Ever thought:
I'd rather play
A good match
Than play poorly
And somehow win?
Because the opponent
Played even worse?
Or to have caused the opponent
To play even worse?
So
What's a
Good match
Then?
Not under-performed
Called upon what practiced
And what worked in practice
Played good points
Nothing bad happened
No injury
Played to win
Had fun?
If we still lost
The opponent was just better
At winning
What gets counted :)
That day
Hopefully they played well too
And as a result
We "made a good match".
So even in officially
Non-style competition
Apart from the Ws
Of the world
It's OK to give ourselves
"Style points" too
Make match more memorable.
Let's do it again
With style points
A loss is
Not only a loss
A W a plus
How about a 2x2 between
Winning and style?
Ever want
Bad style?
Obviously
In a match
We don't want to aim for
Style only
Show up
Loosey-goosey
How about always bringing
The 3F?
P.S. Optional anecdote:
A couple of years ago
I played well
At an ITF tournament
Against a strong opponent
Before
I had lost 0 and 1
Didn't play horrible then
But could have done better
The 2nd time
I played great
Almost every single point ended up being
An entertaining rally
We had a few spectators
Who enjoyed it
Had a good time on court
Both of us
Somehow
I lost 1 and 0 :)
Yes I'll keep thinking how to
Score better next time
But
I didn't mind at all
It was a great match
Style points galore!