Alexander competed in the ‘Weald Open’, at Clayton, mid-Sussex today.

We ‘warmed up’ and then all the competitors were called, to find out, the order of play.

Alexander had his first match, from 9.08am. His opponent had been Alfie, and both players had to play full sets.

Alfie has a  rating for 7.2, and a year older than Alexander. It took a while for Alexander to get into the ‘zone’. He gave Alfie, a great match. Alfie was pretty loud, with his ‘woos’, and ‘c’mons’. While Alexander played with a lot of decorum and grace. Alfie was tactically better, however his inconsistency was one of his major flaws.

Alexander lost 0-6, 0-6, and Alfie was horribly disgraceful in victory.  Alexander, had purposely not wanted to step on three worms, on the court, at the detrament of his match!! He should have asked someone, to have the worms  removed beforehand !!  I hadn’t known, until after the match!!

After the match, Alfie had deliberately ignored retrieving two tennis balls at the back of the court, they had been ridiculously close, so it was very annoying to view his blatant arrogance!! I mentioned this to an official, and Dan had adhered my observation, and proceeded to ask Alfie to retrieve both tennis balls!!

Alexander for his ‘consolation’ match, had been against Sebastian, who also had been older than Alexander, and Sebastian has a 8.2 rating.

Alexander’s second match for the morning, had been far superior and he was finally in the ‘zone’. Alexander’s shots, were far more aggressive, and he was more tactically decisive!!

On a number of occasions, Sebastian called a few of Alexander’s shots “out”, when they were categorically had been ‘IN’!! I found Sebastian’ calls questionable !!!

Sebastian played ‘ball’, while the officials were close, and Sebastian even enquired, if  Alexander was “sure”, on a call Alexander had made !!  Alexander answered adamantly “Yes”!! It’s a tactic a few competitors use, to put their players off their game !! I loathe to witness this appalling behaviour.

Considering Sebastian is older, and has a higher rating then Alexander, it just goes to show, how formidable a opponent Alexander is, if Sebastian has to resort to gamesmanship  tactics !!

We left the tennis club around lunchtime, and on the whole we had a good day. Driving to Hassocks, (of which we were not familiar with, had been straightforward), and the organisers were welcoming, friendly and we had met them before. We very  much liked the club, and would return for another competition at the Weald Tennis & Squash Club, at Clayton.