In my early days of playing pennant, when stretching was not heard of, and psychology was for mad people, I played a lady who hit hard and volleyed. That was her usual style.
She was known for hitting fluke shots too, which I now realise was due to her grip.

This is how the game went:
 

• I was down 2 games to nil.
   
• What was going on?
  
  • A few things about the venue distracted me.
     
  • The courts had a low ceiling and that took some of my good shots away.
     
  • My lob serve had to be adapted; the cross-court lobs would hit the roof.
     
  • My opponent was having one of those days.
     
  • She hit shots off the handle, the top of the frame, the "wood" (as we called the edge of the racket then), and they all would manage to hit the front wall.
     
• I could not believe it. It just kept happening!
   
• During the match, as I kept losing the rallies, I thought I am ranked 3, she is ranked 8, so why am I losing?
   
• In between the second and third games I thought, she's fluking a few, so just run as hard as you can, get every ball back into play, make no errors. So I took a deep breath, and went for it.
•  What happened then?
  
  • I really focussed, and just scraped in 3 : 2.
     
• So, now when I analyse what went on and how I got back into the match, I see a couple of vital things.
  
  • The simple plan helped me concentrate, and focus on the match.
     
  • The actions in the plan were things I could control, and I stopped worrying about my opponent's shots, which I had no control over.

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