FARGO — I sat by the nearest picnic table to the tennis courts, sweat dripping down my body like I’d just jumped in a pool, disappointed in my performance yet also relieved to be done playing.
Yes, that’s right. The Devils Lake Journal sports writer was playing a sport for a change, rather than watching and writing about it. Well, I guess here I am writing about it anyway. But you know what I mean.
I played four years of varsity tennis at Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles, where I became a solid singles player and captain on the team by my senior year, which was only a little over five years ago. I wasn’t the best; I wasn’t the worst — but I competed. I was never the greatest athlete, but I’ve always enjoyed sports and competition.
Since then, though, I really hadn’t played much, especially not in an official tournament-like format. But ever since the weather warmed up and the snow went away here in Devils Lake, I’d started hitting again, and I saw that the annual $15,000 Red River Adult Open was happening in Fargo. The Open attracts top-level players, many of whom play for Division I universities, but the tournament also features various levels below that. I chose to compete against players with an NTRP rating of 4.0.
So I drove down to Fargo on Friday — delayed only briefly by an accident that was stalling cars on I-29 — and made it down for a round robin where I played three other amateur tennis players over the span of two days. One of them was an athletic trainer at a Fargo high school.
My first match, which was played Friday evening in 80-plus degree heat, started strong. My opponent was funky but beatable, and I started off strong with an early break.
But then the fatigue started setting in. And I started slowing down. It was likely a combination of not having played in so long, and the extreme heat that I hadn’t been in — much less played a sport in — in some time. I’ve been excited for the warmth to come ever since I moved to Devils Lake in the winter, but simply standing outside in the heat and running around in it for multiple hours are two completely different things.
I didn’t deserve to win that first set. I was playing weakly, and slowly. One of my strengths as a player used to be my speed around the court and resilience in hitting every ball back. I just didn’t have that. Every high-energy shot or point was wearing me out quickly, and I kept having to collect myself by resting against the fence. I kept it close, but I lost the first set 6-4.
After a bit of a longer break, I came out a little better in the second set. I was having to adjust quickly, and realized I was going to need to pace myself better and not expend so much energy unless it was absolutely necessary, especially if I was somehow going to play two more matches the next day with an even warmer projected temperature. I regained some consistency, and I had a 5-3 lead.
I lost the next four games. And the match.
I even had two set points, which would have brought us to a 10-point tiebreaker, had I won either of them. As hard as I was trying, I just had nothing left. My endurance wasn’t what it used to be, and the sun was killing me. I started getting cramps in both legs, too. I could feel myself trembling, and I almost felt like I was going to throw up. After the match, there was also some blood running down the outside of my right leg, presumably from bug bites that had been reopened.
I was exhausted.
The match took more than two hours. There were at least seven or so other matches going on at the same time as ours, and we were the last ones still playing. It took everything out of me.
I took the night in a nearby hotel to rest up, limping through the lobby as I loaded up on water bottles from the vending machine. The cramp in my left leg really swelled up at one point, and I keeled over in my hotel room for about eight to 10 seconds of extreme pain, before it eventually subsided.
I didn’t know how I was going to play two more matches.
Luckily, my stiff legs loosened up as I got going on Saturday. That particular problem didn’t affect me as much as I was fearing. But as the temperature rose above 90 degrees, and the quality of opponents rose from the one I played on Friday, things went downhill quickly.
I didn’t win a game on Saturday. I had multiple game points, but could never close one out. The fatigue and heat only got worse, and my playing only got worse as a result.
It had been so long since I’d been in this type of situation, playing real, competitive tennis matches against players I didn’t know. I’ve spent so much time recently watching sports, meticulously analyzing and critiquing them. But I think this experience was a good reminder of just how difficult it is to compete, from both a mental and physical standpoint.
Tennis is a very mental game, a lot like baseball in that way. More often than not in this tournament, I would make the first mistake, even if I had a good shot or a good rally. I gave my opponents way too many freebies — which could be largely attributed to my lack of endurance and just getting inside my own head at a certain point.
One of my favorite plays used to be sprinting down balls that the opponent never thought I would get to, and while I had a few of those in this tournament, there were also some I didn’t reach or just didn’t have the energy to run after. And even when I did make those miraculous gets, it usually tired me for several points afterward. I just wasn’t able to recover quickly enough.
So, yeah. Sports are hard. Especially when it’s hot, and you haven’t played in a while, and you’re matched up against quality opponents. This is something I already knew, but which will be more freshly cemented in my head as I continue to dissect the sports that occur in Devils Lake and the surrounding areas. It gives me a lot of respect for people, such as those in the Lake Region, who put in constant work and turn themselves into really good athletes on a competitive level.
That being said, if there are any tennis players in or near Devils Lake, feel free to let me know!
