tennis, life and a few things in between

The 2010 year end ratings are now available! Please be patient when using the ‘Find a Rating’ area as everyone is interested in their new rating.

The warning message at the tennis link on usta. Ha, the long awaited result of year long hard work .. who gets bumped up and who got dumped down. Joys and tears, I reckon? On Monday night when it first became available, the traffic was so heavy that it took minutes to load up. We’re a crazy group of people, not only wildly passionate about playing, that isn’t simply enough, we also care fanatically about how we measure up in our peers’ eyes.
My team of 12 payers has only one bump up: Simon, from 4.0 to 4.5. He’ll be ok to play on our Manhattan team as 4.0 but we’d have to forge ahead without him on our Queens team.

One of our ex-teammates, Anna was bumped up to 4.0 in fm 3.5 in Sept, the early rating. She won all her Women’s 3.5 and 4.0 in the summer (after our mixed season). Then surprisingly she got bumped back down to 3.5 at year end.

Kai did only mixed doubles as I did, but his rating type is M (Mixed exclusive Year-end Rating) while I got B (Benchmark – advanced to playoff or championship round), 同命不同运 or what?

Dan last played on usta league in 2001 as a 4.0 but this time around, he used the questionnaire and got a 4.5 rating. Hmmmmmm …. he hasn’t played for a decade and is over certain age limit .. .. Somehow, I felt the ranking system is bit crap shoot.

Our fourth match was against the team we played last during previous season Lillian. She came to the court with a glass of wine and showed me her new tattoo: her 5th on her right shoulder.

“It is real?” or watermarked..
“It’s real.” She replied with a pride. Apparently she’s a mountaineer and had conquered five out of the 7 hills in the world.
That’s some impressive record.

While playing, I recalled her comment about couples as partners would end up arguing; sometimes had nothing to do with tennis – would allow the domestic matters escalated into court like who left the toilet seat on (or off).

As matter of fact, I have three couples on my team this time – half are related. Don’t you feel a little incestuous 🙂 ..? Well, maybe the league is bit on the incestuous side, year in and year out, the veterans are far more out numbers than the newbies. (And the newbies like me … will soon become a vet too .. till pallbears carry me out ..)

So far, they all proclaim undying love, no argument PDA, just yet.

With last night win, our team is in the first place.. keep going kids!

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.