stared me in the face

13:50 Jul 28, 2020 

How can hard work to prepare for a tournament be a waste of time? It's not logical. And an extremely defeatist attitude to see a draw and say "Oh no, there was no point in preparing because I haven't a chance", which seems to be what you are saying? Instead of saying "Oh no, what a awful draw. I have an awful lot of hard work over the next few weeks if I am to have any chance in this tournament!" Yet you are still agreeing with a completely wrong term and explanation! It doesn't inspire confidence! I don't really see the need to repeat everything I already said but will reiterate that I gave the correct meaning of the English term "stared me in the face", the term actually asked, , so disagrees are unwarranted though I also already said the ST is flawed so it may not have been the term intended here.

14:52 Jul 25, 2020 

Clearly you are right to say the ST is faulty; just look at "when I saw the how the draw is tough" bit of it, so I'd surmise that the hard work was already behind the writer. Hence IMO, the use of "stared me in the face" is misleading, as it has misled you and others.. BTW, when I played club tennis way back when, draws were never made at longer intervals than the majots, hence my reference to them.
The writer is in effect saying "all that hard work and training to prepare for the event was a waste of time, now I've seen the draw".

13:16 Jul 25, 2020 

this is nothing to do with following tennis closely (which BTW I do) but of the meaning of the English term "stared me in the face". It does NOT mean "smack in the eye" so I disagreed because, quite simply, it's wrong . The writer may have wanted to use another expression, which is why I asked for further clarification from Asker (which I didn't get). I and two other natives have already pointed out that the source text is flawed. I suggested that it was probably written by a non-native. As for etiquette, well there are serial disagreers who disagree with other answers on a consistent basis. I disagree only when the other answer is wrong, which it is here, in terms of meaning. You just can't say that black=white! Of course months of hard work go in long before all tournaments, and even more as tournament gets closer, regardless of when draws are made! We don't know what type of tournament this is, or whether (or how much) seeding is involved. So why assume this is a major?

08:42 Jul 25, 2020 

If you follow tennis closely, you will see all the major tournaments only make their draws a matter of two to three weeks before the event. This would hardly give anyone time to "prepare for the tournamet", now would it? So the hard work could not possibly follow the draw, and logically you cannot disagree with Anastasia's answer.
In any case, to disagree with another poster having posted a answer oneself flies in the face of site etiquette. Especially if you are diagreeing with a patently correct answer.

11:21 Jul 24, 2020 

no, why would you say that? It doesn't mean the same thing at all! I have given the meaning for the term. Of course these efforts were made before the tournament. That's clear. What is not clear is when the draw was made? Months before the tournament? "when I saw the how the draw is tough" is wrong as was pointed out already. It probably should be "when I saw how tough the draw WAS". Something in your wider context should tell you WHEN that draw took place. The hard work followed the draw so was ahead of him at the time of the draw.It says "to prepare for the tournament" so obviously the work has to be BEFORE the tournament.

20:26 Jul 23, 2020 

That's weird. He is obviously talking about the efforts before tournament. Could we replace it by smack me in the face?

19:06 Jul 23, 2020 

The sentence is faulty. All the hard work was ahead of him at the time the draw was made. I assume the draw was made before the tournament. Otherwise you need to give us a corrected text

18:45 Jul 23, 2020 

But he is talking about the hard work before the tournament, because he had months of training and working.