A Dark Victory (6-4)

Yesterday's tennis matches proved quite daunting. During doubles, my partner and I decided to just go for it. We fought a team that was much better on paper and made it close. Alas, I went for it a little too much and ended up going for a forehand in the wrong position. I followed through and hit myself square in the face. I was more embarrassed than anything, but thankfully no one saw the actual incident. What they did see was the immediate bump over my eye. It was big and required icing, but I played on and we lost. That was just the beginning. I realized the guy I would be playing was a lot better than me. He was a substitute with a big lefty serve and a great forehand.
I was up in singles right after doubles and resigned myself to lose before I even started playing. The points weren't very long. I was just hitting hard at every possibility: sometimes in, mostly out. But the guy I was playing was making a lot of mistakes too. He double faulted, he sprayed balls. I realized he had to slice all his backhands because if he went for it, he would hit it out. I started directing all my serves and groundstrokes to it. Somehow I was still in the set despite the fact that I felt he could have beaten me 6-0. I was laughing to myself as I was playing, just wondering why we even were still playing. I don't know if my opponent didn't care, if he was nervous, or if he was just giving me the win because it didn't count for him. But I think he just gave it to me. And I accept charity. After 2 early breaks, I broke again for 5-4 and served it out. It was a weird win, especially because I was able to hit despite not caring at all. I think I need to learn to not care at all, then I can go back to caring a little and try not to care too much.