Could you win a point off a top 100 player?

movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
I don’t know Movdqa, I did play #4 on my high school tennis team 25 years ago, AND we were pretty good! So…..

I played in college.

I played in a tournament in Roxbury a long time ago and there was a satellite player in the Open Doubles section. He didn't bring a partner so he just grabbed someone off the street. I watched a match between that pair and two kids that looked like they were both 17 and good junior players. When the satellite player served, he had his partner off the court. And they couldn't return any of his serves. When his partner served, he only had to get the ball in play and then run off the court. The only chance that the juniors had to win points was on their serve. If they didn't win every point off the walkon, then they lost the game. The juniors lost the match and they expressed a lot of frustration while playing the match. This guy covered the whole doubles court and they couldn't get the ball by him. I had never heard of the guy either. So this wasn't even an everyday name. It was really funny to watch but any NELTA A or B player could understand how these two junior players felt in playing against such a guy.

This was back in the 1970s or 1980s before the modern age where the players are a lot more fit than they were back in the day.

Compare any pro player to an amateur. Basketball is a sport where there are a lot of rec players that are quite good. How would any of them stack up in one on one against, say, Lebron? Or Shaq?

I played on a team with a guy who's 6'5" and he had played in a team game against NBA players. He said that he received an elbow in his chest and was in pain for quite a while afterwards. But to them, it's just normal stuff and they take them all the time. How about running? Ehud Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles in under 2 hours.

The Brooklyn Track Club ran an experiment to see how long they could maintain the Kopchoge pace. Their fastest guy was a sub-4-minute miler. The first five runners could run 1/4 to 3/4 mile. The fast guy looked like he ran a mile to a mile and a quarter. He's probably top 1% of runners. But it gives you an idea as to the difference between elite runners and the top. The Kipchoge pace is 4:35 and you can see how hard these runners are working to keep up with it.

 

Alexrb

Professional
Clearwater

Small world, I bet that's him then. Tarpon Springs is like 20 mins from Clearwater. I bet it was a tournament at McMullen Tennis Complex, they've had an open tournament held every year there for awhile now (usually sponsored by Frenchies).
 

Fairhit

Hall of Fame
I played in college.

I played in a tournament in Roxbury a long time ago and there was a satellite player in the Open Doubles section. He didn't bring a partner so he just grabbed someone off the street. I watched a match between that pair and two kids that looked like they were both 17 and good junior players. When the satellite player served, he had his partner off the court. And they couldn't return any of his serves. When his partner served, he only had to get the ball in play and then run off the court. The only chance that the juniors had to win points was on their serve. If they didn't win every point off the walkon, then they lost the game. The juniors lost the match and they expressed a lot of frustration while playing the match. This guy covered the whole doubles court and they couldn't get the ball by him. I had never heard of the guy either. So this wasn't even an everyday name. It was really funny to watch but any NELTA A or B player could understand how these two junior players felt in playing against such a guy.

This was back in the 1970s or 1980s before the modern age where the players are a lot more fit than they were back in the day.

Compare any pro player to an amateur. Basketball is a sport where there are a lot of rec players that are quite good. How would any of them stack up in one on one against, say, Lebron? Or Shaq?

I played on a team with a guy who's 6'5" and he had played in a team game against NBA players. He said that he received an elbow in his chest and was in pain for quite a while afterwards. But to them, it's just normal stuff and they take them all the time. How about running? Ehud Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles in under 2 hours.

The Brooklyn Track Club ran an experiment to see how long they could maintain the Kopchoge pace. Their fastest guy was a sub-4-minute miler. The first five runners could run 1/4 to 3/4 mile. The fast guy looked like he ran a mile to a mile and a quarter. He's probably top 1% of runners. But it gives you an idea as to the difference between elite runners and the top. The Kipchoge pace is 4:35 and you can see how hard these runners are working to keep up with it.

Oftentimes people don't realize how much of a gap there is between even the best of amateurs and the "worst" of professionals in any sport, is something that it cannot be fathomed by watching tv, is something that only the live in person experience can begin to start to give a context of how good someone has to be to become a professional.
 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Small world, I bet that's him then. Tarpon Springs is like 20 mins from Clearwater. I bet it was a tournament at McMullen Tennis Complex, they've had an open tournament held every year there for awhile now (usually sponsored by Frenchies).
Nope, it was at Royal Racquet Club.
 

HBK4life

Hall of Fame
No

years ago when I was in my early 20s playing everyday and working out a lot I met this guy through a club I was a member at. He asked for someone to hit with as he was getting back into tennis. Turns out he had a cup of coffee in the top 300. The club gave him my number and we played. Like I said he had not played for years and wasn’t in tennis shape. 6-0 6-0 6-0 later I learned the difference between a decent college player and someone that tried to make a living playing.
 

dr325i

G.O.A.T.
1 point? Surely. I'll try to attack every ball, there's no way I'd miss all of them.
Attack what? There would be nothing to attack if the pro would play at 100%. The balls would be coming so deep, so twisted and with so much pace and action, you would be scrambling to put them back.
The only way to win a point(s) vs. the top 100 pro (at a 100%) would be a crazy shank from you, net cord scenario of the pro UE
 

spottishwood

Hall of Fame
Attack what? There would be nothing to attack if the pro would play at 100%. The balls would be coming so deep, so twisted and with so much pace and action, you would be scrambling to put them back.
The only way to win a point(s) vs. the top 100 pro (at a 100%) would be a crazy shank from you, net cord scenario of the pro UE
All his serves. I don't think all pros would serve >100 mph on all of their second serves. Give me someone like Nishioka, I'll manage a point or two.
 
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dr325i

G.O.A.T.
All his serves. I don't think all pros would serve >100 mph on all of their second serves. Give me someone like Nishioka, I'll manage a point or two.
Have you ever returned any top 100 Pro’s serve??? They look very different on the TV. I can bet $$ that none of those returns would stay in court…
 

movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
All his serves. I don't think all pros would serve >100 mph on all of their second serves. Give me someone like Nishioka, I'll manage a point or two.

Watch Nishioka play a match with a court-level view. The balls moving a lot faster than you think when you view the court from a higher angle.
 

spottishwood

Hall of Fame
Have you ever returned any top 100 Pro’s serve??? They look very different on the TV. I can bet $$ that none of those returns would stay in court…
I'm not saying that I'll return his serves. Look it's a BO3 match, he'll certainly mess up some serves, which I can attack on. If I return 6-7 of his serves, it's not like I will hit all of them out. And I know how to hit a forehand, as my UTR is 9.57.
 

dr325i

G.O.A.T.
I'm not saying that I'll return his serves. Look it's a BO3 match, he'll certainly mess up some serves, which I can attack on. If I return 6-7 of his serves, it's not like I will hit all of them out. And I know how to hit a forehand, as my UTR is 9.57.
It is BO2 not BO3 and they are trained not to “mess up” serves after 20 minutes.
you may put it back however, those won’t make him (or her for that matter) even drop a sweat.
 

pencilcheck

Hall of Fame
That goes to show why tennis is so fascinating. Most sports you can tell right away whether you can beat someone or not. But in tennis, success comes in different forms but to win a game, win multiple sets, with serves are completely different things.
 

Fairhit

Hall of Fame
I think anyone answering "yes" is either a D1 level player or has never been courtside at a major tennis match
I'm far from that but I think I could win maybe 1 or 2 points during a set, if I attack every ball I could get lucky enough to win at least 1 point, is not about my own level, is about me going big every time and him failing just once, the difference in level is too big but I think a player with a decent level can get a point from a pro.

A golden set is very difficult to achieve, not only because the rival is doing his best to beat his rival, it is hard because not making any errors during 24 points is not that easy, we al have seen pros doing the most incredible UEs, if I played a pro I would count on my full offense and just one error from him to win at least a point, I think is not that far from reality to think I could snatch at least a point from him.

Or maybe it is, there is only one way to know.
 

a12345

Professional
How about running? Ehud Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles in under 2 hours.

The Brooklyn Track Club ran an experiment to see how long they could maintain the Kopchoge pace. Their fastest guy was a sub-4-minute miler. The first five runners could run 1/4 to 3/4 mile. The fast guy looked like he ran a mile to a mile and a quarter. He's probably top 1% of runners. But it gives you an idea as to the difference between elite runners and the top. The Kipchoge pace is 4:35 and you can see how hard these runners are working to keep up with it.


Elite distance runners run at a crazy pace. They run about as fast as the average person sprints but do it for 2 hours.

They run a marathon at around 20km/h for the whole race.

Try setting a treadmill at 20km/h and youll see how nuts the speed is for 5 mins, never mind for 2 hours.
 

Mr.Lob

G.O.A.T.
Winning a point over 2 sets shouldn't be that difficult. The #100 rated player bound to miss a few, most players here should be able to win a few. Winning a game would be the challenge. Best strategy would be to serve and volley nearly every point. Try to end the point asap. Attack opponents serve, if you're able to chip it back. Slice and dice. Drop shots and dink. The last thing you'd want to do is exchange ground strokes and rally....unless you're playing Isner, or another servebot. Even then, their ground game will destroy yours.

Remember watching an episode of "Fantasy Island" once. Some middle aged 3.5 beat Jimmy Connors in a best of 5. So anything is possible. ;)
 

movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
Elite distance runners run at a crazy pace. They run about as fast as the average person sprints but do it for 2 hours.

They run a marathon at around 20km/h for the whole race.

Try setting a treadmill at 20km/h and youll see how nuts the speed is for 5 mins, never mind for 2 hours.

I've never found a treadmill that could do more than 16 kph or 10 mph. It's even dangerous to try to change the speed or other controls at that speed given that the controls aren't that responsive.

I only run flat out on tracks. Running on a road or trail and tripping on something can result in cuts and bruises.
 

movdqa

Talk Tennis Guru
Hikaru playing 1950-2000+ players (high amateurs) using garbage openings (would be like giving odds in tennis) and concludes that it doesn't matter how good or bad the opening is against these players (because he is a Super Grandmaster).


I've played video games a few times. I typically last a few seconds. There are people that make it to the next level or multiple levels and I assume that they worked pretty hard to get there. Then there are those that make a living streaming on Twitch. Levels of the game in everything.
 

Pheasant

Legend
Yes, provided that was my only goal for the whole match. I'd wind up and crush every serve and aim for the line. I can peak at 110 mph out wide while getting 20% in with decent movement. So yeah, I'd have a boatload of double faults, but 1-2 points won when the pro finally saw that I hit one in and he accidentally dumps my serve into the net. I'd eventually get a lucky point by clipping the outside line. Now granted, it'd be a blowout 6-0, 6-0 loss with 1-2 points won for the whole match.
 

Pass750

Professional
Winning a point over 2 sets shouldn't be that difficult. The #100 rated player bound to miss a few, most players here should be able to win a few. Winning a game would be the challenge. Best strategy would be to serve and volley nearly every point. Try to end the point asap. Attack opponents serve, if you're able to chip it back. Slice and dice. Drop shots and dink. The last thing you'd want to do is exchange ground strokes and rally....unless you're playing Isner, or another servebot. Even then, their ground game will destroy yours.

Remember watching an episode of "Fantasy Island" once. Some middle aged 3.5 beat Jimmy Connors in a best of 5. So anything is possible. ;)
This is delusional
 
Against a top 100 man, I could win points but no shot at a game. Against a top 100 woman, I've taken games off UTR 13 men, so I think I could do the same there, at least when I'm not rusty. But I'd still get crushed overall. (Fwiw when I competed I was a UTR 10-11.)
 

Goof

Professional
I once won two against Xavier Malisse about a year and a half before his Wimbledon semifinal run. One he let me, the other was a massive shank of a forehand for an accidental winner. :)
 
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