The Roche Open 2013, A Tennis Classic

There are about 5,000 employees at Roche Penzberg where I work, and on November 23^rd they held their 25^th annual tennis tournament.  As I recently took up playing tennis again this year (recreationally), some people in my department encouraged me to sign up.  This is the story of what happened on the 25-jähriges Jubiläum.

I was initially hesitant to add my name to the list since it was to be held on a Saturday evening (5-11 p.m.) far away from Munich.  But since 3 other people from my group were also playing, I decided to play along with the goal of not overly embarrassing myself.  I figured it would be a nice opportunity to network and meet some new Roche people.

While I was a tennis master back in high school (go Panthers!), nowadays I’m not nearly as good, let alone as fit as I was back when I played on the varsity team.  But I still have a natural feel for the game that never really went away.  So off I went down to Murnau on a snowy Saturday evening.

The format of the tournament was a random alternating doubles draw.  Each person played 6 matches lasting 30 minutes each, with a different partner and different opponents each time.  This gave us each about 2 hours of break time mixed in throughout (in total a 5 hour event).

Here I will break down a little play-by-play of my 6 matches – ESPN The Ocho style.

I arrived just before 5 p.m. to find out that we were starting exactly at 5 p.m. (German punctuality leaves no time for dilly-dallying), and my first partner happened to be Stephan from my department.  He is a strong player who trains fairly regularly and is pretty competitive. I quickly changed and jumped out on the court feeling really nervous about embarrassing myself, or worse, letting down my partner.  One of our opponents was much better than us and it was impossible to return his serve.  He aced me probably 4 times in this match while the rest just ricocheted off my racquet.  But the rest of the match I played quite well, probably from adrenaline, and we were able to finish with a slight lead as time ran out.  Match 1 = Win (6-3)

I got a late start on the second match, which was directly after my first.  I had no idea we would be playing back to back, so my self-appointed break was interrupted with the shouts, “Wo ist der Amerikaner?” (Where is the American?).  This quickly became my nickname for the night as word got out that I was new, foreign, and a worthy opponent.  The second match was mixed doubles.  My partner’s bad knee had me worried we were doomed, but she was arguably the best one on the court.  Without even moving a step she was firing winners like a video game.  Match 2 = Win (8-0)

After a sanctioned 30-minute break, I was up for my 3^rd match.  Our opponents hit the ball really softly, which made the game even more challenging for me because I could not get the right timing.  I played really bad in what was a really ugly match we could have easily lost.  But time ran out just as we held a one game lead.  Match 3 = Win (4-3)

In match 4 I played against the big boys - some of Baveria’s best.  I had a good partner, which made me the clear weakest player on the court.  The entire match we were just clawing away to keep it tied.  There is no doubt that they were the better team, but after 29 minutes we were tied 5-5.  In the following game, with little time left to play, we were down 45-15 and about to succumb to our fate as losers when I was saved by the bell buzzer.  In this case, the final points don’t count, and the match ended in a tie.  Match  4 = Tie (5-5)

(At this point the word was getting out that “der Amerikaner” had not lost yet, and I started hearing my name being mentioned as a potential winner.)

I played really good in my fifth match, and we overpowered what were likely equal opponents.  Match 5 = Win (5-3)

Now I was starting to feel rather nervous going into the final match, because once again I faced one of the stronger players from match 4.  I thought we were in real trouble when the weakest player on the court won the game of his serve.  This put the pressure on us.  But in the end, we were able to shake of the exhaustion of 3 hours of tennis and we rolled to a strong finish.  Match 6 = Win (8-3)

In the end, I won 5 matches and tied 1.  Many said I would win the overall tournament, but there was another player who won all 6 of his matches.  Therefore, I was crowned second place out of the 15 men competitors (women were ranked separately) and received a 25 EUR gift card.  Amazing!  Overall, while I played really well, I knew I was really only the 5^th or 6^th best individual player, so like any sports champion I also had my fair share of luck to finish in the top.

So there you have it.  Der Amerikaner was the second place champion at the Roche Open 2013.  I’m looking forward to playing more tennis next year and the Roche Open 2014.