Just Got Smoked in First Mixed Match

Dishiki · Jan 4, 2009

Playing ALTA, A8 winter mixed, line 2. We just got destroyed. We lost 2 and 2. I had never played with my partner before, as she hadn't been to any practices. We had no rhythm or flow whatsoever.

We both played pretty badly. The other guy was really great and his was was decent but he really protected her, and we were just scrapping. Never had the opportunity to take advantage of her. The only plus was of the 4 games, 3 of them were breaks of his serve.

I felt like I had cement blocks on at the net. It was just a poor all-around effort.

When your partner comes out and tells you she hasn't played in 2 months and she is going to suck, that's a confidence builder off the bat.

samster · Jan 4, 2009

Sorry to hear about that. That's tough playing doubles with someone you haven't played with before. And yes, practice helps!

FedererISBetter · Jan 4, 2009

It's okay, everyone gets smoked haha... unless you are between Federer and Nadal. Try to find some stuff she is good at... and find some stuff you are good at... and piece a strategy with it. You seem to be a good player, basing on your analysis.. so piece something together, make it work. If it doesn't work, try something new.
Best of luck

Storm_Kyori · Jan 4, 2009

Yeah, I was in the same boat as you. I'm also starting mixed doubles season and my partner who I haven't even met will be playing with me soon. Our match is on Sat and we're hoping to meet up wed. To at least get a feel for how we're going to set ourselves up. We are hopefully going to pay another pair on our group to find what are weaknesses are and general strategy.

nickynu · Jan 4, 2009

sounds like you are blaming your partner to me-If that makes you feel better then great but if you want to win next time you might want to apprroach this loss differently-up to you of course !

gastro54 · Jan 4, 2009

Dishiki said:
Playing ALTA, A8 winter mixed, line 2. We just got destroyed. We lost 2 and 2. I had never played with my partner before, as she hadn't been to any practices. We had no rhythm or flow whatsoever.

We both played pretty badly. The other guy was really great and his was was decent but he really protected her, and we were just scrapping. Never had the opportunity to take advantage of her. The only plus was of the 4 games, 3 of them were breaks of his serve.

I felt like I had cement blocks on at the net. It was just a poor all-around effort.

When your partner comes out and tells you she hasn't played in 2 months and she is going to suck, that's a confidence builder off the bat.

Did you happen to play at Piedmont Park?

Dishiki · Jan 4, 2009

nickynu said:
sounds like you are blaming your partner to me-If that makes you feel better then great but if you want to win next time you might want to apprroach this loss differently-up to you of course !

I am absolutely not placing sole blame on her. You win as a team and lose as a team. Her two month layoff didn't help. Not playing together didn't help. Me being a spectator at the net certainly didn't help. Me holding serve once and her zero times certainly didn't help.

Basically, it was a colossal failure, but I am easily as much to blame as her. On my men's team I've played with the guys I usually played with enough to know their tendencies, court coverage, etc. There were so many times where I thought she would be there for the ball and she wasn't, and there were definitely times when she though I was going to poach a ball and I didn't. Like I said before, we had absolutely no flow or rhythm. It's like we were individually playing singles against a team that's played together for years.

And I think the problem is we will get shuffled next week so we won't get to play together and try to work out the issues.

Dishiki · Jan 4, 2009

gastro54 said:
Did you happen to play at Piedmont Park?

Nope not at Piedmont

LeeD · Jan 4, 2009

Er...
And just what exactly were your expectations? Did you expect to dominate and smoke the competition?
Have you played tournaments before?
Stuff happens. And losing is the best learning experience we can all have.
Federer lost more tournament matches than all of us combined!
Next time, pick MartinaNav for your partner.

Dishiki · Jan 4, 2009

LeeD said:
Er...
And just what exactly were your expectations? Did you expect to dominate and smoke the competition?
Have you played tournaments before?
Stuff happens. And losing is the best learning experience we can all have.
Federer lost more tournament matches than all of us combined!
Next time, pick MartinaNav for your partner.

Thanks for contributing absolutely nothing worthwhile to the thread. You must be a riot at parties. Is there an ignore function on this forum?

LeeD · Jan 4, 2009

You're welcome, of course.
So you post your lousy results from your lack of prep.
We all played lousy tournament rounds from lack of preparation.
Wowie, you just did !!

What's to say.... CONGRATULATIONS !!

Mick · Jan 4, 2009

Dishiki said:
When your partner comes out and tells you she hasn't played in 2 months and she is going to suck, that's a confidence builder off the bat.

they say a doubles team is only as good as the weakest player on the team and unfortunately, i found this to be true many times over

Dishiki · Jan 4, 2009

Thanks again for the ever witty response. Why don't you just move along.

LeeD · Jan 4, 2009

Well, if you won't accept my congratulations, then I say... You Suck!
You should have prepared better for this tournament, you were asking for just that result, so live with it, be a man, and learn from it.
It's YOUR fault you didn't prepare properly, so what can anyone say except... You SUCK !!

spt · Jan 4, 2009

The bottom line at that level of ALTA mixed is that the woman has to hold her own - you win because the woman played well enough to win. You not being in sync with her, or knowing movement probably had little to do with the outcome. Her being able to return serve, hit some service winner (to the woman) and knock off a few volleys is what gets you to win ALTA matches at low A. The guy alone is not going to carry the match at at line 1,2 or probably 3.

BullDogTennis · Jan 4, 2009

ahhh, relax! things can only go up!

ssjkyle31 · Jan 4, 2009

Dishki what can I say. That why I like playing singles. I can only blame myself.

Sometimes, you can play singles in a doubles match, but she will call you a ball hog.

SlapShot · Jan 5, 2009

Dishiki said:
Playing ALTA, A8 winter mixed, line 2. We just got destroyed. We lost 2 and 2. I had never played with my partner before, as she hadn't been to any practices. We had no rhythm or flow whatsoever.

We both played pretty badly. The other guy was really great and his was was decent but he really protected her, and we were just scrapping. Never had the opportunity to take advantage of her. The only plus was of the 4 games, 3 of them were breaks of his serve.

I felt like I had cement blocks on at the net. It was just a poor all-around effort.

When your partner comes out and tells you she hasn't played in 2 months and she is going to suck, that's a confidence builder off the bat.

I had a similar experience last night at USTA 8.0. Lost a totally winnable match - both my partner and I (who had played 2 or 3 times together before) just weren't on the same page. It definitely didn't help when 5 games into the match she says "Well....it's starting to come back. I haven't played in a while."

We definitely could have won the match if we were playing well, but we were so far out of sync.

nickynu · Jan 5, 2009

Dishiki said:
I am absolutely not placing sole blame on her.

Basically, it was a colossal failure, but I am easily as much to blame as her. On my men's team I've played with the guys I usually played with enough to know their tendencies, court coverage, etc. There were so many times where I thought she would be there for the ball and she wasn't, and there were definitely times when she though I was going to poach a ball and I didn't. Like I said before, we had absolutely no flow or rhythm. It's like we were individually playing singles against a team that's played together for years.

This is Mixed-its played differently from Mens Dubs-my point simply was that you should embrace the loss and see what you can learn. In mixed YOU should be taking a much higher % of balls. Thats why she wasnt there when u "thought she would be" and why "she thought you were going to poach".

In other words she was right and you were wrong, hence my original comments about you seeking to pass the blame. You are not equally to blame as you state -this could not realistically be true in mixed as you should be looking to take 65-70% of the play in the first place. Hope that helps

Cruzer · Jan 5, 2009

Dishiki said:
The only plus was of the 4 games, 3 of them were breaks of his serve.

It appears you need to figure out why you guys could only win your serve once in the match. The opposing guy could not have been that strong if you broke him three times. It looks more like you and your partner self destructed than the other team was that much better.

beernutz · Jan 6, 2009

Cruzer said:
It appears you need to figure out why you guys could only win your serve once in the match. The opposing guy could not have been that strong if you broke him three times. It looks more like you and your partner self destructed than the other team was that much better.

Its not really clear from what he wrote that they won their serve even one time.

I think it is sometimes deceiving when a player is losing their serve in doubles because a lot of doubles serving success is related to the play of their partner at the net.

Dishiki · Jan 6, 2009

We did win my serve once and broke the guy three times. We broke him because we both went straight at his partner.

We lost my partners serve from a combination of double faults and me being so passive at the night. Like I said before I felt like I had cement blocks on my feet, and I was not moving well enough.

LeeD · Jan 6, 2009

So next time, be more active, practice with your partner, don't double fault, hey, don't miss, and crush balls low up the middle, .....and you'll win.
What do you expect with your lack of prep for the match.
Hey, I've lost 0 and 0 before, so don't think I don't know what I talk about.
When you lose, you take it like a MAN, learn something from it, don't repeat your mistakes, and go on.
Don't cry just because someone says you earned your lost with no prep.
You earned your lost with no prep.
Be a man, own up to YOUR mistakes.

netman · Jan 14, 2009

Dishiki said:
We did win my serve once and broke the guy three times. We broke him because we both went straight at his partner.

We lost my partners serve from a combination of double faults and me being so passive at the night. Like I said before I felt like I had cement blocks on my feet, and I was not moving well enough.

You just nailed the Mixed formula. Always attack the weaker partner (which often, but not always) is the woman. When the weaker partner is serving, you have to be really aggressive at the net, moving around, never repeating a pattern, anything to try and keep the return from coming back deep to the server. Protect the weaker partner constantly. Sounds like your male opponent knew the strategy.

I constantly play with different Mixed partners and have learned to spend a few minutes prior to a match talking with them and finding out what their comfort zone is in terms of shots, court position and serving. This goes a long way toward helping the partners figure out a game plan adapted to each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Unfortunately, there are times when all the strategy in the world can't overcome a glaring weakness and you just have to do your best and grin and bear it. For example, I learned a long time ago that a powderpuff serve is a recipe for multiple body shots and Penn tattoos, so now I retreat to the baseline even though it just feels wrong.

-k-

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