The First Final (and Match) on The Eleven

In my last post, I unveiled The Eleven, my new tennis court and viewing space. A little less than a week later, Heather and I had our first social gathering to show some of our friends why we have been hermits for the last three years. Covid, along with the all-consuming nature of this project, resulted in us being homebodies when we weren’t traveling or going to the Palm Springs area. 

Prior to putting up trees on the perimeter of the property, the construction was somewhat visible, so it garnered a lot of attention and conversation. We have been told that “it’s been the talk of the town.” It was very common to see people walking by to stop and take pictures or even drive up and ask if they could see what we were building. Given this, our long-term friends who live in the community were eager to see what we have created.

As the project progressed, I became more and more excited to show it to friends and tennis aficionados to witness their reaction when they walked in and saw the totality of what had been built. I was particularly excited to begin having people over once the lights were installed. They are incredible not only in terms of how they illuminate the court and the viewing area but in how aesthetically pleasing they are. They are really beautiful and add to the awe-inspiring feel of the project. And, even better, we recently had nodes installed that allow me to control each of the eight pairs of lights in terms of when they come on, for how long, and how bright they can go from 0% to 100% in 5% increments. This flexibility makes it ideal to create a great ambiance and functionality for any social setting.

This picture shows how well-illuminated the non-court area is, as one can see how bright the area is despite it being nighttime.

Here is another shot of the attendees on the court with the lights in the background.

I couldn’t have been more pleased by the reaction everyone had to what we built. I first had everyone gather inside the house to socialize a bit. I wanted this to take place first so that I could have everyone come outside at the same time so they could see how the area looked without the lights on, and then I could do the big reveal by turning on the lights from my phone so everyone could see that simultaneously. The reaction was just as I would have hoped. They were stunned. We have known each other for a long time, so they saw the house and property prior to the construction, and they couldn’t believe how it was transformed.

A couple of people brought their rackets, and we were going to hit some balls after eating. Just as we were about to go down to the court, it started to pour. The bright side to this is that people could see the rain come down onto the court from a window in the kitchen, and it was quite spectacular to see the downpour with all of the lights on. It was interesting to see how everyone gravitated to that spot to take it all in.

A couple of weeks prior I played in a tournament in which I won my two singles matches on Saturday with the finals being scheduled for Sunday. That match got rained out with the makeup being scheduled for March 2 or 3. My opponent reached out to me and asked if I would be open to playing earlier, and if so, he could book us a court at the same facility in which the tournament was held.

I told him that I had just finished having a court built at my home and asked him if we would be open to playing here instead. I sent him a picture, and he immediately replied, “Let’s do it!”. The match was scheduled for the day after our inaugural unveiling with our local friends.

This is the first real match to have taken place on The Eleven, and to have it be the finals of a tournament seems only fitting, given that it’s worthy of it being a very special event. It was a dramatic match. I was up 4-1 in the first set, and then he roared back to win 6-4. In the second set, I felt very energized as I could see that he was tiring, and I kept telling myself to play fearlessly and that “This is my court!”.

I won 6-2. It then came down to a 10-point tiebreak. He got off to a roaring start with a 4-1 lead. I came back to reclaim the lead 8-7. He then was ahead 9-8 and 10-9 but couldn’t hold the lead, and I ended up winning a very satisfying match 12-10! What a way to christen The Eleven.

Here is a picture of my opponent and I.