On The Court

Before getting up my bench, I drink a last sip of the given water bottle next to me. I get on the baseline for the billionth time in the day and get ready to pitch the ball high in the air. I hit it with the same force I did for the last almost two hours. Serena isn't that much surprised to see the ball get away from her with enormous speed. She moves her hands in incomprehension as bending down to receive my serve once again. I don't know how much times I was able to hit aces today, but it's probably close to thirty just in this match. I serve wide on advantage court, which always does the job for a lefty like me. Serena returns in the net two times in this game and I hit two more aces. Although I know she has enough resources to score enough games in a row to make me lose patience or even my self-confidence, I keep focused on the weaknesses I observed in her behavior all the way to this point of the match. The strongest and most appearing one is when she can't return my services. When it's her game on the serve, it's almost immediatly a different person taking over Serena's concentration troubles on my service. This makes me feel weird about her possible choices on the returns she might make me do. At 0-15 on her game, she gives me the point by not being able to hit my return correctly. It's an occasion to catch. 0-30, there weren't that much in the previous sets. I can already see my backhand return down the line before the ball is pitched by my strong opponent. It obviously isn't as easy to do on the powerful service of Serena's. But when the serve comes, I see that the ball she gives me is exactly what I needed and wanted to execute my idea. Sadly, my backhand isn't close enough to the lines to be a winner and it's returned by Serena with an absolutely amazing forehand she hits back behind me down the line. 15-30. I still have my chances in this game. When I curve my back down with my racket near my face, ready to return another powerful strike, I have the chance of receiving a second service. Which I don't need to hit because goes long. I have break points. I focus on my target, the same as last point on deuce court. This time I know that I have to uncross the angle of the ball a little. But when I have to hit the ball, it's on my forehand. My brain says 'Are you kidding me?' when I hit the perfect forehand just a little crossed, unlike my idea was. I'm taken. It's 2-0 for me. 6-3/3-6/2-0.

"Okay, you can now either stop playing because Miss Thompson is assured of being taken, or keep on playing to see the final result." one of the agents says as standing up.

"I want to keep playing." Serena says.

"Same here." I immediately reply.

The agent is stunned by the rapidity of our answers and finally goes back to sit down, without saying a word. I win easily on my turn to serve, with two aces at 30-0 and 40-0. After confirming my break, Serena wins her game safely, and so do I. At 4-2, after letting her game to Serena, I struggle a little, making a double fault at 30-30. I save the break point with an ace and win the game to make it 5-2. Serena serves two aces on the next games, but after two double faults, it's 30-30. I don't think she has a good record in this match when it comes to saving occasions on deuce court. I hit a cross-court forehand winner on a weak second service and give myself match point. On advantage court, she's probably going to play it safe, and serve it wide even if it's on my backhand. But I receive a parallel ball, bouncing on the 'T'. I hit my backhand as I can, because the ball is pretty far from me. The ball hits the net before falling on the other side, on Serena's court. I apologize after a long silence that even Serena can't fill. We shake hands and go see the astonished looks on the agents' faces.

"You won." the first one looks at me, makes sure he's not dreaming or not hallucinating.

"Apparently..." is all that can get out of my mouth.

"Okay... Let's look at a couple statistics together, would you?" the second agent tells both of us after checking on the first one, making sure he's not paralyzed for life.

"Sure!" Serena answers more excitedly than I can.

A board appears on the electronic tablet the second agent has.