NEVER Give Up Until the Last Point Has Swung

by TennisTom Harton
(Chapel Hill, NC, USA)

I coached a Women's adult 5.5 Combo USTA doubles tennis team, the ShotSpots, last season. Most of our players had very little League experience.

Each evening match was a best two out of three. On the evening in question one of our teams had won their match and the other team had lost theirs.

One of our two players was rated at 2.0 but was playing up as a 2.5. The opposing team won the first set handily. Our team won the second set with difficulty.

That meant the the third set, a 10-point tiebreak, was pivotal, not only for the individual match but for the entire team match. All of this, as you might imagine, put lots of pressure on our two players.

Something undefinable happened to our players and suddenly we were down in the tiebreak 2 to 9. Losing the tiebreak, and losing the match, and losing the evening for the team seemed inevitable.

But the mental determination to win rose in both of our players. One suspenseful point after another was won.

Giving up wasn't a option, although losing one more point out of the next eight points would have done our team in.

Finally our team had struggled until the score was tied at 10-10!

The battle continued because a team had to win by a margin of two points. The opponents won the next point, making the score 11-10 in their favor. What a battle!

Then our ShotSpot ladies won the next three points and victory was theirs! In the grand scheme of things, tennis is just a game.

But on a personal, tennis level, IT AIN'T OVER UNTIL THE LAST POINT IS SWUNG!

TennisTom, Chapel Hill, NC.