tennis, life and a few things in between

饺子 is one of my favored and I could never get enough of it. Last night I had little extra time on hand unexpectedly, so my mind was wandering toward food. Not that I wasn’t hungry .. how about having few dumplings before the match?
Great idea.
So I went down to the Golden Mall – a good place to go when you’re alone. I feel uncomfortable dining alone in a restaurant.
For a grand US$3 you could get 12 fat juicy dumplings.
One order was enough to fill an empty belly
But Irene ordered the second one after polishing off 12.
I was really stuffed, totally bloated. Lack of self-restrain.
My second match (my team’s third) was rather uneventful and dull. The lady won’t shake our hands before the match, claiming that she had cold .. but palmed us after the match was over. During the match, I often found myself watching my teammates. At one point Kai was serving and I was so into watching that I didn’t know the point had started and Kai was asking me …
“Could you please cover the other side of the court??”
I was like .. huuuuuh? OMG the point was in session ..
Thought if I was so involved with other two courts, I should have some idea as how did they fare?
No way. I had no clue.
One court won 6-0 and 6-1 .. really?
I’m not a believer in dishing out bagels (ok .. I’m a lousy player to boot ..) bec I felt its really uncalled for. But what could one do in a competitive match, with a team to consider? The first set was gone so quickly that I didn’t know what was happening then, it just ended abruptly.
Anyway .. our first doubles after winning the first set at 4, eventually lost 7-10 at the super tiebreak.
As we were leaving the parking lot, I still could feel the dumplings in my pork belly.

We were able to join the Manhattan 2011 mixed doubles league at last second only because a team was problematic and had to drop out. The three clubs we’ll be playing are all out side of the city limit (not the wall tho .. like those medieval cities with thick walls .. )
Randall’s Island Tennis
Westside Tennis Club
Roosevelt Island Racquet Club

Parking won’t be an issue. Last year in Queens, we played at Westside Tennis Club few times and the match fee was $27 for two hours. However, this year, the Manhattan league’s match fee at the same club is $30 but only for 1.5 hours. I don’t know how the math works here (I don’t know how the league negotiates with all the clubs either..). The city slickers are different from you and me – “the very rich are different from you and me,” said F. Scott Fitzgerald. It reminds of my travel in Egypt, the locals instantly jack up the price whenever they saw an foreigner. China was indeed like that too. Very third world mentality.... Ok, probably other clubs (RIT and RIRC) cost more.

Kai and I lost the first doubles, 6:4, 6:4. #2 doubles team came from behind in the super tie break to win that court 6-3, 3-6, 1-0. #3 doubles was a timed match 7-6 and 2-3: our pair was up a break (not on serve). So we split the point. The opponent was the home team so they get the win.

The warm up allows 15 minutes and there is this 5-minute rule (the last 5 min of the match), so the actual playing time is only 1:10. There will be a lot of timed matches in the Manhattan league, so winning the first set becomes paramount.

My first taste of it wasn’t a good one: after we lost the first set at 4, suddenly our opponents (the same player would do it again ..) began to procrastinating. They conferred on every single point with their backs to the net, either on their own serve or on ours – beyond the reasonable time. This is NOT a good faith sportsmanship. After the match I asked the coordinator who recommends that the players remind the other team that there is only 20 seconds allowed between points. (page 4 of the rules document). Other than that, there really isn’t much we can do.

Maybe wear a watch with the second arm .. and use it as a watch, not as a bracelet?