Worthy Opponent: Rain

From left, Henry, Mark and Nelson prepare for an unbeatable opponent: summer thunderstorms.Haters, this time of year has me dodging raindrops as often as I dodge hard volleys at my head. Our foursome of Nelson Simon and Henry Strozier vs. Mark and me was happy to get in 2 sets before the skies opened up.

Nelson and Henry were killing us at net in the first set.  I was slashing my backhand volleys like Jack Sparrow on a drunken tear.  Henry noticed, Worthy Opponent that he is, and kept lofting love letters high above my left shoulder.  

If I could find a combination of letters that imitate the sound of shanking the ball, I'd put them here.  Many times.  

Nelson, too, zeroed in on a winning combination that Mark and I could not overcome.  Drop anything in front of him, and he'd find the angle, right past me at net.  I was caught flat-footed or leaning the wrong way.  I could hear my coach in my ear: What ball were you looking at?

 The one in my head, Coach, not the one on the court.  We lost the first set, 6-3.

Mark and I turned it around in the second set by a) Mark getting more first serves in and b) me putting a little more oomph in mine. Not a lot, but just enough.  

"Do you see how far in Henry is standing to receive your serve?" Mark asked me.  No, I hadn't noticed.  I was just trying to see the damned ball.  I started swearing under my breath during my serves: "M*********er can't do that to ME!"  Doesn't he know who I think I am?

All too familiar this summer: courts in the rain.That got a few more MPHs out of me, enough to crawl back from a 0-40 deficit and win my service game.  Betcha they don't teach THAT at Bollittieri.

Second set was ours, 6-2.  We were down a break early in the deciding third set when the rains came.  

I'm going to call this match a tie, even though they had us by a break.  Because I'm the writer of this blog, that's why.

Year to date:

Mark and me: 1  Henry and Nelson: 1