Tennis Has Impact Too

I’ve been playing in various tennis leagues for years now and many of my teams have won local flights and made it to the districts (or state) level. That’s usually as far as I get. But my 8.0 mixed doubles team won the whole shebang! Teams from all over Virginia met at the very swish, but very comfortable, Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville in January. All of these teams were local champs so the competition was extremely tight. No easy matches for anyone at this level. Each team match consisted of 3 individual doubles matches. As always, the winner takes the best of 3 sets.

There were two flights at our level and we sneaked through and won our flight. All three of the final championship matches came down to 3rd set tie-breakers against a very tough Northern Virginia team. Our team, from out of Raintree, won 2 out of 3 and for the first time ever, I took home a silver-ish tray that states clearly that I am a champion.

I am still waiting for the endorsement deals to role in from Nike and Adidas. 

That weekend was amazingly fun yet very tense. Every point mattered. Every game of every set mattered. As we moved through our draw and the prospect of actually winning it all became real, the tension grew. I’m proud to say that I didn’t break down under pressure. I was able to focus on each point and put together a game, a set, a match. That’s what tennis will teach you: Patience, focus, self-control. These are not things that come naturally to me. Since mixed tennis dies at the state level, that’s as far as we got. Here’s to making it one day to the regional and national level with one of my women’s teams. Nike, here I come!