Impression
Can I just say… Takuma has the cutest hamsters!
But yeah, Maruo is back from Florida, and the focus is once again on his domestic tennis goals and the impending All-Japan Junior. I initially found it slightly odd that one of his planned tournaments was the Kanagawa Circuit, for the STC Cup – because he should be able to easily hold his own against the vast majority of the competitors in that circuit as he currently is. But there’s no reason not to participate, if only to confirm his growth – and there are players like Araya who can easily give him a good run for his money. Maruo has never outright won either, so there’s that as well – and winning will put him in a better starting position for the future tournaments he enters. I think they mentioned there were a couple of months until the STC Cup begins, and that sounds like the perfect time-frame for him to perfect the powerful serve he’s currently trying to level up with. A powerful serve would make it much easier to keep, and it’s much-needed security for what I’m sure will be an ever-uphill climb. I don’t think Maruo was necessarily throwing the game just to get serve practice – because it was live, and it was serve practice against Takuma. I doubt Takuma would be willing to hold his hand and slowly guide him through how to build up a powerful serve in his own time – so the best option was definitely to get live experience with watching and returning his serve, then trying to replicate it as best as he could. The problem was that Maruo would probably have done that across all three sets, which would not have been good for him physically – hence why Coach Aoi stopped him. Maruo managed to understand what Aoi wanted him to understand from playing that match – and let’s face it, the current Maruo has almost no chance of winning against Takuma.
It must be vexing for Takuma, though – tennis is currently the most important thing he can beat Maruo in, given that he’s lost in academics and has now lost in love as well. Maruo has now been compared to Ike by even Takuma, and it would have been vindicating for him if he could have established a win while he can. Maruo x Nacchan is the most obvious pairing, and it’s always been ambiguous whether Takuma likes Nacchan as well – but it was pretty clear this week, and he’s just never said anything. I do feel kind of sorry for him. But he’s got his cute hamsters, right?