Baby Steps Episode Rating Graph

Eiichiro thought he was successfully ignoring the crowd's roaring cheers for Ide, but his body was reacting to it more than he realized. The pressure of playing in front of a dramatic, Ide-centric crowd is troubling Eiichiro.

Eiichirō is about to play his first match. He receives advice from the other STC members, but it only makes him more nervous. He doesn't get a chance to calm himself down as he's soon called to the tennis court.

Eiichirō and Miyagawa face off in the second round of the tournament for their second match. If Eiichirō loses he knows he'll lose all chance of going pro. If Miyagawa loses he knows his path to become a pro will take longer and might force him to go to college first.

After winning his first match in America, Eiichirō finally gets to play Ike in a one set match. Ike gets it approved at the New Years party where many of Eiichirō's new friends first learn of Natsu.

Yu Nabae matches up with Eiichirō and realizes they really are two players that are virtually the same. He realizes that what Eiichirō lacks is experience with the fundamentals, as he has never played anyone like himself, and after losing the first set Nabae begins to pull away and goes up 5-2.

The match between Eiichirō and Miyagawa begins with each holding serve. However Eiichirō feels that something is off. After studying his notes, Eiichirō realizes that Miyagawa has been studying his shots, and with a 4-3 lead he plans on making his move in the eighth game.

Eiichirō returns from Florida and is given a day off to adjust his body to the time difference. After the day off Eiichirō begins a new strict training regime to help him get ready for the Kanagawa Prefectural.

The game finally reaches its final stage. Eiichiro who desperately envisions a vision to win Nambae and is ready for a new strategy with the intention of losing.

The final door on the way to the All-Japan Junior, the Kanto Junior Tournament, is just around the corner. Eiichiro psyches himself up as he confirms his promise to his parents that he'll give up if he doesn't win the All-Japan Junior, and then he sets off with the other STC members for Chiba, where the Kanto Junior will be held.

Araya and Eiichirō prove to be even and are both unable to break each others serve. Making things worse is there will be no tiebreaker., Instead an individual must win by 2 games.

After defeating Miyagawa, Eiichirō returns to STC for some training that will make him better in 1 day. Eiichirō is teamed up with a Coach Mike from Florida who specializes in pyschological training.

Maruo Eiichirō continues his training at STC as he tries to master every shot. At smaller tournaments he begins advancing to the third round but is unable to go further. His mother worries that Eiichirō is spending too much time on tennis when he drops out of cram school to practice more.

In his final day in Florida Alex agrees to play a best-of-3 match with Eiichirō. Alex realizes that Eiichirō's notes contain all of his weaknesses and that he will have to adjust his play style to win the match.

Eiichirō continues his practice and gets his next tournament schedule. As the last player to qualify he is placed up against the 1-seed, Yu Nabae. Eiichirō begins to look for weaknesses from Yu on tape, but what he finds is a highly adaptive style that could easily beat him if he doesn't come up with a few tricks.

Araya and Eiichirō begin their match in the Kanagawa Prefectural Final. At first both are holding serve and the score is at 3-3. However Coach Aoi realizes Eiichirō doesn't have the knowledge on how to deal with left handers since he's only played Araya once.

The match between Hiromi and Eiichirō begins. Everytime Eiichirō tries to go on the attack, Hiromi hits a shot Eiichirō can't reach.

The match between Eiichirou and Nabae finally reaches its thrilling climax, and the former risks losing to envision his victory.

The match has just begun and Eiichiro is already close to being in the zone. His excellent condition is reminiscent of his match against Ide; Eiichiro doesn't give Nabae a chance to fight back and soon takes the lead.

Even if it seems to lack etiquette, Takagi's play style continues to work in his favor by disupting his opponent's pace. Eiichiro struggles to deal with Takagi's tactics.

Eitaro, upon winning spectacularly in his fight against Ide, decides to go to the National Junior's. Coach Aoi explains that towards the end of the match, Eitaro was completely in the zone.

Eiichirō returns to the Kanagawa Junior Circuit. His first match is up against fellow high school student Koshimizu Nariyuki, a man whom is always trying to compete with Eiichirō for the top scores.

Eiichirō runs to watch Natsu's match when he learns she is in danger of losing. Afterwards they return to STC where he Ryuhei Aoi, a man who will become his new coach.

Coach Aoi explains to Eiichirō that he stopped the match against Takuma because his body wasn't developed to serve like Takuma yet. If he had continued to serve that way, he would have injured himself and forced himself to give up his tennis career.

The Kanto Junior Tennis Tournament begins at last, and Eiichiro is facing Yakabe Tadanori in his first match. Although he had watched videos of Yakabe's matches from a year ago, Eiichiro is bewildered by his opponent's much taller stature and completely different play style, and all the unexpected factors lead him to consider blanking all his mental data and starting from scratch.

Eiichirō and Natsu go out on their first date. When Eiichirō asks Natsu what she thinks about him, she tells him he is cheating. Afterwards Eiichirō is allowed to resume practice.

Eiichiro is stunned by all the cheering Ide receives as their match begins. He struggles with the unpredictable plays of the intuitive Ide, but he recalls what he learned in his match with Natsu and concentrates on watching his opponent. Meanwhile, Ide also struggles to keep up with Eiichiro's constant changes in tempo and starts to tune out the world as he tries to focus.

Eiichirō begins closing the gap on the others at the Florida Academy, but during everyone of his matches he has one moment where he presses too hard, costing him a set and eventually costing him the match.

Eiichirō throws out a couple of unexpected dropshots in set 2 and begins to alter the speed of his game. After trailing 30-love to begin match 2 of set 2 Eiichirō is able to rally with this new strategy and pull off a break.

Eiichiro finds himself in a contest with Takuma. Eiichiro has fifty tries to return Takuma's serve. One successful return and Eiichiro wins. However, despite Eiichiro's best attempts to follow his notes and stick to the basics, he can do nothing against one of the strongest serves in the country.

In an effort to try and reverse the tide, Eiichirō decides to go back to his idea of having 100-squares to aim for instead of 9.