The first match is over, and that monkey is off my back. (Crap. How am I going to gracefully transition from the monkey metaphor to the ball-striking machine metaphor? I’ll just have to start a new paragraph and hope no one notices.)
I started out a little nervous. Not making-horrendous-mistakes nervous, thankfully, but nervous enough that I didn’t feel comfortable being aggressive. I was not the machine. Our opponents were very machine-like and quickly took the first set 6-1.
But then I settled down. My partner set me up well at the net and began getting more aggressive herself. We surprised them by taking the second set 6-3.
And then we lost 10-5 in the super tiebreak.
But I feel really good about it. I was not a head case. I didn’t Piss Off People. There were even a few moments where I was a ball-striking machine. I call that a good day at the office.
Many thanks to those who sent me such lovely words of encouragement, both in the comment section and in private messages. (I especially enjoyed this text: “RIP THEIR HEADS OFF!!”) What an amazing group of people you are. I’m truly blessed.
Unfortunately none of you has yet come up with an acronym that beats FOPOP. But keep trying. You’ve got all weekend to think about it. And I’ve got all weekend to browse tennis fashion.