This is our first season playing USTA Mixed Doubles, and we started out by joining our friend Ali's 7.0 team, thinking it would be a fun challenge. Chris's USTA rating is 4.0 and mine is 3.0, so it works out perfectly that we can play on a combined 7.0 team. We were a little worried that I would get picked on as the weak link, because a full point gap is pretty big (it's the biggest gap USTA will allow between partners), but we figured it would be way more fun to play together than for me to play on a 6.0 team.
In our first match, we played a tough 4.0/3.0 pair, and won 7-5, 6-1. That second set might not sound close, but the first set felt like it was balanced on a knife's edge until the end. We were celebrating the win for about a week. For our second match, we played #1 (i.e. as the top pair for our team), and won 6-3, 6-4.
Then our teammate Dana invited us to join his 8.0 team. 8.0?!?! We thought, well realistically nobody expects us to win at this level, but it would be a good opportunity to see what the next level looks like, so let's do it!
We were on cloud nine when we won our first match, 6-3, 6-4 (played #3). For the second match, Chris was busy having his lesson with Rick, so I played with another teammate (played #2) and won what felt like an epic three-setter, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6). We were down 3-6 in the tiebreak before coming back to win. Whew!
Last night, Chris and I played #1, and won 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. SWEET!! Just from warmups, it was clear that we had very little margin for error. Our opponents were solid – strong and consistent, with no obvious weaknesses to pick on – so it was really a battle of who could execute shots better. It was cold, dark, windy, and drizzly, but we pulled it out! This morning, Chris has all sorts of aches and pains, and I have been icing my sore "pseudo-calf" (whatever you call the muscle that's on the front of your lower leg instead of the back) practically nonstop, but wow that was fun!
I wish I had some pictures to share, but we were both too busy playing, haha. Next time I'll ask a teammate to take pictures. Of course, next time we're bound to be on the losing side, but for now, we're undefeated and loving it! :-)
