Things couldn't be closer ...

First things first: We lost our match vs. Duffy/Amoyal yesterday by the skins of our teeth, 2-3. Both singles matches won; all doubles matches lost. It all came down to #2 doubles ... who lost in the 3rd set tiebreak, 16-18. Yes, that's right--16-18. This leaves us with a 4-4 record after the first half and puts us in a free-for-all with 3 or 4 (or 5?) other teams who are all vying for a .500 record of 4-4 after the first round of play (all other teams besides us have a match to play this Wednesday, and a few have rainouts to make up as well, so I'm not sure where everyone stands at the halfway point quite yet). But before I get to the second round, here are the scores from yesterday:

1D) Jean & Wendy lost to Ann Chouinard & Stacy Hoffman, 6-4 6-2

2D) Emily & Laura lost to Jen Korzakowski and Janice Dent, 3-6 6-3 0-1 (16-18)

3D) Sue Lin & Jane lost to Karla Lee and Theresa Furnari 6-3 6-3

1S) Mary beat Pam Heckler 6-2 6-1

2S) Gayle beat Courtney Nichols 6-2 3-6 1-0 (10-8 ... after being down 8-4!)

So-- in all, it was a great effort yesterday. We basically have the same record as Duffy/Amoyal, except we are just a set or two and 5 games (I think!) behind them. We were very evenly matched.

And now, a few observations about the second half of the season, which starts next Saturday vs. Dorkman/Messersmith (at the bottom of the league) and continues on Sunday vs. Zylberberg (at the top of the league):

1) If you look at Tennislink (there is a link on the left side of the blog) you can see that we won and lost nearly all of our matches 2-3 or 3-2. Last year, we lost almost all of our matches 2-3, so I'm glad to see some of these matches tipping our way this year. We're winning those tiebreakers this year, which is key, so let's keep up with the focus and consistent play.

2) I am going to try to keep successful pairings together for doubles, and to play the successful singles players more consistently. Hopefully this will pull more of those 2-3 losses into 3-2 (or 4-1 or 5-0) wins.

3) I am very pleased with how everyone has been playing and I hope you've had as much fun out there as I have. The league is VERY close this year--lots of good teams playing a lot of good tennis. We are definitely in the thick of things, so let's keep up the intensity!

4) I will try to have lineups for the next few weeks out to you in a day or two.

--Jean