close matches

[lendl lives]

What goes through your minds when you playing a close match? Say your in the third set and serving 5-6 against a player who can put you in trouble if you don't play your best. I don't feel good during these situations. Often I get a a feeling of nausea or shortness of breath. I don't always play bad but I definatley don't feel good. How can I turn this around? Is it just a matter of being 'tougher'.....It gets to the point were I start to think about how I feel rather than just on my game.

[lendl lives]

actually the feeling is worse if i'm serving at 6-5 in the third.

[thehustler]

It depends on how the match has gone. If we've traded breaks several times thru the match or just in the final set alone I just figure I'm due for a service hold. If I'm up 6-5 I'm actually relaxed. I figure if I lose serve the worst thing that happens is a tiebreak where anything can happen. I know I usually do good in tiebreaks so I don't panic much and usually wind up winning either the final service game or the tiebreak. At times I will play defensive tennis. I just want to get the ball back in play and make my opponent screw up by hitting one more ball. Hopefully I can catch him off balance and come to net for an easy overhead. HTH.

[jun]

You've got to stick to your weapon and impose it on your opponent's weakness.

I tried to be patient and not to pull the trigger too early.

[Bungalo Bill]

You've got to stick to your weapon and impose it on your opponent's weakness.

I tried to be patient and not to pull the trigger too early.

I think Jun is correct. Now is the time to place confidence in your game plan. Keep your mind off your mistakes and focus on what you need to do. Play high percentage shots. If you are real nervous, hit everything deep down the middle until you unwind a little.

Try and take deep breathes and let your mind calm down.

[lendl lives]

playing your strength to the opponents weakness is such a huge factor!!!!Usually its my serve or fh to his bh. It took a long time to finally sink in; "Don't bomb a serve to his fh!! spin one to his bh!!)

[Masamusou]

Sometimes hitting to the stronger side late in the match is a better idea. Most people I play against have a far more dangerous forehand, but a more consistent backhand. If you notice your opponent starting to miss a little more on his stronger side, try hitting to the stronger side and charging the net. He's already lost a little confidence in that side and knowing you are at net sometimes will be enough to cause him to miss one or two. Really, late in the match there is no real set strategy that will always work, sometimes you want to hit to his weaker side until you can dictate the point, other times you can force an error by causing him to lose confidence in his best shot. Also, late in the match, probably not a good idea to try to serve bombs all the time, if I'm serving down 5-6 in the 3rd I want to hit the least amount of 2nd serves as I can.

[lendl lives]

I was wondering when they show shot spot 2nd serves why pros serve 100% of their seconds to the bh side. I thought to myself couldn't a pro rip a bh as easily as a fh especially if he knew where it was coming?? Maybe pros serve this way because fh's are just that good.

[Rickson]

Most likely, the other guy is just as nervous as you. The only time you'll get into trouble is when you're playing someone with nothing to lose. If you've beaten the same opponent 20 straight times, he may not care about the win as much as you do and his aggressiveness and your nervousness might lead to a loss. When you run into someone with nothing to lose, just play him with scrappiness and hustle for every point. Don't get angry or frustrated, but keep up your hustle. Being a workhorse always got me out of trouble and if I lose, I just tell myself that I made the other guy earn it and I didn't give the match away.

[lendl lives]

thanks rickson. when i'm not playing or at work i'm usually watching tennis on tape. i was watching aggassi yesterday say "i try to make people play special tennis to beat me".

[Kaptain Karl]

Practice for close matches more “deliberately”. Do this by tracking your progress on both big points and key games. (The extra attention employed in monitoring yourself will put even more “pressure” on these parts of your matches. We get better handling pressure ... by handling pressure. So help “create” pressure by paying close attention to these.)

How many 30-15, 15-30, 40-30 and 30-40 points are you winning compared to your opponent? How many times are you able to recover from being down 0-40 or 15-40 on your own serve ... and win the game? Over the course of several weeks are your numbers improving on this stat?

Same thing with key games. How many times are you breaking back, immediately on being broken? How many times when, say, you are serving at 5-3, do you win that game, instead of having to fight to win 6-4 or 7-5?

(The fun part is ... as you get better with the above, you will have fewer “gut check” matches where you are in the predicament described in the OP....)

[tennisboy87]

That's why I love watching Lleyton Hewitt play. He runs down everything, plays within himself, and never gives anything away. To beat him, like Fed did, you have to play your best tennis.

[lendl lives]

is there a counter (like in baseball) you can use to keep track of stats

[Kaptain Karl]

lendl lives - You are looking for what are called “match charting” tools. [KK rummages around...] I looked all around on TW’s site and did not find them.

Do a “Google” on “tennis chart”. You’ll get tons of hits. If you have a PDA, Ace Tennis has one several of my friends like. It can give you stats “on the spot.”

Also, Ron Waite’s Turbo Tennis site has a good one-pager in hard copy. (The paper one is what I use. I have yet to jump on the PDA “bandwagon”.) If you cannot find that one, e-mail me and reference this topic. I’ll send it to you as a Word attachment.

- KK

[lendl lives]

thanks! i'll check into this today!=)

[Kobble]

When things get close I try to avoid double faults by going for safer first serves. I want my opponent to feel the pressure, and to know that it is not likely to go away.

[nyu]

I have the opposite approach as kobble. I never during a match hit a "safe" serve. I hit out at all times, only changing the spins. In those close match situations when I'm up 6-5 and serving, I try to kick every serve right into my opponents body with whatever spin will move towards their weaker stroke, and I tend to S&V alot. I do my best to pound on the pressure and make my opponent beat me. If I'm down 5-6, I try to place my first serves into the corners and try to hit heavy groundstrokes from the baseline, again making my opponent beat me. If he's been beating me by hitting me off the court, then of course the strategy changes and I will try to be more aggressive.

The most important thing in these situations, though, is to take the full 20 seconds between points and breathe. Take 4 deep breaths and concentrate on slowing down and relaxing your body.