Three matches, same opponent

0-6, 3-6 in January. 6-3, 6-4 in September.

September 25, 2026

Playing different opponents is a good way to learn play styles and variety. Playing the same opponent again is the way to verify my progress over time. Lily is one of the opponents I have played three times in nine months.

The win-loss column says lost, lost, won. The games column says the gap had been closing all year. The biggest jump, 20% to 45%, came in a match I lost.

Just like me, Lily practices almost every day, and between January and September she rebuilt her serve and learned a slice. I solidified my serve and changed my groundstrokes, and the groundstrokes got worse before they got better: I hit the back fence on the ball machine, and some of my first 10 losses on the 3.5 ladder were part of that regression (That's when I started hitting hard).

First meeting

It was a chilly morning in January. I walked onto the court nervously with nothing in my mind. I was about to play my first 3.0 opponent, Lily, who was already #1 on the 3.0 ladder with five wins and one loss. I was prepared to lose.

We introduced ourselves. She then opened her US Open balls, handed me one, tucked one in her skirt — it was still winter — and we began to hit inside the service lines to warm up.

She was nice and soft-spoken. I was still unsettled, explaining that I had only played for a few months and didn't belong at this level yet, blah blah blah, and kind of waited for her to say something nice. She did: from zero sports background to a 3.0 ladder was fast progress. She also said she had been working on her serve toss: when the toss isn't right, retoss instead of just hitting the ball. That probably helped ease my nerves anyway.

She served first. It was quick; she aced the first serve. I stood there waiting, didn't realize it had happened. Then I said "wow" and admired that serve. She did it again a few times during the match. On the other hand, my serves were slow and floaty. I was also tight in this first 3.0 match, felt the playing-up pressure, and made way too many double faults, on about half my serves.

I usually hit the ball long, so I hit conservatively to keep the ball in the court, and ended up handing her tons of short balls, only to realize later those were sitters. She punished every short ball, with much better pace and angles. She could put the ball where she wanted.

On a short ball that landed right behind the service line, she moved in and hit to my forehand corner. I returned it to her. Yes, right back to where she stood. Then I recovered to the middle, and she hit to the same spot again. I rushed, returned it to the same spot to her, then attempted to recover to the middle, and she immediately hit it to the exact same spot again. I missed it.

I "wow"ed again, didn't know what else I could do. I was obviously outclassed. The match finished in less than an hour with the score 0-6, 3-6. She looked like she had just had a light stretch session afterward. She assured me I was definitely a 3.0 player and waved goodbye. I doubted we'd play again anytime soon.

Second meeting

It was hot in the early morning, with brutal sun glare. I was not as nervous this time, after losing more than 10 matches on the 3.5 ladder already. I wanted to see what seven months had done to both of us.

She said she was working on her serves, changing the grip and swing path. Before each serve she seemed to test the toss, then the racquet, then finally hit. Her serves mostly went in, and I don't remember any double faults. But the serves felt slower than I remembered from January. Or maybe my reaction time is shorter? She didn't ace me once.

My spinny second serve is reliable and keeps me from giving away free points, but I had no placement control, and mostly hit into the middle of the service box. Maybe because the serves were too predictable, they got attacked a few times. She simply blocked the serve with underspin and dropped it short. I had no time to get there.

I mostly hit deep middle, or deep cross court if I had an angle. I was not able to create angles and open the court yet. At least I didn't give her as many easy short balls as in our first meeting.

She went to the net on short balls, and chipped them back across the net, just like how she attacked my serves. We had a few net point exchanges. To my surprise, my half volleys weren't bad at all. I remembered to split step before she hit the ball and ended up winning some net games.

She also hit down-the-line shots and finished the points perfectly. I couldn't do anything with them, only clap with my racquet, saying "nice."

We had good rallies, and the result was 3-6, 7-6(7-3), (7-10), much closer than I expected. She let out a long sigh of relief.

Coach's tips after observing the match

My coach later pointed out a big flaw in my match play with Lily. He had watched a few points while coaching on the near court. He asked me why I took the pace off and hit a neutral ball back when I was inside the baseline.

I didn't know there was a why. I said, "I don't know. What am I supposed to do? Isn't the golden rule to hit a defensive shot from the baseline?"

He began to tell me to hit hard. He said there were a few points like that in the match where I could have hit a drive to finish the point or force her errors. I wasted my opportunities so many times.

We drilled hitting hard from no-man's land. When the ball is at waist height, hit as hard as I can. If he had told me this "secret" earlier, would I have won the match against Lily?

Third meeting

I was ready to play Lily again, with my coach's tips built in, and to win this time.

My plan to win:

• don't give her serves that invite attacks; serve to her body or backhand; mix up the placement
• don't hit groundstrokes that bounce into her strike zone
• return all her serves; attack if I can
• hit drive groundstrokes to push her back; opening the court is preferred
• hit harder if I'm inside the baseline

Since she is a lefty, which I only learned when my coach told me, I'd need to remember not to target her forehand wing.

It was a morning match again. The weather was yummy, cool and cloudy, no wind and no sun glare to bother our serve tosses. The two adjacent courts were empty. I felt calm.

She said she was still working on her serves. I asked what she was working on this time. She said her coach told her to extend her hitting arm more. I sometimes have the same problem, but I guess for me it's just a matter of laziness. I extend my arm when I feel energetic.

She opened her balls, handed me one and tucked one in her skirt, just like before. We hit mini tennis, talking about our common opponents, then moved back to the baselines and hit two or three serves on each side.

She took her time over each toss, just like in our previous match. Her first serve was moderate in speed and straightforward to return. Her second serve had much more spin than last time. When she served from the deuce side, the serve landed near the T and kicked away to my left, my backhand side. That was a solid second serve. I missed a few returns on the deuce side. However, she had a few double faults this time.

My serve went where I planned: her body and her backhand. This time she didn't attack it once. She won a few points with down-the-line shots last time. This time she hit too many of them wide.

She came forward often, practicing her net approach, and I followed in sometimes. I've gotten pretty good at passing shots and dippers in the recent months, and got a few points from Lily by hitting at her shoelaces when she was at the net.

Her groundstrokes weren't deep. They landed just past the service line without much spin. So I moved inside the baseline and hit them hard, the way my coach told me, deep into her backcourt, sometimes with an angle. She missed a lot of my drives.

Then there were the even shorter balls that landed around or inside the service line, mostly from her return of my deep groundstrokes. I whipped crosscourt winners from there so many times. She said later that she should never give me those short balls again.

The match point ended on my groundstroke that touched her baseline. She said she expected it to go out and stopped moving her feet. I won!

After we reported the score, we chatted about our own errors, what we should do better, what the other did well in the match, etc. This time, I was comfortable enough to say we should play again.