Episode 17: The Small Winning Pose



The crowd was awed by the unexpected Boomerang Snake from Kaido. Shiba even asked Inoue if that shot was legal and Inoue said that it is, although, there are few around-the-pole shots ever and this was the greatest shot of that kind he's ever seen. Kamio was starstruck although he just commented that he'll just raise his rhythm. He hit a no-touch ace serve on Kaido's expense, making it a 1-0 game to Kamio.

Kaido however, was starstruck on his own shot. It was a lucky shot on his part and he tried it over and over again in middle of his match with Kamio although his shots were missed shots or "out", he just couldn't get the knack of his "Boomerang Snake". He thought that if only he could muster that shot, he would be able to defeat Kamio. It was then a 4-2 game to Kamio This dismayed Coach Ryuuzaki, saying that Kaido's not that weak to only rely on a lucky shot. Kaido finally realizes after quite some time that the style of tennis he's playing isn't his style of tennis.

Meanwhile, Sakuno ventured out to the washroom and got lost again, for the nth time. This time, as she was finding her way back to Seigaku's court, she accidentally stepped on someone's shoes and that someone belonged to a very obnoxious guy who insists that she pay Y30,000 for the cleaning of his now dirtied new shoes.

Back to the game, Kaido's now very persistent making Fudoumine's Kamio very tired. They went from 4-3 to 5-4 games to Kamio's lead. Finally, the inevitable happened, it was now matchpoint for Kamio. Only another point and he would win this match. This time, it's his turn to serve and he's used his Quick Serve hoping that Kaido wouldn't be able to return it, but he was mistaken. Kaido hit another Snake towards him and Kamio failed to return.

Momoshiro, seeing that it's now Kaido's time to make a comeback, decided that he would be fetching Kawamura from the hospital. Meanwhile, Sakuno's having a hard time with the guy who's obsessed with his own shoes. She was grateful to the girl she saw so many times before come to her aid and mouth off to the guy saying that his stupidity might be contagious. This angered the guy and he hit the mysterious girl who came to Sakuno's aid.

Shifting back to Kaido and Kamio's game. Their match now turned into an endurance match. Due to Kaido's persistence, Kamio's match point went away and came tons of deuces and advantages from the receiver which is Kaido. Both Seigaku and Fudoumine's members wondered how Kaido got that amazing endurance. Kamio's already panting and sweating profusely while Kaido's not even got a pant on his breath. Inui then spoke up and told everyone the menu practice Kaido does everytime. It was then they learned that Kaido's running 10km before practice, after practice and at night and he does 150 situps everyday, along with other numerous exhilirating things. Suddenly all of their attention went back to Kamio and Kaido's match, miraculously, Kaido won the match: 7-5 to Kaido.

Kamio sat on the Fudoumine's bench saying that he doesn't feel bad since he gave everything he could on that match and that Kaido's persistence really got him in the end. It was now time of Singles 2. Shinji stood up from the bench and turned to look at Seigaku's Singles 2, Ryoma Echizen.

Luckily, when the guy hit the mysterious girl who came to Sakuno's aid, Momoshiro saw everything and told the guy that hitting a girl isn't just right. The mysterious girl told Momo what happened and about the guy's shoes. Momoshiro just turned towards the guy and told him that he should learn how to clean his shoes and shoes are meant to be dirtied anyway. Momoshiro asked the guy if he should dirty his shoes some more and this prompted the guy to flee. Now, the mysterious girl introduced herself as the younger sister of Fudoumine's captain. Her name is Ann Tachibana.

It's now Ryoma's debut in Singles. His opponent is Fudoumine's tensai (genius), we'll see what happen next.