Tuesday, August 20, 2024 (Court Day #704)

I arrived at Skypark at about 6:45 p.m. The courts were busy and, as is commonplace for the last few months, the whiteboard was out to organize the wait for courts.

Games

I almost immediately got into a game, as I joined Mauricio, Marco, Mike (nearing retirement) in a game. Mike would be my partner. They had all played a game already and they asked if I wanted to warm up and I told them “no” since it would take me a few games to get going regardless. Mike started out pretty well but I was missing some shots. Marco and Mauricio pulled out ahead by a number points. But then I started dialing my game in a little bit and Mike and I clawed back to even out the score. I started playing very, very well, we came back and won the game. While tapping paddles, Mauricio commended our comeback to Mike, who said, “That was all Andrew.” 

Binh & Shawnte

Binh and I played against Shawnte and Francis. Shawnte was the strongest and Francis was the least strong, but the difference between Shawnte and us was not as much as between us and Francis. I told Binh I was going to try to hit more to Shawnte. Shawnte wasn’t trying his hardest, that happens not infrequently when playing against good players but your partner is down a skill level … you just take the game for entertainment and don’t try all out to win which you know will be almost impossible.

Coasting

I got into a game with Francis against Mav and Beth. (I met Mav last week, he’s the PE major at SJSU.) They started out a little bit ahead after Francis missed a couple of shots, but then we went on to win. Mav and Beth were leaving too many opportunities for me.

Ethan, Caitlin, Nick

The next game was Ethan and Caitlin against myself and their friend Nick. Ethan, of course, was the strongest player, followed by me… and I’ll probably give the edge to Nick over Cait. Ethan was taking it pretty easy with some exceptions. I tried to hit more to Ethan to keep the game more interesting. He and I had two or three pretty fun rallies in that game. Nick and I won the game although Ethan was not trying his hardest.

Bad in the Good

Paul Winn and myself played a game against Tim Feickert and Matt Babb as it was starting to get dark. I was not playing as well in this game. I was forcing speedups. That’s not going to work against Tim and Matt. The changing lighting didn’t help me in judging the ball, but that was only a small part of the equation of my playing poorly. A lot of it was shot selection and needing to be more patient instead of forcing things.

We played a second game and finished about 60 seconds before the lights clicked off right after 8:30 p.m. I didn’t stay long and instead said my goodbyes to everyone.

If I had left about 8 p.m., I would have been happy. But I was not pleased with those last two games. I thought I was awful.

Agassi

It was announced yesterday that retired #1 ranked tennis pro and Olympic gold medalist Andre Agassi has signed a promotional contract with Joola. Expect to see “AGASSI” Joola paddles in the not too distant future!

Wednesday, August 21, 2024 (No Play)

Yesterday, an article appeared about Novak Djokovic:
“…the defending U.S. Open champion and 24-time Grand Slam winner, will face Sinner in The HEAD NYC Mash Up on Thursday ahead of the start of the Open on Monday.”

Today, another article appeared saying fans were encouraging Djokovic to pull out of the pickleball event:
“@IbrahimKhory penned: ‘Noooooooo. Please Novak, nooooo. I hate this sport.’ Tennis fan @2016daz exclaimed: ‘Nooooooo! That’s the worst racquet sport ever.'”

At least Mr. Khory called pickleball a sport. Some haters call it a “hobby,” so at least there is a little victory there! Ha!

Number of days on a court: 704
Number of total hours: 2,930
Number of paid coaching hours: 66.5

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