How are you, sirs and ma'ams?
I'm watching a film, 'Match point'
and I got this puzzling sentence.
Two guys are shooting the breeze about tennis players.
A :OK, so who was better, or tougher? Henman or Agassi?
B : They were both great. Yeah, I know, but I mean,
A : You held your own more than admirably.
B : For a while. But as the game goes on, you see how really good they are.
Well, the phrase 'hold your own' was not clear to me, so I looked up the dictionary.
hold your (own) ground : to be as successful as other people or things in a situation:
Josie can hold her own in any argument.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hold-your-own
Well, B is a tennis instructor who could've played professionally.
He somehow ends up being a tennis instructor.
Did A say B was as successful as other tennis player, which obtained admiration? Did A mean that by 'you held your own'?
Please help me have a better understanding of the phrase.
Thank you.