It was a scorching morning when I woke up at 8a.m. to prepare for my match at 10a.m. That day was the day I was going to play my first tennis match. I was very nervous but at the same time confident as I had practiced doubly hard for this very day. After eating some eggs and sausages, I headed off to the Tennis Centre where the matches were going to be held. At 9:45a.m., I arrived and saw many girls my age. I was trying to guess which one would be my opponent. This made me even more nervous as some of the girls were carrying bags which the professionals carry and I thought they must be very good. Finally, I was told to report to the tournament desk. There, I saw my opponent. She was almost the same height as me. I heaved a sigh of relief as my opponent wasn't those girls with big bags.
After listening to the rules and regulations of the match and collecting the can of balls, we headed to the court 12. I could feel my heart pounding very fast and millions of thoughts flashed through my mind. Will I win? Will I embarrass myself if that girl is good? We placed our bags on the bench and started warming up. While we were warming up, I tried to look for her weakness but she was surprisingly all-rounded. Knowing that she did not really have a weakness, my confidence level started to go down. However, seeing how encouraging my family was, I gained back the confidence I lost and managed to take the first 4 games off her in a breeze. In this tournament, we were required to play 9 games. Unfortunately during the 5th game, she found out my weakness which was getting lobbed. Subsequently, she started lobbing me and I kept missing them as I did not know how to retrieve lobs.
I was very upset and irritated but I persevered and tried my best to get some of the lobs over the net. I struggled to get most of the balls over the net but I also still managed to hit some winners. By then, she was leading 7-4 but I wasn't discouraged and continued to press on. Before I knew it, she had won the match. I went up to the net to shake her hand and she thanked me for the good game. Seeing how humble she was, I smiled and also thanked her for the game. We then picked up the balls on the court and put them back inside the can. She returned the can to the umpire and submitted the score.
I packed up my bag and went out of the court, anguished. My opponents mum came up to me and said that my strokes were beautiful. Upon hearing that, my face lit up and I thanked her. Her words had indeed taken away my sorrow.
From that day onwards, I remembered all the encouraging words that people said to me and whenever I did not play well or I feel discouraged, I will remember all the encouraging words and I will be motivated once more and will feel confident again. it is heartening to hear my dad's voice. He has always been encouraging and never put any pressure on me to perform. Nevertheless, I felt the experience was mentally tiring and nerve wrecking as one would feel alone, trying to figure my way out of each point. It is a reflection of life in general and I would recommend such an experience to every child out there.
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Source by J. Cain
