Jarnail Dhalla (jdhalla(at)stanford.edu) dropped by to check out the club after playing Todd and Monica. Coming from a tennis background, he moves pretty well on the court (given the slippery DeGuerre courts, he must have experience playing on clay courts!). Right now tennis elbow flare-up and an old racquet limit his power, but he was still hitting some winners into the corners against Matt, and even hit a great pass-court pass for a winner.
Aaron played a challenge match against Matt -- He must have sensed a vulnerability in Matt (who had gone for a bike ride earlier in the day after a year w/o a ride over 30 miles), or maybe it was a boost of confidence from trying out a new racquet, or some secret advice that Jack had imparted... The first game started out well for the favorite, with Matt anticipating some of Aaron's shots and moving up for the quick rekill. However, after a bit of scolding from Jack, Aaron settled down and began to hit smarter shots (down the line!, down the line!). Matt sensed trouble as Aaron evened up the score. Time to open the arsenal of serves--they've always carried me in the past. Some did work, but Aaron was clearly winning the majority of the rallies, with Matt's ceiling game particularly atrocious. Aaron did a great job cutting a couple short ceiling balls off for down-the-line kill shots. Even the one time that Matt read the shot and jumped on it, the DTL shot missed by a bit, nicked the sidewall and went in for a pinch winner as Matt looked on helplessly. The game stalled with Aaron up 14-9, and Matt clawed and fought his way back to 13-14 with Aaron getting increasingly frustrated. Some of these were lucky bounces that just went Matt's way, or shots where Aaron hit into Matt's coverage, but Aaron did collect himself and finished the game out with a beautifu DTL pass.
"The courts sure are slippery," Matt excused his poor footwork -- which didn't exactly explain why Aaron was outplaying him on the courts. "I'm staying back more," was Aaron's reply. Ahh, some of the scoldings must have sunk in, and it seemed to be working. "I don't think I like the extra power you get with this racquet," Matt replies, thinking that Aaron is hitting the ball a bit harder today. (Jack thinks Matt was getting passed because he was playing too far in the front and overcommitting: "Hit it behind him" he suggests to Aaron) "Hopefully the new strings in my own racquet will get me a bit more power," Aaron sighs wistfully, as he makes a mental note to go home and ask his wife how much money they have saved in their penny jar.
The second game was also a close-fought affair, with Matt getting the early lead, and Aaron trying to close the gap, but coming up short in the end (15-11). Matt's legs were not helping him much, and his ceiling game was still atrocious. The tiebreaker was an ugly affair--Aaron just rolled off a string of strong serves and rekills. Serving at 9-0 (and with Matt not having broken Aaron's serve yet), Aaron asked if Matt wanted to play to 15 instead. Rub it in! This provoked Matt enough to win the subsequent rally and get the serve, but he still couldn't score, and Aaron went on to hand out the goose-egg: 11-0.
To recover a bit of pride, Matt immediately requested a quick consolation game to 11. Aaron must have let up to be a nice guy, as Matt won that 11-3. Too little, too late, though...
This table ranks players by
| Start Rank | Start Pts | Player | Earned Points | Offense |
| 3 | 11 | Aaron | +9 | 40 |
| 1 | 15 | Matt | +5 | 54 |
| 9t | 0 | Jarnail | +1 | 3 |
(*) Rank - the club rank at the start of play.
(*) Start Pts - the number of ladder points at the start of play.
(*) Earned Points - the number of ladder points earned this evening.
(*) Offense - Total points scored in games this evening
| Player A | Player B | Winner | Upset? | Score | Earned Points |
| Matthew | Jarnail | Matthew | -- | 15-3 | Matt(+2) Jarnail(+1) |
| Challenge Match: | |||||
| Matt | Aaron | Aaron | 15-13 | (game #1) | |
| Matt | Aaron | Matt | 15-11 | (game #2) | |
| Matt | Aaron | Aaron | ++ | 11-0 (Goose Egg!) | (tiebreaker) ==> Aaron(+8) Matt(+1) |
| Matt | Aaron | Matt | -- | 11-3 | Matt(+2) Aaron(+1) |
Upset - a (++) indicates that the lower-ranked player won