{"id":4408,"date":"2011-05-27T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.IreneEng.com\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2015-01-16T03:53:12","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T03:53:12","slug":"a-lonely-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=4408","title":{"rendered":"A lonely planet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_00202.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-36433\" title=\"May 25, 2011 at Court 6 .. \u624b\u821e\u8db3\u8e48 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_00202-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_00202-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_00202-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_00202.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #808000;\"><em>\u624b\u821e\u8db3\u8e48\u00a0 dancing<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><br \/>\nThe season opening for the ladies 3.5, my first time playing with girls, all girls nothing but girls. Ya !!!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve known the captain Cheung for more than a decade and play with him from time to time, always in doubles. But for whatever the reason, he thinks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=36328\">I can play singles<\/a>. Not sure his brain is functioning. Thinking how my team treated me as captain over the years, so I told him, IF no one is willing, then I&#8217;ll do whatever and whenever, \u4e24\u808b\u63d2\u5200 short of \u4e0a\u5200\u5c71\u4e0b\u706b\u6d77.<br \/>\nThe night before I confessed to Simon as we were hitting that I might have to play singles. He just laughed and said,<br \/>\n&#8220;\u6211\u4e0d\u61c2\u4e86.&#8221; In Simonism, it means <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ireneeng.com\/?p=21253\">you got to be kidding<\/a> = <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ireneeng.com\/?p=1944\">can not lah<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We gathered at the lobby and I met the teammates for the first time but I either knew them or played against them. Few I met through Susan who has a huge net work of tennis girls. I&#8217;ve got to get on her good side so she&#8217;ll include me too. Be nice to her! Few were on opposing teams. So it&#8217;s a big happy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.IreneEng.com\/?p=27629 \">incestuous<\/a> family after all.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0010-Copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-36436\" title=\"Court 6, May 25, 2011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0010-Copy-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0011-Copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-36437\" title=\"Court 6, May 25, 2011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0011-Copy-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0002-Copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-36435\" title=\"Court 6, May 25, 2011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0002-Copy-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Walking out to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=23553\">the out door courts<\/a> that are dark and dead is a new experience to me. And taking up the whole court is another new experience to me. Like I&#8217;m totally alone and lost out there! The dark sky didn&#8217;t help either. Our matches begin at 9pm, the upper <del datetime=\"2011-05-27T14:06:31+00:00\">classmen<\/del> classwomen, the 4.0 do the 7pm shift. I didn&#8217;t give the court assignment any thoughts because I&#8217;m just a player.<\/p>\n<p>The courts 6 and 7 were being used by schools and we decided that they should move (the coach did ask if we would move to another court). My opponent played my first doubles team few times, and it&#8217;s a draw for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=36355\">last two times they met<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSCN1754.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-36438\" title=\"Court 7 where the second singles was played  .. a flea market?\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSCN1754-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSCN1754-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSCN1754-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Once the match started, I found myself totally lost out there, didn&#8217;t know what to do after serving. No one was around to instruct and cover me.. \ud83d\ude41 Cheung must forget that few matches I won was due to my partner! Okay, make the humiliating long story short, I could join Lance Legstrong with one wheel: I got a bagel in the first and managed to win 2 games in the second. She hit line after line after line and no one was around to cover it. After the game, she flattered me: the scores don&#8217;t reflect it .. A long time ago, when I first picked up tennis, I lost to a good player who said &#8220;you&#8217;re very consistent&#8221; after my disastrous lost to her. Now I have two good lines to use when the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-36462\" title=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/1-300x220.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/1-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/1.jpg 792w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>situation calls for it. See, something good comes out of a <del datetime=\"2011-05-27T14:22:35+00:00\">embarrassment<\/del> failure.<br \/>\nAnyway, I need to learn how to play singles. This, by no mean that I&#8217;m volunteering. I did not and I am not going to, but would do whatever the team needs.<br \/>\nOk, enough for my singles d\u00e9but, let&#8217;s talk about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=36443\">more important stuff<\/a>. Thanks to Kai and Wah cheering us on and for the pictures. The skipper and teammates are very encouraging.<\/p>\n<p>My teammates comforted me by saying that my opponent is the best\u00a0in the league,<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll get her next time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My Chinglish is so poor, I interpreted it as, we&#8217;ll get her to our team next time &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh .. that&#8217;s a long wait .. next season?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No .. we&#8217;ll beat her next time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u624b\u821e\u8db3\u8e48\u00a0 dancing . The season opening for the ladies 3.5, my first time playing with girls, all girls nothing but girls. Ya !!! I&#8217;ve known the captain Cheung for more than a decade and play with him from time to time, always in doubles. But for whatever the reason, he thinks I can play singles. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-4408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tennis-2","tag-usta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}