"Olympic Experience" (Part IV)

I was ready at the baseline to receive the serve. It went to the middle of the service box. I moved towards the ball and decided to return the serve with my backhand rather than running around it for a forehand. The return was just high enough to clear the net but was low enough to get past the racket of the net player. Her teammate (the server) did not get to it. The ball bounced twice.

We won the match!

What an exciting feeling! My partner and I had a big sweaty hug. Meanwhile, our other teammates from the sideline ran towards us on the court and we hugged each other. At the award ceremony, each of us received a medal. We even did the funny photo by biting our medals, like some athletes did at the Olympics.  :)

What a joy! The team effort was most wonderful. Whenever my partner(s) and I had a bad few points or games, we picked each other up. Whoever was not playing came along to cheer on the rest of us. When my partner and I had the tough loss, the rest of the team was nothing but encouraging. When my back hurt, my captain gave me a back massage to help relieve my pain. When we won the championship together, we shared the joy.

Loss and triumph sometimes go hand in hand. Looking back, I was thankful for the tough loss in my second match. It was the most disappointing for the first ten minutes after the match, but learning to deal with the defeat (quickly) made me a better tennis player mentally. The wins that came after also became much sweeter because I had tasted defeat.
 
As I mentioned in my first Olympics post, Chariots of Fire is one of my favorite movies. In the movie, when Eric Liddell's sister wanted him to return to mission work in China instead of going to the Olympics, he said:

I believe God made me for a purpose, and He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure.

My favorite line from the movie. I am no Olympian, but I think we can seek to glorify God through sports (tennis in my case). I was calm during our second match point in the last match, but the calm did not come from me. It came from God. And the backhand return? Totally God.

Off the court, I also had a wonderful stay with my hostess. Before booking, I was exchanging messages with the lady renting the room. At first, we discussed the room and logistics; but she soon opened up about her family. At her house, we had several great conversations, including one about her salvation. Before I left, she gave me a hug, and even a beautiful doily she made as a souvenir.

What a wonderful weekend.

Don't forget the Paralympic Games began today!

"Olympic Experience" (Part III)

When I woke up the next morning, my back hurt so much from the extra firm mattress that I could not stand up straight. But emotionally, I was healthy. I had thankfully recovered from the loss; and my doubles partner and I played well to win our match. Our team had gone undefeated in five matches. We now came to the final round to play another undefeated team for the championship.

With the brutal sun hanging over the courts, all five matches in the final round went underway at the same time. I played with another teammate in our match. We won the first set nicely. In the second set, we got broken twice and fell behind, but we came back each time. We worked as a team, cheering each other on and developing strategies to get ourselves in winning position. By the time we broke back for the second time, all the other matches were finished. It was only us on the court, and the rest of both teams were looking on.

My partner and I did not know this at the time, but as our captains told us after our match, our teams had split the first four matches, so the championship came down to this match.

At 4-all, it was my turn to serve. We got ahead but the game went to deuce. In the end, we held and moved ahead. Five-four. If we won the next game, we would win the match. We moved ahead to 40-0 quickly and had three match points. We lost the next point to a strong volley from our opponents. Big cheers from their teammates.

Match point number two. It was my turn to receive serve. I told myself before my opponent's serve that I wanted to hit a solid return and put our team in a good position for a good rally. I was ready for the serve and was very calm.

To be continued

"Olympic Experience" (Part II)

The tournament lasted three days. But since work had been busy, I could only travel on day one and play on the last two days. With two matches per day, I played four doubles matches under the very hot sun.

By the time I played my first match, my team had won both line-ups on Friday, so we were in great position to advance (each line-up included 5 matches; a team had to win at least 3 matches to win the line-up). As soon as I started my match, I noticed my back was stiff. But the match went well, and my captain gave me a back message after the win! After this round robin, we advanced to the championships round for another three rounds of matches to play other round robin winners in our division.

I played my next match with another teammate. My back issue remained (it turned out the extra firm mattress was too much for my back) but the pain-relieving patch my captain put on me before the match helped. My doubles partner and I won the first set quite smoothly, but we lost serve and the second set 4-6.

The third set (and the match) was decided by the doubles tiebreak instead of a full set. We lost a few points early, but the tiebreak was fairly even before we saved a couple of match points. Then our turn came. We had match point! However, I missed a volley.  Soon, it was our opponents' match point again and we lost the match when they called my partner's shot out.

After the match, my partner and I were very disappointed. In the end, it did not affect the result, since our team won the other matches and we were still on the winning side of the line-up. Our teammates circled around us to cheer us up. They also told us that they all saw the last shot in. However, because our opponents called it out, we lost.

But I learned an important lesson. As we walked off the court, I told myself that I could take the loss. That helped me keep my emotions from overtaking me. Instead of dwelling on the loss or those few points that determined the match, I decided to accept the defeat (as a sidebar, Rafa Nadal is the best role model on how to deal with losses), learn from it, not let it bother me or define my tournament, and move on. I had had tough losses and disappointments before, but I now really understood that the best way to deal with defeats was to accept them head-on, not ignore or run from them.

To be continued