3.5 Championship Tomorrow (My first tournament), would love advice

[Jason Peery]

This message board is amazing and I have learned so much from all of you over the last months I have been reading so many posts. Tomorrow I play in the championship of a 16 person 3.5 tournament. I’m 47 years old and I hadn’t played tennis since high school, but the enthusiasm and expertise of an amazing coach rekindled my love for the game. I’m playing against a 22-year-old with a great forehand and solid kick serve (both 1st and 2nd serves). My strengths: solid kick and slice serves that get me a fair amount of winners and allow me to come in to net. Secondly, I have very good hands and am very good at the net. Thirdly, I can hit a low hard slice to just about anywhere on the court accurately to set up the net game. My weakness: my groundstrokes are weak. Very weak, as in I don’t hit them, I pretty much just serve, come to net, slice, rinse and repeat. Another weakness: tennis elbow, which makes serving painful. His weakness? I’ve heard from people who play him that he has a hard time under pressure and it’s important to attack him. His backhand is two-handed and flat and not very good, nor does he want to come to the net. I’m so excited about the match tomorrow and have a loved competing so much! Any final words of wisdom to help me enjoy the moment and play my best would be appreciated and heard! Thank you!

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

This message board is amazing and I have learned so much from all of you over the last months I have been reading so many posts. Tomorrow I play in the championship of a 16 person 3.5 tournament. I’m 47 years old and I hadn’t played tennis since high school, but the enthusiasm and expertise of an amazing coach rekindled my love for the game. I’m playing against a 22-year-old with a great forehand and solid kick serve (both 1st and 2nd serves). My strengths: solid kick and slice serves that get me a fair amount of winners and allow me to come in to net. Secondly, I have very good hands and am very good at the net. Thirdly, I can hit a low hard slice to just about anywhere on the court accurately to set up the net game. My weakness: my groundstrokes are weak. Very weak, as in I don’t hit them, I pretty much just serve, come to net, slice, rinse and repeat. Another weakness: tennis elbow, which makes serving painful. His weakness? I’ve heard from people who play him that he has a hard time under pressure and it’s important to attack him. His backhand is two-handed and flat and not very good, nor does he want to come to the net. I’m so excited about the match tomorrow and have a loved competing so much! Any final words of wisdom to help me enjoy the moment and play my best would be appreciated and heard! Thank you!

Good luck, JP!

It sounds like you've already got your plan A figured out. A few things for consideration:

- If he has a hard time under pressure, try at least a few times chipping the return and coming to the net
- Furthermore, since he hits a flat BH, a good place to approach is down the middle toward his BH [far enough over so it would be difficult to run around and hit a FH]: the reason is that hitting a passing shot with a flat GS will be challenging
- How good is his lob and your OH?
- Deliberately hit short and make him decide between moving forward [which he doesn't want to do] or expending a lot energy retreating [which may put him in a bad position/balance]

Trust your game and give it some breathing room in the first set. If you lose, then think about changing things up.

 

[OnTheLine]

Get a good night's sleep. Eat a good but relatively light breakfast.

Enjoy it. If it is your first tournament and/or competition in a while, just enjoy the experience and give your opponent what you've got. If he is said to not like being under pressure, having someone come to net on him may give him that pressure.

Also know that what people say about a player may not be entirely accurate but what they perceived, although you may not agree. You will figure out in the first games what you perceive as a weakness, then go and exploit that to the best of your abilities.

 

[Jason Peery]

Amazing advice, can’t thank you enough!

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Arrive at the facility early enough so you can stretch and warm up leisurely. Or, if courts aren't available, scope out courts nearby. I hate being rushed and need more time than most to warm up, especially my knees and shoulder. The standard 5-10 minute warmup just doesn't do it for me.

 

[WhiteOut]

Agree w/ SV -- def get there early, check out the facility, see if you can find someone to hit with or even 15-20 mins. enjoy the experience and good luck!!

 

[BulldogLouisiana]

I am just interested in how it went.

 

[Jason Peery]

Thank you so much! I won the first set 6-2. Did a great job of coming to net and pressuring him into mistakes. Ultimately, I wore down, he started doing a great job running around his forehands, and he hit clean winner after winner with that punishing topspin forehand that felt like a pro forehand! In the end, he beat me 2-6, 6-1, 6-1. It was an incredible venue and learning experience and my 22 year old opponent (I’m 47!) has got a very bright future. Thank you all for your great advice!

 

[WhiteOut]

Hey you go a set off a guy half your age! that's fantastic! to me, whats most cool about this is the fact that as old as you are (im 48), you're out there doing it -- whatever 'it' is! there are so many people our age just working, eating, and sleeping...congratulations!

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Thank you so much! I won the first set 6-2. Did a great job of coming to net and pressuring him into mistakes. Ultimately, I wore down, he started doing a great job running around his forehands, and he hit clean winner after winner with that punishing topspin forehand that felt like a pro forehand! In the end, he beat me 2-6, 6-1, 6-1. It was an incredible venue and learning experience and my 22 year old opponent (I’m 47!) has got a very bright future. Thank you all for your great advice!

Hey, you have a bright future too!

 

[CosmosMpower]

Interesting I’ve never seen anything remotely resembling a pro top spin forehand Or a really strong kick serve in 3.5 including USTA sectionals in TX and we are known for having sandbagger teams. There were still some pushers even in the final 4 teams in TX 3.5 singles.

Where do you play out of?

 

[Cindysphinx]

Make him beat you.

Make it so he gets points off of his winners only, not your errors.

So your goal should be to make that approach shot every time, even if you have to take something off.

I’ll bet he can’t hit winners for two hours . . .

[edit: I can see I’m too late!]

 

[time_fly]

Interesting I’ve never seen anything remotely resembling a pro top spin forehand Or a really strong kick serve in 3.5 including USTA sectionals in TX and we are known for having sandbagger teams.

Well, okay ... probably none of us rec players have really ever seen ATP-level shots coming our way. But I have played against guys that have 4.5+ first serves and/or forehands at 3.5 because of weaknesses in other parts of their games. I've played a couple guys that could demolish me easily, raining aces and winners from the back-court, then they would blow up and give away 4 games in 10 minutes with strings of errors.

Both guys I'm thinking of claimed to have ADHD that made it impossible to focus on execution through a whole match. One guy was a new USTA player and I was thinking sandbagger, but I'm not 100% sure. The other was just a regular guy playing in our internal club league, so I'm sure he wasn't sandbagging. When we started our match he had 6 aces in his first two service games and I was thinking "why am I even on a court with this guy" then I ended up winning.