The Parade College Writing Workshop – Zac Heczey: The Regional Tennis Championships

 

By Zac Heczey

 

About a year ago now I was selected to represent my region in tennis. This was a big deal because there were people coming from across Australia to play in the regional tournament. Our biggest rivals had won it two years in a row, and we were hoping to break their streak. They perform best on hard court – considering the tournament would be played on hard court they were expected to win for the third year in a row.

 

I had been training vigorously leading up to the tournament, so I knew I was ready.

 

The day came upon me in an instant. All of a sudden, we were packing up the car to leave and I had finished making my playlist of songs for the drive. My little stash of lollies was ready, so we went on our way. My sister and I were listening to music and my dad was focusing on driving. The trip felt like ages. I had finished my playlist and I was going over some final tactics in the car when I saw the Bendigo sign.

 

First, we checked into our hotel, unpacked the car, relaxed for half an hour and then went to have an hour hit before the big day. When I was playing nothing was hurting, so we went back to our room, had dinner and went to bed.

 

I woke up feeling great and confident. I ate breakfast and got dressed and went out to play. We all met up and had a hit to warm up. We got informed about our first opponent; a country team who were usually an easy win. My team was always out there supporting our team. We won our whole bracket and by the end of the day we were first seed. We were all exhausted but we were happy with our efforts, so we went out to dinner to celebrate before the finals.

 

The next day we woke up extremely sore, but we knew once you got moving the pain would go away, so we got out to face the third seed. They were one of our rivals, but not our top rivals. We were quite even in the singles matches, but every single time I have represented this region I have always said that our doubles is our strong point. Once again it was proven right. We had gotten into the grand final against our biggest rivals in Waverley.

 

We decided to play doubles first so we knew our opponents’ style. After the doubles we were up by three sets and I was the last to go on for my singles. It was all even on sets, so all the pressure was on me. My opponent and I were both playing well. It came down to a tiebreak. Both teams were on the fence cheering. Suddenly, it was match point to me. It was a long and vigorous point but in the end I won the match and won it for the team. What a feeling!

 

 

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