Different opponents, different afternoon, the same ending. The player turns for a familiar return and finds somebody waiting exactly where the ball is going. After enough points like this, it can feel as though the Court has been giving lessons behind their back.
The Court That Plays Back is said to repeat a person’s patterns with unnerving precision. Superstition calls it cursed. Errors of the Reader supplies two less comfortable possibilities: Pattern Hunger may be making a few repetitions look exact, or the player may be giving the same answer often enough to be read.
Consider a partner watching without being told what to expect. At first they notice nothing. Later, an early shift of weight catches their eye before a familiar return. It is something to look for again, a smaller and more useful claim than a conspiracy.
On the next opportunity the player varies the shot. It still goes badly. A habit has become visible, but changing it is awkward; a different choice has not bought an immediate reward.
The Devil and the Wheel of Fortune fit this uneasy interval. Repetition may bind a player, while chance makes a pattern look stronger or weaker than it is. More points may confirm the observation or spoil it. The possibly invented Court gives the feeling a name; the partner still has to watch the ball.
This time, neither of them says they knew what would happen.