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Anyone want to hit in Seattle early next week? I'm staying near the University of Washington. I'm in meetings all day from 9-5, so would have to be early morning or afternoon/evening. I'm 39yo, 4.0 level, just played my last league match of the season and want to keep it up. Sets...

Babolat XCel also feels very soft. Normally, I think XCel is used to soften up a poly, but I'm avoiding Polys because of arm issues. Right now I'm using XCel (premium) with a synthetic gut (Gosen Sheep) to liven it up a bit. After giving up Poly, I first tried a full gosen setup, but it...

I demo'd it yesterday - this is the yutek speed 16x19, strung at 60lbs with synthetic gut (a couple months ago, according to the sticker from the shop). Not the greatest stringing job to evaluate a racket, but what can you do? Anyway, I was demoing it because I'm experiencing arm soreness...

I'm trying these rackets out right now as well. One factor to consider is that the Speed MP comes in a 16x19 and an 18x20, whereas (I think) the Prestige MP only comes in the 18x20. I tried out the Speed 16x19 yesterday. My current rackets are PDRs strung with sppp and gosen sheep around...

I always enjoyed watching Kuerten play, especially his one handed backhand. I had previously thought of the one handed bh as a good stroke for for players who excelled on low bouncing, fast courts (like Sampras), but maybe a liability on a slower surface like clay. Kuerten showed how good a...

Most good players who hit with decent pace and spin probably need at least three. You'll rarely find yourself down to the last racket, but every now and then one will be in the shop and one will pop in the middle of a match. I switched from the POG to the PDR, but I didn't want to spend the...

This is a fair point. The problem is that I do agree seniors have a legitimate reason to want their own league, yet I don't think it would be a good idea to disallow seniors to play in a lower age bracket, since some seniors are still very fit and completely competitive in the younger leagues...

I still think senior leagues are a good idea for some age ranges. A 65 year old playing 4.0 tennis might actually posses many of the skill characteristics of a 5.0 level player, and the type of match they would play against comparably skilled people in the same age range may have more of the...

Yeah, a "sitter" is an extreme example, and experienced players pretty much never close the net on a true sitter. But the same situation still arises when someone closes the net on a weak, short approach shot (where "weak" is relative to the skill level of the players).

There's also the situation the best play is to go straight at one of the net players, hard. I'm pretty sure everyone has been in this situation before, especially in doubles. What happens is the opposing team floats the ball short for an easy sitter, then move toward the net and cut off the...

It takes a really long time to close the gap between practice and matches. How long have you been trying? I came back to competitive tennis a couple of years ago after an almost 16 year break (the last three setter I'd played was in college). However, I hadn't completely put down my rackets -...

I agree - there's a hard limit to how much rebalancing can be done here. Trying to push it any farther (ie., just arbitrarily moving the top 20% of 4.0s into 4.5) might just result in uncompetitive divisions and lots of blowouts. Now, if 95% of players belonged in 3.5, that would probably...

Completely on their own, no, but I do think that they become more useful when you combine them with benchmarks. I agree with the USTA that actual play at each level has gotten increasingly out of synch with the descriptions, which means that I don't find the descriptions completely meaningless...

There's one possible problem here - ratings are also supposed to correspond to NTRP descriptions of a level of play, which means the distribution isn't completely under the USTA's control. This was also part of the stated motivation behind this big upward adjustment - that the discrepancy...

I just got bumped up to 4.0 from 3.5, but I wouldn't be surprised if my life gets a little easier, not harder. I've been playing 4.0 exclusively for the last two years anyway, and I went 1-5 the first year (and got bumped down to 3.5), and 3-2 the second year (bumped back up to 4.0). Over the...

Mine is posted. Bumped up to a 4.0. I'm in norcal.

Unfortunately, this is true, tennis is a sport where cheaters can do very well. I love the game, but an unofficiated match presents a huge number of opportunities for a determined cheater. First, it's very hard to honestly call the lines. Let's face it, on a well struck shot, the ball is...

For me, the answer was yes, but it was a close call. I flew Lufthansa from San Francisco to Frankfurt, and the woman at the check in counter told me that I would most likely not be allowed to take my racket through security. I was bummed, because I didn't have a bag big enough to fit it, so...

Tough one... I was in a somewhat similar spot - played tennis in high school, took a 16 year break, and came back to competitive tennis. I joined a flex league, went 6-2 while beating all the computer rated 3.5s and some of the 4.0s... so I self rated at 4.0, and took a 1-5 beatdown in my first...

I use Signum Pro Poly Plasma in 16L. It's a softer poly than most, from what I've heard. I use it in the mains and string the crosses with gosen synthetic, but I've been considering going to a full poly setup, since it's not a particularly harsh poly. I originally went with the recommended...

It doesn't sound like anyone likes the third set supertiebreak in lieu of a third set. No surprise there. Would a tennis player prefer to play a third set, or go home, wash the dishes, do the laundry, and mow the lawn? The super tiebreak is a compromise that keeps the length of a match to a...

Wimbledon and RG have continuously been the top grass and clay court tournaments for essentially the entire history of the sport, so obviously those will be the most prestigious two. So the AO has two factors working against it. First, it's a hardcourt tournament, which produces great tennis...

I suspect that this is just a numbers game. American universities have much more developed sports programs than almost any other country. The difference is that tennis is a very international sport. So, you have people from all over the world wanting to join college tennis programs, but only...

Sure, a "good slice" can wreak havoc, but the operative word here is "good" as much as it is "slice". Any good shot is going to help you. I suspect that the main reason you see less backhand slice at 4.5 and up is that it the players can really punish it. They throw it in there now and...

Just curious, I'm nowhere near this level... but how do people qualify for those various national tournaments (ie., men's 40's, father-son doubles, etc...). Is there a site that explains it? Please post if you know... Thanks!

There's an editorial on tennisweek that argues that very tall men are the future of tennis. http://www.tennisweek.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=6641588 The overall message of the article seems to be that advances in nutrition and fitness training are allowing very tall people to overcome some...

That sucks. They let me buy a discounted item with the giftcard at the golf-smith downtown san francisco. You know, sometimes it just depends on who is at the counter that day.

Just go in with the right expectations and you'll have a good time. Flex League is very, very casual. Some people are into it and play all their matches, others kind of fade away and only play a few of them. The vibe is more like a friendly than a tournament or league match, and more people...

Keep in mind the OP is trying to make the club team at a d1 university, not the d1 team itself (which would be completely out of reach even for a very strong 4.0). Even so, yeah, I do agree that this is a tall order. A 4.0 would probably have trouble playing for Cal's club team, from what I've...

I'm transitioning from singles to doubles as combo season starts, and the backhand service return is definitely a more difficult shot in doubles for me (this is at the 4.0 level). There's a much greater premium on placement and pace, with a lower margin for error. In singles, very few people...