the fact that I was playing a smarter game than I had the previous week, I was able to win my final match seven to five.
So this weekend has been a pretty good weekend for me in terms of tennis. I feel more confident in myself as a competitor and feel myself leaning more and more towards playing college tennis.

*picture from: http://www.novinite.com/media/images/2009-07/photo_verybig_105483.jpg