Coach Ruplinger and the opposing team's coach met near the net and shook hands, exchanging a few words before turning back to their respective teams.
"Line up!" Coach Ruplinger called.
Both teams straightened up, standing shoulder to shoulder. A hush settled over the players as Coach Ruplinger stepped forward.
"The match will be played in an 8-game pro set," he announced. "No-Ad scoring. Switch sides on every odd game. Good luck to both sides."
(A/N: for those unaware of what that means, I recommend you search up how tennis scoring works.)
Jin and his teammates quickly formed a line across from the visiting team. The two squads stood face-to-face, ten players on each side, sizing each other up beneath the late-afternoon sun. The air buzzed with quiet anticipation, some nervous and some electric.
One by one, the coaches began calling out the matchups, announcing the order of play.
"Fifth singles—Jin Zhang."
Jin stepped forward as his name echoed across the court. His opponent mirrored him from the other side. He is an average-built player, maybe a bit taller than Jin, but with a steady gaze and a firm grip when they shook hands.
There was no exchange of words. Just a mutual nod of understanding.
Game time.
Both players picked up a new can of tennis balls, the metallic seal cracking open with a sharp hiss. They made their way to one of the side courts, away from the chatter of teammates, where the breeze was faint but constant and the fence rattled softly with the occasional gust.
Jin rolled his shoulders and ran through a few stretches, then moved into his usual dynamic warm-up. Some high knees, lunges, a few quick split-steps.
His opponent mirrored him, stretching out his shoulders with some shoulder rolls.
Just as they approached the baseline to start the warm-up rally, a loud voice pierced through the hum of the courts:
"HEY JIN!!! GOOD LUCK!!"
Jin flinched instinctively and whipped around.
There, leaning against the outer fence and waving like a lunatic, was Kai with a massive grin on his face and both hands in the air like he was trying to flag down a plane.
Jin's first instinct was embarrassment. A few players from the nearby court glanced over.
But then… he smiled.
The corners of his mouth tugged up just slightly as a warm flicker stirred in his chest.
Kai came to support him, even if he was sometimes a devil he does good things too.
Jin gave a short wave back and turned toward the court again, the nervous tension in his limbs slowly unraveling.
Jin went up to his opponent and they gave each other a quick introduction.
"Hey my names Jin, let's have a good match"
"Names John, likewise."
The both of them took position on the service line to warm up. It's kind of like a custom to begin warming up with some short court. It allows both players to slowly ease into the bigger shots which helps them with keeping their muscles loose and to get used to swinging.
They hit about 5 balls of short court before they moved back to hit some shots from the baseline.
As Jin rallied with John he took as many mental notes as possible about how John was hitting. The first thing he noted was that John's shots had no topspin at all, however, his shots were extremely consistent. As they were rallying he hadn't even missed a single shot making them all in, albeit they were slow and placed badly.
Another thing he noticed was that John's backhand was considerably worse, even if his backhand shots went in he could see John struggling a bit more with balancing himself and swinging correctly.
Well Jin wasn't one to talk, when he attempted hitting a topspin backhand during practice he nearly caused a car accident by hitting it into the street. Oh well.
Once they were warm enough with ground strokes they moved back up to the front in order to practice a few volleys.
They stood face to face roughly a few table widths apart and began to volley to each other trying their best to hit the ball before it hit the ground.
If the previous drills were composed, this was chaos.
Jin winced as he shanked another volley wide. To be fair, John wasn't much better, awkward footwork, mistimed swings. The next few minutes were filled with muffled curses and polite chuckles as they tried (and mostly failed) to make clean contact.
"Uhh, how about we go practice serves instead?" John offered, clearly over it.
"Yeah, that's fine with me," Jin replied, trying not to sound too relieved.
They returned to the baseline, starting from the deuce side. Jin pulled a couple of balls from his pocket and focused on clean mechanics and minimal power, just smooth execution. No point showing his full hand this early.
John returned the favor with three serves of his own; average pace, no real spin, nothing that would make Jin nervous. The same pattern followed on the ad side.
Finally, the two met at the net, again, to decide who'd serve first.
John held up his racquet. "M or W?"
Jin glanced at the logo on the butt cap and said, "I'll take W."
(A/N: This is kind of like flipping a coin to see who goes first but people use their racquet instead)
John gave it a spin. It landed on W.
"I'll serve first," Jin said immediately.
John nodded and backed up to the return position.
Jin walked to the baseline, spinning the racquet in his hand before settling into his stance. He chose to serve first for a reason. He wanted to set the tempo and take control before John could build any kind of rhythm.
He took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the moment settle in.
"Ready?" he called out.
John gave a quick thumbs up.
Jin bounced the ball a few times, eyes narrowing, his heartbeat steady.
I'm going to come out guns blazing.