Matchbericht ¦ 1. Liga ¦ Grasshopper III vs. Uster V
GC III's second match was to be a battle of youth vs. experience - and youth was most certainly not on the side of GC!
Uster's team (consisting of three U15s and one U17) arrived early, as they undoubtedly weren't going to tire themselves out during the warm up, whilst GC III dribbled in one by one and at least managed to warm a ball up on the other court before the time came to start the match. We did at least have faith that Carsten would do well tonight as he had already beaten Uster's number two last week whilst playing for GC IV, and tonight he would be playing at 3. How hard could it be...
Carsten was up first against Fabinan Seitz and started the game well. He got the first point. After that, things started to go less well. They continued to go less well for the rest of the game, until they'd gone. The second game was bound to be better... The second game also started well, as Carsten won the first point again. Once again though, he lost the next four points, which wasn't a convincing tactic. The tactics continued to be unconvincing and the second game went the same way as the first. With high hopes for a comeback in the third, the game started less well than the others as he even managed to lose the first point. After this, ignoring any hopes we might have had, it failed to get any better. 3:0 to Fabian. 1:0 to Uster.
Fernando was next up, facing Lasse Widmer. Fernando didn't start any more convincingly than Carsten and managed to lose the first game to 7 - tweaking his hamstring into the bargain! A quick grip change, so that he could at least hold on to the racquet and our hopes were restored! He was bound to win now!! Except he didn't! The second game seemed much better than the first, yet somehow Fernando still lost to 8 points. Youth, it seemed, was about to have its day...
Or was it...
Fernando started the third game in a completely different mood to the first two and proceeded to chop Lasse to pieces. He was now hitting his targets and keeping Lasse under pressure - a vast improvement - and it started to show. Lasse couldn't get into the game at all and Fernando closed it out to 4! Lasse rallied a bit in the next two games, but Fernando and his amazing pick-ups didn't let him get back ahead again. Fernando took both the fourth and fifth games to 6 points for what was, after a shaky start, a convincing win! 3:2 to Fernando. GC 1, Uster 1.
Whilst Fernando was finishing his game, Paul had already started his match agianst Liam Possl. Having had to rush off to get changed after Carsten's match, Paul clearly wasn't as warm as he might have been. Despite seemingly having a good battle in the first two games, Paul found himself 2:0 down. Having loosened up however, it seems he was now ready to wake up and take it to the next level and he polished off the next two games to 4 and 5 respectively. Unfortunately, due to Carsten's cryptic marking, I can't tell you how the the scores progressed, but suffice to say that Paul counted himself lucky that Liam played through a likely stroke situation, before, on the final point of the match, Paul himself wasn't so kind, taking a clear stroke to win the game and therefore the match! A tight 3:2 to Paul. GC 2, Uster 1.
Last up, was me against Nico Mathis . Having already seen that Carsten had lost and Paul was 2:0 down, I was under the impression that it would be for me to try to rescue a draw. I therefore set about hanging in there against a very hard hitting opponent. I managed to sneak the first game 11:9, before falling way behind in the second. 10:4 to Nico and I was certain it was going to be one-all. So I guess I relaxed, and Nico didn't. Clawing one point back after another, with Nico getting increasingly frustrated, I got back to 10-all. One game point for me at 11, then the next two points to Nico for yet another game ball, but he couldn't close it out and I took the next three points to take the game 14:12! The next two games didn't go quite so well. I felt like I'd turned a little bit passive and, although they were both close, Nico took them to level up the match at 2:2. It was all to play for! Nico rushed ahead at the beginning of the fifth, but I was able to peg him back by the time we were at 6-all, after which I had a run of points to reach 10-7. Nico pulled it back to 10-9, to get me worrying that it was going to be his turn for a come-back, before I managed to close it out 11:9! Another very satisfying victory for me, after which I found out about Paul's win too!
A great win over a tough young team to leave us in a good position after two matches. Well done guys!
Next up - GC V on Thursday - watch this space...
Mark Robbins