There are times when I am much better than my opponent and will feel bad for ripping hard shots to their backhands or slice drop-shots that will just make them look bad as they unsuccessfully attempt to return them.
I play this older guy with limited footwork and kinda hate to make him lose points as I jam his shoe laces when he comes into the court. He never minds (it appears) to lose time after time but I feel like I am beating up on him and his weak mobility.
I recently played this wonderful Japanese woman who was tuning up for a tournament for weeks and doing well and all excited. The first game was 6-0 and I could see she was almost in tears -- so I started working on some of my new low percentage Work-in-progress shots and kinda let her win the next set.
So do you ever take mercy on an opponent that is over-matched by you and back off your A game? Do you give up a game out of sympathy?
I guess the other question is, should you?
OX
I never really ever did this in a real match (any match not counting the ones where I play my friends who are not tennis players) until a couple times this year.
One time I think it was more than justified and the second time it was actually a huge mistake.
The first time was this summer when I was in a recreation department tournament. The level was "3.5 and under" so they had some 3.5's like myself (a couple guys better than I was), and a bunch of guys from their rec lessons that were basically beginners.
I lost the first match which was pretty close, and then I had to play in the backdraw which was a 9 game pro set.
My opponent was a special needs guy who was about 21 years old but his mannerisms were pretty much those of a kid. His parents were there as well helping him out and they instructed me that they had to remind him to do things, etc...
At first I figured I was just going to have to go all out and win easily because I knew I was going to win and then I'd be in the Consolation finals against a much better opponent and I didnt want to get tired out.
But after I served my first serve (which was a burner that went right by him before he could blink), I just felt like a total tool. I even heard his dad groan in the stands.
So I decided that I was going to just use the continental grip for everything and would just keep "feeding" the ball back to him. But if I feel too far behind in a game, then I would turn it on when I needed too. (and it was pretty much that easy, I could win the point whenever I wanted)
He actually got a few points on his own which was cool. After the match was over, I won 9-0, and he said to his dad "I didnt get any games, but I played much better this time dad".
So I think I did the right thing there. He's in the tournament as well, so I think it's fair that he get something out of it.
The second time was a few weeks ago. I am in a sort of citywide singles challenge latter which features both men and women players from a low 4.0 level all the way down to old grannies who dont know how to play tennis.
You normally play people around your level though.
I was scheduled against a younger woman who was the only woman Ive played against this year. She was ranked as low as anyone probally possibly could be and still play me.
Im not sure why, but before the match we had a good conversation about tennis and I could tell she really enjoyed it. But then in the warmup, it seemed like she could barely get the ball back. (which was a dumb observation because that happens to anyone)
So once the match started, I decided I would just hit everything to her and see what happens and see if I can still win the match.
I went up 3-0 this way right away, mostly because she hit almost every shot out. Then all the sudden she kept edging me out on her serves, which meant I couldnt get more than 3 games away from her. I was still holding my own.
She just kept getting better and better as the match went on, and I played worse and worse. Eventually she even broke my serve, and by now she was coming to the net (I had been drawing here previously because she was missing shots there), making great volleys, hitting great angles, etc.... And I was struggling to just turn my game on without making too many errors.
She got within being down 8-7 but luckily I was able to win my serve and finally break her one last time to close it out at 10-8.
But I think in this case it was pretty dumb and Im not sure why I did it. Normally I wouldnt, I dont care if it's a man, woman, you are 90 years old, whatever, if you are on the court with me, you're getting the whole show. (Im not really good enough to screw around doing anything else)