'Deuce' in Montreal

Match 6

Opponent: Deuce
Opponent Rating: 4.5
Date: Fri 5 Oct, 7pm
Location: Montreal, Jarry Park Tennis Centre (home of the Montreal Masters)
Surface: Hard
Result: 6-0 6-3

It`s an honour (UK spelling there) to play one of the legend posters on this message board.

I met up with Deuce in downtown Montreal on Friday evening and we rode the subway out to the tennis centre. As one would expect for a Masters venue it was excellent - great courts and powerful floodlights. Deuce told me how he`d seen Roddick, Connors and Hingis practise on the court we were using, so we had a lot to live up to!

This was Deuce`s first game back after colliding with a fence post and bruising a rib about a month previous - very nice of him to make time for a game with me while still not 100%.

The first set featured lots of long deuce games (appropriately) but Deuce was clearly a bit rusty and kept just missing the lines when he hit out. I took the set 6-0 but that was a very harsh scoreline on Deuce given the competitive play.

At the start of the second set Deuce pulled a different Head Prestige (I think) out of the bag. I don`t know if he just found his range or the racquet made the difference but he steadied up and the match got a lot tighter. Deuce was serve-volleying effectively behind his first serve and staying quite steady from the back, unleashing some big forehands from unlikely positions.

I got a solitary break and just about managed to hold on to it through the rest of the set. Deuce saved several matchpoints while serving at 2-5 and then saved a couple more on my serve to earn a breakpoint at 5-3. I finally managed to close it out though.

So thanks to Deuce for a really enjoyable game and some tips on where to go for an evening in Montreal - hope he`s fully fit again soon!