Three strikes

Three strikes


Three Strikes

Anyone, who knows me well, knows for a fact that I have a short temper on the tennis court. Last spring at the boys tennis league tournament this short temper became clearly evident in a quick flash of primal rage. I had made it to the second round of the tournament and discovered that my next opponent was someone who had been a long time rival of mine, his name was Jason Woo.

I took a long look at the tournament draw sheet, which was a list of all of the players and the matches. I soon realized that if I were to beat my rival Jason, I could easily breeze my way into the fourth round, thus qualifying for county tournament. The match started off well, we were both evenly matched. I won my serve and he also held his. Finally I was able to break his serve and bring the score to 6-5. All I needed to do was hold my serve in the next game, and I would win the first set. Unfortunately I lost my serve and two games later I found myself in a tiebreak for the first set. I had been getting caught on the left side of the court and had pushed four returns out of bounds. During the tiebreak I played like I was blind. The pressure really started to bother me, and I was missing shots that I normally make easily. I lost the tiebreak for the first set 7 – 2, a pathetic performance for a match that had been so close in the beginning. The second set started with a quick loss of the first two games. I was now down 0 – 2 in the second set, and was starting to lose my concentration. My two hundred-dollar racket had been thrown to the ground at least twice, and my mother was ready to kill me. One last serve from Jason was all it took to turn me into an irrational beast, much like the incredible hulk. I threw my racket into the fence and shouted “FUCK” at the top of my lungs. I was given a warning faster than the speed of light from a coach who was standing outside the fence. My usual retort to being issued a warning is to smile and snap snide thank you. But for some reason this time was different. The pressure of the situation and my rage overcame...

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